The season is coming to and end now and although the nights are a bit chilly the days are gorgeous, up to 20 C. The fishing is fabulous with another small group of english guys, who exclusively booked the lake to guarantee they had the place to themselves, landing some lovely fish to just over 30lbs. The fish are a bit more spread out now and not so many are coming from "The Shallows".

20-Oct-2008

Derick arrived bright and early on saturday morning with the sun rising to herald another beautiful day at Carp Heaven. After joining me for breakfast we loaded up the trailer and headed for "The Corner". Derick had the lake to himself and it made it a bit more difficult to find the fish and he caught his first fish on Sunday morning, a stunning mirror of 33lbs 4 oz. For the next day or 2 he only caught 3 or 4 fish. We decided that I should take a couple of rods up to "The Pipe" to see if it would fish better up that end of the lake. It only took about 20 minutes and I landed a common of around 25lbs so we moved Dericks gear round to "Terry's" and he started to catch fish straight away. I had a dabble for a couple of hours each day to keep Derick company and had fish to just under 30lbs and Derick had 2 at once, a fine brace of 23lbs and 27lbs. It turned out to be another fantastic week. Baits used were Premier Matrix and a variety of Ace Baits boilies and pigeon mix.

4-Oct-2008

The lake has been rested for a couple of weeks and the weather has been superb, plenty of sun but a bit cold of a night. The fish are feeding all over the lake right now and the next party from the UK will have a great week.

22-Sep-2008

Another returning group, this time from the UK, back for a second visit this year and their 3rd year running. This time it is a UK team that has broken the number of fish record with over 110 fish and also the biggest fish by a UK angler, Tony with a 38lbs 8oz beauty. The weather was mixed as it has been for the whole year with some very hot days followed by rain and cloudy weather. It did not bother the fish though and they went crazy. At one time they had 4 fish on the bank at the same time and in a picture below you can just see me playing a fish on one of Keith's rods whilst he has a picture taken of a nice 30. What a week loads of 20's, 5 30's and some of the smaller baby carp that have been born and raised in the lake which now go up to about 15lbs.
Bait used was Mistral banana tutti and an assortment of other fruity flavoured boilies.

10-Sep-2008

Another returning group of 4 anglers, a couple of wives and a young son had what turned out to be a record breaking week. Over 100 fish with 1 guy landing 40 fish. They were a bit unlucky that they did not have so many of the bigger fish but what a week!! They used quite a lot of frozen boilies and had a variety of flavours, fishy and fruit and also a bit of particle, cooked maize and wheat. The weather was a bit changeable with some really hot days interspersed with a storm and some rain.

26-Aug-2008

I have been a bit busy with the web site over the last couple of weeks building the Dutch section, which I hope to improve as the time passes and also I had a bit of a break back in London for a few days whilst the lake was not booked.

Anyway, Tom and Dave from the UK arrived a couple of weeks ago to fish for a few nights. (work commitments). They set up to start with in "The Corner" so they could double up and also because the casting was not so far. There were some fish showing but for the first night they blanked. The swims up by the islands were taken by some Dutch anglers so I suggested they move to the bins to fish the shallows. Their gear was loaded into the trailer and off they went. Later that evening they had their first fish, I think 24lbs, the following night they had another 6 fish to 30lbs+ and 2 PB's.
The 3 Dutch lads started fishing in "The Islands", "The Bushes" and "The Stump" and for the first few days did not have much luck. They lost quite a few fish with the hook pulling and those they landed were a bit on the small side. (Check out this rig - it seems to work OK). However their luck changed and they started to land fish and ended up with 45 carp with lots of 20's and 2 30's.
Both groups of anglers brought quite a few different flavoured boillies, Dynamite Baits, Premier and some homemade.

16-Aug-2008

Robert and Dennis arrived with no experience of fishing in France and not much with Holland either. Both had only been carp fishing for 6 months. They started their week doubling up in The Bushes, Robert fishing the far margin and also 1 rod in the middle and Dennis had the Islands to fish to. In total they ended up with 50 fish between them with each having a Dutch 30 (15 + kilo fish). It was another week of personal bests, great weather and great fun. They used a variety of boilies but the flavour that seemed to do the business was garlic.

