Paul Cooper answers an anglers questions regarding the swims and features of Brie, a 15 acre carp haven tucked away in the champagne region that is booked exclusively for up to 4 anglers… Last year I visited a number of lakes in France, all on test for Angling Lines, one of these was of course […]
Hello all and welcome to part two of my blog for the Angling Lines venue Beaurepaire, which we fished from the 5th to the 12th of April this year. Having covered lake selection, baiting approaches and swim picking in part one, part two will cover our individual tactics, baiting strategy and early week results. Just to […]
Here’s a quick update from blogger Steve Bedford on his preparation for the first eliminator of the UK Carp Cup… Over the past couple of months I’ve been spending some time getting ready for the UK Carp Cup and trying out a few different things. On 13th of June I will be taking part in […]
For this years holiday, I was again going to be joined by my brother David and two ex-workmates, father and son duo Garry and Matt Clarke. Now David and Matt very rarely go fishing and Garry doesn’t get out anywhere near as much as he would like. With this in mind, I wanted a venue […]
Paul was recently asked to advise an angler on fishing Blue Lake. We thought it’d be a good idea to stick it up here too and share the knowledge… Hi I have been asked to give you some advice on Blue Lake by the Angling Lines team. I have fished the lake on 2 occasions, […]
My first trip to France in 2014 and I headed to one of my favourite Angling Lines venues; Bletiere, a lovely little 2 ½ acre lake located just to the east of Le Mans. This account I hope will give you a few insights which may entice you to spend a week there, and if […]
Arnold, our biggest resident male at Villefond and one of the top 3 biggest fish in the lake has finally been caught again and has now broken the lake record at a massive 57lb 4oz!! Not only that but on the same week to the same angler two more different 50’s were landed! Have a […]
More often than not we all come across a water where the carp simply will not feed away from the far margin, over hanging trees, or snags. Cast short of your target and you may as well leave the rods on the bank. Generally the reason for this is through angling pressure or the over […]
Hello all, having just returned from a weeks fishing at Beaurepaire, I would like to invite you to read a few articles regarding this great lake. I’d like to cover all aspects of our group’s fishing trip, from bait, tactics and execution through to results and where we got it right and sometimes wrong. This […]
With the capture of Slate Grey last week I have decided to delve into my archives once again to give you a little bit of history on this mighty old warrior. Slate Grey got her name quite obviously from her grey colour which coupled with her massive size makes her an easily recognisable fish. Another […]
Steve Bedford goes through the basics of carp behaviour, areas to fish to and different weed types… Carp naturally prefer slow moving rivers, streams, canals and still waters. You’ll often find that carp in still waters tend to grow bigger and have deeper bodies than those in moving waters and carp in rivers often grow […]
Paul Cooper and Jim Kelly spent a week carp fishing at Castle Lake in March, on the quest for big carp. They kept a video diary along the way, which you can watch below. We’ll have an article up shortly and you can see the full catch reports here. For more information on Castle Lake […]
There are lots of objects that we either wear as jewellery or that form part of our clothing that are potentially a threat to a fish whilst it is in our care. What do I mean by ‘in our care’? As soon as a fish is netted we are now responsible for its well-being before […]
I haven’t done a diary type blog piece for a while, the simple reason being that I have hardly done any fishing. The constant high river levels of the winter, the fact that my boat moored on a large water was wrecked by the high winds (meaning no pike fishing this winter) and for the […]
In this video series Mark details his winter carp fishing campaign at Villefond. This week Mark catches a previously unknown 54lb carp. Find out the tactics employed on this mature big fish water right from the person that knows it best. If you missed part 1 & 2, you can find them here. For more information on […]
How long should you make your hook links and does it effect your catch rate? Paul Cooper discusses the length of hook links and types of materials used for carp fishing. What are the main materials available to create hook links? Firstly I do not want to go into naming brands and makes, as I believe […]
The new season is approaching rapidly. I am hopeful that there will be many more memorable days, good or bad, to look back on at the end of 2014. Looking back at the year just gone, my first as a bailiff here in France, has not been without its ups and downs. Thankfully overall […]
Richard, bailiff at Lillypool, managed a quick session over the weekend, here’s the latest from the lake… ‘The first bit of sun, my first session, my first fish and the first 40 of the season!! I fished over friday and saturday while working on the lake, Friday resulting in a blank, but I did manage […]
With spring almost upon us, more and more of us will be thinking of, or actually booking a French carping holiday. The question of what bait then comes into the equation and for a lot of anglers the biggest question can be shelf life or fresh frozen? It really is a big ‘leap of faith’ […]
Here at Villefond we keep a photographic record of each fish capture reported to us by the anglers fishing the lake. This is done so that we can track the progress of each fish regarding weight gains (which are phenomenal) and so on. Anyone interested can take a look at these photographic records via our […]
