An unforgettable week in France
A friend and I head off to France for a week every year as part of a tradition with the main aim being a holiday, plus enjoy the social side of things. We do not go with the aim of catching huge fish and working hard for a couple of bites in a weeklong session. We pick a venue that will hopefully have plenty of action, good facilities, a decent food package and usually somewhere that would be a lake exclusive for ourselves. We always aim to go the second week in April and after finding a venue that suited us in 2019 we had booked the holiday with the intentions of going in 2020!
As we all know covid and restrictions were then brought in place around that time and unfortunately the trip had to be cancelled, we were gutted but luckily the venue had agreed to defer our booking for a year to the same week in 2021. A year later and the same restrictions applied, we had to cancel for the second time. Again, we were very fortunate that the lake kindly agreed to defer our booking once more at no extra charge.
This then brings us around to 2022 and no restrictions in place. Where we finally we were going to make it to our chosen venue?
The venue we had chosen was Bounty Lakes situated near Le Mans in France. It is roughly four and a half hours drive from the Eurotunnel. The complex itself comprises of two lakes. Bounty 1 being the smaller of the two lakes but holds a larger average stamp of fish with carp to low 50s and cats to well over 130lb, and Bounty 2 which is the larger lake with a larger head of fish but a smaller average size, however the fish till go to upper 40s in here so there was always a chance of a PB for both of us.
Bounty 2 is roughly 11 acres in size but split into two sections via an island and two ropes. The main open water area is known as Bounty 2, roughly 8 acres in size, and the small section which is roped off is known as Bounty 3 which is roughly 3 acres in size. This was the section we chose to fish. With the two sections only being separated by a floating rope the whole stock of the lake has access to both areas, so they are not two separately stocked lakes.
Bounty 3 comprises of 2 double swims only. We chose to book Willows 1, which gave us access to a larger expanse of water in a secluded corner of the lake. From this peg we had access to a snaggy no fishing bank, a large area of the island, a channel to fish into and a large open water area. 
As the trip was getting closer, we started to get prepared, the website was read thoroughly to make sure we knew all the lake rules. Freezer baits only, no pellet or particle apart from the lakes own and barbless hooks only were the main three amongst the usual fishery rules you see. With this in mind, all the bait, leads and tackle were stocked up ready for the trip.
My plan was to keep it simple and stick to how I usually fish in England. The plan being to find three areas and bait little and often fishing for bites. I opted to stick with my usual custom rolled Trigga boilie from Nutrabaits in 16mm x 12mm barrels with added GLM, black pepper and pineapple, and add this to the lake’s own particle and pellet, along with a generous helping of the matching Trigga liquid food and Himalayan rock salt.
The day had come, and we were finally packing the van for the long drive down to the Eurotunnel. Everything checked twice and we were on our way. We could not arrive at the lake until 2pm so it was an early set off on the Saturday morning to give us plenty of time spare.
A very smooth journey unfolded, and we arrived at the lake an hour early. After meeting the bailiffs and getting familiar with the facilities, the majority of the bait was put into the freezers on site, we grabbed some buckets of lake particle and pellet and we were shown to our swim, typically it was the furthest peg away from the facilities, but we were allowed to drive round to the peg to unload the van before bringing it back to the car park. As previously mentioned, we always go somewhere with a food package, and this was no different. Full English breakfast was served in the bar at 10am and a three-course meal at 6pm which obviously meant bringing in the rods for an hour at these times to eat.
After deciding on which side of the double swim we would each fish we had roughly 3 hours before we had to go back round for tea on the first evening. With that in mind we decided to just get the van unloaded and set up base camp,then take our time finding spots and introducing bait and we agreed no rods would be put out before tea. I had managed to get on the left-hand side of the swim with access to the snaggy no fishing bank which suited my style of fishing so my left and middle rods were going to both be fished along this bankand then my right-hand rod would be fished to a single snag on the far left-hand side of the island. Three spots on three sperate areas all fishing tight to snags in shallow water. The weather was set for a warm week and mild nights for mid April, and we had assumed the fish would get into our area of the lake during these warmer days with the average depth of water in front of us being 2-3ft.
