June updates
Over the last three weeks Rouge has been fished twice, Bleu three times and Vert twice. With the weather being the typical glorious sunshine the fishing has also followed suit.

Rouge
First week we had our regular dutch visitors who had an excellent week with 66 fish (I think about ten of these came from Vert). A couple of thirties were caught with the biggest being 34lbs. A fabulous looking fully scaled mirror was caught at 18lbs and the picture is up on our facebook site.

The catfish were particularly active this week and one of the really big ones was landed at well over 100lbs. A large number of big cats were lost which was a bit disappointing but as we have said before you cannot stop the catfish taking the lighter carp tackle.

The second week saw regulars fishing specifically for the catfish. In total over 30 cats were caught with the smallest 30lbs and the biggest being two cats over 80lbs

Some of the bigger catfish were lost due to some dodgy line that seemed to break too easily at the knot. Once this problem was sorted then the results improved dramatically. A few carp were also caught with the biggest again just over the 30lb mark.

Only fishing during the day and returning to the caravan site each evening to sample Stefan’s food and a few bevvies the men had a great time.

Vert
Two new customers fishing Vert had a fantastic time. The lake certainly lived up to its reputation as a runs water with me jokingly setting targets of 10 fish each per day.

They achieved this with no problems and both anglers managed personal best common and mirror carp. There were a good number of 20lb+ carp with the biggest a 28lb common.

On the catfish front, neither angler had experienced the awesome power of these fish and now I think they are both hooked on cats. Thirty pounders were caught by both anglers and they have assured me they will be returning next year, more experienced and tackled up for a catfish bonanza.

The second week again saw new clients fishing for the first time in France. Having read my tweets and facebook entries they set themselves a target of 100 fish in the week. Fishing only days – again the lure of Stefan's food and the odd cold beer – kept them away in the evenings and also they had a day off to travel around the beautiful countryside.

They managed 105 fish in total with personal bests in both carp and catfish.

The largest carp was a mirror of 28lbs and the biggest catfish came in at 39lbs.

Bleu
What an astonishing week on Bleu!

Two returning clients managed a phenomenal 179 fish comprising of 161 carp and 18 catfish. The total weight was over 3200lbs.

Of the carp, there were at least 20 over 20lbs but what was to me a really pleasant surprise was that they caught several carp between five and 10lbs. These small carp must have bred over the last two to three years in the lake.

The catfish ranged from 30lbs+ to one of just over the 100lb mark. Several large cats also managed to evade the net but our two anglers went home very happy and exhausted.

The second week on bleu was also very productive for returning clients: 80 fish were caught in total for a weight just in excess of 2000lbs.

Of the 50 carp caught the biggest was just under 30 lbs for both commons and mirrors.
The catfish were again caught between 30 and 90lbs with some monsters lost. The main target was ‘Red October’ but unfortunately it either did not want to play or it was one of the ones that got away.

As there was nobody on Rouge that week they spent a couple of days fishing there to sample the big lake for later on in the year and the second visit.

The third week again we had regulars down who just fished during the day as Stefan’s refreshments beckoned every night.

Fishing mainly for carp they had excellent results with commons and mirrors to just under the 30lb mark. One interesting catch was a 28lb common caught five years ago at 23lbs.

What was also quite inexplicable was that the dam wall side of the lake produced all carp with no catfish landed at all and the Vert end of the lake caught carp and cats about 50/50. Explain that if you can?

The biggest catfish landed was 49lbs.

I would like to thank everybody for there custom and leaving the lakes in perfect condition

Tight Lines

John James