Angling Lines Blog

June’s first fish since owning Watersmeet!

We arrived Sunday morning & the weather was beautiful with blue sky wall to wall, but it was very cold. We unloaded the car & Grant took his gear down to swim one and proceeded to set up his bivvy, etc.

With a cup of tea inside us Mick and myself took a walk down to the lake.  Not 30mins after casting the rods in and we’re off… a nice 35lb+ mirror, followed with a 25lb’er and 2 hours latter a 15lb+.  A great start to the week!

God it’s so cold out there but Grants “in-it-to-win-it” so while we’re nice and warm in the house he’s out in the bivvy (mind you he’s got the gear so shouldn’t be too bad )… good luck to him!

MONDAY

He comes up to the house about 9.30am Hot bath, bacon sarnie and a mug of tea. Off for the next session!

TUESDAY

Same as Monday with icy start to the day, couple of runs in the night but nothing.  He’s not happy now & beginning to think Sunday was a bit of luck.  After a couple of weeks with no guest’s (as we’re into the closed season now) maybe fish went mad for his bait?

We get on with some work, removing leaves from the monk and outside the house, A never ending job!

WEDNESDAY

Again another freezing night but a beautiful sunny morning. I take Grant a hot drink and something to eat.

Grant asks me to look after the rods while he goes up the house. He’d only been gone 10 mins when the furthest alarm screamed into action.  I’m talking to my granddaughter on the phone & not thinking I throw the phone onto the bank run over to the rods.  I pick the rod up… I haven’t had to do this since going to Fishabil 12 years ago!

Think girl think, what did Mick tell you!  Adrenaline running it all came back. Thinking how stupid I was throwing the phone down I could have phoned Grant to get his backside down here! continue reading…

Watersmeet – dreams are made of this!

Arrived about 4’ish on Sunday with the weather a little overcast. Unpacked & put a rod out down near the house & within an hour I had my first fish from Watersmeet, a lovely 8lb Koi (first ever one!) After some dinner popped over to the small lake to try my luck! Very easy takings over there just a small PVA bag and any boilie and the fish are yours! Took a 4lb 5oz & 5lb Common within 40mins.

Monday.  Peg 2.  6.30am till 2pm

Nothing from peg 2 at all! Put everything tight to margins but not a sausage! Moved over to peg 1 after lunch (3pm’ish) used same tactics and put right hand side closer to the lilies, 6.30pm and a nice 8lb 5oz Common followed by an 8lb Koi & 8lb Common a bit later on 10pm’ish.

Tuesday.  Peg 1. 7.30am till 1.30pm.

Was a little worried with the size of fish I was pulling out yesterday that I might not be able to get the bigger fish to bite! Well that all changed around 10.30when I pulled out a massive 38lb 4oz (PB) Biggest fish I’ve ever had was early 20’s so it was awesome to grab something like this!! 30 minutes later 13lb Mirror again same place under trees opposite the 1^st swim. Ended off with a nice 9lb 2oz Koi about 1pm. continue reading…

David Jackson took his wife and daughter with him to Watersmeet.  Before the trip his daughter had never fished before… but she does now!  In total they had 1 x 40, 10 x 30s, 8 x 20s, 6 doubles & 5 x singles.  A bemused David was left to say;

“I came with my wife & daughter… who does not fish… but she does now!! What more can you say? We will be back!!”



Back to Watersmeet for Easter.  I could write a list of all the things we did while we were here in preparation for the start of the season, but I think just a few photos tells the story;

Jessica and me painting one of the many benches

Mum age 76 painting the BBQ

Dad… bit older than mum!

You have to have a bit of fun!

After looking for many years for the right place we finally found it at Watersmeet. Our problem was always going to be the fact that we would be owners not living in France, so our choice had to be somewhere we could get to for a long weekend, otherwise it wouldn’t work. We run a business in England and look forward to our time off… we figured northern France would be workable.

It took us about 18 months to get the house and lake up to scratch. We re-dug the lake and had it stocked and totally renovated the house.

The accommodation at Watersmeet

The couple we bought the house from were English and had owned it for about 15 years, even though they only visited about 3 times a year.  They had left the care and maintenance of it in the hands of the bar owner in the village and when we bought the house his son-in-law became our handy man and later good friend. Christian spoke little English and over the next couple of years we had many laughs over the language barrier.  One problem we did find is that the French are like the Spanish and have no urgency about them, unlike us who want everything done yesterday!  This did cause a problem sometimes as we would go over on a flying visit only to find nothing had been done… very frustrating! continue reading…