FRENCH TRIP

Having booked this trip the previous year it finally came round with alarming speed. It seemed like one day i had no need to worry about getting my kit checked and ready, and then suddenly i,d be heading to Southern France in a weeks time. Oh shite thought I, best pull my finger out and get organised. Fortunately i only had to stock up on a few bits and pieces and get my bait ordered, Eclipse Virus was the bait of choice.

23lb 4oz

18lb 12oz

 I won,t bore you with the details of the journey, but it was 12 hours and uneventful with rain falling from the time we arrived in France through the day and also the night. What is worth noting is the amount of sexy looking waters i spotted on the trip that look just ripe for a little dangle. I don,t know if any were private or day tickets but nearly all of them looked like they had not been fished as they were mainly overgrown. A possible bit of exploration soon maybe.......

19lb 8oz

28lb 8oz 

28lb 12oz

29lb 8oz

33lb 8oz

33lb 12oz

35lb 8oz

42lb 12oz zig caught beauty

42lb 12oz

23lb

 Well we arrived just before dark and had a walk around to actually get a good look at the water and see if anything was showing. We saw a couple of fish but not a real lot to go on so it was decided that seeing as it was raining we would kip in the owners house and set out fresh and early in the morning.

Just after first light we were back on the banks again and after sorting out where we each were going to fish it was time for the mammoth task of carting all the gear for 10 days fishing to our swims. That was knackering  i can tell you...








I opted for a nice corner swim with a dam running along my right side, offering the deepest water on the lake,  and a nice bit of open water out in front so i could roam a rod around if i fancied. Bivvy up, swim sorted and areas found and baited, all was good. Two rods were fished to areas along the dam using the 360 rig and the final rod was fished 50yds out straight in front over a fairly heavily baited area using my old favourite bottom bait blow back rig.....




All rods out, feet up, latte in hand, andddd relaxxxxxx............


My goal for this trip was to just catch some carp of any size but i was really hoping to catch one or two over 30lb. I know that doesn,t sound that ambitious as a 30lb carp in France is a double figure carp in England, but that was my goal. I,ve had a few 30lb carp abroad before but in all honesty i wasn,t really fishing that hard for them as they were chancer fish while i was actually fishing for catfish. This time i was going all out CARP ATTACK.



Imagine my surprise when my rod ripped of later that afternoon and after an arm aching battle my first carp was a cracker of 33lb 12oz. I was over the moon and to be honest i was like a kid at christmas. It had fallen to a washed out pink virus pop-up on a 360 rig fished to a tree half way along the dam. I was a happy bunny to say the least...





I had action everyday with a total of 4 fish to upper doubles, 6 fish in the 20lb,s region upto 29lb 8oz , 3 fish over 30lb up to 35lb 8oz, and 3 40,s to 44lb 8oz. I couldn,t believe how lucky I had been to land not only this many fish but also the stamp of the fish i was catching. I also dropped another 3 fish, 2 of which were very soon after the take and the 3rd was below the rod as i gave it a bit too much stick and unfortunately it felt like a goodun.








All the fish came to a washed out virus pop-up fished on a 360 rig except for one very special fish which came to a red and black zig aligner fished 6ft of the bottom cast 50 yards out in front into the open water.  This was only my second fish caught on a zig and at a whopping great 42lb 12oz i was seriously happy at this capture.....

44lb 8oz

21lb 4oz

I,m not a carp angler just an angler who enjoys catching carp...