The fishing was, as usual, very good with Derick having 30 fish to 39lbs
and Mark landing 15 fish to 29lbs. Both the guys broke their PB's and
it was a good week all round with sunshine during the days, although a
bit on the chilly side during the night, good company and some excellent
red wine.
Baits used were pigeon mix, maize, Carp Heaven boilies and pop-ups, Quest
Baits pineapple crush and Premier Matrix.
Using the pop-up, hard hooker baits and maize worked really well again
and there were no problems with the poisson chat. I think the removal
of the little devils has really worked over the last few weeks and I don't
envisage any furhter problems. This year they hardly had any young because
the majority of the adults were removed during the 2008 season and I have
removed most of the offspring this year.
03-Oct-2009
Alan arrived for his second visit of the year with his friend Terry and carried on from where he left off last time. During his first trip the poisson chat were not a problem so he was very surprised to know that the little rascals had started to wear down boilies. He did have a disturbed first night with quite a few bleeps but on Sunday he opted for maize on the hair and had no further trouble. Terry on the other hand fished boilies for the first night and had fish to 29+ but was then given a bit of trouble on and off throughout the week. I had a bit of an experiment with the Pineapple Crush again and also Dynamite pineapple popups and had no problems. Neil and Alison were here for a couple of nights and also had no problems with Dynamite pineapple snowman and had several fish to 29 3/4lbs. Alan ended up only using 1 rod again and had 26 fish with 3 x 30's and lots of 20's and a few doubles. Terry had a good start to the week but ended up a bit slow and had I think about 10 or 12 fish to just under 30. The weather was lovely with only 1 day of fine rain and lots of sunshine, although a couple of the nights were a bit on the chilly side.
27-Sep-2009
Paul and Hemmie arrived for their second trip of
this year and also another first time couple from the UK, Alison and Kevin.
Swims were chosen, "The Corner" for Alison and Kevin, and "The
Islands" and "The Bushes" for Paul and Hemmie. The fish
were up for it right from the start and everyone had some fish on Saturday
night. The total catch for the week for Alison and Kevin 37 fish with
6 x 30's to 38 lbs with Alison breaking the lake record for a lady angler
- 32lbs 4oz. Paul and Hemmie more than 40 fish with 4 x 30's to 33lbs.
The weather was, once again, perfect for fishing - mild, a slight breeze
and a small amount of rain on Wednesday morning.
Baits used were a variety of fruity flavoured boilies, some fishmeal boilies
and lots of maize and pigeon mix. Once again the going method was feeding
with boilies, maize and pigeon mix and fishing boilies on the hair during
the day and maize in the night.
20-Sep-2009
Lewis, Andy and James returned for their second visit
of this year and brought along another friend Andre for his first taste
of Carp Heaven. I was a bit concerned that the fishing would still be
a bit slow because the weather was very warm and sunny, 28° most days.
I need not have worried because the fish started feeding on the bait straight
away. The difference , I think, was these guys started to put a fair bit
of pigeon mix, maize and boilies in and the fish got on the bait from
the beginning. Although they caught quite a lot of fish the bigger fish
were still avoiding capture but lots of twenties.
Baits used were Premier Baits Carp Heaven boilies, pigeon mix, maize and
a selection of various flavoured boilies. The poisson chat are still eating
soft boilies but there is no problem if you use maize on the hair at night.
During the day you can recast every couple of hours. I tried an experiment
with Quest Baits Pineapple Crush snowman kit to check out their boast
"... an all year round bait that carp absolutely love, but luckily,
for some reason the dreaded poisson chat do not." They are ok but
not 100% effective. The best method is to use hard hookers, pop-ups or
maize. Those baits on the hair give a very effective method of avoiding
the poisson chat. I would like to point out that most lakes in France
do have either posson chat or crayfish or both. We are removing poisson
chat on a daily basis using our own unique method and as the season progresses
they become less of an irritant.
15-Sep-2009
I have been a bit late adding the last update because I rested the lake for a couple of weeks and spent some time back home in London. Arriving back here at the lake always gives me a fantastic buzz. The first thing I always do is walk round the lake taking my time to look for feeding fish. This normally takes at least an hour and there are normally fish somewhere feeding. If there has been no-one here for a few days the fish go all over the lake, feeding in the areas they normally don't visit because of the anglers on the bank. The weather is very warm and today there was a big storm and a fair bit of rain.
