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A week in the life of a carp fisherman ... Pt 2.
Following on from this thread http://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117363 here is part 2.
Bit long winded to begin with lads being lads but had to be included.
So my annual fishing trip to france is here and i'm back with the usual gang + 2 new faces, after last years lone adventure ......
Thursday 1st September
It's 10 a.m. and we've all aranged to meet up at Paul's unit to strip out the back of his Iveco van (he's a window and conservatory company owner).
This van is huge ! It takes an hour or so to clear it out and fit 3 seats behind the front seats as there'll be 5 of us travelling in it and 3 others in a second Vauxhall Vivaro van.
The lads are Paul (Sasquash) , Jamie, Lee, Steve (Tommo),Brummie Dale, Leicester Lee, Wayne (Squeak) and myself
Once loaded by about 12:30 p.m. i head home for a wash and sleep as i'd been on a 12 hour nightshift and was running 6 hours behind my usual bed time and i'm sha99ed ! But needs must.
Friday 2nd September
I wake up at 4:30 a.m. to pack the food nibbles from the fridge into my bag ready for the trip.
5:30 a.m. was the agreed pick up time so i was a little miffed when Paul turns up bang on 5 a.m. ! No time to make some tea and toast before setting off.
After the journey around the midlands to pick everyone else up we finally start the trip at about 6:15.
We travel down to Dartford and stop off at "The Tackle Box" a well known tackle shop to carp anglers, which is a regular thing on these trips, just to waste another wad of cash on crap we didn't really need but buy anyway ! Next stop ... greasy spoon cafe for a heart attack sarnie and tea !
We get to the Euro tunnel in plenty of time for our 12:20 boarding only to face an hour delay due to one thing or another !
We get to Calais at about 3p.m. French time and head down the A26 motorway, onto the A1 to Paris. Just before we get to Paris, Paul takes an exit off the motorway to avoid friday afternoon traffic and adds 90 minutes to the journey before we finally pick up the A5 motorway down to the village of St. Denis near Sens.
Now the fun starts ...!!!
8:00p.m.
As we can't stay on the lake like we used to do (owner stopped it) we'd been told we could sleep/camp just up the lane from the lake. This area is next to 2 other lakes which are French owned.
We park the vans up and set about cooking a lovely spaggbol for supper. 8 men make short work of the meal and we sit arround drinking cold beers from the camping fridge. The weather is very muggy and the mozzy's are eating us alive.
Perhaps an hour or so later, this big fat French bloke (and i mean FAT) pulls up in his tiny Renault Clio shouting and bawling, waving his arms about.
Paul & Tommo walk over to him and try with hand gestures to explain that we'd been told we could camp here for the night. This didn't work !
This guy was going ballistic !
Up pops FIL ! Stand back lads .... i'll deal with this !
Now please excuse the spelling (you'll understand) but this is the way the "conversation" went......
Me: Bonjour Missure. Sava ?
Fatty Froggy: Bonjour, bien.
Me: Tuning to the lads and winking .... i say " Ou est le Sange ?" roughly translating to "where is the monkey ?"
Paul starts laughing as he knows i've heard this on TV from Eddie Izzard a few years back.
Froggy looks at me blankly and says "Pardon ?"
So i repeat my question "Ou est le Sange ?" "Where is the monkey ?"
Froggy starts speaking at 200mph and we have no idea what he's saying !
I wait for him to stop and say ..... "Le Sange et don labre !" "The monkey is in the tree !" Froggy is speachless ! Paul is in bits laughing and the rest of the lads realise i'm taking the pi55 and start laughing !
Then i catch the words "de police" and realise what he's about to do. I shake his hand with a smile and say "Ok, mercy !" and tell the lads to pack up and move as he's about to ring the old bill.
The French don't mess about, anything they're unhappy about, they get the police and i believe this was what he was trying to tell us. We shouldn't be there and he wanted us off. Fair enough.
Now we have to find somewhere to sleep. I say we find a services on the motorway so there's a toilet we can use if need be. So we set off for the motorway and come across a sign "Sens le camping". We decide to follow this in the hope it's still open as it's now about 10p.m. We get there and they let us camp for 5 Euro's each. That'll do for us !
I'll make this next bit short, basically theres water either side of the site and the place is alive with mozzy's. Theres a drunk across the way who decides at 2 a.m. it'd be good to squash up all the plastic water bottles he had and try to burn them on the BBQ. Jamie gets up and in a broad Black Country voice says "Squash 1 more bottle mush and i''ll shove them all up your ar5e 1 by 1 and stick you on the BBQ !!!" The drunk mutters and falls over where we believe he stayed for the rest of the night.
Saturday 3rd September
We get a call from Sandra (she looks after the lake for the English owners) to tell us we can now come to the lake.
We have a walk around the lake looking at the swims we want to fish which takes about 30 minutes or so. Most of us already know where to fish and which are the best places.
We put 8 pieces of paper into a bag numbered 1 to 8 and everyone pulls one out.
Number 1 gets first choice, 2 gets 2nd etc. I get number 8 ! Last choice ... F*****g brilliant start ... NOT!!!!
So all the hot spots get picked and i'm left scratching my head as the rest of the choices are pretty slim pickings. Bang goes a net full of fish for me this trip.
