Angling Lines Blog

Hi Shaun, I’m going on an Angling Lines fishing holiday at Alder Lake in June, hooray!  This is right in the middle of France.  The Angling Lines letter gave your email address and said feel free to contact Shaun to discuss baits, so here goes…

I don’t normally use boilies as they’re not allowed in the club I belong to so any advice would be appreciated, on both the best flavours and quantity for a week.  Alder Lake stock Quest bait and I intend to pre-order some… they stock Fruity Trifle, Special Crab, Rahja Spice and Chilli-Chocolate also Dips and Pops-ups.  As I say any advice would appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Richard Gear
Hi Richard,

I’m afraid I haven’t fished Alder although my friend Ron Key went over and really enjoyed it – you can read his article here.  He caught on Rahja Spice, Surf ‘N’ Turf and a small batch of the Chilli Chocolate I had let him have pre-release.

35.02 from Alder

Judging by that – three totally different baits would suggest to me that had he taken just one of the three then he would have probably caught just as much. Usual situation with a water you don’t know though is to try different things. Certainly the Rahja Spice has been instant wherever it has been used in the world from Texas, to France to Croatia. It’s still the bait I judge others by.

Boilie quantity wise I usually look at a couple of kilo per day as being normal on French trips with a little back-up ‘just in case’.

Hope this helps.

Best fishes, Shaun

Wal with new lake record 43lb

The Crane party had booked Notaires and Alder lakes for the week.  The younger group went down to Alder and bivvied & the team were quickly into fish and over 2,200 lbs of carp were landed from the Alder lake in 6 days of fishing!

The fish ranged from 25 to 44 lb, setting a new lake record in the process. And this was in spite of unprecented weather conditions where the temperatures plunged to just 1 degree and blizzard conditions prevailed, the worst day recorded in the county in May since records began in 1945!

Special congratulations go to Wal for landing a new lake record at 43lbs more than doubling his PB in the process.

 By Chris Dagg, owner of Alder and Notaires lakes. 

While Noel is not as big a deal in France as it is in the UK, the French are fond of the decorations and every little village now is decked out in flashing coloured lights that appear calculated to induce seizures.

A new event that kicked off in our local town Boussac was an Anglo-French carol service. Although there are French carols, French carol services are uncommon. However, this one was a great success so we’re sure it will become a regular feature.

We also attended a blessing of the crib at our local church in Nouzerines. Like many of the small village churches in France, it is hanging on by its fingernails and is only opened up for special events. The service was short and fun, although Ruadhri, who wasn’t feeling very well, managed to set his mum’s order of service on fire with his Christmas candle!  continue reading…

Total price for this service, including pick-up & tackle hire is 150 euros per person per week.  Sounds good value to us!

Seventy fish were to be added at Alder so aching arms were pressed into service again. This time the lower lake levels helped as it was easy to wade out on the lower gradient and ease the fish out in deep water. Even so, some of them seemed reluctant to leave their ‘helpers’ and had to be encouraged to head away from the stocking point.

Finally we got down to just one tank. “Just the big ones left,” said the driver. This remark was met by groans in both English and French (Steph and I were helped by one of the Pisciculture Couturier employees) as the ‘little-uns’ had weighed between 22 to 25lbs. Now we had to add the 25 to 30s!

Finally they were all in and had swum happily away. Alder is at its target stocking of 220 fish ranging from high teens at the low end, to mid-thirties or higher at the upper end. We added our first batch of 30-pounders three years ago, and while the lake has not been fished heavily, there have been plenty of mid 30s and some upper 30s caught, so I’m confident we will see our first 40s on 2010.

You can read the full report here.