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A Week in France, Elie Godsi, September 2005
All my life I have been a keen traveller who has fished just about wherever I have been in the world, catching some huge fish along the way. Yet despite my life-long passion for carp fishing and being not far off fluent in French, for some inexplicable reason I hadn't been carp fishing in France until 2004. A reunion with an old carp obsessed friend Tony Frost, after an absence of some ten years, saw me join his group trip to France: a few massive carp later including a personal best mirror of 42lbs 8oz and I was totally hooked on the massive potential French carp fishing has to offer. I was on a total high after that fish and so it was not long after this trip that we were planning the next one. The benchmark had been set, now I wanted a fifty.
I had heard about the Lac Du Verger complex in the Champagne region of France and its potential for producing big fish. The 'runs' water, Orchard lake, was made famous by the 'Champagne Carping' video that has been out for some time but it was the smaller lake, Willow, with its far fewer but bigger fish that I was interested in. At 5 acres it contains only about 50 fish, 9 of which are over the magic '5-0' mark with as many as 20 forties and the rest being mostly 30's. As we were to find out, it also contains some small tench and two very large sturgeon. This is by no means an easy water with a history of producing just one or two runs per angler per week and quite a few blanks along the way. Sitting out a week knowing you may only get one or two chances is not most people's idea of French fishing but I was set on targeting big carp only and up for the challenge. I felt the prime time to go would be what my mate Shaun Harrison refers to as 'Septober', the end of September and beginning of October and a prime big fish time of year. So the lake was booked almost a year ahead with just me and Tony to fish it: there are only four swims on the lake and while that many people do fish it some weeks we wanted to maximise our chances and be able to move onto fish if we needed to.
Despite two more trips to France with Angling Lines, it was a long wait until September 2005 before Tony and I set off in his VW van for Dover and onto our French destination some four hours drive away from the port of Boulogne. Supermarket shop out the way and we pulled into the Verger complex in the middle of Saturday afternoon. The manager John showed us the facilities and then round the lakes: we were pleased to hear the party of 3 who fished the lake before us had blanked in the recent colder weather, but also hoping we wouldn't suffer the same fate. We were itching to get going and it wasn't long before I had cast a couple of 'chuck 'em, chance it and see' PVA bags into the lake while I then set up base camp for the week. We decided to fish next to each other in the middle two swims, with Tony opting for the shallower end of the lake with visible weed beds with gaps in between them in front of him and to his right. The lake was almost 2' shallower than normal with nowhere deeper than 5'. I had slightly deeper water in front of me and to the left, and the more obvious weedbeds between Tony's swim and mine. I say the more obvious weedbeds because in the deeper water grows the nastiest weed I have ever come across: imagine an underwater forest of bramble bushes, a weed so covered in sharp thorns that it slices through 15lb mainline like cotton. Don't believe me? Well this stuff even sliced through a section of 22lb Dyneema braid which was part of my hooklink. I had been warned about this and thought I had come prepared but nothing can prepare you for this stuff, nasty, "pure evil" as a mate of mine described it. I soon learned that anything less than 15 yards of 30lb plus high abrasion nylon leader was not enough (braid or leadcore are banned). Aside from fishing with line that seems like rope near to your hooklinks, presenting a bait in this underwater bramble forest was another one of the challenges to overcome. Another was location: you would think in 5 acres finding such huge fish would be relatively easy but they rarely showed themselves in the gaps in the weed in the shallow areas during the day and I never had a single fish swim past me in the steep margins. When fish did show themselves in my areas it was mostly right in the middle of 'thorn city' with no clear spots to put a bait to.
First night I had a bite which I struck before it had time to take line. I felt no resistance at all and reeled in a bit of limp 15lb mainline that had been sliced off by the killer weed. I hadn't listened to John's advice and my 30lb fluorocarbon leaders weren't nearly long enough. I changed them straight away to really long lengths of 30lb nylon designed as stiff link material made by Wychwood. Nothing would cut through that surely?