Our plans very quickly changed, when between us we saw 7 shows in quick succession, 4 in an open water area where my mate would be fishing to with his left-hand rod and 3 just off the single snag on the island where my right-hand rod would be placed. Excitement got the better of us and we both quickly got a single rod each out in the areas we had seen fish. Tactics wise I had chosen to fish relatively long multi rigs with a supple hook links for the week due to the bottom being very soft and silty in areas. These were fished in conjunction with size 4 barbless Korda Krank Choddy hooks and my ever-faithful Nutrabaits 12mm pineapple and n-butyric pop ups were going to be deployed on all three rods to start with.
Within an hour both rods had ripped off and both of our accounts for the trip were under way, my mate with a dark 27lb 5oz mirror and myself with a lovely 37lb 1oz common. What a start to the trip with a fish each before tea on the first evening. Both fish safely returned, we got sorted and all spots were baited, and rods prepared with fresh rigs and hook baits for the night ahead. No more rods were put out before tea, and we then made our way around for our first evening meal full of anticipation after such a great start.
Full of anticipation after such a great start before tea, we quickly got back round to the swim with everything ready to go I knocked up a mix comprising of 5kg of Trigga dumbbell boilies, 3kg mixed pellets, 5kg particle, a full bottle of Trigga liquid food and a good helping of pink Himalayan rock salt. My left-hand rod was going to be fished close in down the left margin under an overhanging tree, this area was slightly deeper than the rest of the swim at just over 3.5ft and it was probably my cleanest spot where the fish had clearly been feeding previously, I anticipated this would be my least productive spot but was hoping for a bigger fish from this area through the week. The middle rod was fishing relatively tight to the third snaggy bush down the no fishing bank at 22 wraps in Shallow water and my right-hand rod which had done the bite before tea was going back on the island snag again at 22 wraps, once again in shallow water. These two snaggy spots were much softer and siltier than the left-handspot but fishing low lying pop ups over the top I knew My rigs would be presented will.
All three rods deployed onto each spot, and it was long before I was away, a manic couple of hours into dark followed with myself landing five fish to 28lb 15oz and my friend also landing five himself with a scraper 30lb mirror and a lively 32lb 8oz grass carp. Both shattered from the long journey we called it quits at midnight and brought all the rods in. I took the time to tie fresh hook baits and put new hooks on in preparation to get the rods out for a couple of hours at first light before breakfast. Something I did not mention earlier was I had three rods ready to go at all times, but I also made sure I had my spare 4th rod set up ready as well so once a fish was landed and safely secured, I could get a rod quickly back out onto the spot to capitalise on the bite times and maximise my chances. Fishing in this way can turn two or three fish landed into four or five instead in the same time period at not much extra effort having spare rigs ready to go with hook baits on.
After a well needed sleep I was fully refreshed for the first proper morning and at first light I was up, and the three rods were back out onto the spots. It was obvious the fish had cleared off the spots from the night before and I topped them all up with the hope of picking up where I left off whilst my friend got his beauty sleep. In similar fashion from the night before I managed once again another five fish in the few hours leading up to breakfast before I had to reel in. The best of the bunch being a dumpy low 30lb common backed up by three mid-20s. All fish weighed and photographed, and it was soon time to get round for a well-earned full English breakfast.
Speaking to the other lads around the lake at breakfast it was apparent the majority of the stock was up at our end in the shallows as the lads at the opposite end had only managed to pick up one fish through the night, which was strange as we had assumed the fish would push up into the deeper water through the night and make their way down to our end in the midday heat and we would be picking up more day time bites whilst they picked up the night time bites, we later found this not to be the case.
Again, usual procedure followed, we made our way back round to the peg after breakfast and the rods were all positioned. Unusually this time though nothing transpired. It had appeared the fish had moved out of our area despite the warm temperatures and the lads that struggled through the night in the deeper water started getting rapid and constant bites throughout the midday high temperatures. The bulk of the fish had clearly done the off and were now down at the opposite end of the lake where the other lads capitalised. I did not manage a single bite between breakfast and tea, but my mate managed to pick up the one fish which turned out to be biggest of the trip up to that point at 38lb 10oz.
