Autumn beauties in deepest France

I suppose autumn didn't really happen this year - summer turned in to winter almost overnight and I was able to witness it at first hand whilst fishing at a lovely French lake just recently. The weather was lovely when I arrived and even at 2am in the morning I was comfortable in just a tee shirt, but within a few days I was wearing all the clothes I had with me and thick frost was covering the ground at first light!

Thankfully the fish seemed to sense that the weather was turning and they fed most days, except for the very coldest. It wasn't an easy trip and for the first couple of days I had no action even though fish were showing over the areas. It took a bit of working out but that always makes it more rewarding when you do bank a fish or two. In the end the answer came from fishing areas which were rock hard on the bottom in depths between two and three metres and switching over to the Quench boilies which thankfully I'd picked up from Christian at Solar on the way down. I was just fishing small areas next to snags or close to the dam wall at the end of the lake and not baiting too heavily, just twenty or thirty whole and broken boilies with a sprinkling of 365 pellets seemed to be what the fish wanted and on the third morning I got things underway with a 37lb mirror. hook baits were fished snowman style with the pop ups being either Quench or Bunspice and Aniseed. The other thing which really made a difference was fishing very slack lines as I'd sussed out that they were very line shy. To combat that, I used long seven metre lengths of lead core - just two from every spool, but it really helped to pin everything down. Two good fish of 41lb and 40lb 4oz came during the following nights along with some smaller fish, but it was 3pm on Wednesday afternoon when I latched in to something which felt much heavier, and after quite a battle I slipped the net under a 54lb 8oz mirror which was enough to make the trip a good 'un!
A few fish followed the next day but then the temperature really dropped and the action stopped and I thought that would be the end of it, but on the final morning it just lifted a little and the fish responded immediately. A final flurry brought three more fish to the bank, two commons of around 20lb apiece and another cracking mirror of 50lb 4oz which looked lovely in the early morning sun. It was a great trip on a water which I hadn't fished before and although it wasn't easy fishing the rewards were certainly there. It took a little bit of thought and the help of the right bait to get things going and it turned out fine - but it looks as though summer is definitely over for 2009!

Clubbing 'em at Rainbow!!

Most people know that when Rainbow Lake fishes well that something special is always on the cards, but the last trip there was just incredible. For me this trip was special as it was the first time that I'd had the chance to fish from the Island Swim which controls the central area of the lake. I just hoped that when I finally got there that it wouldn't be a disappointment - well it was far from that, in fact it was one of my best sessions ever!

There's no doubt that the Club Mix is the number one summer bait at Rainbow and no matter how much the carp see of it through the year, they always come back for more. So needless to say the Club Mix formed the main part of my baiting attack along with Red Herring and BYT Pellets and a few bags of the Up and Down Mix. Hook baits were all fished snowman style with an 18mm Club Mix bottom bait along with a 14mm Quench pop up.

It all started well enough when I landed a 46lb mirror a great start but my only fish of the first day. But after what was quite a slow start it just got better and better! From then on for the next 13 days I always had between five and seven runs per day. The great thing with the Islands water is that there is room to spread the baits around and there is always a chance of a run at any time without putting too much pressure in one area. Baiting spots consistently really paid off and the fish kept coming back for more of their favourite food! During the first few days the fish were all very much in the same weight bracket, between 25lb and 35lb - nice fish but not huge by Rainbow standards. But then on the Thursday morning a cracking mirror of 57lb 8oz slipped up and that signalled the start of an incredible run of action. Over the next seven days I managed to land at least one fish over 50lb every single day. Fish of 53lb, 53lb 8oz, 51lb 8oz, 53lb, 52lb 4oz and 59lb 2oz soon followed amongst a whole host of other fish up to 49lb 4oz. With all that action I thought that a 60 couldn't be far away and on the Tuesday morning of the second week I finally managed that with a cracking mirror of 64lb 8oz!

It was a session that I've dreamed of having for a long time now - everything was working perfectly, not just the bait but the rest of the gear too. The size 4 Stronghold Longshank hooks have always been great and they were really being put to the test this time but there was no worry - they did the job well as did the lead release clips which discharged the lead every time in the snaggy conditions.
One more great fish followed the next day, a cracking common of 57lb and then the spell was broken. I carried on catching fish just the same but the big ones were gone and the best after that weighed in at 36lb 8oz. It was just incredible, the final tally was 59 carp with nine fish over 50lb and a further nine over 40lb. Everything has to be right for the action to stay that consistent and I knew that I had the right bait and the right gear for the job and thankfully I was also in the right place at just the right time. Get on the Clubs!!