Thanks for a great trip! Darren, July 2004

Dear Angling Lines,

We have just returned from a week session at Morganes lake which started on 31st July.
My Dad (Peter), Brother in law (Mick) and Nephew (Danial) arrived at my house the evening before the trip was due to start, armed to the teeth with all the equipment needed to wage world war three on the carp we were hoping to encounter. As they pulled up I soon realised that they had not taken into account the fact that I was actually going with them leaving enough room for me pack a landing net and at a push a rod pod!! Soon after pulling up off came all their kit and in went mine.
You would think that a double cab pick up would suffice for a one week trip for four... but I soon proved that this was not the case. In the end we had to resort to making use of the roof of the cab almost doubling the height of the van. Full of excitement at the thought of the great catches ahead of us, nothing was going to stand in our way!

We soon left for Dover to catch the 1am ferry and arriving in good time we began to think about the great time we had the previous year on a trip through yourselves to Roseau. It was at this point Mick told me that he had gone to bed extra early the previous night so the following day would come quicker and disappointed when woke up at 5am. We were like a group of children!

We were soon on the ferry and at Calais beginning our 4 hour journey to the venue. This 4 hour journey turned into 8 hours due to the traffic going through Paris, but the slow progress gave Mick a chance to grab forty winks. The only problem was he was behind the wheel and fast approaching the lorry in front, nothing the punch to the chest I gave him couldn't sort out. Strangely enough I found myself driving for the duration of the journey from this point!

Once through Paris we were soon at the venue admiring the lovely secluded lake before us. We had a walk round and soon began arguing about who was fishing where. My Dad took on the task of settling into the mobile home which was on-site and the rest of us began to unload the van.
Before we knew it the rods were in the beers were out.

The temperature was very hot the first couple of days being in the 90's and the fish were nowhere to be seen. We fished the waters hard armed with boilies, particles and paste but nothing seemed to encourage the fish to feed.

We soon realised what the problem was. We discovered that the lake was full of small carp, and I mean small. I threw a handful of pellet into the margins and put the landing net in to retrieve in excess of 100 small carp feeding on it... which may have been keeping the larger ones from feeding.

Not deterred we continued, knowing that at any time the alarms could spring into action. Danial, who is 15 and on his first fishing trip, was becoming bored at the lack of bend in his rod and was continuously checking his bite alarms to make sure they were working! The action remained slow throughout and we just couldn't work out why we were not having at least one or two runs a day.
Suddenly things began to change and both myself and Mick were into fish and they were on the bank.

Danial was soon safe in the knowledge that his alarms were working as he landed his first ever 20lb carp. On the Tuesday the owner had fixed a fishing platform in the Cat lake which caught my eye somewhat. By the Wednesday I had decided to have a go in the Cat lake which is just behind the carp lake and armed with some live bait donated by the owner the line was in.

Having never caught a cat before or even seen one apart from in a book I gave it my best shot and would you believe it... at 1:30am on the Wednesday morning the alarm sounded!!

With all of us sat there trying to work out where the noise was coming from, having forgotten the rod was even there, I sprang to my feet screaming bring a net and a torch. I hit the rod and what a feeling! I thought at one stage that I hooked onto the tree at the other end of the lake as my rod doubled over in two with fight and weight of the fish. This was the big one for me.

After about 30 minutes we caught the first glimpse of the fish and what a sight. Danial was soon sent to get a bigger net and began praying to the patron saint of fisherman for him to let me land the fish. None of us could really believe what we were looking at but there it was, thrashing about just feet infront of us. After a great battle the fish was in the net and on the platform. It measured in excess of 5 feet and weighed in at 48lb. For any experienced angler who fishes for catfish this may not seem much but it made my week.

My Dad had decided to have a relaxing week and fished the lake for the various coarse fish.
Myself, Mick and Danial continued our battle to get the carp on the bank and the weeks catch was as follows:
Danial caught 2 mirrors at 20lb 4oz and 21lb 3oz and a wonderful looking Koi carp at 18lb 3oz.

Mick caught 4 mirrors at 19lb 9oz, 20lb 5oz, 22lb 7oz and 20lb 10oz.

I caught 1 common at 21lb 8oz, 5 commons at 19lb 3oz, 20lb 5oz, 15lb 6oz, 20lb 11oz and 17lb 8oz and of course 1 catfish at 48lb.

We had an enjoyable week however we did feel our catches could have been better. The lake itself is lovely, the mobile home is adequate and its nice to be able to have a hot shower whenever we wanted to. The platform that has been put on the other lake is great and was the main complaint from other anglers that had visited the venue who had left feedback in a book in the mobile home.
The owner cares about what people think of his venue and does everything he can to accommodate you whilst you are there.

On behalf of all of us we thank you for a great trip. As always your service has been second to none and we are planning our trip for next year already and will be in touch very soon.

I will send some photos shortly of the fish and the platform on the cat lake which I think is a great asset to the second lake.

Thanks again.

Daren, Peter, Mick and Danial.