FIRST AND LAST

A WEEK AT St Christophe

We had heard a few things about the lake from an article in Carpworld where Tim Paisley and John Lilley had caught some very good winter fish from the venue to 56lb. Not thinking too much more about the water, it was a complete surprise when David and Gareth of Angling Lines Holidays asked me to visit the water in the spring to do a feature / review of St Christophe. I agreed to do the trip in early May with my good friend Paul Hoseasons (Mo), who has accompanied me in the past and is a very competent angler.

St Christophe is a 35 acre lake located near Troyes in the Champagne region of France close to the famous Lac d’ Orient and is approximately four hours from Calais. The lake is a traditional gravel pit with deep margins of 10-12ft shelving gently out to the deep centre at a depth of 28-30ft. There are 13 swims surrounding the lake (all accessible by vehicle, which can be parked behind/side of each swim), most of which are large enough to double up in if necessary, with more than enough water for each angler to fish to.

The lake is surrounded by mature bank side trees presenting good close margin fishing and there is no weed present apart from very close to the banks.

Despite searching the internet and posting threads in carp forums we could not find any further information on the lake apart from Dutch websites. It would appear very few English anglers have fished St Christophe but it is extensively fished by Dutch and German anglers who have caught mirrors to early sixties. The lake stock is a phenomenal 950 carp, with a mixture of mirrors, commons, leathers and some beautiful fully scaled carp. There are bream, roach, tench, pike and perch present but no wels catfish, grass carp or sturgeon. More importantly no nuisance “poisson chats” or crayfish.

Having fished in France on numerous waters for the last 18 years I have evolved my tackle and bait to suit the many and varied waters I fish.

TACKLE
The rods I use are 13ft 31/2lb TC Harrison Evolutions married to big pits spooled with 15lb Daiwa Sensor Brown with appropriate shock leaders which enable me to cope with almost all ranges I care to fish to. I always take a spod rod , two marker rods and two landing nets (you never know when you will get two carp on at the same time). I also took a bait boat to cope with ranges greater than maximum spodding range.

Bottom rigs were to be simple 6” 15lb Korda IQ soft flurocarbon hook links tied to size 6 Nash Fang Gator barbless hooks extended to a curve with shrink tube and a braided 6lb hair whipped (by fly tying vice) to the shank to accept single or double baits. The rigs were tied to Korda Link loops and connected to Korda Stik clips for easy hook link changes after every fish. Leads varied from 1.5oz-2.0oz on Korda safety clips.

BAIT
I am not a great lover of large diameter boilies which most anglers tend to fish France with (on the premise of big baits = big fish) and choose to use 12mm-14mm boilies as I believe a smaller bait is closer to the particle/pellet that I tend to use in the spod mix and that carp find it more acceptable and less suspicious on heavily fished waters.

The bait that I chose on this trip was Quest Irish Cream fresh frozen 14mm boilies that I used very effectively at another Angling Lines venue, Old Oaks in April last year. The bait I believe is very special, having that fantastic “whiskey” flavour blended on a cream background (similar to scopex) and rolled in a highly digestible base mix.

Mo on the other hand decided to go his own route, choosing to use Elite baits Cream Cracker rolled in 14mm and 20mm sizes.

We chose to take 15kg of boilies each, 25kg of pellet, 20kg of hemp and a bucket each of cooked particle (to use on the first few days) plus all the “just in case” selection of differing pop-ups and artificial baits.

THE JOURNEY
What with work being very busy the trip came round very quickly and before I knew it we were loading the car up on the evening of the 4th May to catch the Sea France ferry from Dover at 2am. The drive to Dover took longer than we expected due to the Dartford Bridge being closed for an hour due to an accident and the delay almost caused us to miss the ferry. Upon arrival in Calais we took the normal route towards Troyes following the toll roads A26/A4 (toll costs are approx 26 euros each way), which passed uneventfully (expect from Mo snoring in my ear) until we realised that the junction numbers had changed on the A4 and we had passed our turn off !!!. We had the sat nav on but chose to ignore it’s directions as Mo was looking at the map (an out of date map in hindsight !!!) and ended up 3 junctions further down than we should have done. Hey ho, it was into Troyes to pick up some food, wine and beer and then onto the lake.

Upon arrival we were met by a very friendly Marie Josee who greeted us with a coffee, toured the facilities and showed us the three swims available to us for the week. The owners are a husband (Philippe) and wife (Marie Jose) partnership who are both French, neither speak English well but we had no problems communicating with them and are excellent hosts.

The only swims available as the lake was very busy were 11, 12, 13. The lake was mainly booked with Dutch and German anglers with three other English anglers for the week. We love fishing with French, Dutch and German anglers as generally their English is excellent and their socialising superb.The wind was from the North West approx 15mph with cloud and light rain showers.

