The following accounts give an idea of
the experiences that anglers have had here at Carp Heaven and show you
what you may expect when you come to fish this wonderful lake.
All weights are UK pounds.
No other venue gives so much information to help you make
your choice of a carp fishing holiday without equal.
New for 2010.
Pay your deposit online using credit/debit cards.
There are long term road works coming south from the Peripherique
so I would recommend using the N104 from the first exit after the Charles
de Gaulle airport runways that go over the A1.
(See the Calais to Cronat route pdf file on the Downloads
page.)
Another week has just flown by and the results were, as usual, superb.
The weather was wonderfully sunny during the days but the clear skies
meant that one or two nights were a bit chilly and a cool wind made
the South Bank side somewhat cold out of the sun. Saturday and Sunday
were a bit slow with only 4 or 5 fish coming out but things soon livened
up on Monday. Terry moved from "The Islands" to "The
Shallows" and started to catch from the off and Keith and his son,
after putting in a bit of particle and steady feeding with boillies
started to pick fish up from the far margin of "The Stump"
and from the middle in front of "The Bushes". Tony and Val
caught steadily all through the week from "The Corner" and
their young grandson even managed to land a couple of fish to 24lbs!!
Val finally had her first 30 and also her first common, a real beauty,
"Butterfly" at 26.5lbs, last caught in may 2009.
Over 100 fish were landed with 2 over 38lbs and several other 30's,
lots of 20's and some of my own reared pretty fish to upper doubles.
Boillies used were custom made by Premier Baits with a pineapple flavour
topped up with plent of particles, maize, Red Band, hemp and pigeon
mix.
07-Sep-2010
It has been a while since I updated this page but the fishing has
been very good, as usual. I hope my memory serves me well and apologies
to any clients if i make some small errors. I will join all the clients
together and do one big update. Kevin and Alison from the UK, Paul,
Hemmie, Patrick, Harry and Frederick from Holland all returned for another
go at these superb carp.
The weather was very hot for Kevin and Alison and the fish were a bit
quiet during the day and they had most of their fish in the evenings
and early mornings. Kevin had the biggest fish of 39lbs and Alison also
had a 30 but not her PB. They fished "The Corner" and used
a variety of boillies and quite a lot of pigeon mix and maize.
Paul and Hemmie have been coming here since we opened and they always
catch a lot of fish. They fished "The Islands" and "The
Shallows" and caught about 65 fish to 39lbs including several 30's
and many 20's. Harry was here for his first trip and caught lots of
very good fish including their biggest of 39lbs. Bait used were Decathlon
boillies and lots of them plus many kilos of particles. They always
use a lot of bait and always catch very well.
The lake was closed for a couple of weeks to give averything a rest
and I went home to London. Unfortunately the next clients could not
come owing to a very serious car crash so the lake had another 2 weeks
off. (Koen and his group always come here for 10 nights every year).
The next group to arrive was Jason, Steve and Kaine. They were then
joined by Micheal, Diejter and Niels from Holland back for their 3rd
year running. (Most of our clients are regular visitors). Jason and
Steve had a slow start fishing "The Islands" and "The
Stump" and after a bit of encouragement from me they up sticks
and moved to "The Corner" (mon petit coin anglais de jardiniers),
Steve has never moved swims before so I was hoping things would get
better. they both ended up 40's Jason had the biggest of 41lbs and Steve
just over 40lbs. Steve also had 4 30's and a few 20's and doubles. Jason
didn't get a 30 but still had other fish to 28lbs and also a good number
of other 20's and doubles catching 38 fish in total.
Michael had one of those weeks where it all goes right and had about
40 fish to 39lbs, Diejter also caught more than 30 fish to mid 30 with
Niels on his first ever time carp fishing had nearly 20 fish to low
20's.
Baits used were a wide variety of boillies plus lots of pigeon mix,
hemp and maize.