28-Jul-2008

As I am sitting here writing this, Dennis from Holland, has just come to the house to tell me that his friend Robert had a 37.5lbs fish (17 Kilos) last night as well as other fish to over 33lbs. What a start to their week.
We had a visit from Jan of Karpervisvakanties and his friend Jan for a couple of days. They only fish during the days but still managed some really nice fish to just over 30lbs (14 kilos). That gives an example of why this lake is so popular with the carp anglers from Holland, some who travel for over 1000 Km's to be here.

21-jul-08

Almost another record week for Rob who also landed 32 fish. When Dave, Graham and Rob arrived the fish were showing all over the lake because once again there were no anglers fishing the previous week so the fish feed naturally. Graham started off fishing in "The Shallows" and began catching fish straight away having fish to 31lbs. Dave went in "The Bushes" and on Saturday evening landed a beautiful common of 32lbs, his first ever thirty and a new PB, Rob opted for "The Islands" and also started off with a nice common of 28lbs. Not a PB for Rob because he has been here many times and has a PB common of 34lbs from here.
Dave and Graham had a few problems casting to the known hotspots. The lake they fish in Essex is only small and so they do not get practice casting more than about 40yds. I loaned them some bigger leads and with help from Rob they managed to improve their distance. The fish were showing big time in the main lake all along the dam wall and in "House Bay" so they all decide to move swims. Rob went into "The Boat", Graham went into "House Bay" and Dave opted for "The Corner". Rob had a PB mirror of 31lbs 6oz and the other 2 also had fish every day. The bigger fish moved out of the area so they caught quite a few of the 10 or 12lbs fish that were born in the lake and kept after the vidange of 2006.
Bait used was Premier Baits Matrix and Ace Baits, various flavours. Check out the FAQ's for a picture of a really good rig that works a treat.

73 fish. 3 x 30's all PB's but surprisingly only 15 others over 20.
05-Jul-2008

Well what a week that was a record number of fish for 1 person, 32 fish, a total of 88 fish for the week and 4 fish over 15 Kg's and loads of 20's. In Holland they count 1lbs as 1/2 kilo so a 30 pounder for a Dutch angler is 33lbs for us in the UK. There have been no anglers at the lake for the last week and it is great to see the fish acting naturally, swimming in small groups, some of the smaller fish that have been bred in the lake seemed like they were playing in the shallow water outside of the house.
The next group of UK anglers arrived and started catching straight away and with the very hot sunny weather I think they should have some busy nights.

28-Jun-2008

Another week is nearly over and today has been an unbelievable day. As I write this it is only mid-day and the 5 anglers here have landed 16 fish with the majority of carp over 20lbs quite a few over 25lbs and a 33lbs 8oz mirror for Ruud and a 37lbs 6oz mirror for Thijs, which is his PB mirror. The week started slowly with cold and wet weather for a few days. Not many carp were caught from the main body of the lake, the 2 best swims were "The Shallows" and "The Islands". Ruud was catching fish every night from "The Long Chuck" but mainly smaller fish, Chris was in "The Bushes" and had to wait until Monday morning for his first fish and Jos only had 3 or 4 smaller fish from "House Bay". But, yesterday afternoon when the sun had been shining for 2 days the fish came alive and they were all over the lake, jumping and rolling. Will had 3 fish at once, a first I think for here, and everyone caught fish last night except Jos who did not fish and had a good sleep and he has just had a 26lbs mirror. Their total for the week is now 69 fish which beats their total from 2006 of 68 and they still have the rest of today until tomorrow morning!!
They roll their own baits using a very good machine and use a couple of flavours, Scopex and also Strawberry Fish. Both boilies have caught fish. Their style is to keep feeding a spot regularly and keep it topped up after each fish. Every evening they would bait their spots with quite a bit of bait and most nights they all caught fish.

20-Jun-2008

Paul from the Netherlands arrived for the 3rd year with Hemmie, Mark and Ton and has landed the Queen at 46lbs (21KG). On his first trip here in 2006 he was the second person to catch this beautiful fish, now he is the first person to catch it twice. Check out the photo here. They came to the house at about 11pm and got me to see the fish and when you see such a big fish, even in the dark, it is a very impressive sight. It was a good day all round for Paul because he also had a 34lbs fish plus a couple of other big twenties and Holland beat Italy 3-0 with his nephew scoring the second goal.
All together they had 36 fish with 5 30+ fish and 2 40's, "The Queen", and also a 40lb 12oz fish which Hemmie landed in the last minutes of the last day. Bait used was Waterland Baits Active Plus 20mm boilies.