Having flipped a coin and Mo having won (yet again) had first choice and decided to fish swim 11 and I (having spoken to some departing Dutch anglers) chose swim 12. Swim 11 had an excellent view of the lake and commanded quite a lot of open water with the option to fish close against overhanging trees either side of the swim.
The bank to swim 11 was a bit precarious with a steep slope to the water and caving in places, however bivvying up was not a problem further up the bank. The depths varied from 10ft in the margins to 23ft at 100 yards with the bottom generally sand throughout. No underwater features were present apart from the base of the marginal slope which was exposed gravel.

Swim 12 was tucked into the south east corner of the lake with a fairly flat area of gravel to set the Viper up on, with overhanging trees to the left and right margin and the option of fishing to the far bank up to swim 11 if needed. In the corner of the swim the owners have created a spawning area for the carp with shallows and reeds but cannot be fished directly to.

Upon setting up, the first reaction is that the banks are hard (bring a mallet !!) and are very difficult to get bank sticks into let alone pegs for the bivvie. I normally use single bank sticks but found it impossible to get them into the stony ground as I had not taken a mallet and had to resort (a last resort, as I hate pods) to using a pod.

Rods were positioned to the right of the swim toward the spawning area in 10ft depth, far margin tight to the overhanging trees in 6ft and left margin in 12ft. Tired after no sleep for 36 hours it was “goodnight Vienna” to catch up on some much needed sleep. I was awoken by an enormous thunderstorm which blew from the north east straight into the open Titan Viper and I zipped the door down to avoid being soaked. The thunderstorm came and went followed by another shortly afterwards. Awaking at 10pm having slept through the onslaught all I could hear were carp crashing in my bay in swim 12 ……………….it’s just gotta happen !!!.

And so it did at 00.30am the right hand rod gave a few bleeps and I was in. The fish turned out to be a short deep bellied 41.12lb mirror, safely sacked for the night (with permission from the owners). I stayed up wide awake under a very starry sky drinking a few or six celebration beers, watching shooting stars and listening to the carp crashing all around the lake and hoping for a further take…………………....It’s what holiday fishing in France is all about.

No more fish graced the net during night and with the fish duly photographed and both of us wide awake, thoughts turned to feature finding the swims and food. Mo, not having any action, decided to move to the swim to my left as fish were crashing in front of swim 13 during the night and I popped over at 9am to the patisserie van that visits the lake every morning. The beautiful French driver of the van speaks excellent English and stocks Baguettes, croissants, sweets, cheeses, meats and crisps and saves going to the supermarket everyday for supplies.

Should you wish to go shopping there is an Intermarche and a Champion supermarket within 8 minutes in the town of Brienne le Chateau, which are both fully stocked for all your requirements. The city of Troyes is only 30 minutes away from the lake for a much wider choice of shopping.

After speaking to the other Dutch anglers who arrived the day before us, it would appear that the lake has not been fishing well for the last few weeks due to the colder weather conditions which have not warmed up the lake to kick the carp into action. Only odd fish had come out during the night , a couple of doubles, a twenty, one thirty and my fish………it looked as though it would be minimal baiting and fishing for one fish at a time would be the tactics.

Whilst St Christophe is a deep gravel pit and far deeper than I have ever fished in France, the carp feed at all depths and ranges, including the deepest part of the lake in 30ft of water. The standard tactic we gathered as there are few features, is to place baits at ranges/depths that fish are showing at and just ignore what you are fishing over or the depths.

One of the Dutch guys fishing swim 9 had a fish out of 24ft of water at a range of 150 yards yet an English angler on swim 5 had one off the overhanging trees in 6ft of water.

The facilities at St Christophe are mainly contained in a building at the entrance to the lake. The entire lake is fenced off and is secure with the gate being locked at night. There is a very clean English style toilet and shower and the water is hot. Other facilities for the visiting angler is drinking water, 220v power (don’t forget to bring your adapter) for charging bait boat batteries etc, a fridge freezer (freezer section is not large enough for bait) and a washing area for cleaning your pots and pans.

Some bait in the form of carp pellets (which Philippe feeds to the fish during the winter) sold at 35 euros for a 25kg sack. Wheat and maize is available for sale on site.

During the course of the week the lake was still busy with anglers with the odd swim being vacated for a few days which Mo took advantage of moving from swim 13 into 10. Mo found some features in front of swim 10 in a form of a gulley of 21ft with 15ft either side, which continued up in front of swim 9 where 2 German anglers were fishing.

The weather continued with strong north-westerly and westerly winds with rain on and off during the days and nights, perfect fishing conditions for most lakes both at home and in France. The fish would mainly show on the back of the wind (furthest away from us) and during the night would come a little closer inspiring some element of confidence. Odd big fish showed in my swim but again no action apart from the odd bream and occasional liner.

