Nicepix

Knuckles not in danger. Disc drag sees to that

Man up Lads. Centrepins are the way to go for cats................

If you take the direct route to Slovenia from Calais then you would probably be following the Rhone Valley. The Lot is at the other side of the country, About 800 km away. The other thing is that the weather in France in spring can be unpredictable and the rivers can flood for days or weeks on end. Especially on the eastern side of the country.

For the licence you can pick up a Carte de Peche at any Tourist Information Office, most Tabacs, large supermarkets and of course fishing shops. The CdP are issued by Department so you need to buy one in the Lot Department if that is where you are fishing. There is a reciprocal arrangement whereby you can fish in other departments with your CdP but you would need to clarify which departments qualify when you buy the CdP. If you are only fishing for a few days then you can get a fortnight's CdP which is cheaper than the annual one but I would advise that you also ask for the CH stamp as some public waters can only be fished with the CH stamp. It doesn't cost much more. The whole of the River Lot is classed as a Carpe de Nuit venue meaning that you can fish for carp at night along the whole length of river.... http://www.pechelot.com/web/en/regulations/ The river is absolutely gin clear and night fishing is really your best chance of getting some decent carp. The Three Foot Twits have made a video of their experiences on the Lot. If you can stand the bullpoo you might be interested in their methods and experiences. I nearly wet myself when they mentioned the gruelling drive from the ferry port. Gruelling driving in SW France? I'm not sure of where you are travelling from, but if you are coming from the UK and heading for Slovenia you will be making a massive detour to get down to the Lot Valley

I hope that you are right. It would be nice to think that there are some decent double figure barbel about. For the first five years over here I have concentrated on finding the bigger barbel. I can guarantee fish up to 6lb then it gets harder. I travel quite a lot in my job and have spent hours walking the banks of the Vienne and Charente rivers, baiting swims up, and whilst I've seen plenty of large carp I have never seen a barbel over around 8 lb. The Charente downstream of Angouleme is probably the most verdant river you could wish for. Superb water quality and plenty of limestone that promotes weed growth and in turn insect life. The chub, perch, pike and carp thrive, but the barbel seem to hit an 8lb ceiling. The water quality of the Vienne isn't as good, but there are carp to over 40lb in some stretches, and again I have only caught barbel to just over 8lb, and never seen anything bigger in the baited swims. I have basically decided to stop fighting against the current and go with the flow this year. Hence me coming on here. River carp are the new barbel for me. I am going down to the Dordogne river area next week for a few days. We go down there a couple of times a year in the camper van so I'll make some enquiries locally. I would have thought that if there were 20lb barbel in French rivers somebody would have posted a photo or a video online by now.

Its a bit of a mystery. The guy who writes for the Charente Living magazine claimed that barbel of 10Kg (22lb) have been caught in the River Vienne but the French record is way below that and the next two biggest wouldn't raise an eyebrow on the Dearne where I used to fish. They were caught by lure anglers incidentally. I reckoned that if there were any barbel of 10Kg or so they would have fallen to carp anglers on the bigger rivers such as the Seine, Rhone, Dordogne and Lot where the British and Dutch anglers regularly fish and as such been claimed as records. The large barbel in Spain are I think a different strain and can grown to over 30lb in some of the dams (stillwater barbel anyone? LOL ) . There are barbel over 200lb to be caught if you fancy risking a session in the Turkey / Iraq border area.

I also live close to the River Vienne and fish for carp. I think that the OP is fishing too far upstream. St. Leonard de Noblet is noted for trout and grayling. The carp of any size don't really feature until the Palais de Vienne and Aixe-sur-Vienne. None of the rivers so far up in the hills will yield large carp. There are some carp fishing stretches below Aixe-sur-Vienne in the St. Victurnien to St. Junien areas. Interesting the report of 20lb barbel in the Dordogne. I've not heard of any confirmed reports of fish of this size and the French rod caught record is just over 16lb and has stood for over thirty years. I've had them to just over 8lb in the Vienne at Exideuil and further downstream, and also in the Charente. If there were confirmed 20lb barbel in the River Dordogne I'd be down there like a shot. In fact we are heading that way next week for a few days so I'll make some enquiries. Back to the carp; Frolicks dog biscuits are a very popular bit for carp in this area. I snip a slot in the ringed biscuit and slip a bait band through the slot and around the biscuit. But to be fair I've had more carp and barbel on maize than everything else put together. As has been said; carp favour the slower water so fishing above weirs and in slow water behind obstructions is a good bet. They aren't rig shy so any reasonable presentation will get you fish. Even quiver tipping with a swim feeder will get you some nice carp IF you are in the right location. Best of luck!