Clearview Carp Tours – how it all started.
Roy Fulton

My Background
For the past 10 years I’ve been travelling to France for my own personal fishing. In 2003 I started using Angling Lines and to be honest I haven’t looked back since. For many years I’ve been doing the organising for French trips for myself and my friends and I must admit that not only did I enjoy it but I was also getting pretty good at it – so I decided to approach Angling Lines with the idea of setting up a chauffer service for all their customers. Both Bridget and David thought it was a good idea and within 2 months Clearview Carp Tours was formed!

We began in February 2009 and the bookings have been really good right from the start. The customer feedback has been great and I’ve met some really nice people. However, it soon dawned on me that if I had my own venue the Carp Tours would be so much more successful.

Finding a Venue
So I began to think about how it could work. Where do I start looking? What kind of venue would best suit me and the chauffer service that I already had in place? A few phone calls around led me straight back to Angling Lines and within half hour I had two different venues to look at. A date was set for the following month to view both venues. I couldn’t wait! I guess I’m no different to many carp anglers in that I’ve always dreamed of having my own venue in France... as you can imagine I didn’t sleep much for the next 4 weeks!

The first venue I looked at was a stunning place full of carp but something didn’t feel quite right, you get those feelings sometimes and you just have to go with it. After returning to the UK I received a phone call telling me that the lake had suffered a major fish loss, a real shame for the venue in question and my sympathy was with the owner.

Clearview Boss, Roy Fulton.

The second venue was called Roseau. It had been an Angling Lines venue for many years but had been dropped in 2008. It had always been a great venue but towards the end it had management problems which resulted in negative feedback from the anglers. This led Angling Lines to drop the venue... a real shame because the fishing on offer was fantastic.

I knew this because I went through all the customer feedback - which took hours as it goes back 8 years! However it was well worth it because it soon became clear that Roseau was always a VERY popular venue for the fishing and 20 fish a day were more than common. Most of the negative feedback was due to the owner not spending any time at the venue due to a new business adventure. This meant the bar/restaurant was rarely open and the general tidiness of the complex was pretty poor. The food supplied was cooked off site and when delivered was often cold. All these issues could have been fixed given time and effort but the owner just didn’t seem able to sort it. I could see clearly why Angling Lines had to drop Roseau but I knew I could put all the management issues right so that people could get on with enjoying what they come to France for – catching carp!

My First Visit
My first look round was really good. I could clearly see the potential straight away but I needed to be sure of the carp stocks – I needed to be sure the prolific numbers of fish were still present. I took a walk around the big lake and was surprised to see how many fish were showing, boshing all over the place like they were putting on a show especially for me. I then came to the causeway between the two lakes and I bumped into a guy called Pascal, a real nice bloke from Belgium. He had been fishing for 3 days and had already caught 46 fish... & within half hour that figure was up to 50!

Ok I was satisfied the fish stocks in the big lake were still huge... but what about the small lake?

He proceeded to tell me that he was fishing just for the cats in the small lake and had already lost one he estimated at over 100lb. He’d also caught some real nice carp but it was the cats he wanted.

I carried on with my walk around the small lake and just fell in love with it... it’s like fishing a little intimate lake back home but full of huge carp up to a lake record of 52lb’s and ounces. That night I stayed put and carried on chatting to Pascal into the early hours of the morning. He had 3 more takes that night from the small lake and they were all 40’s - 2 mirror’s and 1 common.

What else did I need to see! I was assured the fish were all still there and from the evidence I’d seen they were getting pretty hungry!

I returned home comfortable with the stocks and immediately called Angling Lines. Within a month I had drawn up a Contract, returned to Roseau and secured the deal which saw me take over the complex for the following season.

The Future
I will be making lots of improvements at Roseau over the next few months and I’ll keep you informed of them via this Website as they happen. The bar/restaurant is to get a new look, a brand new kitchen is to be fitted and the shower blocks will be getting a facelift too.

There will be a bailiff and chef on site 24 hours a day and the bar/restaurant will be open 7 days a week from 7am to until 8pm. We will be offering an excellent food menu that will be cooked fresh on site as well as selling beers, soft drink, snacks etc.

The number of anglers on the big lake has been reduced to 10 to give more room for each angler as a common complaint in the past was that it was too crowded. This can only improve the fishing. The original swims are being moved around to create more space too (check out the lake map for the new swims).

New swims on the small lake are being prepared and you can now hire this lake exclusively.

Also on site we’ll be selling a full range of Quest Baits as well as pellets and party blend. All can be prepared and waiting for you on your arrival. Roseau also offers bait boat hire and all boats are new Viper MK3’s only purchased in May 2009. Lake Roseau is also a Korda stockist and a full range of tackle will be sold on site so you don’t need to worry about forgetting any tackle.

Well be offering a fully inclusive service on certain weeks – pick up at Dover, chauffeur driven to the lake & all meals provided – as well as weeks dedicated to Drive & Survive if you prefer to drive yourself here.

I hope this has given you an insight into who I am & my plans for Roseau. I’m really excited about this opportunity to bring this great venue back to its’ glory days and I really hope I’ll meet you on the bank soon.

Tight Lines

Roy Fulton
Clearview Carp Tours