Moorland Fisheries, Etang du RoivreEtang du Roivre is a fifteen acre estate lake situated in the middle of France’s beautiful Burgundy region which is renowned for its stunning, unspoilt countryside. The lake is over three hundred years old and until we bought it in early 2002 it had been kept as a nature reserve and nobody had been allowed to fish it. It now has a superb stock of very big fish.
Fishery Update – Saturday 8th July 2006 Yet another week completed and yet another slow start to the week because of the extremely high air pressure and temperatures to match. When Paddy, Roy and their three friends arrived last Saturday the temperatures had already been hovering around or above the mid thirties for two weeks. To make matters worse, the humidity had been growing and was now almost unbearable. Even just walking around the lake was enough to make you shed buckets of sweat. You can imagine the result of pushing a fully laden barrow. Anyway, we all knew that these conditions would produce a thunderstorm but the question was, when would it arrive? Until it did we all knew that the “window of opportunity” to find feeding carp would be late evening and early mornings only. Now most of you will know that, for the past two years, we have used, very successfully, C. C. Moore’s odyssey and meteor freezer baits. Both of these have been rolled with our own little additives to suit our conditions. This year I rapidly became aware that the carp were feeding very heavily on natural food items and didn’t seem as attracted to high “flavour” signals as had been the case in previous years. I phoned Ian Moore and we discussed new ideas at some length, ending with a decision to try a different approach with a lower signal and higher “milk protein” reference. I have been convinced for many years that carp have a built-in “good-food-radar” which allows them to find even small items of food. Hence their ability to dig out a blood-worm bed. Anyway, in poor conditions, it was definitely time to put my theory to the test. Out came the “Moorlands Special Live System” and immediately we started to catch carp. Once conditions changed maybe we would catch even more. As it happened the oppressive conditions remained until Wednesday and then all hell broke loose. Thunder, lightening, torrential rain and, low and behold lots of feeding carp. Because of these conditions this is really an update of the last three days and I am pleased to say that every angler on the lake, including Wayne and myself have finished the week with at least one fish over 34 lbs. Listed below are the stars in no particular order.
On top of all of the above Paddy managed to present a single boilie from the “Royal Box” exactly where it was wanted by a large, whiskered, zoo creature which tested all of his knots and tackle to the limit. One hour later it’s eventual weight…….110.00 lbs. Well done that man. Incidentally his Dad arrived with an English personal best of 12 lbs and no particular target, except to enjoy himself and “see what all this French carping mallarky was all about.” Thursday saw him land a 42.02 and a 45.00 in consecutive casts. He now plans to retire. Summary of the fish caught Thirtythree carp, including fourteen thirties, three forties and a bloody great big moggy. (so more than half of the fish caught were over thirty pounds.) Another statistic which you may find interesting is that at one stage we caught 13 thirties consecutively. (For David Pougher’s benefit that’s one after the other!). N.B.For the last couple of days now I have been watching two or three very big carp moving alongside a small weed bed and I have trickled in a small but regular supply of the new bait. At six thirty this morning I noticed the first signs that they have started to feed in the area so I waited for them to finish and have now added a few more freebies. I now plan to do a few nights with one of my rods permanently on this patch to see if the new bait will trip up one of “the odd-uns”. I will keep you informed. Incidentally, of the fish caught above, at least three were fish that normally only get caught once or twice each year. It may be coincidence or it may be that I’ve got the bait theory right……..for once. We shall see. Update, Monday, 10th July I wasn’t expecting to be sending out any more news this week but I couldn’t resist broadcasting my recent success to the world.
Last Friday I noticed some fish visiting a quiet corner of the lake. I had seen them there once or twice before but never feeding. I trickled in some of the new bait and Saturday evening they showed some small signs of feeding. I would add here that a couple of them looked very big. (at this point I can hear trumpets being blown and I think one of them might be my own). Anyway, Sunday morning showed even more signs of regular feeding and this went on for quite some time. I couldn’t resist fishing the spot overnight Sunday and was quite surprised that I didn’t have any pick-ups before midnight. Three o clock in the morning heralded a twitchy bite which didn’t even pull the line from the clip but once I picked up the rod all hell broke loose. Almost thirty minutes later I was reunited with an old friend from last October. “The Beast” lay in the bottom of my net, my personal best had come back to visit but it looked even bigger. We placed her on the scales and my eyes did not deceive me…… they registered 56.07 lbs…. I repeat (because it looks good in print) 56.07 lbs..Oii Oii, Oii Oii Oii Oii Oii………………Oii Oii…………….Oii.! More information, Tel. 0033 385 922 953. |
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