Sunday afternoon and I had an absolute screamer of a take which when I struck a four foot plus sturgeon leapt clean out of the water. What a sight that was too! I am no fan of these prehistoric creatures but they do fight unbelievably hard. 15 minutes later and this animal was still fighting harder than any carp ever could and testing my knots to their absolute limit. I was using 20lb X-line fluorocarbon on this rod as well as the nylon 'rope' leader material and this mainline is really tough so I had total confidence that it was up to the job. The sight of Tony and I both trying to tail and then lift this fish onto the unhooking mat must have been hysterical to watch. 44lbs and a few ounces. Not what I came for but I was off the mark. We were told that there are only two sturgeon in the lake, this one at 40 plus and another that comes out at 51 or 52lbs.
Sunday evening we had a thunderstorm and the high pressure that had been around for over a week finally broke. My ideal carp fishing conditions. I told Tony I was sure something was going to happen that night and sure enough when the rain finally stopped I heard the water erupting from Tony's direction and out of the darkness. I went over to see what all the commotion was and he was playing what was obviously a big carp. Through his torchlight I could see it was huge but tried to downplay it and just said, "It looks like a big 30 mate, could go 40" when I knew full well it was quite a bit bigger than that. After ten minutes of repeated runs away from the net she was in: we looked at the width across her back in the net and both gasped. Tony's comment was "I've got a ******* hippo in the net" as he struggled to lift her out, "Big 40 mate, could be bigger" I replied. On the mat she was enormous, the biggest carp I had ever seen on the bank and the width and depth were just amazing. The dials swung round and round and finally settled on 52lbs 6oz. Job done. In less than 36 hours Tony had achieved what we had set out to do and at the first time of asking. I was totally delighted for the guy as I genuinely am for anyone I fish with but I freely admit I was jealous too. It also meant that all the pressure was now off Tony's shoulders as anything else he caught from now on was a bonus. The next night when he came to tell me he had another huge fish in his net from the same spot I struggled to express my delight for him through gritted teeth. A gorgeous leather at 45lbs 5oz.
The pressure on me was mounting and got even more intense when I lost a huge carp in the early hours of Monday night, Tuesday morning. Wary of the sharp weed in front of me I put loads of pressure on straight away to get the fish up onto the surface and away from danger. I could hardly move it but got it up before it started taking line. I held on hard and could feel it and hear it thrashing its tail repeatedly over towards the far bank. It was an incredible sound. Before the rod was at full compression the line parted. I reeled in to find a strand of the killer weed attached to my mainline but suspect the leader knot gave way. I was totally and utterly gutted: I had no doubt at all that I had just lost the biggest carp I had hooked so far in 30 years of fishing for this species. I have had this problem with this mainline before and should have known better - despite being straight out the packet it simply didn't have the abrasion resistance for the leader knot I was using. As soon as it got light I changed the mainline on three rods to 15lb Big Game that Tony had on a spare spool. At least I knew they were taking the Angling Lines Crab Specials boilies and I found a spot where I could get a take from.
I had the fish I lost from a shallow gravel patch in between softer weedbeds towards the far bank. Apart form this spot I was struggling to get a bait presented in open water as the submerged thorny weedbeds were playing havoc with my rigs. I even took the boat out and raked areas of the stuff up in an attempt to get a clear area - unfortunately, but not surprisingly - this sharp weed seemed to like to grow in the blackest patches of silt where most of the lake bed elsewhere was quite hard gravel or sand. I tried this raked spot for 3 days and nights but never had a pick up from it at all. I caught the same 44lb + sturgeon on Wednesday afternoon that fought even harder this time (same time of day, same rig, same bait, same spot - stupid, dumb animal). It took me until Tuesday to find a new spot that I was really happy with and where I started to trickle bait into. This clear spot had taken me several days to find because I needed the fish to show it to me: I had seen fish porpoising and bubbling early in the mornings but in amongst the killer weedbeds where I couldn't put a bait with any confidence. Eventually I found a clear area about ten yards from the fish sightings and figured I could draw them out of the weeds with enough good bait. Air dried Angling Lines Crab Specials rehydrated in hemp and bloodworm water and several pints of hemp scattered over a fairly large area. On the hook I had a single Angling Lines pop up on one rod and a stack of two 'Crab Specials' bottom baits and a little pop up on top. I felt the pressure mounting even more when the hook pulled out of a carp just a few hours after the repeat sturgeon capture. This was the only take we had all week during the day, apart from the sturgeon. At least now I knew for certain that the carp would feed in this area so I could bait up more heavily now and move two different bait presentations onto this patch.
