The Story Continues
Just a bit about the weather, it had been lovely sunny and warm during the day, but at night the temperature had dropped to well below zero degrees. Not exactly the type of conditions you would think would produce good results, but the carp were feeding and we were catching big carp, just what we had came here for. I had been using a mixture of all the baits I had with me, along with some of the boiled pigeon mix.
Due to the fact that Darrell hadn't caught from the 'Orchard' swim he was now considering on moving back to the dam wall, after breakfast on the Wednesday morning he was on the move. Darrell decided to fish on the right side of the dam wall with one rod fishing to the overhanging bushes in the corner by the outlet and the middle rod to an inlet pipe also to the right of the swim. His left rod was to be placed in open water straight out from the dam wall towards a shallow plateaux that Dan had pointed out. It didn't take long for Darrell to get amongst the fish, about 2 hours to be precise!!!
38lb
And then about an hour later, this beast of a common.......
49lb 8oz
It really does show you, it's always worth a move! The 'Orchard' swim looked very fishy with plenty of margin spots to fish to, but it was obvious that on this occasion the fish just weren't in the area. The fishing had still been very good, during the last 24hrs Darrell had his two, Dan had a 43lb mirror and I had caught two more mirrors, one at 35lb 8oz and one at 52lb, this one being during the middle of the night, the fish was very frisky and we decided to take the pictures with me standing in the water with my waders, I do find this to be a much safer way to handle big fish during the night. Although the pics are very dark with flash glare coming from the water as can be seen in the gallery, sometimes it's better to think about fish safety rather than a picture!
So that had taken us round to about 3pm on the Wednesday, we all took a few more fish that night, the cloud had moved over and the temp had risen by a few degrees, rain was forecast for the Thursday and Friday. I had lost a few fish in my swim and fancied a move, we don't see too much of each other so I decided to move onto the the dam wall next to Darrell, I would fish the left side while he kept to his right side. You might be thinking, is this bloke for real, catching some massive carp within the first half of the week and he fancies a move??? I can't explain it I just fancied it! It didn't take long to move the gear round and I decided to share the gazebo with Darrell as there was plenty enough room. I dropped a small pineapple popup just off the weeds in the corner of the lake and spread a scoop of particle over the top, I still had one more trip to do with some gear so asked Darrell just to listen out for the alarm. I got back to the swim finding Darrell playing a low 30lb common on my rod!! We didn't weigh or photograph the fish just returning it as quickly as possible. I was now thinking how stupid I was for casting a bait into my fancied spot before I was settled, I looked at it as though I could have spoilt the spot before even fishing it! It just so happens I needn't have worried, at about 2.30pm the same rod was away, the same small pineapple popup had been taken again. After a short spirited fight a nice 36lb mirror was on the bank, result!!
But more was to come, much more in fact, the memory of the next fish will stay with me for a very long time. I had recast another small pineapple popup back to my favourite spot just off the weed bed in the corner of the lake, walked back the rod along the bank to where I was fishing, making sure the line was sinking and was not caught on or over any surface strands of weed and scattered another two scoops of particle in the area. About an hour later the rod tip swung round the alarm sounded and the indicator left the line and was swinging on it's chain, another carp had picked up the bait!! I turned the handle of the old faithful Shimano LC and felt solid resistance as a very big fish started to swim out from the corner margin. You can always tell when it's a big fish, no darting about the swim, just a constant pressure on the line through to the rod. I'm not one to fish the clutch very loosely I tend to make a fish work hard to take line from the reel, but this fish was taking line in a slow and steady way with just the click click click of the clutch. I looked at Darrell by my side and said very confidently that this was a very big fish, although you can never be 100% certain on these things the 52 had fought in a very similar way and that first fish I had lost on the Saturday night also felt the same, just a very heavy slow moving weight. Although it took a few minutes to bring the fish closer to the bank we had not seen the size of the fish due to deep water off the dam wall, the carp was just boring very deep in the margins with me holding the rod trying to bring the beast to the surface for at least a glimpse of it's size. After the water boiled at the surface with many swirls and tail patterns creating a deep vortex in the lake, we then saw the fish, it looked big, very big, in fact it looked bloody huge!! Not only was it long but it was a very thick set fish, beautiful colours with a dark back and paler sides, the only trouble was my knees had started to knock and all the thoughts of how you mustn't lose such a great fish at the net, were running through my mind, but all went well and Darrell netted the beast at the first attempt. We hung my scales on the weighing crook and supported the sling as we lifted, the 55lb scales bottomed out!! Dan had now made his way round with his 110lb scales as the hammer had told him I had landed a biggie, the fish was resting in the margin in the weigh sling. We had been deducting 5lb off all the weights for a wet weigh sling, Dan said they weighed nearer 4- 4lb 8oz when wet, but we kept to our 5lb deduction just to be safe. Dan's scales settled bang on 66lb so we settled on 61lb for the fish, a new PB and the first time in my life that I have caught a carp with a higher number in weight than my age. I was emotional to say the least, to have caught such a wonderful creature and to see that fish swim off strongly with no apparent damage made it feel complete. The fish was in perfect condition, no mouth damage and had obviously not been caught that often, which again made me feel even more pleased with the capture, it was now back in it's own domain none the worse for it's experience.
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61lb and a new PB
What a week this was turning into!! Since the last tally up we had all caught more big fish, I had the 32lb 8oz and a 29lber from the old swim and a 36 and 61 from the new swim, Darrell had caught mirrors of 48lb 12oz, 30lb and 20lb, the hammer hadn't done too bad either with mirrors of 44lb 8oz, 22lb 8oz and 37lb, not forgetting commons of 26lb 8oz and 33lb 8oz.
It's funny how I was talking to the hammer on Wednesday at breakfast saying that Wednesday is known as 'happy wednesday' because it's quite normal that everyone has usually caught a fish or two by the middle of the week on our trips to France. Thursday was known as 'big fish thursday' because it does often throw up a big fish, well that was really true this year!!! Friday was known as 'last gasp friday' meaning it was the last real chance to catch a whacker before the end of the trip. To me it didn't really matter if I caught another fish this trip, all my dreams had been fulfilled, let's face it, it's not often you take a weeks fishing and land 20's, 30's 40's a 50 and a 60!!!!
We carried on fishing in our chosen swims and had planned to fish till Saturday breakfast packing up the gear leaving the rods till last, Darrell managed mirrors of 30lb, 26lb and a 44lb'er on my rods while I was playing a 26lb common! The hammer had one more fish, this time a nice common of 27lb. I did have one more run just before bringing the rods in on the Saturday morning the fish managed to shed the hook after playing for a couple of minutes, did I mind that much? No, not really, I had had possibly the best weeks fishing ever, but then again Negreloube 3 was pretty special back in 2008 too ;-)
So, the week was over and what a week, I have listed our catches on the next page, along with the gallery. A very special thanks to Danny Halliday for looking after us for the week, he cooked our breakfast and evening meals, provided beer, soft drinks at very reasonable prices and always had hot water ready for a cup of tea. If we wanted any help with anything, Dan was there, the toilets and showers were clean with plenty of hot water for the showers etc. The lake itself has plenty of swims that are comfortable to fish from, they are not dugout style swims with gravel or chipped bark, so don't expect them, they are very natural swims that fit well with the surroundings. Dan has a very laid back attitude to the fishing at his lake and does not pester the anglers, it made us all feel like friends and that also helped with our week there. I know we had been there before, but I do feel another visit will be on the cards in the future, who knows what that trip will bring? If you fancy giving l'etourneau a go I have listed the web address at the bottom of the page.