Fishing Magic!! Personal Bests And A 75lb New Lake Record
Sky Lake, France.
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| Sky Lake, France |
After getting the opportunity to book my place to go big carp fishing at Sky Lake in France almost a year ago I've been eagerly waiting so so patiently. I've probably spent more money upgrading my tackle than I needed too, but then again I am pretty level headed and didn't go too mad opting for reliable mid range tackle. As you may, or not know, in 30 years of fishing in the UK, I havn't landed a fish weighing over 20lb, and although going abroad to do it, was feeling a bit like cheating, I've now come to the conclusion that if I wanted to catch big fish, then you need to go where there are lots of them Because as enjoyable as it is, chasing the few monsters in UK waters, is a life long dedication, and to be honest I'm still looking forward to spending another 30 years or more doing so.
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| Innovate Kream Krunch 16mm Boilies |
I set off in the rain (again) to meet the rest of the fishing party at a football club social bar in Greater East London, I meet John outside, who was a work colleague, and the only person out of the 11 going who I knew, as I walked into the bar I was greeted with mountain of fishing luggage almost covering 10 square meters, as I looked up across the bar I saw the party wearing Sky Lake T shirts, I nervously tried my best to ignore the scooped rifle being handed along the bar for people to examine whilst I was introduced to the rest of the fishing party, but as soon as fishing was being discussed they made me feel comfortable and the extreme banter from the excited group reminded me of my old pike fishing club. Rob a co owner with Andy of Sky Lake picked us up, and with all the tackle loaded into the trailer, we set off for France via the Dover to Calais ferry and arrived at the lake at about 7 in the morning.
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| The Snow Man |
My first impression of the lake was good, it was large but not as big as I'd imagined, my swim "No 10 The woods" was big and being central on the lake directly opposite the Lodge gave me lots of spots to comfortably fish. after a quick coffee and prep talk from Rob in the lodge on the rules we all made our way to our swims to set up. whilst we were setting up Rob came over to discuss tactics and areas to fish, he was extreamly helpful, he examined our rigs, obviously to check the rigs were within the rules, but to also check the knots. As the week went on I realised that he genuinely just wanted us to have the best chance to catch a big fish, and as I had no knowledge of the lake I listened to his advise, which was invaluable. I marked my spot with the marker float 80 yards out, it was large weed free patch 11' deep with silt bottom. I then cast two rods to the mark and baited with 2.5 kilo of Innovate 16mm Kream Krunch boilies.
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| Aiming At The Money Spot |
Luckily just after I'd finished setting up it started to rain, which of course it always does when I'm on holiday, and during the week it probably rained for at least 72hours, I got my head down in the bivvy and wrapped myself up nice and cosy in the sleeping bag. on the first night I had one run at 11pm and then was woken at 7am with another. I had struck and played both takes, but after a few minutes the hook pulled for no apparent reason? pulling to hard with my new 3lb test fox ranger rods? too small size 8 hook? At breakfast I asked Rob, "Your rigs are fine" he replied "some times the fish just pick up the boilie, just bad luck." The rods were quite all day, I sat on them confidently knowing that they were baited and in the baited area, but must admit this was very different from the 1 or 2 hours I was used to waiting before checking my bait in the UK. The first night saw Aidan land a 35lb carp, whilst the rest of us were still waiting to get off the starting block.
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| A Beautiful 30lb Mirror |
The second day was better, I think three more of us landed fish, my fishing neighbour John, who had been patiently sitting on his rods since first arriving, landed a PB beautiful Common Carp of 33lb, I hooked and landed my third take, first thing in the morning waking me up from my sleep. An immaculate PB 30lb 5oz Mirror Carp. The fish gave a good account of its self, definitely more exaggerated because I played it so gingerly as the thought of losing the other two fish kept flashing through my mind. Finally I'd beat my PB, I was over the moon, no! I was on it, and in it!!!, The pressure was off! I'd done what I came to do, what I'd been trying to do for so many years.
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| Row, Row, Row Your Boat! |
The next few days were quiet for me, I left my two rods at my original baited mark and put in another 2.5 kilo of boilies, but I pulled the third rod out of the margins, it had done absolutely nothing from day one. I found a new spot about 45 yards out and at 45 degrees to the left from my swim, a few fish had crashed here during the early night, and with a new PB, I was more relaxed and willing to experiment more with my third rod, I opted to try a double critically balanced pop up corn over a 10 kilo bed of spod mix. To be honest I think I just wanted to have an excuse to use the boat, which I used to row out to my marker and pour the spod mix over my baited rig.
