gap Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Thought I'd post up the write up I did for a weeks fishing at La Frit duing the last week of October 2007.. only regret is not changing to the alternative baiting strategy sooner.. lesson learnt for next time, if it's not happening, make it happen Here goes: Saturday Was at the lake for the full 7 days this time with Saturday afternoon spent getting the bivvy sorted and pre-baiting the same area I fished the last time I was in peg 10. Jamie went in 9, Trevor in 8 and Al was in 7, this gave us the opportunity to cover the whole lake with only Chis the bailiff having other rods in the water from 4 occasionally. Saturday evening found us in a bar with neon lights on the outside and a red light within, serving only champagne by a middle aged lady in a tight fitting leather skirt, I quickly ascertained it wasn’t the place to take the kids and Trev quickly ascertained there was no beer on tap so we legged it, finally finding an Irish bar full of French but with a TV tuned to the Rugby finals... mission accomplished! We lost of course and decided we were too sloshed to risk putting the rods out that night, so it was an early night to bed with a heavy heart Sunday Sunday morning arrived and out went the rods on the pre-baited area with high expectations. Chris turned up mid morning and gave some advice about where to put the baits in peg 10 “in the V he said”.. I moved one of the 3 rods on to it later that day but not before it gave a few beeps from the pre-baited area, the bobbin stayed up so I hit it with a lovely autumn coloured 37.4 mirror on the bank, a nice start. It wasn’t to be the first time Chris turned up and one of the rods screamed off, just ask Trev and how he feels about the current retirement age in the UK Monday The cold clear nights and north winds throughout the day continued to keep the fishing slow with everyone struggling waking to a harsh frost each morning, especially Jamie who was on a blank. I could see him getting a little down heartened. I was fortunate enough to have another run off the baited area in the shape of a 30-0 mirror Tuesday Jamie’s 16th Birthday arrived far too quickly signifying we were nearly half way through the week with nothing much to show for us two with Jamie still blanking and myself on 2 x 30’s.. Cards and presents opened, we reeled in and headed off to town to have some nosh at a restaurant we’d spotted next to the Irish bar.. superb food, Jamie tried snails for the first time, I had foie gras followed by steak in stilton Jamie favoured the duck in honey, the mousse au chocolat was mouth watering and sorbet in vodka for me was not quite a cold Stella but nearly as good.. very yummy but bloody hard on the wallet! Fully fed and watered we arrived back to see nothing else had been caught, Chris was there again and helped munch a slice of the chocolate tart we’d bought in Vitry as a substitute birthday cake. We were all encouraging Jamie throughout the day.. I vowed “you will have a birthday fish son, I promise”.. must admit that I did start to panic a bit come 11:15pm (ish) but true to La Frit last knockings reputation, we had a screaming run… unfortunately, on my rods not Jamie’s.. Jamie stood by as usual after sprinting down from peg 9 to spend the next 15 mins watching me fanny about with what was obviously a powerful fish stripping line off a tight clutch.. Jamie expertly slipped the net under a common that I thought “mmmm, now that’s big, may even push 50”.. Jamie did some more sprinting to get Trev and Al in to the swim to help with the weighing and foto’s.. in fact, I couldn’t look so Trev weighed the fish with the words “you’re going to need bigger scales mate!” Heart in my mouth, I looked over his shoulder to see the scales way past the 60 mark (net hadn’t been zero'd yet).. The usual weighing of the fish, net, fish again, net again, call to Chris to confirm the math’s and two sets of reuben heaton scales later, we all confirmed the fish was indeed 60lb 2oz… I picked my boy up and held him high, …‘a 60 Common on Jamie’s birthday’… our return trip to La Frit had somehow started to surpass our first session of two years past. The bottle of Jack Daniels was opened and we sat in Jamie’s swim flabbergasted at what we’d seen on the bank. Wednesday Only 2 entries in the catch diary this day, one read “blank”, the other read “don’t care”.. not surprising really considering the amount of noise we all made on learning of the 60 common the night before. Trev was having it big time by now and Jamie stuck between the two swims was getting much exercise but he was way down in the doldrums and starting to believe his first trip to France fishing from his own swim was a step too far too soon. Trev kindly gee’d him up by letting Jamie land a lovely 30+ common after Trev found himself in my swim when he had a screamer.. nice one mate, not many would have done that for the lad. However, Jamie’s down at heart demeanor was soon scotched when he landed a couple of 20’s in quick succession that evening.. Yeee haaaaaa, the boy’s off the mark with his own rods and we could all rest easy in the knowledge that none of us were going back on a blank. Thursday Is it really Thursday already, I thought?! Am I really going to blank again today?.. come on Le Frit, the weather’s turned for the better and we’re now in the latter half of the trip where multiple runs per day are common.. it really wasn’t going to plan, big bed of bait, keep the swim quiet and wait for them to find it wasn’t doing the trick this trip… against all expectation, not a fish on the bank for Jamie and I that day.. even with the 60 and Jamie’s 20’s we were both feeling, ‘there has to be more’.. With nothing much happening we did liven our spirits with a few comedy moments remembering French fishing isn’t all about serious carp angling, beer swilling and the incessant shrill of the Delks.. it’s also about the experience of being there with a bunch of mates, no worries, no chores and having a laugh. … bagging the smallest French PB ever … Oh, there is one very notable thing about this day apart from the fact that a hundred rats seemed to have located my swim, Trev regained his crown as having the largest overseas pb of UK carpers by bagging a lake record 65lb mirror to improve on the session best 53 he’d had earlier in the week and his forum record 57 from Valdore.. a massive well done again mate for a truly awesome capture… I had the crown for a whole 48hrs or so Friday Blimey, the penultimate day.. the afternoon of the penultimate day even!! best we have a rethink!! I sat in my bivvy nursing a sore head after celebrating with Trev and Jamie until 4 in the morning following yesterday’s success with the 65 Mirror and then it occurred to me.. my almost immediate success with the 30’s earlier in he week had come to a particular baiting strategy forced in to play because I’d not had any particles ready in bulk!! I needed a “quick hit” strategy now, so out went ‘the alternative bait’ with pretty amazing results within 30 mins of boating out to the same baited area I’d been on all week 4pm saw a clonking 53.12 mirror being returned after what was a pretty disappointing fight on he left hand rod until it hit the margin area, where it woke up and took line for 5 mins or so… Jamie, true to form, was the perfect netsman and slipped her in the net soon after. 