Someone planning their first trip to France recently asked for my top five pieces of advice. This is something that is not easy as there is always an element of luck in fishing. However, there are a few points which consistently make a difference. In particular:
Rest the Lake but Keep Feeding Your Spots
Without doubt the most important piece of advice I could give to anyone is to keep the lines out of the water for periods during the holiday. In the UK we fish short sessions in what spare time we have and we want to be fishing all of the time. In France we are fishing for a week, for big fish that see a certain amount of pressure, often from very good anglers. I have no doubt that the fish know when they are being fished for and the more that we can confuse them the better. The best way to do this is to give the fish periods to feed when there are no lines in the water. I don’t think it really matters when as long as you rest the lake. One of our most successful anglers only fishes days and sometimes days with a lunch break away from the lake. However, at the end of each day, or before any lunch break, he will always bait all of his spots so that the fish have periods of feeding without any pressure. Another amazing example of this from last season came from Priory Lakes where we get our bait from. This is a lake with an amazing stock of big carp which gets fished by some very experienced anglers with the majority of fish getting caught at night. Most don’t even fish the daylight hours. One angler this year had his friend drop out at the last minute meaning he was fishing on his own. Due to the size of fish and difficulties of dealing with such large fish on your own in the dark he fished days only with one rod, with the spots baited but not fished at night. He finished with an incredible catch of 34 carp included 3 60’s, 9 50’s an 11 40’s!
Less is More
Whilst we allow three rods per angler, for me two is plenty and I would happily fish with one when I know that the fish are feeding on my spots. This ties in with resting the lake and it is just a question of getting the mindset that as long as there is food on your spots for the carp then you are fishing. Essentially you are setting a trap and trying to ensure that the carp are super confident at the time that you put a hook bait out. The example from Priory Lakes shows this. Whist we will never know, 34 carp is an astonishing catch and I doubt it would have been bettered by using more rods. Indeed, I suspect he would have caught less.
Keep Everything Hidden
Maybe its just a personal thing but I am obsessed with hiding everything as far as possible. For me, the more we can hide from the carp the better. Starting at the business end, I will always use a sinking hook link. There are many hook links around but my favourite is the ESP Anchor Braid. I will also add a sinker to this. Whilst the sinker is partly to help the hooking ability of the rig it is a further assurance that the rig is pinned down and pretty much invisible. Beyond the hook link I will then have a long approximately 60-70cm length of sinking tubing. Whilst using tubing is one of our rules to help protect the fish during the fight, it also helps to hide everything. My favourite is the Korda Dark Matter tubing which is super supple and sinks like a stone. I usually cast and will always also use a flying back lead. At the rod end I will also use a standard back lead. All of the above ensures that I am hiding everything as much as I can. Whilst I have seen articles advocating bow string tight lines and others that suggest that you will miss takes with flying and ordinary back leads, I think that this would be a wrong approach for a fairly small lake such as ours. Certainly, it may well be true when fishing at long range but at our lake, you will typically be fishing at no more than 50m distance. I’ve certainly never noticed any problems and I think that the benefits far outweigh any potential negatives.
Take your time
A week long session is a lot of fishing time. There is no need rush and no need to panic if the fish don’t come immediately. You will often arrive on a Saturday afternoon, tired after a long journey. I wouldn’t recommend going straight in with all three rods. Certainly, put a rod or two out but really use this first few hours to chill out with a beer, watch the lake and pick your areas for the forthcoming days. Start introducing some bait onto the spots that you are fishing as well as other areas that you are planning to fish later in the week. Fish for a bite at a time at the start and then build the spots from there. You will often find that the fishing gets better through the week and this is typically just a factor that the fish are getting accustomed to feeding in a particular baited area.
Have Enough Quality Bait
Quality bait is essential, particularly for big fish. There is no doubt that carp, particularly large carp, will search out a highly nutritious food source and they will search this out ahead of other food sources. Certainly, high attractant but nutritiously poor baits may work for a period but over the long-term, the more nutritious baits will out fish others. As we feed only with highly nutritious baits, our fish become used to these. Getting the amount of bait is critical and varies according to the time of year and conditions. However, at times, a group of large carp can get through an awful lot of food quickly and you need to be able react to this. Cost is obviously a consideration, particularly when using boilies. However, pellet is a good and cheaper alternative and many anglers have a lot of success fishing boilies over a large bed of pellets. Our carpet feed is also a good option and our fish see several hundred kilos of this across the winter without any fishing pressure.
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