Angling Lines Blog

42lb mirror falls to the new Villefond 2013 bait

The 2012 season saw the Villefond bait range really excel and it definitely landed more fish than any other bait.

Every winter I feed the fish with a new flavour boilie and ever improving quality bait. I choose new flavours because over the year the fish get caught on the same popular choices and eventually start to become cautious of those baits. So over the quiet winter periods I choose my new bait after extensive field testing then I put lots of bait in so the fish can feed without fear of being caught.

This gets the fish keying into the smell of the house bait and then, once found, they know it’s a good food source. By the beginning of the 2013 season the bait will the best bait to use on the lake.

We are constantly looking to improve our bait firstly for the benefit of our fish and secondly to help anglers catch them. So I spend a long time field testing the flavours and using the knowledge of what has worked best in the past, I have come up with my main two flavours;

• Supreme Blood Worm
• Plum Nut

The ingredients I use are the absolute best because cutting corners will ultimate only effect our fish growth. Last year saw our fish continue to grow really healthy and put on great weight gains and this new bait is even better.

I will be able to offer different flavours if you contact me in advance… but these two will be the ones I will for the most part feed the fish with.

Please contact me via the Forum with any questions regarding bait or anything else.

The above picture is  just one of the carp caught during the start of my field testing of these new baits.

Happy Fishing!

Mark (fisheries manager)

Carp fishing in France at Villefond

Arthur @ 54.07 (Oct 2012)

2012 has once again been a great year for the lake and for meeting some great guys and great anglers.

The lake was once again pretty solidly booked and saw lots of characters on the bank breaking personal bests and enjoying their break from work, all trying to catch one of the Villefond monsters.

As for the fish unbelievably they have continued their massive weight gains pushing the average size of the fish over 40lb up from last year’s 38lb! We now have over forty 40lb+ fish and at least 4 x 50lb+ fish.

The very unpredictable weather this year meant that the carp spawned heavily twice, and over a drawn out period, so we saw weights Yo Yo and catch reports rise and fall as they fed up and then stopped feeding.

The amount of new uncaught fish has now slowed down as we slowly improve our documentation with pictures. However, we still have some really elusive fish & some of these came out during 2012 including some fish that haven’t been on the bank in over two years and some fish that have only ever been caught twice in four years! As we always say, Villefond is tricky water, the carp are very clever and some anglers this year really struggled and then there were some times they seemed to jump on the hooks.

We had the usual bloom of naturals in the lake and all the same wild life around the lake such as foxes, hares, rabbits, bird life, pine martins, hedge hogs, coypu, the list goes on.

2012 was the first full year we offered the food packages and as you can read on our feedback page we received some great feedback, so we will continue offering this service into 2013. Also the bait proved itself again to be the best fish catcher and with bait choice so important on the lake we will be offering an even better improved bait for 2013.

Work round the lake this winter will continue as always with many man hours going into clearing brambles & weeds, improving swims and access, plus a spruce up of the shower block and mobile home. We have introduced some new rules to help keep the fish in pristine condition as they get bigger and harder to handle along with more rules to help us keep the lake as clean as possible. These rules can be seen on our rules page.

To conclude the lake is still rocketing skyward on its way to becoming something really, really special & we would like to thank all the anglers this year that came to our lake for looking after the fish they caught. This meant they are still pristine for the next angler. We hope that we carry on seeing the faces that make our job a pleasure and wish everyone the best for 2013.

Best wishes,

Mark, John & Debbie Lambert

Measels at 44.04

Saturday 17th November;

I arrived at Villefond just as the sun was rising which at this time of year is about 8am. By 9am I had all three rods in the water.  My left rod was a small piece of meat on the bottom, my middle rod was a cut down 15mm pop up and finally my right hand rod was a 10mm white pop up. As with all my fishing I use size 8 hooks, flying back leads, back leads and tight lines.

My left hand and middle rods were dropped on a gravel spot at about 120 yards with my row boat out in the middle of the lake. My right hand rod was chucked out to the right at a patch of bubbles, hopefully a feeding fish.

38.08

10.15am just as my dad was walking round the lake to see how I was doing my left had rod with the meat on bleeped, once, twice, and then I struck. The fish kited straight to the right and as most the fish in our lake they don’t seem to really fight hard until they get into the margins. I knew from the jerky runs and seeing the fish fighting near the surface it wasn’t a big fish by Villefond standards. It topped the scales at 38lb 8oz’s which I was still very happy with as I knew I still had one more bait on the spot with a good chance their was other fish feeding down there.

