UK Carp’s Steve Board beats the Winter blues by crossing the Channel for some Winter.

What a grueller I’ve had – a dire few weeks with not a single carp landed. Add to that the filthy weather and it was no fun at all being out on the bank. Clearly I needed a bit of therapy.

With this in mind I rang David Keep from Angling Lines holiday company and asked if he’d anywhere I could go for a short winter break.. “Oh yeah, and can you make it easy so even I can catch?”

Within five minutes he’d returned my call and said he’d got just the place – Cedars Lake, just south of Paris. He went on to explain that the lake was four acres, with around 200 fish to just touching forty, but the real bonus was the two double swims, each with their own lodge behind complete with cooking facilities, beds and power. Now this appealed to me. No roughing it on this trip, we’d be fishing in style. We booked the ferries – we’d leave early Friday and come back Monday evening, giving us three night’s fishing with the chance of a few.


The journey flew by and all too soon we arrived at the lake with about an hour of light left. Sandra, who looks after the place gave us a quick tour, then left us to get the rods out. We had a plan right from the off. One rod was going out with maggots and hemp mix and the others would be on a handful of the 10mm tutti-fruttis. As the light went I quickly bait-boated three rods out using Skyline markers and helped Steve, my mate do the same.

We ended up with all the rods fanned round in an arc at about 60m. Now it was time to chuck the bivvies up. The plan was to use the cabin as a base but sleep by the rods at night, as there was a flight of steps from the cabin to the swim and to come tearing out to hit a run could prove a little tricky.

With everything sorted, it was time to retire to the comfort of the lodge and get some food. It was heaven to be sat at the table eating a lovely meal, in the warmth and light, with the rods only 5 yds away and fishing effectively.
It wasn’t long before the tutti rod let out a couple of bleeps and I was down the steps in a flash, just in time to see the line crack from the clip and the alarm go into meltdown. After a stunning fight, a big-framed mirror was soon safely on the mat, and 27lb 8oz it was a great start.

By dawn (well, I say dawn – it was dark and miserable and trying to get light) I’d managed a 36 pounder and lost another fish. Things were looking good for the first full day.

It was time to have a bit of a pull round with a marker rod, just in case there was anything out there, but after 20 minutes no area really stood out from the rest so it was decided to stick with the areas we’d fished the previous night.

The maggot rod had produced and nuisance fish hadn’t proved to be a problem..good news. I was using hemp and parti-blend, pellets, corn, boilies, salt, chilli sauce and 21mm halibuts, plus a handful of maggots. This mix has always worked for me and gives me a variety of options if the carp play hard to get.
Corn, boilies and maggots are hookbait options so I can ring the changes if nothing is working. The pellets were an attractor and I knew that these carp have their diet supplemented with these when no-one is fishing the lake. I also like to include a handful of 21mm pellets. These take longer to break down and keep the swim active. Finally the salt and chili both give the mix a little extra kick, and carp love both these.

When it came to filling the boat, I used the mix to line the bottom of the hopper, and then added my rig before pouring a couple of handfuls of maggots on top. The rig was simple – a 10mm pop up on a hair, then a bunch of 20 maggots tied to the loop. The pop up just makes the bait a little lighter and gives it extra pulling power as well as stopping the maggots masking the hook point. With that rod done, the other two were on snowman presentations using Jacko pops ands tuttis, with just a handful of free offerings – no carp can resist them.

That first day just flew by and neither Steve and I nor the two guys from Surrey who were fishing opposite had a sniff. Mmm time to reassess the situation, and although the weather wasn’t great we still expected to catch. By late afternoon we were sat on the steps of the lodge, looking out over the flat calm lake, when suddenly a carp jumped then another and another. For 20 minutes there was a short burst of activity.

These fish were showing just short of centre, well past where my baits were, so I quickly reeled in a rod and chucked out to get the range. With light fading fast I quickly whizzed two baits out to the area, as that was the only action we’d seen since arriving. By the following morning I’d had a couple more from that area and lost one, the best going 34lb 7oz. Going on the lack of action the previous day I decided to leave a rod over bait on the new spot, but experiement with zigs and singles to try and pick up a couple of bonus fish.
A 360 rig with a white strawberry boilie was soon out and a 5ft zig went on the other.

Sure enough, by early afternoon I’d lost one and had another twenty on the single, but nothing on the zig. For the last night it was a case of putting all my eggs into one basket. I’d definitely found a feeding area so all three rods were going there. Only morning would reveal if it was a good choice or it too many lines would spoil the area.

By dawn it was a tired angler who faced the long journey home. I’d upped my tally to 12 fish and topped it off with a great one of 39lb 14oz. Steve managed several fish to over thirty and the lads on the other side had banked 11. This was truly great sport with quality carp and a very comfortable way to do a short winter session. In fact we enjoyed it so much that I’ll be tapping David at Angling Lines up for a return trip in March.

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