I have wanted to take my family on a fishing trip to France for some time. I have suggested it occasionally, I’m not sure if it was some of my stories that put them off though. Such as my last trip to Orellana where we spent 6 days on the bank along with all that lived there, no toilets, no showers etc! As luck would have it, I saw a lake re-advertised due to a cancellation, when I mentioned it to the family, despite a few misgiving’s they were up for it, with a few caveats along the way. Those being, somewhere to sleep without creepy crawlies, a lake to ourselves, some decent weather (I promised that with my fingers crossed!). Anyway, after some conversations back and forth, I booked Etang du Chavaignac, this was through Armfield Angling as they manage a number of lakes of this type around the Limoges area and I know from experience they do deliver what they promise. This lake looked ideal, a reasonable sized lake, I didn’t want to fish in a puddle, a reasonable head of carp with some decent sized fish as well. Though I wanted this to be a family holiday and not just a fishing holiday for me, this was about making memories for the family and spending quality time together, which becomes more important with each passing year. The idea to have the whole lake and also the option of some type of lodge for those who didn’t want to bivvy up was great and this fitted the bill perfectly. It’s a good-sized lake so I could set up the bivvy and carp rods and in the next swim we could set up the short poles for the family to fish from during the day. Although the lake has 7 swims, I think it lends itself to 3-4 carp anglers ideally.
We travelled down from Yorkshire on the Friday, Myself and Sal, my daughter Lynsey, and her husband Daz, the two boys, Eli who is 18 and Cole who is 13. All the tackle, beds, Chairs, sleeping bags and luggage went into my Transporter, along with Eli. So, there wasn’t much room spare, the other 3 travelled in their Beamer. We planned on taking the Newhaven to Dieppe overnight ferry. I have used this crossing a lot over the years as the five-hour crossing allows a few hours’ sleep, the ferry docks in Dieppe at 5am, which means after a steady drive we are down around Limoges by mid-day. We had a supermarket stop to stock up on food and drink for the first couple of days. We arrived at the lake by 1pm. We had a walk around the lake, as you would expect when visiting somewhere new, my plan all along was to fish swim 1, which was closest to the lodge. It also has a small building to put everything, although it was too warm to use to sleep in at this time. We had taken bivvys and beds for everyone, not being sure who would want to sleep out. Lynsey and Daz decided they would sleep in the lodge, Cole as well. Eli slept in the bivvy in peg 2 so he had his own space. Sal and I set up camp in peg 1 as planned.
I had brought plenty of Cream Cajouser boilies and Sweetcorn, I then bought a sack of house pellets to make a mix to use for bait, accompanied with the Cajouser Activator and Corn Steep Liquor. I had noticed evidence of crays on walking round, so was a bit wary about how long the hook baits would last, upon checking them at first light, pretty much all the hook baits were destroyed. I switched to a single giant tiger-nut and plastic corn for hook baits after that, I hadn’t taken any tigers as loose feed, which in hindsight might have been an idea. I baited sparingly the first few days as it was extremely hot, and I also like to wait and see if there is an area the carp are moving through on a regular basis. One of the issues I felt I might have is that the carp would stay at the bottom of the lake away from the lines, I think this definitely happened the first few days, then they seem to start moving up the lake towards the shallower areas. As I had my bait boat I could have chased the carp around the lake, but I decided against that, rather let them settle. I also only baited up a couple of areas with sprinkles of boilies and pellets. I have learned with these types of lakes in the past is not to have too many patches of bait out. You can always put more in, but you can’t take it out. I suppose if there had been someone else carp fishing further down, that would have kept the carp moving around a bit more as well.
For the first few days I was getting one or two bites a day, mainly in the early hours of morning. On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I had quite a few carp moving through and as usual I was up at first light watching, I saw a good-sized carp head and shoulder just at the back of an area I had scattered some boilies around. I tied ap a small PVA bag with crushed Cream Cajouser boilies then injected some Activator in. It dropped perfectly, 20 minutes later it went off, a solid looking Mirror weighing 48.5 lbs! That will do! Though I had hoped it might go over the 50 mark.
Wednesday and Thursday got very hot! And I mean hot, I’m not sure if it affected the fishing, but they definitely seemed to stop moving about. I had expected a few more bites by now and was still hoping for a bigger carp from here. I was wondering if I needed to make some changes to my approach, I am usually a bait angler but had sat on my hands a bit on this trip, mainly due to the conditions. I had seen a couple of shows in a channel across to my left, so I decided to put a ‘bit of bait’ there. It was the deepest part in front of me, so was hoping that the bait would pull them down, as hopefully the carp might be looking for some food after a quite week, the weather had freshened up a bit as well. Did it work? I’ll say! An hour after putting 4kg of bait in I had nice mirror at 38lbs, I put the rod back out with a top up of bait, an hour later a great looking common of 35lbs, I had 2 more carp just over 30’s, then it went quite for the evening. During the night and following morning, I had 2 more carp and lost one, both a bit smaller. So at least I finished the last 24 hours with a bit of a result, I suppose the unknown question would be, would have I have done better putting more bait in at the start? I’m not sure and its always easier with hindsight heh?
All too soon it was time to pack up and head for home. It had been a wonderful week, enjoyed by everyone. The family having their fishing match during the day, the evening spent dining outside the lodge and then playing games until dark. Then I fished the night and mornings with the carp rods. The boys liked the fact they could fish when they wanted, then take time to do their own thing, no pressure on anyone to do anything really. The facilities provided were excellent, good sized living area, good kitchen, toilets, and showers and plenty of fridge and freezer space. I think when the extra bedroom is completed it will be even better. The lake is a decent size and will take 4 anglers, though I think 3 is more ideal for spreading out. It’s a nice part of France with other things to do for families. A couple of afternoons the others went off to a beach area on a lake nearby. I took the whole family to Orador Sur Glan one day, this is really a must visit if ever you are in this area of France, it really is thought provoking walking around the streets of this old town, left as it was from WW2, it brings home the horrors of war...
Anyway, I think everyone is up for trying this again, so we might just do it again next year, I’ll let you know how we get on.
Andy Murray
