Details of your catches:

55 fish in total including :
28 Twenties
16 Thirties
2 Forties

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Simple bottom bait rigs. Small amounts of bait in pva bags worked well. Fishmeal and birdfood boilies. (HARD HOOK BAITS AS THERE ARE CRAYFISH)

Were the facilities what you expected?

The facilities are very nice, clean and tidy.

Were you happy with them?

Very happy.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

We would recommend the food package provided by Joanne. The food is really nice home cooked food.

Would recommend micro barbed hooks as we lost a few fish early on but after a swap to micro barbed no more fish were lost.
The fish have soft mouths so I fear barbless hooks are slipping and causing
MOUTH DAMAGE !!!!!!!!

Details of your catches:

Swim 1 = 21 carp including 5 x 30's - Tony & Oliver
Swim 2 = only fished for the last 2 days by Dave, 4 carp including 1 x 30
Swim 3 = 13 carp including 2 x 30's - Dave & Nigel

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Swim 1, snowman rig's with long hook length using Solar TunaMino (test bait) with Candy Floss pop-up's.

Fished far bank, dam wall & margins, crayfish attack baits but chose to feed them off with lot's of chopped bollies. - used bait boat.

We found the the bites were very shy, a few bleep's! so watch your rod tips for flattening or the line moving as the fish kite.

Swim 2 & 3, similar tactics but used more bottom baits and wrapped to avoid Crayfish, Sticky baits - Manilla, Krill, Vortex & pop-ups with Maize

Were the facilities what you expected?

Superb! Joanne was a fantastic host and became part of the group with engaging conversations and excellent cooking. Although Joanne doesn't fish she has a great understanding of whats working. Joanne is willing to help with all the little personal problems which may occur..... and advise on how to resolve.

Were you happy with them?

Shower facilities clean with plenty of hot water

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes

General Comments:

Lovely lake with some great fish, some are showing signs of mouth damage. Swims are of a good size (solar lights needed for swim 1 due to the steps). Some of the holding spots could do with having the snags removed.

Photo's uploaded separately as the feedback upload wouldn't accept them, saying images were too big.

Details of your catches:

Swim 1 put 22 fish on the bank. Several 30lbers to 35lbs. Mostly Mirrors and a nice Grassy.

Swim 2 had to work hard this week but managed 8 fish with two low 30lbers.

Swim 3 was a struggle but did 18 fish the best being a mint Common at 36lbs. In all 3 x 30lbers.

Weather was very up and down, with 30 deg, then storms. Temp drops of over 15 deg. Lot of cool water run off in swim 3 droped the lake temps for a while. So apart from swim 1 that had fish from the off mostly on the dam wall, it was hard work. But very rewarding.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

A lot of silt in the lake, and close to the margins was a problem with Crayfish, mostly in swim 3 that was very shallow. All baits were meshed to enable them to withstand the Crays. Swim 2 used helicopter rigs whilst swim 3 used bottom baits snowman presentation, meshed over both the pop up and bottom bait. Swim 1 did suffer Cray problems when close to margins but mostly avoided the need to mesh baits.

Tuna and Krill from Eclipse did well in swim 1 and 3. But think any good bait will work. With more stable weather one could see a lot of fish on the bank here. Be aware though the snags extend further into the lake than you can see. So Lock Up or fish back by a couple of rods if you are not used to that type of fishing.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Facilities were very good. Nice clean working shower was enjoyed by all. Joanne our host at the lake was nothing less than brilliant. Her food was very good and most of the guys had seconds, think that says it all. Even did some shopping for us. That's beyond what was anticipated. Definitely a five star service from her. Thankyou Joanne, a credit to you that made our visit not just good but great.

Were you happy with them?

Very happy with what we found here. The new platforms are very stable and offer plenty of room. They had cleared lots of Trees so was a bit open in places but growth has started already and it will mature in a natural way and further enhance the lakeside visual.

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

It would be an ideal lake for anyone going to France for the first time. So long as they are up on fishing silty lakes. Though we did find some hard spots in swims 2 and 3. I took my son and his workmates on there first trip to France, so was a little concerned. But everyone caught fish and though tough on 2 and 3 they all enjoyed it.

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

First time ever used Angling Lines. Been fishing in France for 15 years but always booked direct with the various lake owners. But was very impressed with the service I received. Even had one guy drop out so had to change, but was so easy and no problem. One of the guys changed his car, but once again was just not an issue. They are very approachable, very professional, very easy to deal with. Was in truth very impressed and would use them again. How easy was that trip-EASY.

General Comments:

All in all a very good holiday, and a very good Fishing trip. Not sure if the depths indicated though are correct. Swim 3 very shallow indeed, Swim 2 struggled to find 5ft and even Swim 1 not much more than 6ft. But it made no difference to the fishing. But being a "shallow" lake the weather conditions on the day had an effect on the fishing. But that's just part of fishing. Sadly website would not accept any pics as to big to upload. So Angling Lines my only complaint - whats that all about.

*Angling Lines note* Thank you so much for such detailed feedback Paul, we will look into the issue with uploading photos. We think that the water levels will be down slightly on La Fonte (as with a lot of lakes in France this year) due to an unusually hot and dry season so far, therefore perhaps less depth in places than usual.

Details of your catches:

30 fish caught in total up to 41lb, plenty of 30's and a few smaller fish thrown in.

Your best tactics/bait/rigs:

Pegs 1 Used a bait boat to fish tight to the far margins.
Peg 2 used a bait boat to drop tight piles of bait a few rod lengths away from the margins.
Peg three cast over to the far margin. Rigs to combat deep silt were essential. Pop ups, critically balanced baits or snowman presentation worked well.

After a few days the cray fish were waiting for our baits so plastic baits are also advised.

Were the facilities what you expected?

Excellent facilities.

Were you happy with them?

Very happy

Would you recommend the venue to a friend?

Yes

Would you recommend the services to a friend?

Yes. Angling lines did all they could to look after us.

General Comments:

Upon arriving at the lake and hearing that the previous party of anglers had had an action packed week we were looking forward to some excellent sport. Unfortunately the temperatures went sky high and it killed the fishing off completely. None of us caught a fish between 9am and 7pm until the last day. 27 of our fish came out during the evening, night and early morning.

The fish are stunning and there is a good mix of mirrors and commons. A lot of the fish are recognisable and have plenty of character about them.