01-Sep-2009
Another very hot week with most days over 30°. The fish were showing all around the lake, especially up in the shallows, but they were just relaxing in the hot sun and not feeding. All the guys caught fish but it was hard going. Rudy found it very frustrating up in the shallows, the fish were swimming all around his baits but not feeding. Timmy and Fillip had a slow start but ended up the last few nights having 2 or 3 fish each and David caught a couple of small fish but still had a great holiday with his son and partner Wendy. With the great company and weather it was a fantastic week, if only the fish had joined in a bit more.
01-Sep-2009
This Saturday we had another big downpour but then
the rest of the week was very hot, most days being 28° and very sunny.
Unfortunately the fish went a bit quiet and not so many were caught, although
there were 2 PB's. Graham had a very nice 38lbs 12oz PB and Lynne had
a PB of 25lbs 12oz. Rob also had a nice common of 28lbs+ and the total
catch was 21 fish.
The small poisson chat gave a small problem wearing down the softer boilies
but meshing did make a huge difference and fishing with maize on the hair
also got solved the problem. Quest Baits claim that their Pineapple Crush
is not liked by the dreaded poisson chat. They have never been used here
so I will do my own experiment with some pop-ups and report back in another
update.
My unique poisson chat removal experiment is progressing well and I can
see the day when they are all gone.
The photos of the fish are not so good but I have added a couple in any
case.
Baits used were Premier Baits Carp Heaven boilies plus various other shelf
life boilies, maize, hemp and pigeon mix.
16-Aug-2009
This week it was time to give a 'Carp Heaven welcome'
to another group of first timers to our fabulous lake. This time we had
a group of 5 friends plus partners along with a very keen nephew and a
non fishing daughter. A total of 6 anglers and 5 non-anglers. First impressions
are always important and Carp Heaven always gives that wow factor
when guests arrive and this week was no exception. After a welcome drink
and a walk around the lake swims were chosen and tackle was taken up in
the trailer. There was quite a big storm Saturday night and a fair bit
of rain on Sunday but then the sun came out and it was a glorious week.
Mark and Chloe were in "The Shallows" and started to catch from
the off and had 20 fish to 33lbs, Shaun and Sonia were in "The Islands"
and landed 5 fish to 29+ and lost a few here and there, Steve and Julie
fished "The Stump" and ended up with 6 fish including a 28 common,
29, 31 mirrors plus a beautiful 40. AJ fished "The Long Chuck"
and took the advice from the more experienced anglers and had 4 fish,
3 of which were PB's, the best fish being a stunning 29lb 12oz mirror
making AJ the under 16 record holder. John and Sharon fished "The
Boat" and with the aid of a bait boat fished the far bank as well
as open water in the middle of the towards "The Corner" and
had a PB common of 26 plus 3 x 30's and 17 fish in total. Daz and Tina
fished "House Bay" and the only luck they seemed to have was
rotten luck. Daz ended up with 6 fish to 25lbs. The small poisson chat
were causing problems eating the softer boilies but meshing with tights,
fishing with small day glow pop-ups or maize on the hair sorted them out;
In all there were 57 fish landed to 40lbs.
Baits used were Premier Baits Matrix with Robin Red soaked in garlic,
Mainline Cell, Solar pineapple pop-ups, Mistral isotonics plus Red Band,
maize, hemp and pellets.
09-Aug-2009
Koen, Hans and Dennis returned for their 3rd year
and brought along Martijn, Gerard and Arjan (who had been once before)
and Pepsi for a 10 night stay. The fish started coming from the first
night and by Monday evening Koen had fish up to 35lbs. Sadly Koen had
to return to Holland because his mother had past away, Hans went with
him so the others carried on fishing and all had some very good fish except
Martijn who lost lots of fish round the islands (I think he slept very
deep). One morning I went round to see how they had done and was met with
the comment "I hate you" from Gerard because he had 8 fish that
night and no sleep! Dennis made the comment when asked if there were any
fish jumping "it was like raining cement bags". Martijn, Gerard
and Dennis left on Sunday but Koen returned to finish his holiday with
Arjan and stayed on for another couple of days. Koen had 30 fish to 35lbs,
Arjan had 21 fish to 38lbs and all the rest caught quite a few fish with
Grerard doing best with 15 fish to 35lbs.
Bait used was a variety of Proline bolilies including Garlic + Robin Red,
Monster Crab and Scopex plus lots of hemp, maize and pellets mixed with
chilli and garlic paste.