I boated the bait back out and as I was sinking the line and putting on my back lead my middle rod took off on a screaming run. Immediately as I struck I felt a much heavier weight on the other end of my line and the slow really deep motion of the fish indicated this was a bigger carp. During the fight as the fish kitted to the right in went under and got caught round my right hand rod. I always put a lot of effort into pinning my lines down so I know somewhere out in front of me there must be a gully or deeper hole along the bottom of the lake.

In the margins the fish fought really really hard still just hugging the bottom which had me and my dad thinking this could be a nice fish. Eventually I pulled the fish over the net my dad was holding for me and our suspicions were correct this was a bigger fish. The fish went 44lb 4oz’s and I recognised it as fish known as Measles because of a small cluster of tiny scales that resemble spots on its tail, it was a nick name that stuck.

Shortly after getting my rods out again I had a run on my left hand rod.  As I struck I didn’t tighten the bit runner enough and as I lifted line just span off the reel. This small error was all the clever Villefond carp needed and it quickly shook the hook before I could set it properly and left me cursing myself. The two fish before helped to lessen the pain of this escaped fish so I wasn’t too annoyed at myself.

Just a baby at 10.04!

All went quiet and I got my rod back out, my dad left and I laid on my bed chair and had a few hours shut eye. At 2:30pm my dog saw me stir and came over to say hello. As I reached out my rod began to scream at me again. I struck and felt a small carp which I quickly had in the net. It was a 10lb 4oz Villfond baby, offspring of our monster carp and looked a really solid little tank with massive shoulders, a real future monster.

Shortly after I packed up so I could run my dog before it got dark and I left looking forward to my next session on the lake.

Carp fishing in France at Villefond

Well winter is well and truly upon us here at Villefond!  The weather has been horrid with heavy winds, extraordinary amounts of rain and now towards the end of the month the cold weather has moved in. That said the big fish have been feeding well to those who have braved the elements and November has seen a lot of 40’s on the bank… some of these doing over 40lb for the first time.

This is a great time of year to be on the bank at Villefond.  The banks are quiet with most of the summer wildlife well into hibernation but the fishing is far from quiet. The Villefond fish really seem to like this time of year for a big feed up before the temperatures really drop, And not only do they feed well but they are in prime condition and look stunning in their winter colours.

A truly cracking time to be on the bank. My choice for fish of the month this month is a prime example of a fish that is at its biggest weight and looking cracking in its winter colours, the Long Two Tone.

Fish of the month

So my fish of the month this month is the Long Two Tone.  For some time when talking about the large target two toned fish in Villefond this fish was mentioned almost as an after thought.  But in 2012 this has really started to change as this year she has really come into her own as she has started to show some impressive weight gains and also has taken on a unique pinky colour.

In this most recent capture the Long Two Tone set its new highest weight at 47lb 12oz and we fully expect this fish to join the list of 50’s before the winter is over. It’s hard to see from photo’s just how long this fish is, but it is an extremely long and lean fish with a lot of room for growth and I strongly believe in the not so distant future the Long Two Tone will become one of Villefonds biggest fish.

A truly cracking fish of the month.

Carp Fishing in France at Villefond

The Long Two Tone at 47.12

24hrs at Lac Du Villefond, 7/11/12 
by fisheries manager, Mark Lambert

Wednesday the 7th of November 2012 was the start of my 24 hour session on my lake Villefond . I had my tent set up from a previous session the week before so after a quick setup of my rods I was fishing by about 10’oclock. My approach was simple – remain quiet & use the on site boat to drop off two rods on a gravel spot in the middle of the deeper water.

One rod had a whittled down 15mm pop-up on, the other a 15mm bottom bait. My third rod was going to be used to chuck at showing fish or experiment on different spots. As I was fishing swim 6 (the woodchip swim) I decided to drop a bottom bait just in the margin by the sluice gate to my right.

With all rods back leaded and now on my spots I settled down preparing for a long wait. With the weather sunny but still quite cold especially in the shade of all the trees round swim 6 I sat close to my rods scanning the water for signs of fish.

At 10.30, only half an hour after being put out, my middle rod with the pop up on beeps at me. I watch my rod tip & standing over the rod I see the line start to tighten and with one more single beep I strike.

Immediately I know this is a good fish. It’s moving very slowly, swimming straight towards me & it doesn’t really start to fight until it comes close to the bank. As the fish gets tired I lower the net into the water and turn the fish. As its head turns I see the width across its back and know its going 40lb+.

She topped the scales at 47.12lb and is a fish we know as the Long Two Tone. That was an amazing start for me and I quickly boated my bait straight back out and dropped it with more bait right back on the spot.

Still chuffed with my catch I continued to study the lake looking for signs of fish continue reading…