14-Aug-2010
Our next clients were Dave and Nick from the UK. Dave had been here
before and Nick was here for his first trip and was after a 20. Unfortunately
he seemed to have brought a bit of bad luck with him because he was
only catching doubles!! a rare experience. However they both ended up
with PB's. Nick finally had a 28 and Dave had a few fish including fish
of 35lbs and 36lbs. Kees was still here on his 3rd week and was catching
2 or 3 fish a day and ended up with 42 fish and 5 that came off including
loads of 20's and a few 30's to 34lbs.
29-Jun-2010
This week we had Kees and Maureen back for their annual 3 week holiday
and first timers, Jan and his son Wouter. There was no need for a draw
because Jan and Wouter wanted to fish a double swim towards the islands
and Kees wanted to be nearer the house so went in "House Bay".
The weather was nice and sunny but not too hot and they started to catch
from the off. Unfortunately the sun did not last for long and there
were 2 or 3 days of rain but the fish fed extremely well with PB's all
round. The sun came back out on Thursday and the week finished very
well. Jan and Wouter had 52 fish between them with 5 fish over 33lbs
and the biggest of 35lbs and Kees had 9 fish also with his biggest 34lbs.
The possoin chat are now completely avoided with the shrink tube and
tights method (follow
this link for detatils).
I will post some photos in the next few days.
06-Jun-2010
This week I have spent a couple of days fishing with one of this weeks
clients, Jan, from Holland. He has been to France before but never caught
a fish and he had lost a couple here and so I offered some help. It
gave me the opportunity to experiment with some anti-poisson chat methods.
Firstly we tried wrapping the boillie in tights. This was quite effective
but a soft boillie could still be wittled away over time. Secondly we
tried clear shrink tubing covering the boillie. This method worked very
well. The boillie was only attacked at each end and then left alone.
During those few hours fishing Jan managed to catch 5 fish, breaking
his PB 4 times including a beautiful mirror of 34lbs. The other guys
used pop-ups wrapped in tights fished on the "KD Rig" and
bottom baits wrapped in clear shrink tubing to good effect. Hardly any
poisson chat were hooked and the baits stayed on all night.
The week started off very slow with only 3 or 4 fish landed, but quite
a few losses, until the fish spawned and then they started to feed more
heavily. Most of the fish came on Thursday and Friday and Willem caught
the first, last and biggest fish of the week, 36lbs, Jeroen had several
nice fish to 31lbs and Dennis also had fish to 35lbs.
In total about 25 fish were caught. Baits used was a locally made 24mm
boillie, Solar Winter Secret Perfect pop-ups, Premier Baits "Carp
Heaven" boillie and some Pineapple pop-ups.
28-May-2010
At long last the weather has returned to normal sunshine and warm
days. The water is warming back up and I think the fish will spawn next
week sometime. They are still a bit quiet, possibly because the huge
dip in the temperarture, but i am sure they will start to show and feed
heavily very soon. There have been no anglers on the lake this week
so there are photos or catch reports.
26-May-2010
The weather this week has not improved but got worse, with a lot of
rain and very cold daytime temperatures. The wood burner in the house
was going every day with lots of towels and clothes to keep dry.
The fishing was also very mixed with PB's for 4 anglers and a dissapointing
session for James with only 6 fish to 26lbs and Shona's 1 PB fish of
24lbs. Wayne fished "The Shallows" and had to endure a session
in the mud. I had done some work on the Saturday morning before they
arrived but it needed a few days of dry weather to bed down the built
up soil level. His patience was rewarded with 12 fish including a 30
and his new PB of 40lbs 5oz. Simon also had a bit of a struggel catching
some of the smaller fish but he also had a PB with "The Crease"
at a gnats under 20lbs. (Normally this peculiar looking fish is a boillie
eating machine and is always about 21 or 22lbs. The bad weather had
even stopped this favourite of mine going on the munch). Finally, Tony
was hoping to improve on his PB from last year and maybe even catch
a 30. He landed only 4 fish but these included his first PB of 27lbs
11oz and then followed this with a 30lbs 13oz.
Baits used were Premier Carp Heaven boillies, Cell and Bloodworm and
pigeon mix. The poisson chat proved to be a slight irritation but with
maize on the hair during the night there is no problem. I have a new
solution, borrowed from Jerome, a client from Holland, which will be
available to future clients when they arrive. So' even what was a slow
week ended up with about 30 fish with 2 30's and a 40.
