French carping Perfection
by Tony Welch

A French pay lake described as a ‘Classy 30’s and 40’s water’ and ‘French carping perfection’ sounded good to me, and I certainly needed a bit of that!

The trip was arranged a whole 18 months in advance, so when I was asked to go I said yes, but wasn’t overly enthusiastic. It was a nice high to start with, a French trip, followed by a real low, 18 months time!!

The months rolled past, and after a hard winter fishing locally, the French trip was in sight and so the research began. Two of the five of us going on this trip had previously been to the venue and although information was forthcoming from them I had to wonder if anything on the bait front was being held back! Also, a few other lads I know had been before and they too were thoroughly interviewed for prize information.

Bait. After hours spent on the phone and internet I decided upon a mixed approach, to start with anyway. My plan was to take two different baits, one being a fishmeal type and the other being the bait I use for all my fishing at home, the Cell. The fishmeal I decided upon would be Fusion, a classic deep red meaty fishmeal that would work anywhere. I duly ordered up 10k of each. Now apparently this water is more of a spod mix come sweetcorn lake with fish coming on bits of glow in the dark corn over hemp and pellet, and not so much on the boilies, however as it’s 4 rods my plan of mixing it up a bit wouldn’t be a problem. Boilies on two rods and spod mix/corn approach on the other rods covering all options until one method/bait proved itself over the others.

Hemp pellet, groundbait and additives to help make up my spod mix and bait options.

15k of Cell and 10k of Fusion straight into air dry bags on arrival in the swim

The five of us, Greg, big Wayne, Sneaky Reeky, Tony ‘Doc Martin’ and of course myself arrived on the Saturday around midday after a dodgy over-night ferry crossing in high winds but a lovely rumble down through the French countryside in Greg’s transporter. We met with the lake owner, who greeted us with beer’s all round and a tour of the lake. It was all very pleasant, however we all knew the draw for the swims was still to be made, and although everyone was happy, it was tense as no one wanted to be last out the bag, it was a hot topic of discussion on the ferry as to who would come last!

The draw. Sneaky produced his bag containing bits of broom handle numbered one to five on the ends and passed it to the owner Paul to make the draw. Now, Paul to his credit said “I think we will let the lads who have not been here before pick first out the bag”, which would mean Sneaky and big Wayne would be last to pick having been to the venue previously. When Paul said this, Sneaky’s face was a picture and I had a little chuckle under my breath. Paul shook the bag up and held it open for the Doc to pick first. He picked and I heard “Oh for f*** sake”! I thought- umm he aint picked No.1 then. Next it was me, I reached in the bag, picked my bit of broom handle which revealed No.1 written on the end. I could not believe my luck, I never get any luck, but this time my luck was in as I’d now secured first choice of swim. I kept it quiet until the others had their picks. Greg picked No.2, big Wayne 4, Sneaky 5, obviously leaving the Doc with 3. Sneaky’s face was a picture dear of him! I literally watched the blood drain from it. Cracked up, Greg and I went off for another quick look and picked our swims.

Swim choice. The lake is approximately 20 acres in size with 13 swims so really the draw was just a bit of fun as there was plenty of swims to choose from, and ample room to shift around the lake if required, although saying that, carp do have a habit of stacking themselves up in one corner from time to time, so quietly I was chuffed to bits with first choice. From five of the swims there was a nice margin to fish to and from the others good open water and a nice big island. I opted for swim 7, a small swim up in the top bay with a short 20 yard chuck to the far margin and a small island to the left. Depth was pretty much 5 feet everywhere and there was a nice set of inlet pipes in the far margin which just screamed carp at me. With 4 rods at my disposal the left and two middle rods were all far margin bound with the right hander dropped in the edge to my right. I wasn’t prepared to go anywhere near the left of the pipes as it was far too risky with the island present.

A view from swim 7 across to the pipes on the far side

I went for a walk around to the other side and dropped a lead in the margin for a feel around and found it was all nice and clear with a hard silt bottom. As I came back towards my swim I saw signs of carp, there must have been fish on top of fish, stacked up behind the island as the water was just moving up and down without the fish completely giving themselves away. A strange experience and something I’ve never seen in England. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long for a bite!

