Etang du Margot
It was getting near to that time again, a trip to France with the lads!!!
The team was picked, Perry was in as usual so was Steve, Perry´s brother in law Pete with his mate Dave made a total of five travelling including me.
We had decided on Etang du Margot, one of the Horton fisheries in France, Simon had seemed really nice on the phone and had offered some good advice.
We `done the usual´ with the bait all chipping in and deciding on a group attack on the carp, hempseed, red band, trout pellet, vitalin and boillies were purchased ready for the start of our trip. The ferry was booked and a suitable vehicle was hired, nothing was left to chance, this was going to be a good un I could sense it in me particles!!
The time came soon enough, we drove through the night and arrived at Margot early afternoon after a few stops for fuel and grub, three other lads had arrived just before us and had opted for the far side of the lake leaving us the side with the lodge, toilets and parking, this meant we didn’t have to walk far to our swims. Pete and Dave chose to fish the left bank, Perry picked the right side corner and Steve chose the left side of the lodge bank so I dropped in between Perry and Steve.
A nice bend in the rod, can't beat it!!
Just a bit about the lake the size is about 12 acres the far bank has wooden pontoons to fish from but the lodge bank and left bank has nice grassy banks to fish from, the right bank has no swims, but there is an island just off this bank about half way along. There are no real snags, with the lake bed being fairly firm clay, you can pick up a few variations in depth but we found it was fairly uniform. There are plenty of Carp in the water up to possible 50lb, Sturgeon are present over 60lb, Grass Carp to over 30lb and some big Koi Carp, by the way there are also a lot of ½lb to 1lb Carp that are the obvious offspring of the mature Carp. The facilities are first class, toilets, showers, cooking equipment, eating area etc, all were clean and tidy, their was also a burner and big pot outside to prepare particles with, spot on in my view.
What was the fishing like Andy? I hear you say!!!
One Of Perry's High Twenties Steve with his Sturgeon.
We all had a fantastic week, we didn’t have hundreds of fish but we did have some very good fish, Dave had a couple of 30’s and 4x 20’s trouble is he had to leave Wednesday as he had some personal problems to sort out back in the UK we dropped him at a train station and he travelled back to Essex by train, we took his gear back with us in the minibus. Pete caught a new PB 36lb something plus about another six Carp. Perry didn’t do so well which was strange really as he had potentially one of the hottest swims on the lake, all of the unfishable bank margins, the island in front of him, and some really nice water. He landed three carp all under 30lb and lost two.
Steve achieved rather better results! Some nice Carp up to
30lb a couple of nice 20lb Grass Carp and a bloody great Sturgeon of 59lb!!!
This capture was fantastic; Steve had been bothered by the very small Carp and
had managed to catch quite a few on his rods by striking quickly at very little
knocks (like twitchier hitting in the old days) just to see what was playing
with the baits. 
Anyway, there he was fast asleep 4 o’clock in the morning he gets a couple of little knocks and decides to jump out of bed and hit it! Next thing you know line is being pulled from his reel as the fish shoots from our bank to the middle of the lake, after 10 minutes of him trying to wake me, we were not fishing that close to each other, I got out of the sack and helped out, another few minutes and I slipped the net under the Sturgeon! His face was a picture! The fish was as long as Steve is tall, well done mate, shame you are not a six footer!!
What did I catch? I did rather well also!
Two 40’s one a new PB at 43lb 12oz the other 42lb 8oz which equalled my old PB, 30lb+ commons and mirrors, 20lb + Grassies, a few 20lb + carp and a lovely Koi at 19lb, all in all I was well pleased.
A Classic 30lb+ Mirror The 19lb Koi
To sum up, Margot is a great venue, I would certainly return, Simon Horton didn’t bother us during our stay, he just dropped by a couple of times to offer some advice and to check all was ok. The lodge is great for cooking your meals and getting together to eat and have a social before settling down for the night's action. The toilets and shower are clean and respectable. So if you want to try and catch some of these fantastic carp book up a trip I am sure you will not be disappointed.
My 43lb 12oz Mirror New PB. My 42lb 8oz Mirror.