French river carp

[Simon Horsfield]

Hi everybody
My parents have a house in France with an approx. 60 feet wide river running through their back garden (lucky sods). I have seen carp basking under lily pads which i would modestly guess at being 25lb+, considering these fish have likely to have never seen a hook before what baits and rigs would you reccomend. I have tried corn, worms etc but keep getting plagued with skimmers.
p.s I have also caught 2 catfish weighing approx. 12 ounces will these be small wels or is there another smaller species in France?
Advanced Thanks
Simon

 

[Rob Brownfield]

i would suggest using my baits, on my rods...and ...oh...err....fished by me!..lol U are one lucky bloke! I think i would try maise/sweetcorn to start with. If i was being bothered by smaller fish, boillies would make an appearance. They will accept them very quickly, and any of the commercial baits will work. I like Big Fish Mix, Starmers GLM ones and Preniers fishmeals. Hope this helps.

 

[Philip Inzani]

Hi Simon, I am based over there and fish the rivers alot...I have yet to find a foolproof way of beating the Bream but hard maize is worth a go or Tiger nuts if you can find them. Also worth a try is Frolic the French dog biscuit available in the supermarkets it wont deter them completely but if you use several on the hook/hair it may stay on long enough to give the Carp a look in. Don't completely discount bolies either even if you think the fish have not seen them before. Rigs, no surprise I guess but keep it simple, I would not mess about with braid, just use a mono hooklength and definitely do not underestimate the strength of the fish...so big hooks, strong line etc.
If they are basking under the pads a floating bait might be worth a go as well.

Not sure if someone else want to help on the cat side of things (maybe Budgie if he is around) but there are several species, I have a feeling yours will probably be one of the smaller varieties rather than a baby Wels.

Which river is it by the way ?

 

[matthew dent]

the catfish you caught were probably 'poison chat' as the french call them. evil things as far as the carp angler is concerned. they will have a go at any bait, even the hardest of boilies will eventualy be whittled down. the most effective methods of combating this nuisance is to either put netting around your boilies.[available from the tackle box i think] or use maize,peanuts or tigers on a long hair to keep the hook away from thier mouths. Although wels catfish are present in some french rivers. of the top of my head i know they reside in the rhone,tarn,creuse and i think the loire