etang du bois

Hi Steve here.

Just a report on an unbelievable session I had in France last week.

To cut a long story short I was invited to join 4 other guys on a trip to France, at a venue they had been to before a few times.
We arrived at the venue and I was escorted round the lake by the lads. I chose a swim called the Cobbs. I was third out on the draw and this swim was not favoured by the guys apparently. It looked right to me though.

The first night we were all knackered from the drive so bait placement was a bit haphazard.
The next day I put one bait to a far corner where I had seen fish jumping: the other two rods were again cast to where fish had shown earlier.

Monday morning. I had a run on the corner chod rig and after a mighty battle a 41.08 mirror graced my net .

All pressure was off now and I could really get to enjoy this first French trip.


41lb 8oz

Tuesday. Late afternoon.

I was again lucky to get a take on the corner chod rig. This time it was an even harder fight and a 45.8 mirror was brought to the net.I was blown away by my good fortune and really wanted the other guys to catch











45lb 8oz

My other two rods were not doing anything so I moved one 6 ft away from a small snag, opposite me, slightly to my right in a slight depression in the lake bed. I was using the new Grange boilies on this rod, tipped with corn (on a short 5 ins suffix heavy braid rig). I put out about 10 freebies around the spot.

Tues night 1930 I was rewarded with another 45.8 mirror.

 

This was followed by the amazingly new lake record 57.7 common. 

Jesus!

I could then have packed up and just sat around enjoying my immense good fortune !!

57lb 7oz. A new Lake Record


I was desperate for the others to catch but the lake was fishing slow. They all supported me royally during my stay and I really appreciated their support.

To cap things off I had a run Thurs afternoon and a stunning 38.3 common was landed. I'm glad to say, Russel in our party had a 46.2 mirror on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately Tim lost a good fish. When your lucks in eh!!!
Saturday arrived and time to go home. I got my payback on the way home when my car developed an oil leak 70 kilometres from Calais. Thank god for AA European cover. They got us a car and we got home 4 hours late. My car with all our fishing gear got back Monday and is now being fixed at the local garage. Nothing major so I had not used up all my luck.



I must say a big thank you to Frenchy, who was great company throughout and a lovely guy to have by your side and for helping with the long drive.

Still Catching!

Hi,

Went fishing for 2 nights the other day and had another good session. 1x Carp, 1 x Tench and 2 x Bream and a pike.

I arrived early and had a walk round the lake. I ended up in my normal swim!!

Anyway, I set up and put the rods out. LH rod was on boilies, RH rod was on hemp and particles with a plastic hemp rig in use for the first time.

I was reeling in my marker float when I felt the the rod pull as if I had a fish on.
"Hang on, that can't be right", I thought.
I continued to reel in and sure enough there was definately a fish on the end.
On my marker float, for Christ sake!

When I saw it was a pike I thought that I may have problems here. I haven't got no gear for unhooking pike, only a pair of small forceps. Luckily for me the guy in the other swim came over and helped me out. We removed a pair of treble hooks from the pikes mouth and released it back to the deep! I had caught the trailing line that had been dangling from the trace set up - a wicked looking thing you could ever see.

"That's a good start" I thought to myself.

Around 4.45pm I had a couple of beeps on my chod rig and then it screamed off. It stayed deep and I thought that this was definitely a carp - and a good one at that. It fought hard, taking line off me only for me to retrieve it slowly.It was trying to get under the hanging tree branches either side of me but I managed to stop it in time. A couple of lads had just turned up and they helped me to land it. I thought it was going to go over 30lbs but on the scales it went to 27lb 2oz. I was a little disappointed it wasn't a thirty but it was a lovely fish all the same.
 

Later, at around 10pm I had a stuttering take and a 6lb bream was caught. Not what I wanted but it proved that the hemp rig was working.

I had a few liners during the night but nothing major.

At 10am I had a one toner and lifting into it I immediately knew that it wasn't as good as my other carp. Turned out it was a small tench.

I carried on fishing and it was all quiet on the fish front. I was packing up when I had another stuttering run. This time it was a 7lb bream. Getting bigger but still not what I wanted.

Never mind.

I packed up and headed home

1st of the year - 4/5 April

I eventually managed to get out on the bank for the first time this year at the beginning of April (4-5th). I was a bit nervous as it has been over 6 months since I last went fishing. Having a blank was not on the cards!!

Anyway, I set up in my usual spot (middle Point swim). The weather was ok, sometimes cloudy but otherwise it was dry and sunny.

I wasn't using particles, only boilies. I cast out and put a few freebies around each rod. Not too many, about 40-50. I had a few knocks/liners/bird interest through the day, just enough to0 keep me interested.


A quiet evening ensued and I enjoyed a glass of wine and watched the lake. Suddenly my RH rod screamed into life and after a spirited fight a most welcome carp of 16lb graced my unhooking mat. Pressure was off now and I could relax. After taking the obligatory piccies I put Mr carp back into the lake and celebrated with a glass of red.

Next morning came around with no more carp. I had started to pack away my stuff when my LH rod gave a few stuttering bleeps and stayed taut. I lifted the rod and felt something on the end. This fish fought like a demon and it was about 8-10 mins before I could finally land the tench. Only 6 lbs but what a fighter.!

I continued to pack up through out the morning and finally left around 13.00.

I would have a few photos to show you but after a energetic clean up of my computer, I think I've deleted all the photos off of my computer<>. Imk going try out a few recovery programmes but I don't hold out too much hope.

We'll See anyway.

Until next time

P.S. Got my piccies back. Cost me £20 for a recovery programme but it did the job.

John