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| What A Beautiful Pike |
The rest of the party were getting into full swing by the 4th day, only three hadn't caught yet, a 50lb had been landed, several fortys, with 4 PB's being beat, and lucky Terry seemed to be constantly on the fish and had landed about 6 to 29lb, I didn't have one take for the next three days since catching my 30lb, All the fish were crashing at the other side of the lake and maybe due to the heavy rain, it seemed to stop the fish feeding because I only recall one fish being landed during the rain showers. I stuck to my guns with the two boilie rods still in my original baited area, and with my third rod, to keep me occupied I decided to catch some live bait for some piking, I'd been watching a pike for a few days now, chasing small fish right in front of me, about 5m from the bank. I caught about 12 Rudd on a small float rig, using sweetcorn as bait, I kept a few of the smaller ones as bait, My rod had only been in the water for 20 Minutes before my first run, I landed one of the most immaculate and beautifully coloured Pike with the blackest eyes I'd ever seen. I don't think it had ever been caught before or even seen a trace.
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| My New PB A Mirror At 37lb. |
It was day 6 that my swim seemed to come alive, fish were constantly crashing on my side of the lake for the first time, and at the range I was fishing, my bite alarms bleeped once every 20mins, just to let me know there was movement in my swim, I decided that Rather than go to sleep in my bivvy at around 3am, I would sleep in my chair next to the rods as some of the takes the rest of the party were having, were very short, this payed out for me as after a few warning bleeps, the swinger gently rose to the rod and with less than a meter of line taken off the spool, I struck and hooked into a big fish. This fight was very different from the others I'd seen, after an initial 30 meter run it stopped fighting or even trying to swim, I reeled in the dead weight with great difficulty through the weed and as John attempted to land the fish it came alive and tore off again taking about 40meters of line, I couldn't even stop it!, well this fish defiantly had a plan! it repeatedly done absolutely nothing and played dead until it reached the net, then with all its saved energy he torn off uncontrollably stripping another 40m of line. The fish frustratingly done this about 7 times, I lost count, but with John now dangerously hanging off the bank at full reach with the landing net and the fish tiring we eventually landed the fish. It was big! A new PB for me, and 3lb short of 40lb. I felt quite bad because it was the second time I'd called Rob out in the middle of the night for a under 40lb fish, but he didn't seem to mind, even admitting it looked over 40lb when I apologised.
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| Tiddy with Reg at 75lb "New Sky Lake Record!" |
I had no more runs for the reminder of the holiday, but the rest of the lads were still landing a few here and there, on the last night, I heard quiet shouts of excitement from across the lake, my ears pricked up because this time they sounded unusual from the normal banter, more serious!, maybe they were drunk? then I heard "It's Reg!" I listened harder to the muffled excited voices "It's the biggest fish I've ever seen!" "Its Reg alright!". Then someone shouted for the lake to hear "HE'S ONLY GONE AND GOT REG!!!!" I didn't need to hear again, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. Reg was the biggest fish in the lake. We had all been joking all week, saying we would catch him, was it a wind up? my mind did wonder during the sprint around the lake, but no! as I arrived at Tiddy's swim, "How do you know its Reg?" I asked, Aidan replied "seriously? look It's a right big ****!" I looked in the water and they had a colossus fish in the net. It was big, not just in length and I couldn't believe how wide he was. One by one, the rest of the party arrived. Nathan and Rob confirmed that it was Reg, the excitement was almost uncontrollable from the group . The fish was weighed twice using a tripod and came in at a magnificent 75lb, beating the 7 year old lake record by 3lb, Tiddy had done it! The photo shoot followed, with Tiddy getting more than his fair share of water being thrown over him. The celebration went late into the night, between us we cleared the Lodge of beers, then the vodka and followed by 2 bottle of Jack Daniels, We had been so well behaved up until now, but what an excuse to let go, after all it is a holiday too. What a end to the week, and a magical fishing moment that I was extreamly lucky to see. I will never forget this week for so many reasons. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to photo or see everyone's fish, but here are the ones I did.
Between the 11 of us, We had a new lake record at 75lb, 2 x 50lb, 4 x
40lb, 8 x 30lb and rest were made up of 20lb fish, no one blanked, and 7
of us had new PBs. I really don't think the week could of gone any better. I
would like to thank the rest of the lads John, Danny, Terry, Tony, Paul, Tiddy, Wayne, Darren, Karl and Aidan, for letting me join the group, the laughs, the memory's, and for the help in landing fish and for giving me the opportunity to catch my PB. And thank you to Andy, Rob,
Nathan and Bernice at Sky Lake for all you help and lovely food, I had a fantastic
time, that I'll never forget, and I'm all ready looking forward to seeing you all again next year!!.