01-Aug-2009
This week we had another group who were making their first trip to France. Unfortunately they had some bad luck from the start but it all ended ok in the end. Firstly, the van broke down about 90 miles from the lake but they managed to get the insurance to get themselves and the gear to the lake. They were used to fishing small ponds in the Midlands and on arriving at Carp Heaven they realised they were underprepared for the week. If they had gone to any other lake they would have had no chance of a fish, but luckily they were here and with my assistance they were able to catch some fish to 25lbs. They were quick learners and Rob was soon into some fish, Todd at only 14 yrs and Steve both managed PB's but unluckily did not break the 20lbs barrier. I got them back to their van with their gear where it was all loaded onto a breakdown truck and taken to Calais. They left with a shopping list of bits and pieces so when they return next year they will have an even better week.
22-Jul-2009
This week we a group of 4 with some very experienced anglers and others who had not fished for carp before. A couple of the guys set up in "The Corner" and the others doubled up on the dam wall because one angler had a problem with a knee and could not walk too far from the facilities. With the aid of a bait boat they were soon fishing and catching fish. They caught over 60 fish for the group to low 30's. The weather was really nice with some rain during 2 nights which refreshed the lake and very sunny days. Baits used were a variety of boilies from Decathlon, pigeon mix, hemp and maize. The poisson chat were a bit of a problem but fishing with maize on the hair during the night fixed the problem. I am currently proceeding with a very successful method of removing the poisson chat so every day they are less of a nuisance.
13-Jul-2009
Another group from Holland arrived for their first
trip. The chosen swims were "The Boat" for Fokke, "The
Long Chuck" for Herman, "The Steps" for Pieter and "The
Shallows" for Meindert. Unfortunately they had to leave on Thursday
morning so they did not complete their full week. They still managed to
catch more than 60 fish with Pieter having the largest at 40lbs, Fokke
caught the most, 35 fish to 32.5lbs the other 2 had fish to upper 20's.
The weather was superb with only a little bit of rain.
Baits used were Proline's Monster Crab and Scopex, Fokke had special new
baits, fishy and fruity from Holland all fished over maize, hemp and pigeon
mix.
04-Jul-2009
My friends have returned for their annual trip hoping
to do their PB's again. Well, it turned out to be another record week
with 150 fish landed and 5 PB's. The biggest fish of the week was a fabulous
41lbs for Tony, caught at the same time as Val who had a pretty 24lbs
fish. Val just did not get over the 30 but had 3 over 29lbs, all PB's,
James biggest of the week was 28+ and also a PB, Keith ended up with 4
x 30's and a PB of 35lbs whilst Terry had 36 fish but his biggest was
a 27+ common and part of a double catch with a 26 mirror. John had a 25
lbs PB and a few smaller fish.The weather was excellent all week apart
from Friday evening when it rained for a few hours but it was dry for
the packing up.
Baits used were Carp Heaven boilies, a mixture of fruity and fishy shelf
lifes and particle.
28-Jun-2009
Last week saw 3 new clients from the UK, Mark, Dave
and Jamie. Mark had a slow start having about 6 fish from "House
Bay" in the first few days but after moving into "The Shallows"
ended up with 21 fish to 33bs. Jamie had lots of takes from "The
Boat" but lost quite a few with the hook pulling but still landed
18 fish to a PB of 32lbs and David caught steadily through the week and
was top rod with 26 fish to just on 30lbs. David and Jamie moved from
"The Boat" and "The Long Chuck" and fished "The
Bushes" and "The Stump" and had more success fishing close
to the far margin. The weather was good apart from a couple of days of
rain and Thursday saw a temp of 30°.
Baits used was Mainline Cell and Maple 8 plus particle and pellets.
24-Jun-2009
Henk and Tom arrived bright and early for their second
visit to Carp Heaven. Because of work and family commitments they fish
for a short 4 day session safe in the knowledge that they should still
catch some fantastic carp. Last year they had an excellent session with
21 fish to 34lbs so the pressure was on to try and equal what was a truly
fantastic 2008. Well they ended up with 10 fish for Tom and 9 fish for
Henk.
Here is their list of fish caught this year (rounded down).
Tom - 24, 25, 26, 11, 31, 26, 25, 26, 19 and 5.
Henk - 23, 21, 13, 21, 31, 39, 13, 26 and 24.
A truly magnificent session. My friends and I have fished many so-called
"must fish" venues over the years and have not seen that level
of success. I expect there will be a really slow week here soon but I
will not hold my breath waiting.
The weather was not too kind to them with a very big storm and quite a
lot of rain but the sun came out for their breakdown and the long drive
back to Holland.
When I write these updates I feel I should add the financial advisors
caveat "past performance is no guarantee of future growth" but
I can only state what has happened during the week.
Baits used - Tutti fruity and Scopex boilies and also a mixture of locally
made boilies from Holland.
There was a problem reading the memory cards from the cameras but I will
get some photos here soon.