Fed and watered and the rods back out after our evening meal, right on cue, the bulk of the fish turned back up going into the night. The exact opposite of what we had thought would be the case before turning up. A quick double take resulted in two lovely low 20s and no sooner had we sorted them out another double take on the same two rods resulted in a 36lb 10oz mirror and a 32lb 2oz common. Another four fish through the night into early morning and just like the previous night we learnt the lads at the opposite end in the deeper water had another quiet night having no bites. 
It became very apparent there must have been a big shoal of fish that moved into the deeper end of the lake during the day then moved back into our end early evening until late morning. We felt our best chances of capitalising on this was to rest the swim during the day when we struggled for bites and instead prepare rigs and hook baits, bait the spots and get some rest, then hit it hard straight after tea until early morning before breakfast whilst the fish were clearly on us.
We quickly got into a routine, capitalising on our chances between 7pm and midnight and then again at 7am until 10am, and not wasting our efforts in the midday heat when bites were hard to come by. This pretty much followed the same pattern for the rest of the week. As previously mentioned, I had predicted my two longer rods fishing to snags would be my most productive which turned out to be the case producing constant bites throughout the week albeit a much smaller average size of fish, with my left-hand rod being much slower. However, going into the third evening I got a slow steady big fish bite on my left-hand rod which after a very slow plodding fight in the shallow water resulted in a new PB with a 42lb mirror, this was again replicated the next evening resulting in a 39lb 6oz mirror. Going into the last night we did reel in early for a good nights sleep ready for the long drive home the next day, however I did manage to get the rods back out early morning whilst packing away and nicked a further four fish with the last one finishing the trip tipping the scales to 31lb 4oz and a lovely way to finish.
I kept my tactics the exact same throughout the week and generally how I would usually fish in England. Its very easy to change tactics going to France thinking you need big baits and huge beds of boilies. I stuck to my guns fishing 12mm pineapple and n butyric pop ups on all three rods fishing over a very similar mix I would use in my everyday fishing comprising of boilie, particle and pellet and plenty of liquids. Feeding little and often keeping the bites coming instead of piling it in and sitting on it in effect delaying my bites. The fish were clearly there in numbers when they turned up so baiting little and often definitely helped in getting the number of bites I did. I ended up using 15kg of boilie, 15kg pellet, 25kg particle and 5kg of salt throughout the whole week but at no point did I put more than 1kg out at a time and considering the number of bites I had in the week it does notwork out a lot of bait per bite.
Another huge point to note would be resting the swim, again its easy to think you have paid a lot of money for a week’s fishing in France, and you want to have your rods our 24/7 to maximise your chances of catching as you will not catch if your rods are not in the water. This is not always the case, and this can sometimes hinder you in a weeklong session especially if the lake is full of lines, the fish become very conscious of this and can quickly back off angling pressure into areas where there is no angling pressure on the lake. You will often find them grouped up and showing in any vacant swims around the lake especially if you have had a few at the start of the week. Resting the swim during the days or nights depending on bite times can benefit your angling through the week as the fish will often migrate to your water where there are no lines and free food to build their confidence. This tactic benefited us during the week as our catch report showed.
I ended up finishing the week with 101 bites and 84 fish landed. Between us we managed 149 bites, landing 124 fish in total for the week. This comprised of over 30 different 30lb+ fish with a PB for each of us mine being a 42lb mirror and my friends being a 36lb 10oz common, he also managed a mirror 1oz short of the 40lb barrier. This venue is not your typical French venue with most of the fish being dark, scaley, long and lean and just generally English looking fish. Its not all about the size of the fish for us, the venue must have decent facilities, a good food package, a sociable swim with the chance of a PB for both of us and this venue ticked all of them boxes. We have already booked back on for the same week next year with one of our other mates in the main central area of the lake so watch out for part 2 of this story.
Tight Lines,
Rob Gainer
