Details of your catches:

Colin in 1 - 43 :00 John in 2 - 50:08, 30:00, 50:08, 42:00, 37:08 Phil in 5 - 36:00 , 32:00 moved to 3 - 42:00 , 41:00 , 37:00 , 36:00. Rich in 4 - 47:00 , 32:00 , 35:00 , 37:00 , 42:00 , 40:00. TOTAL = 18

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

After 24 hours it was clear that any type of boilie was a big mistake as the Poisson Chat were active in enormous numbers. Even meshed up or plastic coated failed to stop them. Even with stiff, pop - ups and 360 rigs the traces got tangled up by chat attacks. Only our opinion of course but we were restricted to plastic corn and feeding only with sweetcorn / seed. Anything else just attracted the chats. Luckily we are all experienced anglers and came prepared. We didn't do badly but unlike a previous trip, the carp were not holding up in 1 and 5 and patrolling between. A big % came from a far margin bait boat drop within minutes of the bait boat returning. If you didn't get a run in a matter of a couple of minutes it would probably sit there for 12 hours without action. So, I guess the fish were inactive and holed up and if you landed on their head you got a take but otherwise we didn't experience steady movement of fish all week. Suprising really as you would have thought the carp would be moving a lot in order to scavenge for food before the chats got there. Quick footnote; I came prepared with a lot of sweetcorn and pineapple favoured milk/ seed based 18mm boilies. These were loaded with Butyric Acid which Carp like but allegedly Chat don't. Maybe they don't like a boilie with Butyric Acid content but if a 1,000 chat each take a nibble and spew up …… your boilie is still gone. Get my drift? It's plastic only.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Couldn't fault the facilities at all ….. clean tidy lodge with spacious freezer and fridge. Shower top drawer ….. loads of hot water 24/7. Ample plug points with French and UK sockets. Toilet flush actually repaired in 24 hours of our arrival.

Were you happy with them?

Absolutely.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

With reservations. Unless the Poisson Chat are tackled quickly things will only get worse and it is very hard to see how those great big fighting fish can survive while in competition with the chat. We did nothing to feed the carp while we are there. Only sparcely baiting with sweetcorn, ….and carbs won't do much for their waist line. I used 2-3kg of boilies over 3 rods all week and took rest home and it was same with the other 3 guys.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes ….. very organised and efficient service

General Comments:

As so many people have commented, Medhi is a super guy. Very layback and when happy with you will leave you alone. Perfect. However, I suspect there are no immediate plans to tackle the chat problem ( in nearly 30 years of fishing in France I havn't seen worse and stayed) until bookings start to fail. If nature takes it's current course the chat will just get more numerous and the carp will drop weight. I genuinely hope I'm wrong as it's a great venue with a terrific head of carp in perfect condition. Bit sad to see quite a lot of plastic, line, tubing , braid and general angling debris in all the swims. We picked the vast majority of it up and removed literally hundreds of yards of line from trees and bushes. Just don't understand 1) How you can leave it in the first place or 2) Look at it all week. Medhi is a terrific guy and doesn't deserve to be insulted this way. *Angling Lines note* Mehdi is aware of the poisson chat having been particularly prolific this season - a long hot season meant perfect conditions for them to thrive. He intends to regulate them by trapping and adding some predators to help naturally balance the numbers.

Details of your catches:

1 x 20 6 x 30’s 4 x 40’s 2 x 50’s

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Plastic baits and pop ups also using a baitboat helped....we felt the carp shied away from big beds of bait.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes, facilities available were just what we needed, we took a microwave with us as well!

Were you happy with them?

Yes, the table wasn’t wonky at all and there was also a toilet roll holder present lol shower was perfect!

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Most definitely - we will be back

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Without a doubt

General Comments:

It was a slow week but we kept plodding on and eventually got amongst some of the fish which reside in Old Oaks.

Details of your catches:

13 carp in total, 1 bream & plenty of chat. Angler 1: 5 fish up to 46lb Angler 2: 8 fish up to 42lb + a 90min fight with the long common that ended with a hook pull (oh what a fight)

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Lightly baiting fishing for 1 bite at a time, heavy baited area's didn't produce any thing bar 1. Scopex squid & Candy nut crush worked

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes

Were you happy with them?

Yes

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Highly recommended

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

Fished areas recommended by Mehdi but no joy, fished to showing fish plus moved peg several times this payed off.

Details of your catches:

We had 22 fish between us with the biggest at 52 pounds. The weather had been very hot but luckily for us it cooled off just before we arrived. The fish fed well and came from all pegs in equal numbers. The biggest came to the superb angler in peg 3 (me) ha ha.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

The chats were very active so it was plastic baits popped up a couple of inches over some particle for us.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Yes.....been before.

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:

Been to this lake several times so it's almost like going back home. Mehdi is very friendly and approachable and the lake has some lovely fish but can be moody as can all lakes.