Tag: carp fishing in France

With our season completed and the winter work schedule under way I thought it worth adding some detail of some of our carp that don’t always make the “A” team list. I was surprised to be told by a good friend, shortly after buying Etang du Roivre that I was lucky to be in the middle of “Saone valley Royalle country”. Frankly, this meant nothing to me until he explained that the Royalles from the valley of the river Saone were accepted as being the scaliest in France. With that in mind, during each of our 6 vidanges we have played god by removing the small, plain carp and keeping the scaley ones. In fact we continue this process to date but by removing the small commons and plain mirrors as they are caught and this will continue over the coming years.

This process is beginning to pay off and I will add a few pictures from those in my album as an indication of the standard of fish that we set as our target big fish for the future.

2018 SUCCESSES
As we drift into the last week of the 2018 season (other than our work party week next week but that will only be Tree fellas) I thought it would be worth looking back over the fish that have produced surprises or special moments.
I’ve kept to 20 easily recognizable fish and have left out all of the scraper fifties that are less easily recognized and I’ve also left out the bigger fish which haven’t been banked this year and there are at least 6 of these plus, of course The Long Common which we know is present, often spotted but rarely caught.
Anyway, the list below shows the best weights of each of my 20 carp and gives us some opportunities to look ahead and estimate/guess what might be about to pick up our hook baits during the next couple of years. I don’t think it takes too much imagination before you can see at least 12 different sixties next year and lord only knows how many fifties.
Anyway, I wish everybody loads of success and the fish of your dreams.
Pretty One 58lbs 9oz
Arfur 53lbs 3oz
Chunky’s Double 55lbs 2oz
Ruby 52lbs 11oz
Garry Linear 53lbs 9oz
Dippy 59lbs 1oz
Galileo 60lbs 7oz
Pipesmoker 60lbs 4oz
Roundscale 57lbs 14oz
Peach 65lbs 9oz
Nemo 54lbs 2oz
Horseshoe Scale 60lbs 13oz
Coffee Bean 53lbs 14oz
Half Lin 74lbs 15oz
Bobs Fish 56lbs 3oz
Andy’s common 59lbs 15oz
Chunky 54lbs 2oz
Black Scale 57lbs 3oz
Finger Print 52lbs 8oz
Footsteps 56lbs 10oz

WHAT A WEEK????

108 carp caught by Simon, Gwyn, Tony, Steve, Paul and Rob.
Of those landed these are the list of fish over 37lbs. amazingly it is exactly half (54) of the total numbers, but, and this does need clarifying, the totals included some commons under 30lbs and a few mirrors under 20lbs and these were moved to our stock pond. We need to continue this policy in order to maintain our control on the biomass but also because these smaller, younger fish (born in our lake every year) do not form part of, what we consider the “target group” so our growth calculations do not include these.

37.00, 37.12, 38.00, 38.00, 38.00, 38.06, 38.08, 38.08, 39.00, 39.00, 39.08, 39.12
40.00, 40.00, 40.04, 40.08, 40.12, 41.00, 41.00, 41.00, 41.04, 41.08, 41.08
42.04, 42.08, 43.00, 43.04, 43.04, 44.02, 44.04, 44.08
45.00, 45.08, 45.08, 46.06, 47.00, 47.00, 48.02, 48.08, 48.08, 48.08, 48.08
51.01, 51.02, 51.08, 52.00, 52.00, 52.02, 52.08, 56.02, 59.02, 59.07
60.13, 64.14.
Summary;- 30 forties, 10 fifties & 2 sixties

Looking for clues to future weights from a very conservative 3lbs per year weight gain, we can see that there are 12 carp between 37lbs and 40lbs so they should all easily be new forties for 2019.
By the same calculations there are 7 carp between 47lbs and 50lbs so they should all be new fifties.
There are obviously also some big fifties that will be sixties also.

Taking the numbers of “target fish” caught this week (ie. commons over 30lbs and mirrors over 20lbs) as a percentage of the total “target group” it looks to be approximately 65%+ are going to be 40lbs+ next year.
With a total target group of around 300 carp this suggests that somewhere close to 200 carp are likely to be over 40lbs. Of that we should also see at least 50 different carp above 50lbs.
Now the fun begins.
The photos below are from last night’s call to arms for Tony’s 56lbs 2oz mirror which we thought was the ninth fifty but, counting the list, it proves to be the tenth. Brilliant angling by one and all.

I will keep you up to date as this week progresses but we have just reached 48 hours in and the 6 lads have just banked their 30th carp. The most pleasing thing is that everybody has had at least one forty plus already with the biggest at 59lbs 7oz.I’m now expecting some of the proper big girls to show up. Fingers crossed.

As I sit here and write this we are coming to the end of our second week with none of the larger inhabitants gracing the landing nets. As a fishery owner it’s always frustrating when the fish don’t  play ball for your guests and especially after nearly 17 years when a lot of our guests are now good friends. However, even more frustrating, and equally as exciting, is to have been able to sit on our dam wall, watching the breaking of each new dawn and the dimming light of each evening, whilst the carp give away their presence with amazing numbers of patches of bubbles, crashes and head and shouldering. In fact they are crashing throughout the night and some are so loud that we can hear them from indoors. They are obviously feeding very heavily on natural foods and, from the fish that I have personally seen roll, some of them look absolutely enormous and in fantastic condition.

My own take on this is that it will need a bit of “thinking outside of the box” but when someone gets it right they’re going to have the trip of their lifetime.

