TCB's French experience

[tcbuk]

You may be disappointed if you thought the title a little racy.

 

I just got back from a 5 day trip to Mrs TCB's nephew in France and I'd like to share a couple of things.

 

Firstly, I did manage to get a line wet, but blanked, oh well not the first, certainly wont be the last ... but if you read on you may not be surprised I blanked.

We did not have a lot of time, only an afternoon, we went to a smallish lake which was very local to our location, paid our 5 Euro's, made our way to the lake and came upon a notice board, apparently the notice went along the lines of :-

The lake was closed during the month of March, at which time 900 kilos of fish were stocked, April the 1st (no joke) the lake opens at a daily rate of 20 Euro's per day. Nothing too strange so far ...

Except, what you catch you "take away", literally. Again, not uncommon, except they stock not only trout but all manner of silver fish, including some pretty big carp, which are caught and taken for the table.

 

Never heard of this before, but it might explain a) Why the ticket was only 5 Euro's and b) The blank afternoon.

 

Secondly, I paid a visit to a tackle shop, quite a big shop, sitting on a shelf was what I can only describe as 24 inches of clear 25mm (approx) clear plastic tube mounted on a tripod, with a "black box" on the rear end of the tube, along with a couple of what appeared to be small pipes attached at various points of the black box. I really wish I had taken a snap and paid more attention because I think it was for shooting boilies long range, it was 280 Euros and I can only think it used some type of compressed gas canister to power the contraption. Something similar to a paint ball gun I suspect but mounted on a tripod and considerably heavier in manufacture. If it works and I've no reason to think otherwise it must be extremely accurate.

Has anyone else seen anything like it ?

 

Lastly, now I've bored you all to tears, I picked up a few kilos of a bait I've not seen used here before, nothing found in the forum search either, I'll let you know what it is and how it works out, when I've checked it's OK to use.

 

Cheers

 

Mark

[tractorlad]

I think what you are describing is what is often known as a boilie cannon. as you quite rightly said its used for baiting up at long range using compressed gas. banned on most of the waters i have fished in france, in the wrong hands using rock hard air dried 22mm boilies i would imagine it could be quite a lethal piece of equipment,especially when the boys are getting a bit bored, had a few tinnies and using everything that moves on the lake as target practice !

[tcbuk]

I think what you are describing is what is often known as a boilie cannon. as you quite rightly said its used for baiting up at long range using compressed gas. banned on most of the waters i have fished in france, in the wrong hands using rock hard air dried 22mm boilies i would imagine it could be quite a lethal piece of equipment,especially when the boys are getting a bit bored, had a few tinnies and using everything that moves on the lake as target practice !

 

I have to say the thought had crossed my mind and made me smile considerably, but at 280 Euros a little too much for a laugh.

 

I had visions of hiding it away in the bivvy lol.