My tactics were confirmed as being accurate when I hooked and landed my first carp of the week late on Wednesday night. A great take but an unspectacular heavy fight ended with a really long 47lb 9oz mirror shining for the camera in my arms. To say I was relieved is an understatement. I had waited five days for that fish and had worked really hard for it. It's hard to describe the intensity and tension of fishing a water like Willow, where you know you aren't going to get many opportunities and when that alarm goes you could be playing a fish of a lifetime. It was a relief at times to go and have a shower or to go food shopping and get away from the lake. I felt on edge the whole time I was fishing and until Wednesday night, I didn't really sleep well at all. Line bites at night take on a whole new significance when you know somewhere out there are monster carp bumping into your line. But I still hadn't had what I came for, I still wanted that fifty, even more so now.
3 am on Thursday morning and I had another absolute screaming run from my baited patch, yet again to the same rod with X-line that I had landed all the fish on so far. The power of this fish was unbelievable. It hung deep and heavy and on its second run it tore line off my clutch for what seemed like a full minute before it must have run out of lake to my left! I could feel it bumping and grating before I managed to turn it and bring it back towards me. 25 minutes later and my arm was seriously starting to ache and I'm praying this fish won't come off. The whole time I was convinced I was attached to the biggest carp in France and when the leader knot finally slid towards the reel and then one or two turns round the spool I was very relieved. Until it went on another long run but this time to the right, almost wiping out all my other rods in the process. I plunged the rod tip deep into the water and hung on trying to stop it. As it came passed me for the first time I saw it was another sturgeon. I was gutted. Totally and utterly gutted. I really had convinced myself it was a carp and so couldn't believe what had happened. It was clearly even bigger than the other fish I'd already had twice and this was confirmed when I checked it's pectoral fin and there as no distinctive sore mark the other one had. It may sound strange but at half 3 that morning I really wasn't bothered about weighing this fish or taking pictures. John had said it came out at 51 or 52lbs and that was good enough for me. I lifted its top half onto the bank, flipped it over and unhooked it there and then. I slid it back into the water and watched it swim off. A sturgeon of this size would have cleared my patch out of bait so I topped up the area with a catapult before recasting and going back to bed.
The next day I decided it was safe to bait quite heavily, compared to how I had been for this water up to that point that is - two kilos of rehydrates and about 15 big spodfuls of hemp and particle mix (maggots, bloodworm pellets, groundbait, chopped boilies both of rehydrates and freezer baits) all scattered about an area the size of half a tennis court. I was really confident my tactics and methods were working now as the fish were clearly feeding on my baited patch. The wind had swung round to a cold Northerly and literally in a day it felt like we had moved from Summer to Autumn, from shorts to fleeces. I hope the cold night didn't put the fish off - in such shallow water big changes in temperature are amplified - but a 34lb 5oz mirror carp not long after dawn on Friday showed the fish were still feeding and still on my baited area. It's a strange thing to feel disappointed at catching a 30 when under any other circumstances a fish of that size would make a session if not a whole season. I took some photos by remote release so as not to wake Tony up and slipped the fish back into the water. With just 24 hours to go I was leaving it late to catch my target fish, but I was confident I would get another chance on the last night.