4 more Dutch anglers have been for a short 4 day break and the weather was more like the UK than France, a fair bit of rain and overcast for most of the time.
Ben caught the biggest fish for the session, a big grey mirror of of 37lbs 8oz (17Kg) and another of 32lbs 8oz (14.8Kg) he also had several other 25 pluses and some low 20's. Sjoerd started off with a beautiful mirror of 28lbs 12oz and also had several smaller fish and a couple of 20's, Frans had the worst luck of all only catching a few smaller fish and losing, I think, 8 fish with the hook pulling!! and finally Huub, who spent much of the time stalking the margins with a float rod, also had a few fish to low 20's. I think they had more than 30 fish. They used a variety of baits, some homemade (Sjoerd's After 8 worked well) including a Strawberry Fish and other fruity flavours. The fish are still eating flies but there are not so many now and it has not stopped the fish eating boilies. Steady baiting with about 20 to 30 freebies round each hookbait and keeping the spots topped up still does the trick. The fish here respond well to steady baiting and not putting out a big bed of bait on arrival.

Their last trip was to a well known busy complex nearer Paris and they did not miss the weed or the crowded banks or the Autoroute and the TGV going past every 30 minutes that were not in the other lakes brochure.

As I write this 2 Storks have just flown over the lake and have landed in the next field to feed.

Since the last update there have been literally millions of small flies laying eggs in the water and then dying, this has given the fish a fantastic helping of natural food and nearly all the fish have been on the top, following the wind and eating them. It was an awesome site to see some really good fish just swimming with their mouths open and taking in loads of flies. It did not stop the last 2 guys having some good fish with a total of 21 fish, 13 20's and 2 mirrors of 32lbs and 34lbs. They also had Dynamite Baits boilies.

3 different parties arrived on Saturday from the UK and Holland and settled into their chosen swims. Paul from Holland who has returned for a second trip and his friend Mark opted to fish from the North bank by the dam wall and started off with some high 20's and a couple of smaller fish. But on Sunday morning when I went round to see them Paul had a fish on which was obviously a big fish and it turned out to be a 41lb 4oz Mirror. What a stunning fish. They ended with 25 fish 1 40, 1 30 and most others 20's. Bait used Dynamite.
Wayne from the UK was hoping for a PB this week and did it in fine style with a 28lb common on the first night. Both Jamie and Wayne ended the week with PB's, 34lb for Wayne and 33lb for Jamie, they had a total of 41 fish, mostly 20's and 3 30's. Bait used was Mainline Cell and it was like you were on a beach somewhere with the smell of coconut.
Kees had a slow week but still managed 8 fish and is here for a second week. The fish started to spawn on Wednesday morning and have rested for a few days, but as I write this I can see fish starting to feed and they are showing a bit more. Kees had a PB Sunday morning of 28lbs.

The next group to arrive were 3 men from Holland fishing Carpheaven for the first time and their first reaction was "beautiful". After having coffee I gave them the guided tour and pointed out all the hotspots and where the previous clients had caught. the week ended with a total of 35 fish and Dick with the biggest 2 fish a 34lb mirror and a 33lb common. That now makes 5 different 30's. Ronald and Edwin also both managed 2 fish at once. Bait used was KGB.

Jim and his son Tom arrived here from the UK for the first time and were shocked at the size of the lake and how quiet it is. They fished for 5 days and 1 night and also managed 2 pb's taking 22 fish, 11 20's with them both having fish of 28lbs, Jim's 28 pounder was a fish known as Cluster and was stocked into the lake in Jan 2004 at 14lbs. They also had 2 fish at once, 12lbs and 24lbs. Bait used was 20mm Premier Matrix.

The 2008 season has got off to a great start with the first group of 5 returning UK anglers having 2 pb's a 34lbs for Tony and a 26 1/2 for Val. Most of the fish came from the shallows where the fish like to sunbathe and feed. Tony also managed 2 20's at the same time. The week saw 25 20's and 3 30's. and 49 fish landed. The bait used was 18mm Mistral boilies Banana Tutti.