Back again!

Having been away from France, the UK and all things fishing for the last 12 months, I'm glad to say that i'm now back in the Exclusive Angling Holidays fold again. 2 weeks ago I visited the lakes for a short holiday to catch up on the gossip and sneak in a few days fishing on Bleu. Safe to say, I wasn't disappointed with the outcome...

After setting myself up in my favourite swim opposite the island, i had a quiet first night with no Carp and plenty of sleep. However, the next day was a little more active with 4 Carp to 18lbs and another 2 slipping the hook. All the fish were taken on boillies fished over a small bed of groundbait.

Feeling more confident having netted my first Carp for over a year, i set up a Catfish rod for the second evening. Using the popular (and soon to become legendary) 'Dumbell rig', coupled with a 4.5lb TC ESP spod rod, big pit reel freshly loaded with 35lb line and a lively 6oz skimmer, I cast the rig into open water to my right. As dusk began to fall i was startled by a huge 'Slap!' as a large Cat hit the livebait. Waiting as the line pulled the bobbin slowly to the rod butt and line began to trail off from the baitrunner, my heart was in my mouth.

After what seemed like an eternity (but in reality was only a few seconds) i picked up the rod, disengaged the baitrunner and lifted into the fish. Feeling the prick of the hook, the fish accelerated at lightning pace and stripped a full 60 yards of line from my reel, even with the strong rod heavily bent. Realising that it was headed for the sanctuary of 'The Drain' at the bottom end of the lake, i picked up my net and began walking towards the next swim, from which i could gain a better angle to steer the fish my way.

Thankfully the ploy worked and i was able to work the fish out from the overhanging trees and back into open water. After a few more powerful, but mercifully short runs (my arms were tiring from the strength of the fish) the fish surfaced and was clearly ready to be netted...unfortunately it was still another 20 yards from the bank! After a nervous few minutes of gentle coaxing what i could see was a good fish towards me, it was withing netting range. However, despite my net's ample size, it was still something of a problem squeezing this 6ft long beast inside - eventually solved by physically folding the tail of the fish inside the net, whilst balancing net and rod in the other hand...!

The fish pulled the scales around to 65lbs, and is now my second largest from the lake. Slipping it gently back into the water as the sun set, i couldn't help but let a little "Wahoo!" disturb the tranquility for just a moment. A very memorable single-handed capture.

Sadly there are no pictures as i was fishing alone.

That fish proved to be the highlight of the week for me, although being accompanied by 3 20lb+ Carp (2 from vert in one afternoon!) and several more Cats up to 25lb. All in all it was very enjoyable to get back into the carping scene, and as ever, the setting didn't let me down.

The good news is that i'll be back next year for some more of those big Cats, and hopefully some of those great big Mirrors and Commons that have so far eluded me...

Over the next few weeks and months i'll be looking to update several areas of the website. In particular, i'm looking for any pictures you have of this year's fishing. If you could send them to info@exclusiveanglingholidays.com, i'll get them added to our exctiting new gallery...

Tight Lines
Will James

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A cracking catch from last week, kindly sent to us by Leigh Masters.

Congratulations Ben!

We are now up and running again with the updates so it will be done on a weekly basis.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the last update and what a summer it has been. Some incredibly hot weeks in July but the worst August the french have known in living memory. Now the weather seems to be back to normal with temperatures in the high twenties and low thirties. But enough about the weather what you want to know is about the fishing. Overall it has been excellent with some memorable catches on all lakes so I will now go through them.

Rouge

July proved to be quite tough with some good days and some very slow days, however, the catfish always seem to put in appearance with several fish over 80lbs being caught. The really big ones still keep getting away although they will come out soon and I know the lake record of 100lb is going to be decimated. On the carp front many thirties have been caught with the best week being 11 to 38.5lb and another week where one fisherman on his own most of the time managed 1550lbs in 71 fish. Thats a fantastic average of over 22lbs per fish. Who says Rouge is tough!!! Another classic is 12 Carp in 6 hours round the back of the lake including 38.5 and 36.5.

Vert

What can you say about Vert other than it is the most fantastic catching lake I have ever seen. 20lb+ Carp are coming out almost on a daily basis and believe it or not but there are at least two Catfish over 50lbs with many others in the thirties. Ten fish per day per angler is pretty standard and the "bars of gold" commons are a sight to behold with many upper doubles and even a few twenties coming out. I don't know whether it is the weather or the time of year but all the fish on all the lakes are fighting like absolute tigers and in exceptional condition.

Bleu

Now to Bleu which is rapidly catching up Rouge in the quality and size of the fish which considering that there are many more fish in Bleu than Rouge again is quite exceptional. I have had three consecutive weeks where over 100 fish have been caught with the best being 2550+ of fish. Thirties again are coming out regularly and although only 1 forty so far I have heard many fishing tales of the real monster that got away. The cats in Bleu are also quite exceptional with 9 over 80lbs already and the big one(s) still keep getting away.

What is also really pleasing is that all the lakes have got a good number of smaller Carp growing at a fantastic rate with there being several of this years spawning being caught.

I am updating to broadband at the moment so photos will follow shortly

Tight Lines

John James