Browsing Posts published on March 6, 2008

by Gareth Watkins

The “Lac de Madine” seems to be the No.1 big water destination this year and as such, has usurped “Foret d’ Orient” at the top of the French carp waters tree. Rumours have been rife in the press of late that “Orient” is finished and no longer holds as many big fish. Well, results by friends of mine over the last 12 months have been equal to, if not better than years prior to the “vidange”. Reports of catches of fish to mid-sixties certainly caught my attention. A more recent capture by a French angler, of a 65lb 4oz fish helped renew my interest in a water where I have never had much success.

So it was with huge anticipation that I agreed to my friend Laurent’s invitation to try an assault on this most daunting of waters. Orient is a veritable inland sea covering some 2600 hectares. Despite its size, and typical of French waters, the night sectors are very limited.

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Thursday 21st February saw me on the banks of Hideaway Lake in Normandy for the stocking of a new batch of carp.

36 of these fish were in the 17-21lb bracket. Twenty four fish ranged from 22-26lb. Finally the larger fish included carp, both mirrors and commons, from 27lb to 34lb. In all there were seven thirties from 30-34lb plus seven others from 26-27.5lb. The total was 74 fish.

Finally there was also one sturgeon of 33lb stocked.

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View of Maurepaire I’m sure many of you will have seen that there are Carp anglers that just seem to have the knack of getting on the fish and catching them. No matter where they go, they have a sixth sense and can tune into the water. I’ve seen this on a number of occasions and have been in awe of the talent… because you do have to talk about this in terms of talent. Carp fishing has been democratised and is now accessible to all, but this doesn’t necessarily make it easy! How many have gone to France with huge aspirations only to have them shattered once there. So not only can Carp Fishing be difficult, you have to be good at it to succeed.

Selecting the right swim and fishing it in a logical way will help stack things in your favour. So where does one begin?  

You’ll most likely come up against three types of venue in France. Assuming that the carp aren’t boshing out all over the place, where should you start looking to place your baits on a new water? continue reading…

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