Another Sunday and another session on my local un-named syndi, the lake is only around 8 acres in size and has a stock of circa 200 carp, 12 of which go into the 30’s. No monsters, but with it being only 5 miles from home I’ve spent the last 10 years on the lake, my fishing on here is now is solely for the ‘originals’ or the A Team as I call them. The A Team consists of only 5 fish with the ‘Big Red’ being my target fish, she only graces the bank once every two years or so and was last caught 12 months previous at 26.10lb. I caught her at 22.08lb 5 years ago, not massive but an absolute stunning zip linear that’s basically quite Red in colour hence the name, and its 12 months ago that I decided I wanted to catch her again.

Having spent so long on the water it’s fair to say I know the lake like the back of my hand, and should do really which is why I tend to avoid the stockies quite well, today I pitched up in peg 48 (the lake has 16 pegs!!!) fishing to a gravel patch at 75 yards which is a nice distance to throw a solid bag onto. I do like my bait boat but with it being a Sunday with a 06.00am pack up followed by a service station shower before I arrive at the office all my gear is stripped down to the bare minimum! I set up my usual go to solid bag rig on all three rods and out they go over a perhaps 30-40 CR1 boilies. The bag rigs are all the same, a size 6 Kurve Shank with an aggressive piece of shrink tube tied to 4 inches of super natural hook link with a Northern Special mounted on a size 10 swivel. The rain is lashing down with very high winds and I have the lake to myself which are perfect conditions on this water, it tends to be a night water as a rule which is why I was surprised that my right hand rod ripped off around 17.00pm and following a long battle with the fish heading for the snaggy margins I finally slip the net under her and realise I’ve bagged one of the ‘12’, my third (one of the 12) this year from this tricky water. On the scales a fish known as ‘8 Ball’ goes to 30.08lb, a few pictures and a cup of tea later I’m ticking off another one of the lakes 30’s in my yearly book. It’s my only fish of this trip as before I know it I’m packing up in the dark and off to work again. I will be back down again next Sunday buoyed by the fact that I’ve seen Big Red just off the bridge in a no fishing area whilst on a pre-baiting trip, and its little visits like that where you can really map out the lake and the movements of its residents if done regularly. So fingers crossed for the next Sunday session this week coming.

10/04/15 and were off to Chalet Lake in France for the first of my 3 trips to region this year, we have a lake exclusive meaning there are only the 3 of us in 19 acres of French heaven. Chalet Lake is a little published lake and is set well off the beaten track with little to no amenities though as the name suggests there is a Chalet situated at the end of the lake near the Dam wall, it was here after the 5 hour drive down to Metz that we spent the first night relaxing enjoying a few well earn’t beers discussing where to start in the morning in the hunt for the chunks that it holds (circa 15 50’s all of which pushing the magical 60lb mark)

I picked sensibly and opted for the centre of the lake to start with and found a reasonably clear spot at a comfortable 90 yards just off what appeared to be light blanket weed, the lake itself is relatively uniform and is mainly 4ft deep with mixed patches of silt. I had 10kg of CR1 boilies and 25kg of particles at my disposal so out I went in the boat and applied a few Kilos to the spot, id chosen to fish all three rods tight to the area as a starting point and felt confident in my go to approach of solid bags.

After 24 hours with not even a liner I reverted to plan B which was to fish just off a small patch of gravel with the left hand rod at 45 yards leaving the other two over the baited area, I was sure that they would move onto the bait at some point. Second afternoon of the trip and the left hand rod was away just as I was catching up on a little sleep, after a short battle a mid-twenty was in the net and ready for the photos. Not the leviathan that I was looking for. The left hand rod continued to produce all week but again only fish in the mid-twenties, and this was a theme across the lake. My theory for this being that as the lake is relatively shallow coupled with the first real outbreak of warmth the area had seen for many a month the smaller fish were first out the blocks as the water warmed (we were having 27 degrees in the day) leaving the bigger girls harder to find. To make it worse still not a liner off the baited area but there had been few shows by Tuesday.

Re-think Wednesday arrived and it was clear that the fish were really starting to move through the reed beds at range, just ahead of big fish Thursday! I bit the bullet and pushed my two rods out to 145 yards and onto the showing fish, and in all fairness feeling a little deflated that my first choice area had not yet paid off, but hey that’s fishing as we all know. I began to pick up fish straight away over my hemp, tigers and CR1 approach. Firstly a few more upper twenties then the 30’s began to show and over the course of the week a managed 5 of these in total, not what we’d come for really but you can only catch what’s in front of you.

Big fish Thursday arrived and I was not to be let down, the middle rod at 145 yards let off a single bleep and the line tightened slightly, I was onto the rods waiting for one more beep or any movement in the line when the Delkim screamed at me as line was being ripped off the Basia and I was into what instantly felt like a better fish. Chesty’s on and 15 minutes later I slid the net under what looked like lump, and felt happy that we were finally finding a few bigger fish. Weighed and photographed she went 49lb on the nose, I was gutted it didn’t go to 50lb but as it was it turned out to be the biggest of the trip.

Whilst I caught steady throughout the week from both the long range and 45 yard spots I managed 24 fish in total but still feel that me and Chalet Lake have unfinished business, usual excuses aside we all felt that we had just caught the lake a week early and will most definitely return to chase the monsters that are undoubtable in there. With 44 fish in total being caught, plenty of beer and BBQ food consumed all in all it was a good week and I had the sun burn to prove it!

Roll on the next trip!