Lac De Premiere

Well the journey just flew by as we made our way to Lac De Premiere; excited for my first fishing trip to France we arrived around 8.00am on Saturday13th June just raring to go. Although a swim was already pre booked and allocated to us we still went for a wonder to get a feel for the Gorgeous 33 acre lake, It was quite hard to determine where the fish were holding up as the water was a little murky and not very clear, so after getting acquainted and meeting everyone we headed back to our swim to get set up, the sun was beaming so we got settled and took a minute to chill out from the journey and devise a plan

I was sharing swim 3 with my partner and we determined who was fishing the open water first and who was towards/in the margins by flipping a coin, turned I won the (again) and opted for the margins. For the next few hours we was out in full force with the marker rod and baited up our spots, you don’t really appreciate a spod rod until you’ve spent 45 minutes with a throwing stick, to say I couldn’t move my arm was an understatement, I was already looking forward to chilling out.

After three nights with just the occasional liners it become apparent that the fish were just not holding up down our end, every night around 8/9pm the fish would become more active, but sitting there watching the fish lump out down the opposite end of the lake as well through the middle (pretty much everywhere but where we were) was soul destroying!!

On the morning of the fourth day we spoke to Keith who agreed we could move to one of the empty double swims further down the lake, at this point we were eager to get moving. We moved onto swim 14 which was great because now we were fishing to the centre of the lake, we straight away got the marker rods out to try find the best possible spots and put out at least 5kilo of free bait over my three rods. We’d taken around 70 kilo of Nutrix bollies from the UK Bait Company; I still think we could’ve done with more though.

Apart from making a conscious effort to find the fish there is only so much you can do and the rest is a waiting game, fishing can be as technical as you make it, on trips like this there is a lot of prep work to take into consideration. The one thing I couldn’t prepare in advance was my rigs as I didn’t what I was going to be fishing on. After some advice from the bailiff I prepped a few rigs, I started off with 7 inch standard knot less knot hook links, using size 6 curve shank hooks from Deception Angling which were fished in a snow man presentation. The leads I was using were 3oz distance pears with weed/gravel finishes from Lakebed Leads.

Around 10pm that night my middle rod screamed off, being the first take since the Saturday morning you can imagine how I was feeling at this point!! Playing the fish I could feel the strength behind it as it continued to battle for what felt like a long 10 minutes, a weight had been lifted when I finally got it in the net, with the biggest grin on my face there before me was my first stunning French common, I looked round to find my partner already and waiting with a wet sling in hand and the scales zeroed, we got ourselves prepared which give me time to contain my excitement ready for the weigh in, lifting the sling on to the tripod for the needle to stop dead on 32lb.

32 Lb Common. Worth getting wet for!

The next two nights were really quiet and the guys on 16 two swims down were having a really active week, I think their total for the week was 14 fish but they worked hard for every single one..  It was good to mingle with people over the week and meet new anglers, on the Friday morning at breakfast the guys from swim 16 mentioned that they were heading home early and offered us to move into their swim, being our last night we jumped to the chance and could’ve done with a changeup.

The move turned out to be the best decision we made that week, 8.00pm Friday my middle rod screamed off, quick on the take the power behind this fish was unbelievable yet I couldn’t determine just what I was in for, after a few minutes of playing the fish my line loosened right up, cautiously reeling to keep the slack away I realised the fish was swimming towards me, after one final battle I placed the net in the water and got it in the net, I could not believe what was In front of me as I peered in the net to see a gorgeous grass carp, with the sling dipped and ready, I didn’t want to take time to contain my excitement,  all difference numbers  going round in my head, I just had to know, so when the needle on the scales stopped at 45LB 7OZ I was shocked.. So shocked in fact I weighed it again, my first grass carp, what a stunner.  As soon as I’d released the fish safely back to the water there I was rod in hand casting my rod as accurately as I could back to the same spot, being our last night I was wasting no time!!

Climbing out the lake after a few water shots, I’d changed ready for a celebration on the new Grass carp PB, Just when I thought I had time my middle rod AGAIN screamed off, this time even quicker on the take, the battle felt no different to the last one, I must’ve been playing the fish for a good ten minutes or so, no matter how many fish you catch in a life time that nervous feeling will never go. Finally it slide smoothly into my net and I laughed to myself as I looked down In the net to see another stunning grass carp, this one was smaller but that little bit livelier than the last, I was already grinning and squealing from my catch it just got a little bigger and louder when this beauty weighed in at 35lb 8oz!!

Buzzing from my eventful afternoon, I knew I was getting no sleep tonight; I wanted to do all I could to make my last night count, then at exactly 10.16pm I got another screamer as my right rod tore off. This time the fish clearly had no intention of swimming towards me, as I played the fish I could feel it starting to get exhausted, I had the net ready in the water, but it was quite persistent, just as it got nearer to the bank it decided to regain some energy and tear off towards the margins, at this point I was just praying that I didn’t get snagged up but this spurt of energy didn’t last long and after an eventful 20 minute battle it finally slipped nicely into my net. Shining my head torch in the net to then see before me a cracking mirror, rushes of excitement flooded over me as I stared trying to guestimate the size of this beauty. Looking round there again was my partner all prepped and ready, which makes things so much easier I must say, we hoisted the fish on to the tripod for the needle to stop bang on 37lb 8oz, unbelievable, after the chain of events I was feeling confident and reluctant to sleep, to which I didn’t.

Smile for the camera.

Unfortunately my eventful evening had come to an end, however around 5.00 Saturday morning I caught a catfish, it was only a kitten so I didn’t weight it. But I was well chuffed to have held my first cat, around 7.00am in the same morning as we were packing up ready to head home I was lucky enough to have my last take which again was a small catfish.

This experience is going to be hard one to beat, I won some and lost some, but I had the best time doing it… the food was amazing, the lake/venue was just stunning, the people were really friendly and we got to meet some quality anglers along the way.

I can’t wait to go back for another week!!! JJ