19-May-2010
This week has seen a dramatic change in the weather. it has turned
very cold and wet. the water temperature has dropped from 17° to
about 14° in 3 days and there is no change in the weather forecast
for over a week. Consequently the fishing has slowed right down with
Paul and werner landing another 18 fish giving them a total of 46 fish
for their 2 weeks with Werner breaking his PB 3 times, the biggest being
a stunning 35lb mirror and Paul`s biggest was 31lbs.
Jerome arrived on Saturday with his non-fishing father Albert and the
sun did shine for a couple of hours but the rain soon started again,
luckily they had their bivvies up and were fishing in "The Steps".
Jerome fished "The Steps during the nights and "The Shallows"
during the days. Jerome landed about 12 fish for the week with the biggest
only 24lbs but under the circumstances did ok. jerome used a variety
of boillies from KGB plus some other Hi Vis popups.
11-May-2010
Another busy week with Paul and Werner here for 2 weeks instead of
their normal annual weekly trip, Les from the UK and Mijndert and Dennis
from Holland for their first visit. The weather was sunny and hot and
the fish were feeding well. There were PB's for Werner and Dennis and
30's for Les, Paul and Mijndert, who also had a new 40. Mijndert had
4 fish over 37lbs plus his 40. Baits used were Strawberry and Black
Pepper, Smokey Mackerel, Scopex, Pineapple and Essential Opal all used
in conjunction with pigeon mix, maize or hemp. In total about 120 fish
were landed.
05-May-2010
Andy was here for his third trip, Andre for his second and Sam, Keith
and Pete for their first visit to Carpheaven. I'll start at the top
end of the lake and work down. Andre fished "The Shallows"
and did very well with more than a dozen fish to 30+, Andy fished "The
Steps" for the 3rd time and had a quiet first couple of days, losing
a few fish and landing a couple of Carpheaven babies (singles and doubles)
but soon getting to grips with the spots and ended up with about 12
or so fish including 2 30's to 35lbs 10oz. Sam fished "The Bushes"
with his bait boat and could cover an enormous amount of water but only
landed 3 or 4 fish to 30+ so he moved to "The Corner" and
followed up with 2 more 30's to 33lbs 10oz and a few more 20's. Old
school done well. (You'll have to come and read the visitors book to
get that last comment). Keith fished "The Long Chuck" and
landed fish to just over 30 but had a slow week apart from a crazy Thursday
evening when I rowed out a couple of baits for him and he had a double
take before Ii had got the boat back to shore!! Pete fished "House
Bay" and started catching from sunday evening and also had about
a dozen fish to 30lbs. So about 60+ fish for the week between the 5
guys. Baits used were a wide variety of boillies including The Cell,
some maize boillies from The Bait and Feed company, Mainline pineapple
popups and pigeon mix and hemp.
25-Apr-2010
The season has started incredibly well, nice sunny days but chilly
in the night and some gorgeous fish. We have had 2 UK first timers to
France and 2 well traveled Dutch anglers. Gerard fished "The Steps"
and Benny fished "The Shallows". Martin and John doubled up
in "The Corner". Things got off to a flying start for Gerard
and Benny and they caught fish straight away. Gerard caught 33 fish
including 2 30's and Benny had 32 fish including 2 PB's and 3 30's to
over 35lbs. They fished with boilies and maize but had more fish on
the maize. Martin started off really well and did his PB with a very
nice 17lb common that is only 5 years old having been born in the lake
and then followed it up with a 25lb 12oz mirror. John had a slow start
and had a couple of small fish so they decided to move to "House
Bay". We loaded up the trailer and took all their gear to the new
swim and they both started to catch some very nice fish straight away.
Martin ended up with 15 fish including a 24 and a 35, all his fish were
PB's. John ended up with 12 fish which included several PB's and 3 30's
to 34lbs. Martin and John fished only during the days and used Premier
Baits Carp Heaven boillies. After 2 or 3 days tuition from me they were
casting like pro's and playing the fish like experts. Well done to them
both.
18-Apr-2010
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