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From what I have read on the internet, 95% of UK anglers, who go fishing in France head for the many British owned carp fisheries within an easy drive of the channel ports. I wanted to show that there are plenty of opportunities elsewhere in the country especially if you head all the way down to the Pyrenees. I set out this morning to get some videos of the dozens of lakes within ½ an hour of my home which are never fished. They are usually fenced off, not because the owners want to prevent people from fishing but to avoid potentially very expensive litigation if someone were to have an accident. I took my drone so that I would not have to get permission to access each lake and I started with the smallest which is just on the edge of my village. I was aware of the lake's presence having glimpsed reflections from its surface through the trees in winter when the leaves had fallen. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up this morniing with this first location, the rest is on hold for the moment. It took a lot of thrashing through brambles and nettles to get anywhere near the water but eventually my dog found a way through. The third of the lakes, about 4 acres in size, proved to be an absolute gem with patches of bubbles fizzing everywhere. We are suffering from a major heatwave at the moment so fishing is not practical. Meanwhile I will visit our mayor to try and find the owner of the lakes and also do a recce to work out how to fish such an overgrown location. Mostly using footage from my phone (so apologies for the quality), I made a short Youtube clip of this morning’s visit. I hope you find it interesting.

It wasn't cast at showing fish, but one of my favourite fish from Brackens was a 2 tone heavily scaled linear. The lake rules are no free bait can be put in by catapult or throwing stick, the only way to put free bait in was with PVA. I put in a load of my 'BIG' stringers, there is a picture somewhere of one, but I think it was 30'ish casts of 30 bait stringers. Within 10 minutes I had the linear at 28lb. That is just after plenty of disturbance, those stringers with a 3oz lead made plenty of noise. To be honest, I was baiting up for the night, not expecting a take in the middle of the day. On the same lake, it was a small lake of 1 1/2-2 acres, if fish showed or rolled, it wasn't worth casting at them, they were very aware and would disappear. You could however land on them and get some pretty quick takes within minutes of casting.

Thanks all again for the replies, happy fishing

At the end of the day you have to get bait out there somehow mate. Normally I'll start with singles, if I don't get a take then I'll pepper a few baits out with the stick/catty, if there's still no take and the fish are still there I'll spod. Their reaction will be different from water to water - I've had them disappear not to return and I've had takes from under the spod. Even when they do spook they'll normally be back come first light.

There is only one way to guarantee your rig is where the fish are and that is to put a rig were you see the carp. The other option is put a rig where you don't see fish which makes no sense whatsoever imo. I wont cast a rod until I've seen fish, that should be a general rule for any serious carp angler imo. You can waste a hell of a lot of hours (or days and even weeks on tricky waters) waiting for the carp to come to you. Fish where the fish are, golden rule. I will not hesitate to cast at a showing fish.

The answer is to cast past the show and reel the rig into position and drop it over the spot. Even if you are using PVA bags, you should get about 30 seconds before they break down.