After our success in October last year, we were keen to revisit the vast public waters in France this year. With that in mind leave was requested and the ferry crossing was booked for the start of May. Hopefully, this would allow us to catch a few lumps at their best weights prior to spawning.

For this trip, we would be joined by Richard, a very experienced angler who has fished for many years for a variety of species but has been eluded by a 30lb Carp. Both Brian and I were confident we could put him amongst fish of this calibre on the water we visited last year.

All too soon the trip was upon us and the planning was complete. Having sussed out how to purchase the Carte de Peche last year the process was considerably easier this year and 10 minutes on the laptop had everything sorted and printed out.

After the success I had on Max Attract Baits last year, all 3 of us decided that we would use the same bait. I have been lucky enough to test some of the new Supa G test bait prior to its release. This bait has already proved to be something very special and despite the results I have had on my beloved Bancho nut, I really wanted to use the Supa G in France (well it does stink of Garlic after all!)

Between us, we ordered 50kg of Bancho Nut and Supa G in 20mm. The plan was the same as last year and fish the boilies alongside a mix of particles therefore 40kg of mixed particle were also included in the mix.

All too soon we were in the queue at Plymouth awaiting boarding for our overnight crossing, like 3 excited children on Christmas Eve! After a few beers and lots of banter, it was time to retire to our cabins!

Venue 1

The journey to our chosen venue was a very pleasant couple of hours of driving, this would be my first attempt at driving on the continent, and I must say it was a pleasurable experience. and I soon got the hang of it.

When we visited the venue last year the water levels were incredibly low and by the end of the first day everything was covered in mud. This year we were hopeful the water levels would be higher. Well, I can honestly say that our first glimpse of the barrage took our breathe away – 190 acres and it was full to the gunnels!

Unfortunately, the amount of water presented some new problems that we didn’t encounter last year. For a start, the fish now had a lot more water to hide in with shallow bays, snaggy margins and weed all looking very carpy. As there was now 3 of us fishing, we needed enough bank space for 3 bivvies and all of our associated equipment. Luckily, we found that the area in front of one of the main car parks was free.

Disaster strikes!

This is where our luck ended. Whilst setting up we were approached by a very angry predator angler in a boat. As he approached, we saw that he was taking photographs of us and another carp angler on the opposite bank. Whilst this was strange behaviour, we thought nothing of it as we were visited by the Garde De Peche last year and they said nothing to us about us not being able to fish.

A short while later a French angler turned up who could speak some English. Between his English and Richard’s pidgin French, we translated that there was a temporary ban on carp fishing throughout the department that we had purchased the Carte de Peche for. This was to allow predator anglers to take fish for the table without worrying about carp anglers.

This was not good news for us as it was getting dark, and we were told that we weren’t even allowed to camp by the lake. After a discussion with the French angler, he contacted the local Garde de Peche officer and told him that we would be camping but all our fishing gear was removed. At this point there was some decisions to be made over a few glasses of wine and some rum and cokes!

Whilst I frantically tried to ascertain the next move, Richard contacted a few commercial venues near by that were all booked so this was not an option. Using the Carp circle app I found a couple of waters in the next department that allowed night fishing so the following morning the car and van were loaded once again and off we headed to pastures new.

Venue 2

The journey to the second venue took about 2 hours and when we arrived were greeted by another 150 acre plus lake that was full to the point of flooding. On top of this the venue only had 2 sections that you could night fish. An hour or so of walking these sections soon had us coming to the realisation that this venue was not an option. There were couple of other venues in this department, but my gut feeling was that they were going to be the same.

Venue 3

A quick call to Matt had him contacting his friend in France who put us onto another lake that was fishable but in another department. So off we headed again! The new venue was just over an hour south of our location and it was a big water – by big I mean 500 acres plus! Due to it being a bank holiday in France the venue was extremely busy with not only anglersbut rowers, paddle boarders and local kids all enjoying the break. We eventually found a suitable area for all 3 of us but it meant parking up and hauling all the gear with the barrow for a few hundred yards over some rough terrain.

As our Carte de Peche was for another department, we had to purchase a reciprocal ticket for the new department. I thought this process would be easy but for some reason I could not complete the transaction on my phone therefore we were not allowed to start fishing. Luckily for us, Brian’s partner was home and I was able to talk her through the process while she purchased the tickets for us back home on her laptop (thanks Monika x)

All the departments in France have very different rules and this department didn’t allow the use of boats of any kind. This limited us to casting range therefore we would be fishing closer than we planned. A quick plumb in the swim indicated that I had a steady 7ft of water at 80m with not much deviation in the bottom substrate. I opted to fish all 3 rods onone area that would be baited with the 20mm boilies with the aid of a throwing stick. So, after nearly 36 hours of being in France all 3 of us were now actually fishing.

We stayed at this venue for 48 hours and although we caught 2 small Carp and a number of Bream, my gut was telling me that the fish were not in front of us in numbers. Moving wasn’t an option due to the bank holiday pressure, therefore I started to contemplate a plan for the remainder of the trip.

Decisions, decisions

By this point I was utilising Google translate to try and understand some of the specific rules back in our original department. As it turned out that the ban on night fishing was coming to an end on Monday. We desperately wanted to get back to our original venue and as it was now Sunday I sat down and had a chat with the other guys. We decided that we would break camp in the morning and try and get back on the original venue for the last 72 hours of the trip. Unfortunately, whilst utilising google translate I also found out that in the small print you can only fish up to 100M from the bank and all lines must be stretched from the bank without the aid of a boat. This meant that we were breaking several rulesduring our previous visit and could have faced a hefty fine if discovered – always a school day!

Back on the original venue we found the same area to be free of anglers, so we settled on 3 swims, Richard fishing on the left fishing towards the shallower part of the lake, me fishing into the narrower channel area of the lake between the 2 armsand Brian fishing into a shallow bay on the right, ironically where Brian was positioning his bait was very close to where we bivved up during our previous visit.

At this point it felt like we were finally fishing. The last 72 hours were much more pleasant with a number of fishing falling to our rods.

We chose to stagger the depths and ranges at which we were fishing and fish with a spread of boilies using the throwing stick or catapult depending on ranges.

Brian was top rod for this trip with 7 fish to just over 40lb and I had 6 fish to just over 30lb.

However, the highlight of the trip for us was that the I am pleased to say that Richard has now joined the 30’s club with a new PB of 31lb!

– Richards PB

Despite the obstacles that presented themselves this trip, we are still very much hooked on the adventures associated with fishing these wild public waters. We have already begun planning our next adventure which may well see us catching some truly wild uncaught canal monsters!

Until next time – Tight lines

The Realities of Public Water Fishing W// Dan Williams