November 2003 Newsletter
Hi All
Well Winter is now pretty much with us and the hot days of the summer heat wave now seem far behind us. Most of the venues have been fairly quiet for the last month or so, many having closed their doors until the Spring, so catch reports are more limited than during the high season. |
Gareth
gareth@anglinglines.com
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Carp Society Winter Conference
The first bit of news is that we were present at the Carp Society Winter Conference at Sandown Park last weekend. This annual show is over two days & we occupied stand 59. It was a great opportunity for us to meet some of the anglers who book with us - a chance to put faces to the names and voices. We had lots of visitors & spent the whole show talking non-stop - answering questions & discussing the different venues - we even took a few bookings! Thanks to everyone who came to say hello.
The restaurant at Roseau
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Roseau
The Roseau is a water that closes it's doors mid-October, so feedback is not available after that date. Some of the last anglers to fish the lake did very well and showed how this venue has progressed since we first offered it to UK anglers. Mr Carter had a great week prior to the closing landing eight twenty pounds plus fish to 29lb, for a total catch of 38 fish. His fishing partner had four twenties to 27lb, for 17 takes, banking eleven carp. They both also caught sturgeon - the largest of these went to 17lb. Their successful tactics included Assassin 8, Maple 8 and Trigga. The venue has a great restaurant and it is now possible for anglers to book their food in advance. This includes English style breakfast and evening meals at very reasonable prices and saves bringing all the cooking gear and food.
Go to Roseau |
Villedon
A new venue for Angling Lines in 2004 this magnificent lake of over 100 acres is set in the western part of France near Poitiers. It has newly renovated gite accommodation, toilets, showers and a bar/restaurant facility. It offers a very continental type approach to the fishing with access to the swims by boat - these are available on site.
A group of four Angling Lines customers tested out the venue for us during the second week of November. They landed a total of eighty carp with an average weight of 19lb. Twenty seven of these carp were over 20lb with the two best fish going 27lb. This really is a runs water with a huge head of fish. Our anglers found it has a large head of small carp (these will be removed during the next vidange in a year's time) so particles and pellets are best avoided and large 20mm boilies produced the best results - they used Nash Scopex.
During their stay a French angler opposite them landed a superb mirror of 37lb, one of two thirties landed during their week.
The venue offers a superb venue for carpers wanting to mix continental carping, the option of top quality accommodation and food.
Go to Villedon
Brionnais
The Angling Lines team has a soft spot for the Etang du Brionnais. Owner Jean-Guy is an absolutely marvellous host and the accommodation is top notch. Facilities are excellent for bivvy-up anglers too and there is a unique swim completely fitted out for the disabled angler, particularly those that are wheel chair bound. The chalet 5 adjacent to this swim is also suitable for wheel chairs with ramps, wide doors and a disabled loo. These features must be pretty much unique for the travelling carp angler.
End of season fishing proved to be excellent and Mr Gee who was on the venue from 11th - 18th October with a group of three carpers had a superb haul. This included two forties, four thirties, and plenty of twenties and doubles. His technique was to use heavy loose feed of particles with Matrix Premier boilies over the top.
He commented: "All the fish were in good condition and some were beautiful"
Go to Brionnais |
A Brionnais 40
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Village
The Village is one of the few waters that stays open all year round. The owners live on-site and the restaurant is very popular with the locals over the festive period.
Fishing wise the October period proved successful for Andy Bingham and his party of three. They banked carp of 44lb; 2x 30lb; as well as a number of fish in the 10lb to 22lb bracket. Bonus fish were two sturgeon of 14lb and 22lb.
Andy commented: "A superb venue - hosts are great, fishing superb - cannot wait to return"
Mr Shipman and his fishing partner Mr Holliday were at the venue from the 4th to 11th October and enjoyed some superb fishing, landing three fish over thirty pounds for a total of 17 carp. The best fish weighed 39lb mirror, 34lb 8oz mirror, 30lb 4oz mirror, 28lb 8oz mirror, 27lb 8oz mirror, 26lb 4oz mirror & 24lb 8oz mirror. Their successful tactics were boilies over pellet at 80 yards range.
They commented: "Excellent venue... I'm returning in May 2004"
Go to Village |
Forest
I can't help but adore this little lake, set in the forest just north of Paris. Might be that my first six carp all weighed over 30lb! Since we first walked its banks (feeling a bit like Yatsey Bob James in the Passion for Angling programme, so over grown were the banks) things have come along a bit.
