We had brought around 10 kilos of boilie, our preferred OCM from Tails Up, some particle and pellets as well as 10 tins of corn. By using multiple rods, we could bait each in a different way, i.e. some with a large amount of bait, others with very little etc. It seemed that all of our takes had come over a sprinkling of free offerings and this was something we took note of. Changing all the rods to this tactic, we put no more than fifty baits around each hook bait. This prompted even more takes and following this change, we landed three different 39lb fish that evening, all incredibly close to the 40lb mark. This further reiterated that the fish were not yet completely awake from their winter slumber and that a mouthful or two was enough to outwit them; fishing for one at a time. The morning graced us with more fish, landing a 37.12 and a 34.06 along with a magnificent 38.08 common in the afternoon. Being the fourth day we were running low on supplies and in the early evening visited the local town Parthenay. A supermarket called \u2018Hyper-U\u2019 allowed us all we needed and we returned to the lake within an hour of leaving, sorted!<\/p>\n
After a good bit of \u2018boeuf burger\u2019 we settled again and managed a 22lb mirror in the night, our smallest fish so far and one we believed to be one of the new stock fish. At this point I would like to mention that all of the fish were immaculate and in perfect condition. To that extent when the middle rod again went into meltdown, we were to only dream how magnificent the fish would be on the other end. For a good 15 minutes the fish gradually tired at range before once more battling hard under the tip. With a flash of scales we knew it was a common and a good one, but neither of us witnessed its mass until it was wallowing in the mesh of the net. This was a very good fish and a common to boot! Weighing it was an ore inspiring sight and we \u2018wooped\u2019 as it settled just below fifty; 49lb 2oz. The pictures really do not do the fish any justice. It was a fish which we will remember for the foreseeable future. Understandably we were chuffed and to boot; Arthur, the name of the fish, is an original from the lake stocked by the previous owner, a true character fish with a bit of history.<\/p>\n
Just as we were slipping her back and taking some return shots, we were interrupted by another take. This turned out to be a 34lb mirror and another really nice looking carp. By actually putting less bait in the time between takes had been reduced and we were gradually increasing our catch rate. This continued with us landing another one of the lakes gems a few hours later. Completely out of the blue during the afternoon heat, another fish made a mistake; our 20th take in 6 days. I recognized the fish immediately after hoisting it up onto the mat as a fish named \u2018max\u2019 and just knew it was over 40. At 42lb 14oz it didn\u2019t disappoint and is quite recognizable as I\u2019m sure you will agree. Furthermore, we managed to brace this fish with a smaller 28lb mirror shortly before landing \u2018max\u2019, our third brace of the week thus far.<\/p>\n
![\"Carping](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/Villefond-41.04-600-x-450-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Villefond")
Villefond 41.04<\/p><\/div>\n
It was our last 24 hours so we decided to have a celebratory boeuf, bacon and cheese burger and watch as shooting stars filled the French skies. Every night the skies were smattered with stars and I have to admit that as the lake was so dark at night due to no light pollution, the sky lit up, it was truly fantastic and just added to the already mesmeric atmosphere. The last day dawned on us and although I had missed home, I really did not want to leave without a few more. It took a little more time, the lake making us wait right until the end, but around 9am we had a 28.05 from the open water spot, followed quickly by a beautiful scaly mirror of 36.08. We began packing up and having the kind permission from Mark to drive round, we parked the car behind the peg and began loading up for the trip home. As a final farewell the island rod signalled a big drop back and we played our final fish to the net, a 22lb common and our 24th<\/sup> fish for the week.<\/p>\nThe weather was glorious all week, I gained a pound or two from the French bread, I cannot speak highly enough of the owners and their kind hospitality and to top it all, the fishing alongside the best angling companion one could ask for was fantastic. We finished with 4 twenties, 13 thirties and 7 forties and for our first ever trip to France, we were more than pleased. As stated the lake isn\u2019t overly easy, but is stocked well with some stunningly large carp. If you are thinking of fishing abroad, I couldn\u2019t recommend it enough and we will definitely be returning! Fishing abroad was always something we were wary of, just in case our views of good old blighty were tainted slightly due to our so called smaller fish. This however, couldn\u2019t be further from the truth and as I write only four days after our return, I am already planning to go fishing back home to a lake holding nothing bigger than low twenties. You know what it\u2019s like, you just get the bug!<\/p>\n
Where ever you go, whoever you\u2019re with; enjoy your fishing<\/p>\n
Josh Bennett<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can you remember the first time you fished abroad? Maybe you haven\u2019t been yet. Maybe you are thinking about going. Well my first time was just recently, the week of March 19-26th 2011. The fact that we had never been abroad before was of slight concern. I say we as both me and my dad, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,835,931],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carp-fishing-news","category-first-carp-fishing-trip-to-france","category-villefond"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Carp](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/villefond-arthur-600-x-450.jpg\" "\\"Beautiful")
<\/p>\n![\"Carp](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/Villefond-42.04-600-x-450-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Villefond")
![\"Carping\"](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/villefond-max-at-42.14-600-x-450-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Villefond")
![\"Carp](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/villefond-40.05-2-r-flank-600-x-450-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Villefond")
![\"Carp](\"https:\/\/www.anglinglines.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2011\/04\/Villefond-47.04-Bennetts-600-x-450-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Villefond")