Back at the swim a chod rig with a Cell pop up went over on the pipe spot, the middle rods went further down the margin, one on a Cell snowman and the other on two grains of fake corn fished KD over a mix of hemp pellet, hemp, tigers, groundbait and tuna. The right hander was to be on the fusion tipped off with a piece of glow in the dark corn.
Free offerings were kept to a minimum for the first night, as the previous weeks anglers had only just left and I didn’t know what bait was still out there.

Action! Well, it didn’t take long. The cell is absolutely instant as well as being a long term bait solution. The chod rig on the left hand rod was away and it had only been in the water 30 minutes. After a fantastic battle a nice 20lb mirror was in the net and I was off the mark, I quickly did some self takes and got the rod back out there. The action didn’t stop there and I had fish after fish on the rods baited with the Cell including two thirty pound plus mirrors and an awesome long common.

Off the mark with the instant Cell.

31lb of French bait eating machine.

The long common

Continued action. The fish kept coming over the next three nights, 12 in total including a 36.08 PB common, which, was a bit of a result, as the last time Sneaky and big Wayne fished this lake they had 4 fish each for the week. Now although I was catching I hadn’t managed to get into any of the monsters with a nice 36.08 common being the biggest from the bay. Sneaky had 4 to 42lb, Greg had managed 3 fish to 49.12!!! and Doc had done a 51.14!!!! Big Wayne was yet to have any action. For me, I was desperate for big Wayne to catch as he is an absolute gentleman congratulating me on fish after fish after fish. Therefore I decided to move from the bay to hunt for some bigger specimens and get Wayne in there for some action. Big Wayne was happy to move in but said, if at any point I wanted to go back into swim 7, I could, and he would move out at a moments notice. What a nice bloke!

Greg with his 49.12 PB, the smile says it all!

PB Common!

Swim 10 A move to swim 10 was on the cards for me. A nice open swim with the island running away diagonally to the right and open water out in front. I’d had one fish on the Fusion and one over the spod mix from swim 7 with 10 coming on the Cell. I decided I’d go two out to the island on chod rigs with pineapple pop ups fished over the top of a mixture of Cell and Fusion and the other two would go out in open water. I’d leave the spod mix and just go for the scattered boilie approach, using both Cell and Fusion.

Swim 10 a stunning place to be for the next 4 nights.

I could see that the canopy of the trees coming off the island was at least 10 yards out into the water, so I knew a nice tight cast was needed. After a few goes, the line was clipped up and out went the chods cast low and hard, around 60 yards, in and under the canopy. This was followed up with a kilo of boilie, scattered over each hook-bait. Confidence was high.

Before I knew it, the big man was in my swim asking for some photos to be done, yes Big Wayne had himself a nice plump mid twenty common from the pipes spot, and he never stopped there going on to catch 13 fish including a brace of 36lb-ers.

The first night in swim 10 came and went with no action until 11am in the morning when one of the island rods ripped off producing a 29lb mirror. I was off the mark in 10. I followed this up at midnight on the second night when a 40lb mirror picked up a pineapple pop up off the island, It seemed I may be on a few bigger fish out and away from the bay as after the 40 I had a 35.12 mirror and an upper 20 common, all falling to the island rods.

40lb mirror on Mainline pineapple pop up over Cell and Fusion free offerings

This 35lb plus mirror could not resist the pull of the pineapple!

As far as I’m concerned you could take the Cell, or indeed, any Mainline bait, to any water, at any time of the year, home or abroad and fish with total confidence. The Cell certainly proved itself once again (as if it needed too)!

last morning from swim 10, I really didn’t want to pack up and go! Just look at it!

My next trip away will hopefully be on a big French public inland sea with unknown monsters to fish for. Wherever I end up, one thing is for sure – my trusted Cell will be coming with me. If your planning a trip to France or even a week session home here, I would certainly recommend ordering up 10 or even 20k of Cell, it just works everywhere and can turn an average week into a full on hauler, which will stay in the memory for a long time to come. Was this trip French carping perfection? Yes it was and in no small part down to the bait.

Tony Welch