Jun 2026

A review from Colin Balment,, 11th Jun

# TRIP REVIEW #
An honest review from Colin Balment, who fished Lepinet in May 2026:

Saturday 23rd May - Saturday 30th May.

Apologies it’s slightly late, I’ve been ill with a really horrible stomach bug since the Saturday and I’m only just getting back on my feet.

Weather HOT!
Record temperatures for the time of year in France for our early trip this year, we battled through highs of 35 degrees the whole week, which at time made the trip a war of attrition.

A new venue that has been on my shortlist for a few years now, lac du lepinet is a 39 acre gravel pit split into two sides, (north and south) by a floating bouy line which conveniently marks the swim boundaries not only in distance, but either side too.

Four of us had booked pegs 1 and 2 as it’s a pre book venue, this gave us access to the middle of the lake.

I received a text in the morning informing us we could get on the lake whenever we were ready to, which was music to our ears and gave us a few extra hours to set up in the already scorching heat.

We arrived at the venue, and were greeted with two large, clean and well maintained gently sloping swims down to the waterside. These pegs could house two camper vans if that’s your thing!

True to form I lost the toss, Guy and Alan chose peg one which gave them access to not only the bouy line but also the snags to the right of them, myself and Martyn proceeded to peg 2 with him calling me all the names under the sun for losing yet another draw!

Bit by bit, as it does, camp came together and before we knew it we took turns to go out in the boat with the prodding stick to look for likely looking areas, hard and soft spots. We soon found interesting areas and decided to put a rod on a spot each and put around 3 kilo of bait on that spot. Rods out and dusk rolled in, darkness upon us, we were both shattered, but excited leading into the night.

Problems.
On the first evening, Martyn soon realised that his bait boat had no drive, which left him with 2 options, boat all three rods out to spots at around 140 metres, or, program my boat into 6 different spots. We opted for the latter, but thought we will have to be on top of the batteries all week. Both of us were highly impressed by my boat, a boatman Vulcan, 6 rods all fishing at extreme range, and several baiting up trips for the same spots, the boat never missed a beat and the batteries didn’t need charging until the Wednesday.

Another problem that caught up with us during the week was the fact we were having night time bites, great that we were getting them, not great that the bivvys were like a furnace which meant we couldn’t catch up with any sleep, until an uncharacteristically quiet Friday night, at least we had a good night sleep before the long journey home.

The fishing in general, in our swim was pretty straightforward once the work had been put in at the start of the week. Martyn’s side of the swim was certainly more productive than mine, but I put that down to us unlocking the code, and he hit rinse and repeat over and over to great effect, finishing on top rod with 6 fish to 43.8lb. He unfortunately lost a massive sturgeon right at the rod tip while I was busy snoring, he said the length of it filled the entire width of the massive swim, considering that there is a sturgeon swimming in lepinet weighing up to 190lb, I’d imagine it was that one. Wouldn’t have counted to take the money for the biggest fish, but not to worry as Martyn took both prizes for the most and the biggest.

We quickly decided that our shared spot was the one getting attention first, so, over a bacon sandwich one morning, we decided to up the bait on that spot, knowing it may take a day or two for the fish to really come onto the bait. They did, I had several chances the following night, unfortunately losing a couple, but I did manage to land a couple too. A grass carp a couple ounces under 40lb was my 'best' effort for the week.

Another positive was the bait, not what I was using, but what Martyn was using. It was the first time I’ve got my hands on Max attracts baits, great smelling boilies, and certainly something I’ll be looking to use in my fishing going forward, I’ve no doubt that it was another factor in Martyn being top rod for the week.

Guy and Alan to our right were struggling through the week, Alan decided to up sticks and move up to the really pretty but snaggy peg 5, he managed to winkle one out to save his blank. Guy plugged on and was rewarded with a couple fish to just over 40lb.

A good trip all in all, and a venue we all said that we would go back, just as long as the heat was turned down a couple notches, but you can’t control the uncontrollable!

I’d recommend lepinet to anyone, great venue with great facilities, big open comfortable swims and sunsets to die for.

Till the next time OI OI!