Apart from the food that we took with us and supplemented with some Merguez sausages and burgers from the local supermarket we also ordered some excellent evening meals from Marie Josee cooked fresh from her kitchen at the lake. The menu consists of Pizzas (10 euros), Pork fillet with a gravy /onions and chips (6 euros), a whole chicken and chips (12 euros) and sausages and chips (6 euros). The food is well cooked and certainly more than enough for most people and is thoroughly recommended.

Gareth Watkins of Angling Lines stayed with us for a few days to get some video footage of the lake but went home empty handed on the Thursday without any footage of fish being caught. It was great catching up with Gareth after not seeing one another for almost three years and sharing our stories and a glass of wine or two.

By our last day (Friday) neither Mo or myself had any further action. Occasional fish had come out of the lake including a low 30 on a Zig rig to one of the other English anglers. The fish continued showing in the middle of the lake and despite all efforts would not feed. Mo moved into swim 8 for the last day and I decided to stay put in 12 as there was little reason to move and the steady trickle of bait going in on the spots was gradually paying off with the occasional carp showing close to the areas after dark. With the wind still blowing into the bay, my rods were put out for the night with a few spods of hemp and pellet over each spot and with darkness arriving at 10pm and a long drive ahead of me, I got my head down for the night.

Around 11pm I started getting liners and hearing carp crashing very close to the areas I was fishing, it looked as though the fish had arrived back in the swim after almost a weeks gap. Two bream later the rods were put back out to their clip marks followed by a couple more spods and pellets to top the areas up.

I had only just got my head down again when the middle rod roared off in 15ft of water, playing in the fish in, which proceeded to kite to my left, the left hand Delkim spurred into life, which I assumed the carp I was playing had gone though the other line. With the carp safely netted, the left hand rod was positively roaring off, it was a double take, unbelievable, with no action for the best part of a week. The fish had taken a lot of line on its unhindered run and fortunately had decided to go to open water rather than the snags. I knew it was a good fish almost immediately as the fight was slow and plodding with the fish using its weight rather than going off on further fast runs and slowly the fish got within netting range.

With the first carp (16.00lb common) still in the water staked out safely in my landing net and with my second to hand (fortunately I always have to landing nets set up for this eventuality) the fish was netted and staked out in the water. I shined my head torch onto it for the first time and saw a huge mirror carp which could well be my next PB.

The scales dialled round to 51.06lb and yes it was a new PB by almost 5lbs.

Safely sacked up in the deep cool margins (with permission from the owners) the rods were put back out, tired but elated I returned to bed hoping for some more sleep. It was not to be as I had 2 more runs during darkness resulting in two mirrors of 21.02lb and 23.10lb…………what a night !!!

After winding my rods in at day break I called around to see Mo who was in swim 8 at the far side of the lake for a coffee. He was playing a fish out in open water which then snagged him and would not move. I noticed that his other margin rod was bent around but not taking line, a pick up and he did not know as the line had not gone through his Delkim…..Doh !!. He took to the boat to try to get both carp out of the snags but the fish were now un-attached and he had lost both carp. It turned out that Mo had had an upper double during the night and at least the move to swim 8 had been worth while.

In all only 17 Carp in total came out to 14 anglers on a very difficult week, apart from my 5 fish, 3 low thirties, 6 twenties and 3 doubles graced the bank but with several fish lost in marginal snags. After speaking to Philippe it would appear that St Christophe, due to it’s depth is slow to warm up and fishes better from June onwards but again is slower to cool down resulting in some excellent fishing as late as December.

SUMMARY
St Christophe is an excellent fishery which is well run by its French owners and has all the facilities you will need on your stay. The swims, which you can drive to are generally large enough to accept two anglers with more than enough water to fish. There is plenty of room in each swim to accept the largest of bivvies although you may be sited higher up the bank than where your rods are set up. Bring a pod and a mallet !!!!

We would suggest an initial light baiting approach to see how the fish respond and possibly stick with bottom rigs as there is no weed and presentation will not be a problem. Try Zigs during the day at different depths as this has been successful. Fish your rods at differing ranges/depths, don’t be put off by deep water as the carp will feed there and finally do not ignore the margins/overhanging tree areas (try not to fish too tight to snags as you could will end up losing or damaging the fish) as they are normally worth a fish or two.

With a stock of 950 Carp of various sizes including a few 60’s and a good head of 50’s,40’s and 30’s on a better week you should have a good opportunity of catching a very special fish.

Both Mo and I would like to thank Philippe, Marie Josee and all at Angling Lines Holidays for the opportunity to fish St Christophe and if we can get the time off work we will return later this year to fish the water again and continue some unfinished business.

Au revoir

Paul Ashley

p.ashley!@ntlworld.com