Being a lake tester for Angling Lines does have its advantages; one has to be the chance of a return visit to one of the best venues in France, Domain de Boux.  I had previously visited Boux in June this year along with Ron Key, and despite a hard week we still managed fish to 45lb 7oz. 

The 1^st week in October was the date for this trip with my good friend Paul Brooks accompanying me for the week.  As usual I kept an eye on the weather and the conditions were not looking good with temperatures into the high twenties and high pressure forecast for the first part of the week. The best weather, cloud, rain and low pressure had been forecast for Thursday onwards with north Westerly winds.

On my last visit I was totally unprepared for the invasion of Crayfish on my baited areas, so this time I was well prepared, and armed with meshing, boilie shrink tube, artificial baits and tiger nuts.                                                                                         

Bait

My choice of bait was a new boilie that Simon from Quality Baits had put together for Jim Kelly and I, which is to shortly released as HG42.  I have already tested the bait on my local lake back home with some astounding results. 

To back up the 25 kilo of boilie that Paul and I had brought with us we had 20 kilo of well prepared hemp and a 20 kilo sack of carp pellet, along with some prepared tiger nuts from Quality Bait.

Quality Baits HG42	View from the dam

We arrived at Boux late on the Saturday morning to be greeted by Phillip, the estate manager.  Having deposited our bait in the chest freezer we made our way to the lake.   The temperature was now around 29 degrees and the water was like a mill pond with not a sign of life on the surface. 

I knew the layout of the lake from my last visit so there was no need to plumb and lead the lake for its features. After around 2 hours of deliberation, Paul and I decided to settle down on two locations on the dam wall. I was fishing to the right of the lake and Paul down the centre and to the left.

1^st Forty of the week at 42lb 11oz

It is guaranteed that on the Saturday of my arrival I make mistakes (due to tiredness) and today was to be no different. I decided to bait two areas, one being on the margins towards the reeds on my right and the other in deep water around 40 meters out into the lake. The margin rod turned out to be the home of an army of crayfish and the deeper water 40 yards out was lifeless stinky silt. This I did not find out until I drew my baits back the following morning.

37lb 5oz	32lb 3oz	32lb 5oz

On the Sunday my head was clear and I got it back together, repositioning my rods to a distance of around 100 yards on a hard patch in about 9 foot of water, leaving both the deeper dam margins and the reed lined margins alone. I was still encountering Crayfish but was able to present a bed of bait with meshed boilies.

Paul with his 40lb 4oz common	39lb 14oz

The air pressure still remained very high until Wednesday night when clouds and a small amount of rain moved in. I had accounted for 10 carp to 42lb 11oz, with 5 being over 32lb. Paul had landed 4 carp, including a 39lb 14oz mirror and a 40lb 4oz common, so despite the high pressure we still managed to keep our heads up.

38lb 8oz common	1st fish of Friday a 35lb 6oz mirror

Thursday was very slow, I had 2 smaller carp and Paul added another to his tally. Thursday night/Friday morning was a still cold night and neither of us had a bleep on our indicators. 

At first light I was up sitting out at the front of my bivvy watching the mist rising off the lake. I recast one of my distance rods and rebaited it with an unmeshed HG42 boilie. For some reason I felt that the Cray’s had gone off the feed and I would be able to present an unmeshed bait to the carp. I was spot on, within 10 minutes that same rod roared off and I landed the first fish of the day a 35lb 6oz mirror.

40lb 13oz	42lb 14oz	40lb 4oz

The temperature remained cool, around 10 degrees, and I saw a number of fish move into the bay to my right. I fired out around 100 boilies with my throwing stick, scattering the bait over a one acre area. My plan was to keep the carp searching for the bait introducing more bait as more fish entered the bay. It worked, within an hour I had my first fish on the bank.

Biggest fish of the week a 46lb 9oz mirror

More HG42 boilies from Quality Baits and the fish kept coming. By the end of the day I had accounted for 16 carp which included 5 forties consisting of mirrors of 40lb 13oz, 42lb 14oz, 40lb 4oz, 46lb 9oz and  a Common of 45lb, 2 thirties of 32lb 14oz and 39lb 10oz with the rest being mostly in the upper twenties... what a day!

45lb Common

At midnight I drew in my rods for a well deserved sleep ready for the long haul back in the morning. My tally of carp was 28 fish with a PB common of 45lb. Paul had 5 carp again with a PB common of 40lb 4oz.

39lb 10oz common	Last fish of the session a 32lb 14oz mirror

Here's a short video clip of a few fish from the session;

Conclusion 

Domain de Boux has the potential of throwing up some huge hits when the weather conditions are right. It contains a massive head of large carp to well over 50lb with lots of back up fish to match. As with all big fish waters there are challenges, however with a bit of thought and determination these can be overcome. Our biggest challenge was the Crayfish, but this was soon mastered with the meshed boilies and artificial baits. Here's a short video showing you how;

The facilities room consisting of shower/toilet /sink/fridge freezer and chest freezer are all within a short driving distance from the lake which did not cause Paul or me any concern at all. They are clean and efficient and situated amongst the farm buildings on the private estate. 

This venue is totally secluded in a peaceful setting and it is a pleasure to sit and watch the wildlife and its surroundings. You could not ask for a better place to spend time to fish and get away from it all catching huge carp. 

Paul Cooper

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