Just thought id share with everyone my experience of my first time Carp Fishing! Being a mad keen Shore Sea Angler, i knew that knowing what your doing and how to do things will improve your catches when fresh water fishing. I had booked a trip to France for a long weekend purposely to get my first carp with chance of a wells catfish also.
We arrived in France on a Saturday Afternoon, the drive to the lake is a 1 hour drive from St Malo port. The lake was stunning we had a lakeside apartment...basically you can sit on your couch watching Tele. And you would get to your screaming bait alarm within 10 secs from the sofa! I researched so much into the lake before i went but couldn't really find much recent information on it. So with all of the information i did find, i started preparing my rigs and getting together the gear which i thought i needed to handle the fish in this lake! Luckily i lent all the gear 3lb test curves and 8000-10000 size reels i loaded them with 15lb Daiwa Sensor line. I was using a rubbing leadcore leader tied straight onto my main line with a 3 or 4oz lead then a hair rig i tied myself (Youtube how to do it and practice) around 6-8inchs long.
As for Boilies we was using Urban Baits - Nutcracker 18mm with a pink pop.
This worked a treat, any lake you go to with bailifs always ask them whats working and more so what the other anglers around you have been baiting up their swims with. There is only two snags in this huge lake and we was fishing right next to one of them! This is perfect for me as i know that fish love hiding amoungst them. (We fished Peg 38, 37,36 over the weekend)
I set up all four of the rods as Ben didn't quite know what he was doing just yet. Then as i was setting up my rod within 10 minutes of Ben's first cast his rods starts to bend over on the Rod Pod! Ben Strikes and is into a Carp! Bloody hell this is going to be mental i said! After a great battle i got it in the net and weighed a whopping 39lb ! This was the biggest from the lake all week apparently. We didn't even put one bit of bait in the area just a single boile on this cast!
Ben continued to whoop my bottom catching Grass Carp more Mirror Carp. I thought i might of made that rig slightly better than the rest so i copied the rig which was catching for all rods. Then as darkness fell i got my first one a lovely Common Carp of 18.8oz.
I then was a happy boy i focused on catching a catfish for rest of the night! Took great advantage of my lakeside Apartment not even sleeping in it the first night just in the chair by my rods for 2 hours. I did get a run on the catfish rod at 4am which i hooked and lost within 5 mins! So Day 2 this day was hard work. Had Bream on the carp gear to around 6lb, but no carp. Around 3pm and my rod started singing. Hooked the fish jumped straight out the water.....its a Sturgeon!!!! After a epic 25 minute battle i had it to the side of the bank, just as we put the net near it the tail whipped around and knocked the hook out of its own mouth. Estimated at 40lb i was very gutted 
We continued on this day with only 1 small carp! (We got so lucky the first day i thought we would have got alot more) I thought we should relax a bit and change location of our casts leave the previous swim rest, as fish might recognize that there is lines by the snags. Had a good nights kip the 2nd night and woke up early with a fresh head chucked in some boiles around the snag with the throwing stick. and got my bait bang on amoungst it withing 10 mins i was into a fish! A lovely 21lb Mirror Carp this day was just awesome fish after fish, Bream to 9lb, and the evening i had a Catfish of 23lb! So so Happy.
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| Ben with one of his many Carp over 20lb! |
If you want any more information regarding this trip comment below and i will reply.
Total fish count from Saturday 2pm till Tuesday 7am
39lb Mirror Carp, 3lb Bream, 23lb grass Carp, 23lb Mirror Carp, 18lb 8oz Common Carp, 2lb Bream, 4lb Bream, 6lb Bream, 21lb 8oz Mirror Carp, 25lb Grass Carp, Ben (Lost Mirror Carp), Daniel (Lost Carp), 8lb Mirror Carp, 24lb Mirror Carp, 26lb Mirror Carp, 20lb 8oz Mirror Carp, 25lb Mirror Carp
Around 15 Carp in total between us, lots of Rudd, Roach, Bream on the floats too.
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This is wonderful and quite informative blog I have learnt so many things from here.
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