12-Jun-2009
This week saw a family group from Holland with only
Ronnie and Carla fishing the nights and Janka, Rob and Jeroen using the
bedrooms for the nights and fishing during the day. The weather was fantastic,
very sunny and hot, which was good for the suntan but kept the fishing
a bit slow during the days. However, Jeroen did really well at the start
of the week having 11 fish to 37lbs, Rob also smashed his PB with a 34lbs
fish but only landed about 5 or 6 fish. Janka only managed 2 fish but
both were PB's and she spent a lot of time with a float rod catching some
of the poison chat. This year no-one has caught an adult poison chat,
any caught were removed from the lake, but there are the little ones that
can wear down a boilie given time. Ronny had some clear shrink tube to
enclose the boilie that worked really well. Mostly, they are not a problem.
Carla broke the record for the biggest fish by a lady angler with a 32lbs
fish, a really nice mirror, and had a lot of bad luck to start with when
quite a few fish coming off during the fight but had, I think, 7 or 8
fish. Ronnie did well, catching 20 fish to 32lbs and achieving one ambition
of 2 fish at the same time, a brace of twenties. All in all a very good
week with lots of fun, barbecues and Sambuca with Kahlùa (brain
damage) and about 40 fish.
Baits used were Martin SB shelf life's in a variety of flavours, KGB baits,
pigeon mix and some Carp Heaven boilies.
06-Jun-2009
First to arrive were Pete and Mick. Their gear was
loaded into the trailer ready to take round to the "North Bank and
"The Oaks". Ben, Trevor, Steve and Richard arrived shortly after
and decided on their swims. The weather was very hot for 3 days, 31°
on Monday then it turned colder. The fishing was a bit slow to start for
some of the guys but in the end Ben and his mates all had PB's and in
total had about 45 fish, 3 30's to 36lbs and loads of 20's. Pete and Mick
caught steady through the week and ended up with 21 fish to 31lbs.
Baits used were a wide variety of boilies from Quality Baits, Mainline
and our own Premier Baits Carp Heaven boilie plus maize, pigeon mix and
pellets.
30-May-2009
I gave the lake a bit of a rest this week and only
allowed 3 anglers, Alan and Ian from the UK and Kees from Holland. All
3 were new visitors to the lake. Alan and Ian, father and son, had been
to quite a few well known venues over the years and were a bit disillusioned,
but, I think their week at Carp Heaven has proved you can get what is
advertised when you come here. The week was a bit disrupted by the fish
deciding to spawn but there were still some good fish landed. Alan ended
up only using 1 rod and fishing just during the day and had over 30 fish
to 33lbs and Ian a similar number but was unlucky that his biggest was
only 24lbs. (I have added their "visitors book" comments in
the feedback link. Kees landed
about 11 fish to 27lbs and had a great week catching some beautiful mirrors
which are fewer in number in Holland.
Baits used were a variety of pellets, pigeon mix and maize coupled with
some Carp Heaven boilies and also Premier Matrix.
23-May-09
Another 2 returning UK anglers, James and Wayne have
arrived for their week this time with 2 friends Alan and Tony. Tony caught
a PB with his first fish a beautiful 23lbs mirror with his biggest being
27lbs+ and Alan had a 32lbs 8oz mirror for his PB on Sunday morning. This
week has just got better and better, Alan had his pb common today, a beautiful
fish of 27lbs+ and now named "Butterfly" because of the unusual
shape of the scales running down the lateral line, and James has done
it again here with a stunning mirror of 39lbs and he followed that up
with a 40lbs fish as well. Wayne did not quite make the 30 this year but
had some nice fish with a couple over 29lbs.
In total they managed 106 fish to 40lbs and 7 PB's. This was another exceptional
week and may never be repeated!!
Swims fished were "The Shallows", "The Steps", "The
Islands", "House Bay" and "The Long Chuck".
Baits used were Mainline Cell, a variety of pellets and, of course, our own frozen Carp Heaven boilie which is made for us by Premier Baits.
17-May-2009
This week we have 3 parties fishing and already
there has been a new 40 and several 30's. This was the first 40 for an
english angler, Andy, and a really beautiful fish. This week there has
been a record number of fish caught, about 140 fish and several pb's including
a stunning 34lb mirror for one lucky guy. Lewis had an unbelievable session,
catching 40 fish to mid 30's.
Baits used were a variety of boilies, including Mainline Cell, some home
made, Nash Monster Pursuit and Carp Heaven boilies and some pellets and
maize.
Swims fished "The Shallows", "The Steps", "The
Islands", "The Oaks" and "The North Bank".
