Angling Lines Blog

Jill Clements and her 38.04 Notaires mirror

We run lots of competitions throughout the year… here’s one lucky winner;

TRAVELLING

The big day was upon us, up at the crack of dawn, common sense prevailed, we packed the car the evening before, good idea it proved to be.

Onto the motorway, down to Dover and then queuing for the ferry.  What a shock the ferry company have cameras aimed at your car registration plate and before you arrive at the kiosk a machine has printed out your ticket and you are greeted with a smiling face saying “ Thank you Mr Clements (well hopefully your own name) have a safe journey!”.

Journey enjoyable until we hit the Paris roads, it felt just like another day on our very own M25, all lanes were going nowhere, almost two and a half hours to go about three miles.

The term “When in Rome” came to mind so when planning the route home we asked Chris the owner of Notaires. A far better route was Nouzerines – Tours – Le Mans – Rouen – Bolougne – Calais. Thanks Chris

ARRIVAL

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Chris and Steph, shown around the gite and the grounds, made to feel really welcome. What a lovely couple.

FACILITIES

A wonderful four bedroom Gite (close to the lake) greets you as you arrive on the 75 acre site with three lakes, all holding carp.

One double bedroom downstairs (we used this one), lounge area, dining / kitchen area, satellite TV (Justin was pleased because of the World Cup), DVD Player and comfortable seating, enough for eight people.

Upstairs housed three further bedrooms and a bathroom with shower.

Crockery, pots and pans, everything you need to cook for yourselves during your time at Notaires.

A brand new swimming pool –  just the ticket in this really hot weather!

LOCAL AREA

Nouzerines is the local town, less than ten minutes away by car or a nice stroll if you feel up-to it, especially after a full English breakfast.  Nouzerines has a nice little grocery store who make lovely cakes and superb bread. There is also a fantastic restaurant serving superb food – well worth a visit.

A supermarket is in Boussac, about twenty minutes away, selling all kinds of food, fruit, vegetables and newspapers. It also has the cheapest diesel for miles and miles.

THE FISHING ITSELF

Arrived later than planned Saturday evening; forced to assist with the unpacking before being released to scour the lake using binoculars.  Used the bait-boat and echo sounder to get details of the snags and depths of the middle lake, I don’t enjoy walking too far to the swim, so this lake is very handy, Justin says with a smile on his face. continue reading…

The final phrase in my last news update about the Notaires pool when I said  “finishing the blockwork in a week weather permitting” must have angered the swimming pool gods and the temperature plunged below freezing slowing down the building.

Somewhat counter intuitively the biggest problem encountered was with a surfeit of water, at times the pool was half full with rainwater and pumping it out during the day just saw it refill during the night. In the end we dug a trench to drain into the lake and the water dropped to a manageable flow across the floor.

So finally we were able to finish the floor scree, install felt and liner and after the sun came out, landscape the earthworks.  Not long to go now!

You would expect lakes and carp on your fishing holiday. You might even expect some nice countryside, but would you expect to find llamas and alpacas on a 75-acre estate?

Well, you will at the Notaires House and lakes in Limousin. We trek our gentle, majestic animals around our woods and fields. This caused such a stir initially that the local TV sent out their cameras to record the spectacle for France 3.

You can see the TV clip here featuring the llamas, the Notaire’s house, our beautiful lakes and estate and the whole family (except me, I was sent to the back for being a dunce at French!). Benjamin, labelled as Jeremy in the clip for reasons unknown, gets bleeped out during the interview. Apparently it’s not ok to use the slang for testicles on air!

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So now you can show the clip to your significant other when you are discussing holiday destinations. There is only the briefest mention of carp and just a quick flash of  a lake. Remember to look suprised when you get to Notaires with its two lakes and carp in excess of 30 lbs right next to a scenic old farmhouse!

And yes, there is a Monty Python link; do you remember the llama sketch?

For the brave ones who’ve crossed the channel in search of French winter carp there’s certainly been good rewards.

Ian Lewis & 3 mates have just had a great week at Vaux (17th – 24th January) taking 6 mirrors, 4 being in the 30s, biggest 38.07; 2 commons, biggest 21.06; and 7 pike, biggest 25lb.

Chris Dagg took advantage of owning a carp lake by putting in a short afternoon session at Notaires & he was rewarded with a 25lb pristine mirror. You can read his report here.

And finally, but definitely not least, how can we forget Troy McLeans 75.02 from Laroussi in mid November – catch report here.

Who says they don’t come out in winter!