Angling Lines Blog

Paul Cooper shows you how to protect carp baits when Crayfish or Poison Chat are active;

Dan with one of the week’s captures

Having  just returned from Margot (w/c 6th August) I would like to say that the Poisson Chat problem does not appear to exist if anglers go prepared. They are in the lake and you will catch a few here and there, we caught about 10 between the 8 of us during the week.

Soft baits will initially need to be netted but once air dried we found they were untouched, harder baits such as Tigers are obviously unaffected.

If anglers prepare themselves then they should have a very successful week. We caught 110 fish between us with 5 over the 40lb mark as well as the albino cat at 61lbs, with the larger fish coming out on Tiger Nuts at the start of the week but as it wore on more and more were coming out on boilies, mainly Ace Baits Banana Twist or Bloodworm and Mainline Cell were all very successful.

Hope this helps,

Dan Bungay

We’ve been watching the Margot feedback from the last couple of weeks and it’s become apparent that in addition to the nuisance caused by the smaller grass carp the poisson chat have also shown a sudden surge in activity. Prior to this we’d hardly heard mention of the chats.

The owner, Michel Bigot, has agreed to act immediately and has a netting for the poisson chat planned for the first available opportunity, w/c 16th July. Smaller grassies will be removed at the same time but he can’t promise that it will fully resolve the number of small grassies as they have a tendency to jump the net as it closes in. However, there will be a further netting in the close season to sort it totally.

The Bigot’s have already taken some steps by creating a small fish feeding station in the corner of the lake. This area only allows the very small fish access & they are then netted out… approx. 75kg of small fish including poisson chat have already been removed using this method.

Our latest report (today, Wed 6th July) direct from the anglers fishing the lake revealed that the situation was already improving and they’ve had around 25 carp, including 3 x 40lb grassies and a 45lb common. They have shopped local & bought ladies tights, using them to net the baits to keep any poisson chats at bay (the local shop keeper has drawn his own conclusions- no doubt!) Mr Hopkins speaking directly from the lake said they had had no issues themselves with small grassies either, the smallest caught so far being around 16lb. So… so far a good week.

We’ll keep you posted.

Post updated 26th July;

As a result of the nettings the Bigots have removed 600kg of poisson chat from Margot – they were very pleased with the results and it should solve any immediate problems.  However, as with any of these nettings, they can’t guarantee that every last one has gone!

Simon Boi wrote:

I’m visiting Old Oaks lake in June this year and was reading about the poisson chat and how to counteract them.  There are some good videos about netting boilies or using a plastic wrap to stop the being slowly eaten away.

I was wondering if the current wave of plastic baits might prove a fruitful way of fishing for the carp without attracting the nuisance species?

I have noticed the pineapple crush boilies seem to be a good bait for some reason but what about things like fake corn or would it be too small?

Also I quite like the idea of zig rigs for Old Oaks and was wondering if the crayfish and poisson chat were only bottom dwellers or if a bait half way up in the water would still be fair game?

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your question. Many people are fazed by these nasty little fish, but if you use techniques, some of which you already mention you’ll be fine. As far as I know there are no crayfish in Old Oaks, so you can scratch them off your list.

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Craig Alldrick wrote:

When were the poisson chat netted from Margot? Was it 2006 or 2007?  W

Will there be a problem this year [any reports yet?]. I am going in June and know poisson-chats get more active as it gets warmer.

Any info or tips would be gratefully received as I would rather be prepared. I would also like the carp to eat my bait not the chat, is there a bait they don’t like ?

Hi Craig,

This is a good question and one that many anglers worry about when going to France. Firstly do a quick search on this blog and you will find some information on these little pests as well as a video on our website.

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