A short video clip shot in November on the banks of the Etang de Rémy in northern France  at the bi-annual vidange. A 'Vidange' is the French word for the operation that basically involves the emptying of the lake. Fish stocks were then checked, counted and small silver fish, pike, tench and zander are removed for sale or for the table.

All the fish in the venue were checked for mouth damage, fin damage and general condition. When the fish had been visually examined by bailiffs Paul and Franck, they were slipped back into the main lake, the other side of the Senne net.

Most of the carp that I was able to witness were in the mid twenty to mid thirty bracket. This coincided very closely with what was caught during the carp fishing sessions at the venue last summer.

In all some 280 carp were returned to the lake. The average size of the fish was very encouraging with the largest specimen going well into the mid-forties. Despite the fact that the majority of the carp caught last summer were commons I was pleasantly surprised to see a good number of big, fat mirrors amongst the stocks.