Adrian reports:
“Whilst on an extended trip to the south west of France, fishing only public waters, I managed to catch some good carp and in addition had a near 60lb net of tench and rudd in just four hours from a very big Électricité de France (EDF) barraged lake near Toulouse; I also managed to net some lovely roach from a small-ish reed-lined water as well.
I made a start on a very large (500 acre) barraged EDF lake where I have fished many times before and although the carp aren’t generally very big the setting and the quality of the fish certainly make up for the lack of size.
During the days, whilst waiting for the carp, I usually put out an open ended feeder and after 4 or 5 casts the rudd tend to move in and as you can see it is possible to amass a very big net of fish in a short space of time and I had 57lb of rudd and tench in just 4 hours. If you went kitted out for the smaller species on some of the big French waters and put a bit of time in then you could turn up some amazing fish.
After the first lake I then moved to a spot where the rivers Tarn and Garonne meet but the carp were spawning and the drifting weed made presentation impossible, so I quickly moved onto another large EDF water were the fish had already spawned and appeared to be prepared to feed. I introduced a mixture of Dynamite Sardine and Anchovy plus Hi-attract Scopex boilies in 15, 20 and a few 26mm then fished two 20mm Arma-meshed boilies on a Fox LSC size 4 blowback rig tied on 20lb Sandy Coretex over the top and this seemed to do the trick and I started to pick up a few good fish.
Next on the agenda was a a small reed fringed lake of approx 80 acres where the roach fishing was excellent , even during some very hot afternoon conditions, with plenty of quality fish from 12 oz to 1 lb 4 oz with the occasional fish approaching 2 lbs falling to waggler tactics close to the reed beds.
The carp fishing on this water was a lot more UK style fishing, with very few snags and clear shallow water, so I scaled down from the 20lb Gravitron and 45lb leaders I had been using on the previous water to 15lb Illusion XS, lead core and slack lines. The average size of the carp was excellent with most fish being in the 25 – 35lb bracket and in fantastic condition. The pick of the bunch was a new PB common (by 2 oz) which weighed in at 36lb 8oz.
To finish my trip off I went onto the river again and after an initial loss in one of the many snags I soon had a very old looking ‘warrior’ mirror of 40lb 11oz on the bank followed by a 40lb 11of fish then commons of 25lb, 41lb (another PB common) and a 38lb 8oz mirror.
I was lucky enough to catch more thirties than doubles on the trip and as always I managed some quality coarse fishing too which is all too often overlooked in France.”
