A Year To Remember

A YEAR TO REMEMBER

Carp Fishing In France

Steve Graham

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Steve Graham

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INDEX

Chapter One – The Velodrome

Chapter Two – La Base Nautique

Chapter Three – Argoeurves

Chapter Four – Glisy

Chapter Five – Moorlands

Chapter Six – A Return To Argoeuves

Chapter Seven – The Big Back Lake

Chapter Eight – Contre

Chapter Nine – Loeuilly In August

Chapter Ten – Albert Again

Chapter Eleven – Back To La Base Nautique

Chapter Twelve – The First Lake In September

Chapter Thirteen – Albert In October

Chapter Fourteen – Loeuilly Again

Chapter Fifteen – The Middle Lake

About The Author

Other Books By Steve Graham

To my grandson Sami.

He has not been in this world long, but he has brought happiness to everyone that has ever laid eyes on him.

Our little ray of sunshine.

CHAPTER ONE – THE VELODROME

In 2016 my fishing got off to a slow start. My third grandson Sami, was born the previous December, so we spent a lot of time with him, and with our other two grandsons, Logan and Dylan too, of course.

My wife Anita with Sami

The weeks just flew by and suddenly I realised that it was almost April and time for me to go on my first French trip of the year. I had planned to leave home at about half past nine in the evening, to drive down to Dover, but by ten past eight everything was packed and I was ready to go, so I decided to set off early. As things turned out, that proved to be a very good decision.

The first part of the journey went very well indeed, and my sat-nav was showing that I should arrive at Dover just before midnight. I had booked the ferry for 2.20 in the morning, so it looked as though I`d arrive much too early and have a long wait at the port, but all of that was about to change. I saw a sign which informed me that the M1 was closed between junctions 12 and 11, and as I got nearer to junction 12, I joined a queue of traffic that was moving very slowly indeed, and at times we were all stationary. Not only was the motorway closed at junction 12, but about a couple of miles before that, two out of the three lanes were shut, and that caused a big tail-back. It took over an hour to cover that last two miles on the M1 and the diverted route wasn`t much better. Eventually, after following the diversion signs for some considerable time, I was able to re-join the M1, and fortunately the rest of the journey to Dover was fairly uneventful. I was still very worried that I`d miss my ferry, but luckily I arrived just four minutes before my latest check-in time, so I breathed a big sigh of relief.

So much for having a long wait at the port!

The crossing and the journey through France went like clockwork, and I arrived at Albert at seven o`clock in the morning, just as it was getting light. Albert is in Picardie, just over 100 miles from Calais, so it is an easy two hour journey, even with a stop. There are two lakes here at Albert, but the one that I intended to fish this time was called ‘The Velodrome’. It’s about 20 acres in size and is a venue that I`ve fished several times over the years. It holds a good stock of carp, both mirrors and commons, as well as some grass carp and just a few catfish. The fish aren`t enormous, with the average size probably being low to mid-twenties, but there are some bigger fish, and about four of five low forties. The lakebed consists mainly of silt, with the odd gravel patch, but in the past I`ve always caught more by fishing with light running leads on the silt, rather than by targeting the gravel patches, as most of the other anglers tend to do. It`s a pretty lake with several small islands, and surrounded by various trees, including several willow trees, and I`d always enjoyed fishing there.

I loaded up the barrow and pushed it around the lake to my swim. It was only about 3 or 4 degrees C, and I wasn`t expecting to see any signs of carp, so I picked the swim on the big platform, because it had always been a good early season area in the past. I soon found some suitable spots to fish to, and baited these quite heavily with boilies of two different sizes, that I`d soaked for a couple of hours, in a small amount of lake-water, in a bucket. I find that this hydrates the boilies a little, and they then don`t take on the smell of the silt quite so much.

That`s my theory anyway, for what it`s worth.

I must admit that I wondered if I might have made a mistake by baiting so heavily. The water felt very cold, and it was very early in the season, so I worried that the carp might not yet be on the feed enough, and too much bait may have ruined my chances. I guessed that no-one else would have used so much bait on this lake, at this time of the year, so it was likely to be either spectacularly successful, or a spectacular failure.

Time would tell.

I left the swim to settle for two or three hours with no lines in the water, and I spent this time preparing my rigs, before making myself something to eat.

My friend Corentin arrived at about two o`clock that afternoon, and he set up in the next swim. Corentin is always great company, and he`s also very good with a camera, so I was pleased to have him fishing with me. I gave him several bits and pieces of tackle that I had bought in England for him. I often bring a few things for him because fishing tackle is so much dearer in France, and in return he gave me my yearly permit to fish the lake.

I started to cast the rods at three o`clock that afternoon, three with pop-up`s, and the fourth with a double wafter hook-bait. I then lay down on my bed for a rest, because I`d had no sleep at all the previous night and it was starting to catch up with me. In no time at all I was fast asleep, but I didn`t get a chance to rest for long because I was woken by a screaming delkim. It was my left-hand rod, and the fish was very strong indeed. There were no fast runs, just a slow plodding, but with a lot of power, and I was in no doubt that I was attached to a big fish. Corentin was soon by my side to help, but it took quite some time before I was able to bring the fish towards me. At this stage we still hadn`t seen it, and because it was fighting so hard, we were unsure whether it was a large carp, or a catfish. I am not a fan of catfish, so I was pleased when it broke the surface for the first time, and we could see that it was a large mirror. The fight still wasn`t over however, and the carp fought on for quite some time, but eventually I brought it to the surface again, and Corentin made no mistake with the net.

