French Carping
Planning is everything, fail to plan and plan to fail and all that jazz! Our trip took 3 years of planning, well not quite, it was booked 3 years in advance and then the real planning kicked in 12 months out. Three of us were heading to Cognac La Foret to a small intimate water of 5 acres. We were celebrating our mate Colin’s significant birthday and had found a water where we could catch some big carp, relax and most of all, have a comfortable social.
The chosen lake being the Secret Garden which comes with a house and all the mod cons. Fishing was made super comfortable with shelters on the lake itself.
On arrival we were straight to it, setting up the gear and turning our lovely clean shelters into utter chaos which remained that way for the duration! Now coming back to the whole planning thing, normally I would be trying to reach out to anyone I know who has been to the venue so as to get a general feel for the place. Also I would check out all social media including any videos on YouTube but this time I didn’t bother, I just wanted to get there and do it all my way, even the cordial owner chat (where the owner/bailiff tries to impart so guidance to the incumbent party) was listened to but not really absorbed. We arrived on the lake and the rain started, light at first but then into a tropical downpour with the owner informing us that the lake had seen constant rain for the previous 2 weeks.
We had drawn our swims prior to arrival and I ended up with the shallow part of the lake. There is a path that goes all around the lake and the little snippets I had seen on line, it seemed that most anglers spent time walking around looking for fish or feeding their spots. We made a conscious decision to keep away from the far bank as any disturbance or noise could spook the fish with it being such a small water. Small waters can be the most tricky as the carp tend to be super aware of being angled for!
I threw my gear into my shelter and then did the next most important thing, sorted the bait. Taking a bucket of water from the lake I added 2kg of my Trigga shelf-life boilies, and added some Trigga Activator liquid stirring it all together. In another bucket I added some crumbed Trigga, some 2mm Trigga pellet, a kilo of BFM 4mm Pellet boilie which is a test bait (more later) and a few scoops of Trigga Bag Mix and Cream Cajouser Bag mix. To moisten this up I used some of the water the main Trigga Boilies were soaking in. Lastly, we had bought a sack of the 9mm house pellets and I filled another bucket 3/4 full and then topped it up with boiling water just enough to scold them so they stayed fluffy but intact.
Soaking the boilies has been done for years and initially it was sold on the principal that carp on finding these ‘washed out’ baits would accept them as safe as they had been in the lake for longer, but whilst it was a logical assumption I have never really bought into the idea, I just think carp find the softened baits easier to crush and digest, and also importantly more attractive as the water absorption within the bait acts as a catalyst in the activation of ingredients. I also believe this to be true of pellets and lightly scolding them makes them far more attractive and digestible for the carp.
Once the bait was ‘cooking’ I went to task on setting up the rods, setting up the pod and sorting out my two landing nets.
I donned some wet weather gear and took a sneaky peak to the shallows down at the bottom of the lake. In this area there are two water aerators that churn up the water just sub surface and I could clearly see a few carp bubbling away close to the margins behind the furthest aerator. Bosh, a decent carp nutted out of the water right over the bubbles sending up a large plume, well I didn’t need to be asked twice, I was back up to the rods, marked the spot visually from the dying rings on the surface and lined up the natural markers on the far bank then got to baiting a small homemade pink wafter onto my rig. Now this next step is where a lot of anglers can can go really wrong and that is the question of how much bait do I put out. So I had found fish feeding, I felt it was a one rod spot, the way to tackle it is to fish for a bite at a time. I am an avid bait boat user so my plan was to go in a quiet as possible and drop my rig along with less than a handful of my mix which was all my bait listed above but now mixed together in one bucket. The pre-soaked boilies were mulched up by hand and put through the mix. First rod out was dropped on the money. Next I needed to find some spots for the other rods. On these types of lakes most anglers have a tendency to fish the margins and usually tight to them so I wanted to avoid those areas but I was cognisant of the fact that the air pressure was high (1020) so the carp may well be more comfortable in the shallower parts. The deepest part of the lake was at the other end of the lake towards the dam at around 8-9ft whilst my end varied from 4ft down to 1ft. I felt whilst the big girls could push into the shallow water I wanted to aim for the same depth I had seen the fish feeding in which was just under 3ft. I found two spots along the bottom of the shelf which was a couple of rod lengths off the far margin, and repeated the tactic of just enough for a bite. I watch so many anglers go heavy handed on the first day with an attitude that French carp need some nosh, but in fairness, I have generally found this farthest from the truth unless its a big, windswept public where you need to hold nomadic fish. These small waters (anything under 15 acres) tend to see anglers on them each week, with large amounts of bait going in, week in, week out. You can put it in but you can’t take it out, and so many anglers ruin the early part of their week due to over baiting not knowing if there is bait still out there from previous anglers or if the fish are feeding heavily enough to warrant heavy baiting.
Within an hour my first rod that I had placed on the bubblers was away and my first carp of the week was in the bag. I left the fish in the net whilst I reset the rod as there had been a few fish bubbling and I was hoping I hadn’t spooked them. The rain was torrential at this point and taking photos was a pain to say the least. At 31lb plus change, this common was one of the smaller residents of the lake, fish was returned and within minutes the same rod was away this time with a mental 47-12 mirror. Rinse and repeat, the rod was away again and a 48lb common just as it got dark followed by a 35lb mirror during the early hours. At first light I was away again on a different rod which turned out to be my largest of the trip at 54-8. What was funny was as I was playing my fish I could see Rob was also bending carbon and both our fish hit the nets at the same time. His one went 54-6 - what a result. Colin was doing well too with a couple of fish to 48+ all on the same bait and tactics. For me, the fish kept coming and over the week I managed 1 x 20+, 11 x 30+, 10 x 40+ (3 under 45 with the majority over 48+) and the 54-8. I lost 3 fish due to hook pulls and Rob managed two 40+ carp on my rods when I had a double bubble moment!!!! 28 runs for a weeks fishing - wow! Between the 3 of us we caught 1/3rd of the lakes population and whilst we did well with the stamp of fish this lake holds, the bigger girls were conspicuous by their absence. by their absence.
It was noticeable that when we arrived the lake water was registering at 12c on the Rt7 and by the end of the week, the daytime temps of 27c had brought the lake up to 19c. This had triggered many of the lakes in the area into spawning but our lake showed no signs, even the male fish were not milting! I do however feel this sudden rise in temperature stopped the big girls from feeding and turned their minds to other things. That’s my excuse anyway!!!!
By applying small amounts of bait precisely over the week I was able to build up those areas to keep the fish visiting and and throwing enough caution to the wind to be caught. Confidence is key in fishing, and having supreme confidence in your bait is paramount. I would rather have a few kilo of a top quality bait than 100kg of inferior quality bait.
Back to the Pellet Boilie I mentioned earlier. Nutrabaits have been trying out a new method of production, talking the same boilie base and liquid package, but instead of rolling them into boilies, they have been extruding them through a pellet machine. This makes pellets both large are small but gives them a unique shape and feel. I think that fish currently, whilst wanting the food source, are very cautious of round balls lying over the lake bed. By changing the shape and breakdown of the same bait, I have found these pelletised baits have been nothing short of incredible. It is the exact same bait but in a different shape and if you are a bait boat user or handy with a spomb, then these baits really bring something special to the party! The lads are still on the fence at Nutra HQ on whether to release them, as they fear the general angling public won’t understand the concept but in truth, I don’t want to use anything else these days
Gerry
