During the month of April I had a week trip to France planned with my dad. We left early Friday morning and after a long journey we arrived at the venue during the late afternoon. We spent the evening talking the owner Steve, who filled us in with how the venue had been fishing and what tactics that had been working. After getting our heads down for the night, I woke at dawn and had a quick walk around to familiarise myself with the venue. I really fancied the look of a swim which covered the middle area of the lake, which also gave me plenty of options and features to fish to.
I soon got my kit round to the swim, which had a lovely bank of lilies along the far margin. After getting everything set up, I flicked a marker across to the edge of the pads and took a walk around to check the position of it. I didn’t want to go too heavy on the bait, so I spread a kilo of Nutcracker around the float. I could always top it up easily after each bite if needed. The bottom was covered in a deep layer of silt, so I made sure to tie up some long hook lengths to stop the lead pulling the hookbaits into the silt on the cast.
Later that evening I had my first bite which, unfortunately dropped off soon after picking up the rod. My fortune soon changed and a couple of hours later and I landed a mirror weighing exactly 30lb 0oz. Shortly after slipping the fish back I received another take and landed a mid-twenty mirror. Not a bad first night on the lake!
The following morning I was away again and after a great battle, I slipped the net under a good’un. The scales read 39lb 2oz and I was chuffed to say the least! I really didn’t care if I blanked for the rest of the week!
Understandably I carried on with the same tactics for the rest of the week as I was obviously doing something right. By the end of the week I had banked fourteen fish, with the best mirror going 39lb 2oz. All fish fell to 15lb Pro Light Blend main line, Covert Tungsten Tubing, a Covert Lead Clip and a blow back arrangement tied using 25lb brown Sink Skin and a size four Covert Incizor.
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