Most people agreed that the lake was idyllic but lacked the carp in numbers... so the 35 to 40 original big carp, all between 25lb and 35lb, were backed up by around 35 doubles last year. This year the owner has continued his stocking programme with a further half ton of carp. The first batch went in on 11 November and consisted of
550lbs of further double figure carp in the 12lb to 15lb bracket. These were all mirrors and numbered 43 in total.
Following this initial injection of carp the next batch arrived two days later - and what a magnificent lot of carp they were too! Large fat dark mirrors, with lovely scale patterns... clustered, starburst and large scale broken linears. There were also four commons to 23lb. The majority of these carp were in the 22lb - 24lb bracket with six fish over 25lb to 27lb 8oz. The largest carp was a superb mirror of 36lb 4oz. In total there were another 28 fish.
Read more about the Forest stocking |
36lb 4oz - part of the recent
stocking at Forest.
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Mas Bas
Another new venue for Angling Lines in 2004, Mas Bas offers superb on-site accommodation with three separate gites - Willow Cottage, Lotus Cottage and the Lake House, the latter two being on the banks of the 5 acre carp lake. There are also two swimming pools.
Paul Ashley and his family were recently at the lake with two mates Darren and Neil. In all they had 27 carp, most of these fish were commons in the double and twenty pound bracket. Paul's comments on the venue were: "Mas Bas is a glorious place to fish - totally peaceful, full of wildlife, blue skies, warm weather and is the perfect location for a family carp fishing holiday."
The week following the Ashley's visit saw Mr Merritt spend a week at the venue. He took 6 - 8 fish per day, mostly early morning time. The smallest was 15lb (mostly hard fighting commons) and the largest a 29lb mirror. The average size of his captures was 20lb+ . His tactics were fishing close to the lily pads using fish meal boilies with 6 - 10 free offerings. He found the fish spooked away from large beds of bait. He commented after his stay: "Giles and Lesley are excellent hosts, beautiful surroundings, very enjoyable".
Go to Mas Bas
Vallée
This majestic and well established venue has seen a number of changes recently. There is a new bailiff on-site, Georget, will visit the lake most days to cater for any of the anglers needs and queries. He will be able to supply you with bait and looks after the boat hire.
The lake has seen a few cosmetic changes also, as a number of the large poplars that surrounded it's banks and stood on the islands have been felled. It is a bit as if the teeth has been knocked out of the old girl, but it takes nothing away form the picturesque nature of this water. The trees were cut down mainly for safety reasons, as most were of a great age and several had fallen over, and others could have proved dangerous. The prudent decision was to remove them before more fell of their own accord. |
Magnificent Vallee common
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he other major change at the venue is the booking system. Anglers now have the choice of their day of arrival, which can be either Friday or Saturday, and they can also book a specific peg ensuring that they are able to fish the area of the venue that appeals to them most. Pictures of the swims and a map of the pegs can be found of this site.
The end of season saw a few of large carp over the forty pound mark caught from the island pegs by visiting Dutch anglers.
September 11th saw a 44lb 8oz landed from peg 11, September 19th a 41lb 8oz from peg 4, and October 2nd a 44lb from peg 5. These pegs do seem to be productive areas, so anglers wishing to fish them should reserve a peg at the time of booking.
Go to Vallee
Marcusans
This excellent venue already has a large head of carp but the owner continues to supplement them with an on-going stocking programme. So far he has added approximately a quarter of the fish planned for this winter, with over 550lbs of mirrors and commons. The fish so far have been in the 15-26lb bracket, with around a dozen large grass carp over 20lb. Further stockings of doubles and twenties are planned... I'll keep you informed through these newsletters.
Only a few angers were on the venue during the latter part of the season. An excellent haul of carp was had by the lake bailiff Fabrice and his mate Ronald during the last weekend of October. During a forty eight hour session the two French "carpistes" landed over a dozen fish. They fished from Peg 15, getting most of their takes from a patch of gravel at 40 metres range. |
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Using Richworth Tutti Frutti ready mades, over a bed of tiger nuts, they had the best fish on a 12mm fruit flavoured pop-up about 3cms off the bottom. Most of their runs came at night. The best fish landed weighed 42lb 8oz; 33lb 8oz; 33lb 4oz; 32lb 4oz. The rest of the fish were all between 22lb and 27lb 4oz.
Go to Marcusans
Well that's it for this month. See you next month with more Angling Lines Holidays news.
Cheers,
Gareth
gareth@anglinglines.com
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