I look at the lake and decide to fish in a corner of the lake with a strong HOT wind blowing into it. Maybe there's a big carp in there, i hope !
I get my gear set up and start fishing after i've had an ice cold shower. The weather is so hot and humid, i've gone through 2 litres of water just setting up. Someone says it's mid 30c, i'm not doubting that !
Saturday night ends with a thunderstorm but it doesn't cool down much. I'm lying on my bed with just my shorts on and a fan hanging above me trying to cool off but it's still too humid. I doubt it dropped below 20c that night. No fish caught.
Sunday 4th September
I wake up to the bite alarm singing out and strike into thin air ! Maybe a line bite, maybe a small Tench. I'm not that confident here and i'm thinking of moving already.
Sandra comes round to see if we're catching. I ask her what came out of my swim over the last 2 weeks. 1 fish of 30 odd pounds she replies.
That's it, i'm moving i say. I have another walk round the lake and see a fish crash infront of a overhanging willow tree. That'll do for me.
So i move into the new swim, cast out and wait for some action.
This swim is vey weedy, the water is 17' deep and the weed goes from lakebed to the surface. Between me and the areas i'm fishing area 3 of these jungles. This is going to be a hook and drag situation.
2 hours pass and my alarm burst into life on my right hand rod. The fish is on, not feeling that big but it goes straight into a weedbed under the willow, it doesn't come out of there, neither does my tackle. Fish gone.
It starts to get dark at about 8:45p.m. and i get on my bed with the hope of being able to sleep tonight as it's still hot and muggy.
9:00p.m. My alarm sounds and i lift the rod up and almost instantly, it gets pulled down with a violent kick ! I feel the fish on and also feel the line rubbing on the weed which is everywhere.
I clamp my hand over the reel and pull as hard as i dare. Slowly the line starts coming through the weed and i feel the fish thumping on the end. about 10 miutes of pulling, the fish rolls in the clear margin and i see a nice mirror carp and a pile of weed wrapped around it. On the scales it goes and i get a weight of 29lb exactly. That'll do for me mukka !
I get Tommo to come and take the pics before slipping it back.
I lose another fish about 30 minutes after the first but it went into the weeds and never came out.
Monday 5th September
1:00a.m. 4 hours after the first fish is banked, the alarm is off again and after a few short moments a common carp of 16lb 2oz is on the mat. I don't wake anyone for the pictures and just take a couple of it lying there. I make arangments with Tommo that anything over 20lb we'll wake each other for the photo's.
Tuesday 5th September
1:20a.m. Just over 24 hours since my last action and i hit into a fish that has some weight behind it. But the fish knows its habitat and dives into the weeds. Slow, steady pressure gets it moving and i begin to gain some line. The fish is out of the first weedbed and straight into the second one. I can't really do much about it as the water is so deep and the weed so high. Again, i slowly get it through and into the third weedbed the fish swims. I'm confident that this is a lump on the end as it feels like a dead weight so try my best not to over strain the tackle and pull the hook free.
Perhaps 15 mins later its free from the weed and slips over the net. On goes my head torch and it's a good un', a nice big common carp.
The scales drop and the weight displayed is 43lb 8oz.
I've got what i wanted this trip, a 40lb+ common. RESULT ! Tommo, photo's please.
The day slides by with nothing being caught by myself or the others.
21:05p.m. I'm in again and a weed free fight bought me a nice common carp of 29lb 1oz. This fish was immaculate and still had what's known as "the curtain", a strip of thin flesh across the roof of the mouth, usually found on fish that haven't ever been caught or not often caught. Nice.
22:15p.m. Same rod is off again but in the weed it goes and never comes out. Fish lost, damn weed..!
23:15p.m. Left rod goes this time and again the fight between me, the fish and the weed begins. I win this one and slip the net under another lump which reads 37lb 13oz on the scales. Tommo gets woken up on the walkie talkie and the photo's get taken. Back she goes and away she swims strongly. I'm a happy chappy.
After this the weather takes a turn for the worst and the wind picks up with heavy rain.
Wayne (Squeak) has a very lucky escape when a tree branch of around 6" thickness crashes down during wednesday night, landing about 5' from his bivvy.
The weather puts an end to my captures for the week with me just losing a fish on thursday night.
Even though i didn't get any of the "flying" swims, i still managed to bank 5 carp from 16lb 2oz to 43lb 8oz. Not too bad considering.
The rest, well Paul had 2 mirrors over 30lb, Jamie had 5 to 30lb+, Lee had 7 and the biggest at 47lb +, Dale had 5 to 34lb (in the swim i caught my 2 60lb+ fish from) so got an ear bending from me saying he was useless and should have given the swim to someone who knows how to fish it ! Lol.
Tommo had 3 to 31lb, Leicester Lee had 6 fish to 46lb+ and poor Squeak had no fish.
The journey back home was a fairly dull and boring event, the train left on time and we got home around 6p.m.
So that's it for 2011 as it stands, might have another trip if we can get somewhere late on. We're looking at another lake for the April trip, a new challenge. Lets see what France 2012 brings as for 2013, we've starting planning a trip to the mighty St.Lawrence river on the Canada/U.S boarder. Bring it on !
Hope you've enjoyed sharing my week, enjoy the pictures.
FIL.
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Great write up and pics mate 
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