Friday afternoon I rebaited my main patch with a new batch of rehydrated 'Specials' in different sizes (14 and 18mm) and also fired out a few freezer baits. I like to keep the fish guessing. I decided not to put much more hemp in as I was wary about disturbing the area with a spod. For no apparent reason I did two more things I hadn't done all week. I changed the pop up rig which I'd had 3 of the 2 sturgeon in the lake on and put a bottom rig with two actual rehydrated Crab Specials on. I rarely ever do this as the rehydrated baits are often too soft and instead usually fish with normal freezer baits or hard 'hooker' baits instead on the hair. I picked out two harder baits from the liquid and put them on then secured them with PVA. In this way they would match my free offerings exactly. The other thing I did for the first time was to walk round and trickle a couple of trails of hemp mix and a few rehydrates from the far bank margin and along the 15 or 20 yards out to my baited patch. I had seen one or two big fish show along that far margin but didn't get a pick up from there and wasn't happy about having a line across so much shallower water and perhaps spooking fish off my baited area.
Two hours later, at 6 in the evening on the last Friday and the rod with this rehydrate rig tore off 'big time'. The free spool was fizzing by the time I picked the rod up and engaged the clutch proper. Once I established this wasn't a sturgeon I knew I was into a good fish as it took off into the deeper water to my left. Heavy and powerful I had to just let it go. It was still daylight and when it eventually slowed and turned some 60 yards to my left I was relieved to see the leader knot well out of the water - at least my mainline was not going across those weeds. Every now and then I felt it bumping into the weed and pinging free. It slowly and begrudgingly came towards me and I played it hard to avoid all the mass of marginal weed all down my left hand bank. The fish came past me and hit the surface as it did so and it felt so good when the leader knot slowly passed each ring and then onto the reel. When the fish bored deep under my other line I was already onto the 20 yards or so of 30lb mainline I'd bought from the supermarket the day before as spare leader material. I turned the fish, and she came up and slowly towards the net. I could see she was huge when she went in and strained to lift her out and onto the unhooking mat. I wet the sling and removed the hook from 3 inches back into the bottom lip, as secure a hook hold as you could ever wish for and a sign she had been feeding well. I shouted to Tony but he was on the phone to his girlfriend at the other end of the lake and didn't hear me. I slipped her into the sling and onto my digital scales holding my breath as it took her full weight. For a second I felt confused as it stopped at 24 something then all in a split second realised I hadn't changed it from kilos to pounds and ounces, doubled the number, add a bit and YEEEEEESSSSS! I'd done it! I remember leaping into the air and then waving my arms like a man possessed before trying to calm myself down and then reset the scales. 55lbs 5oz, numbers I could understand properly! I ran down towards Tony's swim shouting him and then back to the fish. When he eventually heard me and I could see him coming all I could do was shout "I've done it, I've done it". The fish was reweighed with Tony and the scales settled at 55lb 4oz. I really wasn't going to quibble about an ounce. I was elated. I had got what I came for. Photos and video taken, a slap in the face from her tail for troubling her, and I admired her huge frame for the last time as off she went straight away when I put her back. I still had a whole night to go too!
As it happened the heavens opened for most of that last night and the next morning and made packing up a complete nightmare. Everything was completely soaked. I reeled in for the last time to find all my hotspot baits had been nicked in the night and all I was left with was one little pop up on its own! We packed up and headed back for catch reports, final showers and a farewell chat to John. I knew he had sold the complex to JRC who are planning major changes and a netting in the next few weeks once the bookings for that year were over. Apparently Willow is not really financially viable as it stands with so few swims and not enough of a market for people who are happy to go to France to catch very few fish, or not at all, with the chance of a massive carp if they do. I'm not exactly sure but from what I can gather the plan is to move some of the bigger Willow fish to Orchard (or elsewhere) and some of the smaller fish from there to Willow. It seems we caught the place just in time for what we were after. I can honestly say I fished harder that week than at any other time in my carp fishing career but it was definitely worth every minute of it. Job done!
Elie Godsi