Another week done and another week closer to the friendly and productive temperatures. The lads really did well and caught some stunning fish. Some struggled while other plundered the stocks. That had nothing to do with angling ability and simply the fact that the fish parked themselves in front of the first four swims until Wednesday and then moved out en masse. Anyway, the final tally was 30 carp banked and very few of those were below 30lbs. The better fish included 8 forties, 6 fifties plus Half Lin at 67lbs.

Cant wait to see what the following weeks produce and I have been playing around with fish growth rates in order to try to come up with projections. I have monitored some of the bigger carp weights and compared them with the same time last year. I then took those same fish and checked to see what their best weights were by the end of last year and it has thrown up some surprises. Now I’m not suggesting that I can forecast exactly what weight each fish will achieve but, even conservatively, my calculations suggest that we could easily have at least 12 different sixties. Way beyond my wildest dreams!!!!

FISH WEIGHTS – 2018 FIRST HALF.

As we wait for the arrival of our first group of anglers to begin our second half of our season I thought it may be interesting to check some of the weights of our fish. I have listed 10 known (and easily recognizable) fish and have only shown those that have been banked in the first half of 2018. Those of you who follow our progress will immediately see that there are some noticeable omissions but, if they haven’t been banked this year yet, they don’t feature on this list.
One other thing that is noticeable is that a lot in this list are at their best ever weights while one or two are not. Obviously this relates to when they were caught this year (and last) in relation to spawning and as the big fish can lose 10lbs in spawn we can see that there are still some massive potentials for this autumn, once this ridiculously long, hot, summer eventually breaks.
Hope this is interesting and I will just add that we still have some summer and autumn spaces for 2019 while spring 2020 is filling fast.
Be lucky.

HALF LIN – 67lbs 14oz Royal Box (2017 best 74lbs 15oz)
PEACH – 65lbs 9oz 2nd Pontoon
GALILEO – 60lbs 7oz Stumps
PIPESMOKER – 60lbs 4oz Snag Bay (common)
DIPPY – 59lbs 1oz – 02/06/18 Dog Leg
HORSESHOE SCALE – 58lbs 9oz Dog Leg
PRETTY ONE – 58lbs 9oz Leaning Tree
BOB’S FISH – 56lbs 3oz Oaks
ANDY’S COMMON – 56lbs 0oz Mistletoe (2017 best 59lbs 15oz)
ROUND SCALE – 55lbs 15oz Pampas (2017 best 57lbs 14oz)

Right, we are now well into the first of our three week, mid summer break so it seems a good time to update the situation. We lost our telephone line in a recent storm and, despite the original break being repaired, our internet connection has been poor. That has now been rectified so I apologies for the lack of posts but here we go again.

Our season started really well but has slowed considerably with the extreme, hot weather conditions. We have seen several weeks with temperatures into the mid thirties and our highest so far has been 41 degrees. When this spell of hot weather started my main concern was that we didn’t have a “reserve” compressor in case the existing one should fail. I spoke to Vertex and decided to order the next size up as this was the biggest that our system would take. For some reason, as soon as it arrived I disconnected the original compressor and fitted the new one which now pumps 5.6 cubic feet of air per minute to the four diffuser heads. The flow of air to the surface is now much stronger and should be giving a much bigger water movement across the lake bed as it drags in the water from low levels. I took the boat out to check it’s power and I was amazed at the force at the surface and also at how much colder the water is around the area of each head. I think it’s safe to say that I’m glad I bought the bigger pump.

During this hot spell the Fishing has been poor BUT the fish have certainly been feeding well. Each morning I sit and watch the lake and scan the surface with binoculars in order to try to spot any fish and I can honestly say that EVERY morning has shown there to be numbers of fish digging across large areas of the lake bed. It seems that they are happier eating the myriads of bloodworm, snail, beetles etc rather than beds of boilies. However, I’m expecting that to change the minute the weather breaks.

I will end by saying that I really feel for the owners and anglers on the lakes which have been reporting fish deaths. It’s a tight rope that we all walk in order to keep the numbers of fish at a level that will give the anglers good sport but then pushes the biomass to its limit so that the dissolved oxygen levels can become critical in the blink of an eye. So far we’ve been lucky, we have seen several baby perch and baby sun perch dead around the margins but none of the carp are showing any signs of stress. Is also reassuring to watch the bigger predators chasing the breakfasts with some vigor.

Well the scorching weather continues with every day over 30 degrees and the hottest last week up to 38. In the light of that it’s not surprising that only 15 or so carp were banked but the fact that they included 4 forties and 2 fifties is not too sad and the post spawning weights are extremely good.

Unfortunately the photos of the other fish are in raw and this dashboard won’t accept them but the one above weighed 51 lbs 15 oz and the other fifty was 56 lbs 10 oz.

The day after the Bastille day celebrations and the morning of France’ attempt to win the World Cup of football and all is currently peaceful in our world. I’m sure the cavalcades of vehicles with thei horns blaring will commence if they win.

Anyway, let’s get back to the Fishing, which has also been quiet. That is not to say that the carp aren’t feeding, quite the opposite, but they are certainly on naturals and fry in a very big way. Of an evening and early morning we can see numbers of carp fizzing and rolling and throughout most nights there are the sounds of some very big fish crashing out. Two weeks ago the anglers were more into their holidays than their fishing and I’m not knocking them for that but winding in and spending two or three hours away from their swims at breakfast and dinner certainly meant that they missed the main feeding spells so there would certainly have been more opportunities to be had. Last week four lads had the lake as an exclusive and while they worked hard and had breakfast baguettes in their swims it was always going to be hard to keep the fish in front of them with four trying to cover a 14 acre lake.

The highlight was to see Steve open his Moorland account on his first ever trip with “The Pretty One” at exactly 52 lbs. Well angled mate.