Bluewater Lakes.

[carper-chris]

Saturday 6th

Well, Saturday the 6th finally arrived and with last minute checks etc done I loaded up the car(which was very full!) and we set off at around 3 and arrived at Paul’s house at 8ish.
The waiting around at Paul’s house was torture but when the others let Paul know that they were near to the docks we left and within 5 minutes we were there at 2am.

The others got there about 20 minutes after us and it was my first time meeting them all, they were all very nice and friendly and got on well with all of them.

I can’t remember the time of the ferry but it was an early morning one and it was blowing a gale, the crossing wasn’t too bad though and after 90 minutes we were in France!

The final leg of the journey, Steve had a sat nav so we followed him and I think it took around 4/5 hours to get there after getting lost in a very run down town.

We finally got to the lake in the early afternoon and met the owners which were very helpful and friendly, they told us about last weeks catch and where they were catching the fish from etc. We all picked our swims and set up, got a few hours fishing in before it was time for dinner at 6pm.

My swim -



A very nice meal and back to the rods and a very quiet night with not one fish coming out.

Sunday 7th

I managed to get a few hours sleep but there were loads of rats running around in my swim and they kept me awake for some of the lake.

Breakfast was delivered to our swims at 9am, a breakfast baguette which was very nice indeed and after eating that I recast my rods with fresh baits and a new pva bag on each.

Today we hired the bait boat and bought 25kg of pellet and 5kg of matrix boilies.

A very quiet days fishing but enjoyable none the less.

Steve had 1 run in the afternoon and it turned out to be the only sturgeon in the lake which was caught last week at 84lb. A very intense battle followed but the fish was lost after it ran into a snag.

After another tasty meal and a chat with everyone at dinner we all returned to our swims and got back to the fishing.

I used the bait boat to put 2 of my baits under the over hanging trees on the far side margin and put the other 2 out on small golf ball size pva bags cast around 3/4s of the way out.
The traps were set and I was ready.

A quiet evening to start with but at midnight I got my first run on my right rod but after striking the wrong rod(middle rod) I lost the fish!

I now had 2 baits out of position and didn’t want to boat them out again in the dark because of the snags and it wasn’t my boat so I made up 2 pva bags and cast them as far as I could, about ¾ of the across.

The next run came at 2:50am on my right rod and I landed a very nice 28lb mirror, a new pb.



I returned the fish and at 3:15am my middle rod screamed off and after a spirited battle I landed a tidy fish which pulled the scales round to 37lb, another pb.



Pictures take and fish returned safely I went back to bed, very happy with myself but just 20 minutes later my right rod went again and a 26lb 6oz mirror carp was in the net.



That was all my action for the night and I was very pleased, I could’ve caught nothing else for the rest of the week and still been extremely happy.

Monday 8th

while breakfast was being delivered to our swims my right rod tears away and I was into a decent fish which decided to spit the hook at the net, the fish looked over 30lb.

I was advised to use larger hooks by the owner as the fish here have very soft mouths but I was happy with my rigs and kept with the fox size 8’s.

Another quiet day on the fishing side of things but still a good laugh.

I did have a go at catching a catfish today which was chasing small rudd under the surface, using a live rudd, I hooked a fish with in 10 minutes and lost it after 10 seconds of having it on.

Dinner time and I found out I had a new name from the rest of the people fishing, “Golden Boll***s” because of last nights success.

The rods went out again but I didn’t boat any out now, I had found where the fish patrol and used very small pva bags at ¾ of the way across.

My first run came at midnight again but the hook hold went and the fish was lost. Not to worry another pva bag went out and the next run came at 4:30am on the same right rod, a 21lb 2oz mirror carp was on the bank.



A couple of hours passed and another run came(to the same rod), this time it was a 37lb 8oz mirror carp, another pb.



Tuesday 9th

Another breakfast baguette consumed and the rods recast but another quiet day with no fish taking any of my baits.

Tea was delicious as usual and after a chat with everyone we all part and headed for our swims.

Rods out again in roughly the same places with pva bags containing 5 crushed boilies and 3 whole ones.

The first fish came at 2am, a 25lb 10oz beautifully scaled mirror.



One more fish graced my net last night and it turned out to be my smallest carp of the week at 13lb 10oz.



Wednesday 10th

Same as usual, another quiet day with very bright sunshine and high temperature.

I had another go at the small catfish today but ended up hooking a pike which spat my 2 single size 4’s.

After dinner I cast my baits in the same place and waited, reading a book and trying to take out the rats by firing stones with the catty.

My middle rod screamed off at 1:50am and I was into a scrappy fish which was landed and weighed at 18lb 12oz.



Another run came at 6:40am and a 16lb 4oz carp was in the net.



Thursday 11th

A beautiful day but still the fishing was slow so I tried for the pike for most of the afternoon with no success but I did manage a perch of around 1lb 8oz on a live bait.

Dinner finished and I got my rods out and went to visit Paul, I spent a couple of hours with him and saw bright flashes of lightning in the distance so I though I better get back to my swim before the storm makes it’s way over the lake.

I was praying that the storm would miss us but it didn’t, we were right underneath it, it was mainly just sheet lightning but there was some fork lightning too. This was by far the biggest storm I had ever been in, it lasted for hours. I had to sit in Mike’s car as I didn’t want to zip up my bivvy while in there incase I got a run and with the door open on my bivvy you get a huge puddle of water collect on there and it didn’t help with the wind pushing it straight into me.

I watched my rods carefully from the car and when the storm finally passed I returned to my bivvy drier than what I would’ve been if I stayed put in the bivvy.

I had no action that night but I wasn’t complaining, I didn’t want to go outside in that weather.

Friday 12th

Another lovely breakfast baguette was brought round to us and I ate that with a cup of strong coffee.

Paul came to visit later and talking to him I told him how I really wanted to get just one fish in daylight so I could get some decent pictures as all of my fish were caught as night or very early morning.

3:40pm and my right rod screamed off and I was into a hard fighting fish in daylight!

I played the fish carefully not wanting to lose the only fish I hooked in the day and the net was slipped underneath it, on the scale she went to 36lb!






Lots of pictures taken and I was a very happy chappy.

I had no more action that day or night.

Saturday 13th

The last day!

I was woken early this morning at 7am with an absolute flier of a run.

The fish was much harder fighting than any other fish I had hooked in the week and it stripped about half the line on my reel before I could get one turn of the handle in, the fight lasted about 15 minutes with several last minute runs made the fish. It was a catfish! My first ever catfish.

We got the fish out and weighed it, 39lb 3oz!!! A new pb!



Pictures taken and I decided I may aswell get my stuff packed up early as I achieved everything I wanted!

A very enjoyable a week with some great laughs and great people.

I can’t wait for next year which is already booked for the 20th June.

Roll on 2009!

Here are some pictures from the week.




















Dave's (Pingu) 76lb catfish:





Thanks for reading, it really was a brilliant week with great company!

[pingu]

was definately a top week there GB

dave

[Norfolkboy]

Awesome stuff mate!

[fishypaul]

certainly was a great week mate,best holiday i ever had

[BaggieRich]

Cracking report there CC. Some belting fish for you I see....

[swedishgirl]

WELL DONE-- FISH LOOKED GREAT
for even bigger fish incl pikes--
fancy a trip to sweden the fishing is stupendous see our swedish lake house where my partner fishes in th pic gallery--we have ski slopes and 85f temps in July

[Twiddler]

Some awesome sundown/rise pictures there GB .....and well done again on your catches...you surely showed us old ones how it's done

[KABBYCHRIS]

Well done some realy nice fish

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Cracking carp and great read too ... god Im jealous