Nov 2013

Annual Netting at Jonchery, 22nd Nov

You can see the full post with more pictures over on the Angling Lines Blog

Around this time in France fish farmers are busy in full swing managing the nettings on their many lakes. It is because of this that Heather and myself made a trip over to France this November. We called in to visit the Bacheliers, who were going to be netting both Jonchery and Brocard Large over two days.

The dates of nettings are pencilled in as autumn approaches so a ‘window’ for our visit was set. The wet weather was to play a huge part. Normally the first netting of the season is the top lake at La Horre. However Paul Bachelier had kept me updated and even 10 days after the start of the drain down the lake was still full(!) simply due to the volume of constant rain. As the labour is already organised, they opted to drain Jonchery first as this lake's water level was more easily controllable so, with 1 days notice, we packed the warmest clothes we could find as well as all our photography gear and waders. 

The purpose of these nettings as usual are basically two fold.

Firstly they remove the silverfish roach, Zander etc which are later sold on to either tackle shops as live bait or to other fishery owners all over France. This maintains a healthy balance in the lake so the smaller fish don’t get topside and the carp get their share of the rich food sources in the lakes.

Silver fish are carefully sorted and loaded into large aerated tanks on their lorries, and then placed in specific holding ponds ready for distribution. This process is repeated each day on a different lake or lakes for around a month, and can only be described as manic hard work as the fish farmers net everyday to gather in their harvest.

Below is a quick clip of some of the young carp we saw netted from the lake, the next generations of beautiful scaley carp jonchery is known for.

Secondly they manage the stocks of carp and catfish alongside checking the general health of the carp. It gives them chance to see if damage is occurring and also to see the growth rates.  The Bacheliers have so many lakes and clearly don’t net every one, every year. Some lakes are stocked & left for years until the fish grow to the required size. However, they do try to net or partially net the lakes used for carp fishing annually to keep track.

I have to admit that although very much looking forward to seeing the carp, we weren't particularly looking forward to standing in very cold water for hours on end, open to the elements! As it turns out, I really needn’t have worried about the cold. I don’t think I've ever seen it milder at this time of year, and whilst it rained almost non stop through out, the temperatures were not at all harsh. The warmer weather was a relief to us but unfortunately not ideal at all for netting a lake. In ideal conditions you want the water cold, very cold! This makes the fish less active and therefore easier to handle and less likely to be damaged or damage themselves through stress.

Because of this, the carp were hugely active and as a result it was decided to only net partially. It is fairly easy to see where the silverfish are held up and so they walk a net out and loop around pulling it in slowly. The silverfish are gathered and placed on a wide tray where the fish are sorted into different bins according to size and species then hauled up and transferred into the aerated tanks on the wagons.

It was here, amongst the silverfish, that some very big and beautifully scaled carp dominated the nets. We kept our camera rolling as one after the other was passed over the net back into the lake. Many stunning fully scaled mirrors and linears amongst them. They were often so lively that Franck barely had time to check their mouths before they were wriggling through his grip and back into the shallow pool.

This partial netting process was repeated and several tonnes of silverfish were removed.  In Jonchery they don’t have any catfish present, mainly because Paul Bachelier also uses the water to grow on a selection of Zander. We were told that Zander were fetching a very good price as they prove popular in coarse fisheries and it is difficult to meet demand.  

Finally, when I assured Paul I had seen enough large carp, the netting was ended and focus immediately passed to transporting the silverfish into the small stock ponds. When all was done everyone sat to enjoy a well earned lunch and we set about reviewing the footage.  

The footage is still being pieced together but for now here are a few stills below. There are also more pictures from the netting over on our blog, which you can see here.

Bridget