4.10pm 53 returned to the water, bait out and no sooner had I got the boat to the bank the middle rod was off resulting in a racing snake 26.8 common in the net 5.15pm came to the welcoming sound of the Delk’s passing line at pace on the right hand rod, after a hard fight, an admirable 36-8oz mirror was recorded and returned. 5.45pm and another 30 was on the bank in the shape of a gorgeous 35-04 Common off my left hand rod that had caught the 53 not 2 hours earlier.. this was getting silly The baiting strategy change had clearly done something so I went round to Jamie to convince him to take the same approach leaving my remaining rod in the water on the thought that if I didn’t have another fish I’d be happy and my time was better spent making sure my boy went away with the same feeling… only 16 hours to go but things had changed so dramatically for me, I was sure he’d have a similar result Jamie sorted and back to my swim to boat out the 2nd and 3rd rods at approximately 8pm. Job done and I headed off down the track with the remote in hand to check on Jamie and have a (nother) Stella with Trev.. I didn’t get far.. not more than a few paces from the bivvy and the rod I’d left in was away.. the fish came in remarkably easily almost feeling like it was swimming towards me.. another wee ‘un on then? The thought was dismissed when we saw the swirl a good few feet behind the point where the line entered the water with no sign of a fish.. whatever was fighting below had to be big to have that effect on its surroundings… comments of “he’s got a cat on” were uttered. After freeing the landing net from a marginal snag and several marginal lunges from what was clearly something big, Jamie slipped the net under a heftily weighted fish. On peering in the net and giving it a little lift, I looked at Trev and said “you weigh it mate I can’t look”, could this really be 50 number two in less than 2 hours! It certainly was, a very very long 53.4 Leather was photographed and returned to fight again, awesome! Nothing else occurred that night in terms of ridiculous number of runs and fish size apart from another 22-08 racing snake common shortly before midnight.. the lake was full of them and I didn’t feel the need to take a photo for this one, sleep was beckoning! Saturday Time to get the head down for the final night, get some sleep ready for the long journey home tomorrow… not a chance! The experience I had earlier that evening was to bestow our Jamie throughout the early hours of Saturday morning with a run every 2 hours culminating in him catching 20’s and 30’s and finally achieving his goal of catching his first 40 (exact weight to follow), an awesome way to finish the trip!! Well done son, left it a bit late mate Total for Gary 1 x 60 2 X 50 4 X 30 2 X 20 9 fish for 355lb average weight 39.5lb… slightly down on 2005 (41lb) Total for Jamie 1 x 40 2 x 30 4 x 20 1 x 10 8 fish for 220lb … average weight 27.5lb… great result A great week in great company!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellethead Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Ahhh, remember it well mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gap Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Ahhh, remember it well mate. was a bit good wasn't it mate roll on August Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldo Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 hi guy's some cracking carp there!How does la friterrie fish early on in the season ie april,may? cheers colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gap Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 I've not fished it at that time Colin (August and Oct so far and had 50's each time)... however, speaking with Chris, he reckoned he 60 Common came out 3 times last year.. once early in the season, the week before we attended and clearly the week we attended... I'd imagine it'd fish very well weather permitting.. I guess the best advice I can give is have a look on the website as they do week by week accounts of fish captures... 2007 was quite an unusual year weather wise so bear that in mind. hope that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldo Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 there was a few of the scottish carp group boy's on it last year and had a brilliant week with a couple of 50's caught several 40's and loads 30's the same crowd are away again this year.already booked up this year but a very strong possibility for next year emailed them earlier for availability for 2009 cheer's colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gap Posted February 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2008 hope you have a great time mate and have a few of those whackers out of there my missus is Scottish by the way, we used to live in Dundee for a while and then Inverness (Findhorn to be exact)... great for fishing the Loch's and rivers for the game fish but boy, did I miss my carp fishing... spoilt for choice these days down here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldo Posted February 6, 2008 Report Share Posted February 6, 2008 had a mate of mine up from rottinstall last year for a bit of piking on loch oich, his mother has bought a guest house in inverness,put him onto some good marks,he phones me when he's on the banks from oich ,he's just had 3lb jack and netted something that was floating about on the surface,which after a bit of explaining turned out to be a kelp,a bit worse for wear,and while he was on the phone he couldn't beleive what he was seeing(two big eyes looking at him from the loch)it was a blooming big seal ,explains why the kelp was floating about , he was totally amazed and yes you are spoiled for choice down there but we've got a couple of gem's in the making up here thanks to the guy's running the carp group Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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