Quest Baits Blog

Hi Barry

I haven’t heard of the lake in question, however I do have quite a bit of experience fishing in France. I will be honest with you I really can’t think of many waters in France that have produced fish off the top.

There could be many reasons for them not taking to floating baits, possibly the way they are reared is one, another and possibly the most likely is the amount of anglers on the venues in France and the method of piling quite a bit of bait in and sitting it out. With this being a common tactic the fish generally accept this as a natural source of food and by that seem to feed naturally on the bottom.

Could the surface layers also be that bit too warm for them to comfortably cruise around in during the hottest months, that could also explain why you do not often see them just cruising under the surface on many lakes in France. That bit may sound daft as we get some hot periods in this country, but it is rare that I have seen carp just cruising around.

I must admit though that if you can get them taking you could have a red letter day, as by putting the effort in and trying something against the norm you could tip the balance in your favour. It is easy to just sit there and say they dont eat this or that, but iof you don’t try it you will never know for sure.

With regard to tackle for this, I would recommend the gear you would use in this country, dependent on the size of the water I would say a 2 3/4 lb rod and baitrunner type reel with something like 10lb pro clear or triline xl. I personally use the old Drennan floater controller (25g) and find you can fish upto maybe 70yds in the right conditions.

Bait wise I would recommend using mixers or Shauns floating pellets.

Another tactic that may be worth trying is zig rigs, I do know of a few people who have taken quite a few fish on them in France at various depths, and some right whackers at that.

I hope you have a cracking trip and it would be nice if you could let us know if you manage to take a few off the top.

The best bit of advice I can give is be open minded, watch the water as much as possible and enjoy the holiday.

Cheers

Jamie Simpson

Hi Barry,

Similar theme of answers coming through. there are very few waters in France which produce to surface baits but there are the odd ones.

I personally feel the main reason for this is the fact that the French carp farmers tend to rear their fish on food fed on the bottom. They bulk the fish up with lots of grain where as here in the U.K. most of our fish farmers feed pellet on the surface.

I would guess that most French venues would evenyually respond to floaters if everyone started to feed them on the surface. I truly believe it is as simple as that. It hasn’t occured to most French carp that there could be food on the surface.

Let us know how you get on.

Best fishes
Shaun Harrison