Details of your catches:

6 fish in mid twenties, a slow week around the area

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

A handful of baits in the margin (near and far side)

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes, very good for D&S

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

Brocard Small This is a truly beautiful lake, the crescent shape of the lake puts the other pegs well out of sight. With a forest behind you and a tree lined far margin ahead you really get feeling you have the lake to yourselves. In spite of ideal conditions (by English standards) the fishing this week was very slow throughout the area we managed only 6 fish to mid-20s between us. This year we were plagued with small Carp between 1 and 2 lb, they are beautiful little Commons and Mirrors but the lovely little devils lose their charm when you jump out of the sleeping for one on a rainy night. The lake is due to be drained and netted this winter so hopefully problem solved, just in case I’d pack some hard 30mm boilies next time. As a drive and survive venue it has everything you need, water, toilet, shower, charging and a good bailiff.

Details of your catches:

37 fish, 26 mirror, 36 mirror, all the rest were carp under 3lb

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Caught on boilie and tigers. tried everything we could think of to combat the small carp. Double/triple 18mm's, baiting up/singles. Margins and open water.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes been before

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes and no

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

Slow week unfortunately, we were told that there was a large storm before we arrived that significantly lowered the water temps. Fish weren't really having it. There are hundreds of small carp present and its difficult to keeps rigs in the water. Franck gave us a net to retain them and it seems like they are removing them as they get caught. For us Brocard is all about the location. Remote and secluded in the woods in a stunning part of France and the lumps are in there. *Owner's note* We're really sorry you had an issue with the small carp this week, which combined with tricky conditions for the fishing in general meant an unusual catch report. The carp in the lake have reproduced incredibly successfully this year and, whilst we are actively removing them now too, the remaining will be netted & removed in winter. Week to week anglers are catching a few of the smaller carp, but when the big carp are feeding normally the smaller fish do not really get a look in. We are confident that the number of small carp caught this week was down to the conditions.

Details of your catches:

42lb common, 41 lb mirror, 32-35 lb mirror, all on pop ups. 6 x small mirrors 5-6lb.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Water levels low, single baits, no baiting up

Were the facilities what you expected?

Basic facilities clean & tidy

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes lovely lake

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes & no both lakes suffering low levels poor water quality, lot of small fish pestering baits

General Comments:

Water low I wish angling lines gives reports of quality of water & levels it seems to be every year this seems to be issues, yet this lake is feed from a larger lake sluice gates to be opened to meet a good level to create good fishing low levels stops feeding especially with high pressure. lake was about 4foot low that's over 29 acres? A lot of water lost. These things we pay for & because of conditions & set week to fish your stuffed not happy. *Angling Lines note* We have discussed this at length with Mark, one of the Brocard bailiffs, who gave us the following response; "We agree it was unfortunately a slow week, but the water levels are at normal summer levels and not 4ft down. The average depth in the lake is 3 to 4ft. With swim 1 having the lowest depths at 3ft on average, swim 2 & 3 holding depths of around 3.5 to 4ft and swim 4 (the swim you fished this particular week) with around 4.5 to 5ft at its deepest corner. I appreciate that you may have looked at the dam wall and judged the water level on that, however, even in the winter the water level sits 2ft below the top of this wall. The lake is fed from a larger lake which also holds fish, in emergencies we will use this lake to help top up Brocard Small, however it is always a careful balance for the safety of all the fish and one that the owners, as fish farmers, are very experienced in handling. The lake has had recent rainstorms pass over that has added fresh water and the lake is overall producing normal catch reports for August." We do fully appreciate that you feel that the water levels between seasons was not made clear enough on the site and we have altered our text to give a better picture of how the lake changes throughout the year.

Details of your catches:

We only landed one fish, a 45½lb Grass Carp. Unfortunately we lost 14 fish including four Catfish, several Grass Carp and several other Carp. We fished swim 2.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Fishing tight to the bushes on the far bank gave us all of the bites bar two. Unfortunately fishing that far out tight to snags resulted in a lot of lost fish.

Were the facilities what you expected?

We have been before and found them perfectly acceptable. They are always clean and are available at any time.

Were you happy with them?

No problems at all.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

This is a great get away from it all venue. There are lots of fish present and they are always jumping. We found however, unlike the english waters we fish, that jumping fish do not mean feeding fish even if they jump out of the same spot multiple times! Talk to the bailiffs if you want to catch.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

We could highly recommend your services and already have done. Everything went exactly as planned on the trip both ways. We could not offer enough praise on the bailiffs who were always available, always supportive and willing to give you as much help and advice as you need. Mark and Franck would be a credit to any company and Brocard would not be the same without them. I know a lot of fisheries that could benefit from bailiffs such as them.

General Comments:

Fantastic venue that we could not recommend more highly with brilliant bailiffs. A few tips though: 1. Take a big fast bait boat. We took our bait boat and it was out of its depth with the distances required to go especially if the wind got up. Great for precision baiting on 4-10 acre waters but not on large 29 acre waters where the far bank is 140 yards and increasing as you go across the swims. 2. Talk to the bailiffs. Franck knows the water and Mark is a fisherman. Marks advice changed our situation from 3 days without a bite to getting one in 15 minutes! He knows what he is on about so listen to what he has to say as he wants you to catch as does Franck. They are as gutted as you if you fail and will do whatever they can to ensure you succeed. 3. Don't assume big beds of bait will always work. Last year they did for us but this year the fish ignore it. 4. The lake water is incredibly warm. It is like getting into a bath. We measured it at 25°C on two separate devices. This means your soft boilies will dissolve overnight. When you reel in the following morning and your bait has gone then you need to get some harder bait. This is fact, ask the bailiffs if you don't believe it. 5. The Catfish on here are clearly on steroids! Hanging on to one with a 5½lb tc rod with top quality 20lb line and watching your spool empty no matter how hard you tighten it up and try and hold it with your fingers takes some believing but you WILL hook a cat and it will go like nothing you have ever hooked before. They will take 150 yards of line off of you and that snag on the far bank that is miles away from where you hooked it is going to be their target. Enjoy. Despite the poor result we hooked far more fish than anyone else on the water but could not keep them clear of the snags. That doesn't mean we were disappointed. Fishing is more than just catching fish and the whole experience was brilliant again. Love the place and we will be back.