The story of 2003 in France was almost certainly the weather.  A cold, dry winter gave way to a bright and sunny spring.  The carp fed like fury and some superb catches were made.  This was despite the relative lack of anglers who had no doubt been put off an early trip by several successive years of poor spring weather.  Then the heat wave set in and France suffered one of it's hottest summers for several decades.  Drought conditions brought low water levels and sometimes slow fishing.  With the thermometre above 40°c both anglers and carp suffered.

Here's a brief resume of a selection of the Angling Lines venues:

Gareth

Monster Roseau catfish

The runs factory at Roseau large lake was certainly on song this year with most weeks producing over 300 fish. The average size has been increasing annually and now is around the 17lb -18lb mark. However, most weeks saw over 80 twenty pluses landed and the best weeks saw this awesome venue produce over 550 carp.

Last years large lake record was a 37lb 4oz common - the largest mirror went 35lb 2oz.  The surprise of the year was the capture of a near 60lb large head carp.

Ribiere

This venue with it's luxury accommodation and superb fishing has been a revelation over the 2003 season. The enormous efforts to improve the fish stocks by the owner have certainly paid dividends. The tone was set when I paid a short visit in  April and managed to land a number of carp up to 39lb. This session followed on from other early birds who had also taken fish to upper thirties.

It wasn't long before the forty pound barrier was broken and indeed it fell to a number of anglers, during the year. French angler Laurent Amarge's two month stint on the venue proved very informative as to it's potential. Fishing only late evenings, weekends and nights from August to September he landed 93 carp from 116 runs. The total weight was 2,215lbs - which gives an average of nearly 24lb per carp. The largest carp landed weighed in at 41lb.  The lake record also fell at the end of the season when Matt Bonner banked a superb 51lb 4oz mirror.

One of the bedrooms
  - the accommodation at Ribiere
is truly superb!

Passais

In it's opening year this small, pretty & exclusive venue has proved to be a resounding success. The gite accommodation has been universally appreciated by anglers and families alike and the fishing has been very good.

The season started with warm days followed by very cold nights and this continued through to late April. The hot sun gave the fish a false sense of timing and they unsuccessfully tried to spawn. The heat continued bearing down and the fish carried on breeding into July, but fortunately this had little effect on the fishing but 45°c is too hot and like most lakes in France the water levels dropped.

A superb Passais mirror for Andy Lear

Village

This highly popular venue has continued to stake a claim as one of the premiere large commercial waters in France. Catches have been very consistent and despite the hot weather a huge number of big fish have been landed. Based on the catch returns that have been sent to us anglers have landed 106 carp over 15kg (33lb)... fifteen of which were between 20kg (44lb) and 25kg (55lb).

Goncourt Complex

The Goncourt Complex of lakes have acquired a justified reputation for their productivity and beauty of the carp stocks. The complex of seven lakes consists of a series of gravel pits, some of which were being excavated until recently.

During the month of November the venue saw the netting of lake four.  This was done to enable the stocking of additional fish of the original Goncourt strain into the Great Lake. Care has been taken on this venue to ensure that the fish put into the Great Lake are of the superb strain that is almost unique to this complex.

La Traque