When we parted the mesh, we could see that it was a superb fish that looked to be well in excess of forty pounds, and Corentin said that we should have a beer to celebrate. That seemed like a good idea, but first we had to weigh it and take some photos.

We placed the carp in a sling, which we hoisted onto the scales on my weighing tri-pod, and then watched as the needle on the scales revolved straight past 40, and settled on 42 lbs. exactly. That was my first fish of 2016, and the hook-bait had only been in the water for about 45 minutes.

What an incredible start.

42 lbs. exactly

I had bought some stage stands to use here, because I thought that they would be ideal for use on the wooden platforms, and although I had two rods on a rod pod, I was using the stage stands for the other two rods. When Corentin saw the stage stands however, he said that they were ‘interdit’, which meant – not allowed.

‘If the Garde de Peche sees those you will be in trouble’ he said. ‘Don`t worry though,’ he continued. ‘I have a spare rod pod at home that you can use instead, and I`ll ask Sophie to bring it with her, when she comes to the lake later this afternoon.’

With that problem solved, I tied a new pop-up onto the rig, and got it back out into position. I then added just a little more bait over the top, but I was still feeling very tired, so I was soon back on my bed and fast asleep again.

While I was asleep Corentin caught two carp, but he didn`t wake me because he thought that I needed the rest. His first fish was a superb common of just over 35 lbs. and his second was a mirror of just over 30 lbs. Although I was disappointed that I hadn`t been able to see them, Corentin did show me the photos on his camera later, and the common looked to be a magnificent fish.

I was woken at six o`clock that evening by a screaming delkim, and I saw that it was my left-hand rod once again. This fish fought very hard too, but we could tell that it wasn`t quite as big as my last one. It was another mirror of 29 lbs.9 oz. this time, which I was soon holding up for the camera. Although not as big as my previous mirror, I was more than happy with the fish which was a beautiful orange colour, and it looked superb as Corentin took the photos.

We had now caught four carp between us, one forty, two thirties and a 29, which was a fantastic start to our session, so we drank another beer to celebrate.

I went back to bed early that night, because I was still very tired, and I wasn`t disturbed by the fish for quite some time, until my remote woke me just after eleven o`clock that night. One again it was my left-hand rod, but if my last two fish had fought hard, then this one was on another level altogether. The fish powered away from me and there was no way that I could do anything about it. After a while I tried to put some more pressure on it, to try to bring it towards me, but the fish wasn`t having any of it, and I was forced to back-wind frantically as it powered away from me again. The power of that fish was just incredible, and I started to realise that it couldn`t possibly be a carp.

‘It must be a big catfish’ I thought, and I called out to Corentin for some help. Unfortunately Corentin was in a deep sleep and I was unable to wake him, so I just had to try to deal with it by myself. It was a very cold night and I was shivering as the battle raged on and on. I put as much pressure on the fish as I could, but despite the rod being bent round alarmingly at times, it seemed to have very little effect on the fish, which just powered away from me again and again. Several times I was forced to let go of the reel handle, and I had my knuckles rapped as the handle revolved and the fish disappeared into the distance once again. It was almost an hour before I was able to bring the fish in front of me, and I saw it for the first time. Just as I`d thought, it was a big catfish, which seemed far too big for my landing net, so I screamed Corentin`s name as loud as I could, hoping that he`d hear and come to help. Unfortunately I still couldn`t wake him, so I tried to net the beast by myself.

I guided the fish over the net, but there was more than a foot of fish sticking out either side of it, and when I lifted the net, the catfish just rolled back over the net-cord, leaving me holding an empty net. Not to be deterred, I tried again, but this time when I guided the catfish over the net-cord, I dropped the rod and lifted the net with both hands. It was touch and go at first, but finally the fish sort of folded in the middle, and it fell into the mesh.

It was well over an hour since I`d first hooked it, and my back was aching as I stood there shaking with cold. There`s no need to go to the gym when you catch catfish, because they give you all the exercise that anyone could possibly want. I`d managed to land the catfish by myself, but there was no way that I was going to deal with it on the bank in the dark, without help, so I walked to Corentin`s bivvy to wake him. I had to call his name several times and shine my head-torch onto his face, before he woke, but eventually he got out of his bed and came to help me. When he saw the size of the fish, he was astonished that I`d managed to net it by myself.

‘That must be at least 25 kilos’ he said, which is about 55 lbs. in real money.

The two of us carried the fish to the weighing cradle, where we unhooked it and placed it in a sling. We had to use my large retention sling, because the one that I normally use was just far too small. Between us we then hoisted the sling onto the scales, which recorded a weight of 56 lbs.8 oz. After a few quick photos, we returned the fish and watched it swim away, back into the depths of the lake.

56 lbs.8 oz.

I was absolutely shattered by this time, so I didn`t bother to re-cast the rod, and was soon back in bed and knocking out the zzzzz`s once again.

I was undisturbed during the rest of the night, and I didn`t wake until Corentin came to ask for my help at just after half past eight. He had caught two fish earlier that morning, while it was still dark, but rather than disturb my sleep, he had placed them into sacks. Now that it was daylight, he had come to ask me to take the photos for him. I felt much better after a good night’s sleep, but I was very surprised with what I saw when I came out of my bivvy. I knew that the night had been cold, but I hadn`t realised quite how cold, and there had been a very hard frost. My bivvy was completely white, and it looked more like an igloo than a bivvy.