"I Love It When A Plan Comes Together"
Sky Lake, France
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| Morning view from Sky Lake |
After what seemed like months of preparation, re spooling reels, changing batteries, tying and testing rigs, and impromptu trips to tackle shops buying bits and bobs that I may or may not need, The time had come for my second trip to Sky Lake in France, Following on from last year, whilst learning the ropes for big carp fishing, I managed to land a couple of carp which gave me a new PB of 37lb, but this time I was going more prepared with the knowledge,from last year. I had a plan, and knew exactly how I was going to fish, helped by the fact that I was fishing the same area as last year, and the plan was even flexible enough to make changes at a split decision. I was expecting more this year, and was very confident of beating my PB, even hopeful of a 50lb plus fish.
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| Three Rods For My Fish |
The trip started in a bar in Dagenham, where I meet up with the same Essex boys that went last year, It was good to see everyone again and after the polite pleasantry's and a few beers the normal banter started to flow. and it wasn't long before all the gear was loaded into the minibus trailer and we were off to Dover. we arrived at Sky Lake at 6am approx, after having a quick cup of coffee and getting reacquainted with Rob, Andy and Bernice, I made my way to peg 10 "the woods". Immediately I noticed how hot it was, the forecast was 30 degrees all week and the sun shone straight into my face from the opposite bank, a far cry from last years wet and cloudy trip. I decided to set up my bivey late in the afternoon after watching the swim, so I could position it where it would be in the shade most the day, a decision I didn't regret.
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| Ready and waiting |
In my fishing plan I had made quite a few little changes from last year, although my bait was going to be the same, "Innovate Kream Krunch 18mm boilie" fished with a pop up snowman, I increased the pop up size from 14mm to 16mm, this balanced the bait perfectly and when tested in the margins sank very very slowly just resting on the hook. this would give more movement to the bait to catch the eye of any close fish and offer no resistance when taken, hopefully giving me more runs. I kept the hooks the same, micro barbed size 8 curved shank, I purposely kept the 12" rig as simple as possible with only a small piece of tungsten putty about 4" from the hook, firstly to ensure the braid was pinned to the lake bed, and secondly to turn the hook on a take, hooking the fish in the bottom lip. Other changes from last year I made was the lead size, after fishing with "Rigmarol Free Fall Lead Clips", I realised that this was kind of a semi fixed rig, So I upped the lead size from 2 1/2oz to 3 3/4oz G-force flatn pear leads, beautifully camouflaged and giving extra grip to the lake bed, with the intention that it would help set the hook on a take. I also Used Korda Dark Matter tungsten tubing, which is so blatantly heavy, you can fish in confidence that it is firmly fixed to the lake bed, out of sight from the wary carp.
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| Fish 1: 18lb 5oz, 1pm Sunday |
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After a hour or so of using the marker rod, I had settled on a spot to fish, directly towards the lodge, 75 yards out, this was a large sand/clay spot, and about 5 yards pass a large bank of weed. I put my first rod 2 meters to the right of the marker and my second 4 meters to the right, and John fishing in swim 11 put two rods to the left of the marker. now rather than bait just the area we're fishing, and another part of my plan, I baited up to 10meters to the right of the marker. my reason for this was if my left hand rod had a run and needed to be recast during the night, I wasn't confident that I could cast 75 yards in the dark and put the rig in the 4 meter
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| Fish 2: 29lb 10oz, 4am Monday |
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gap between Johns rod and mine, so I could just cast another 3 meters to the right of my undisturbed rod and still be fishing in a baited area, giving me more chances of catching a fish. 6 kilo of boilies would be enough for the fish to stop and feed, but also keep them there longer as they would need more time to find and pick up the bait over the large area, giving me and John the opportunity to pick off more fish.
After the first 24 hours of fishing is was clear to all of us that the majority of the carp were shoaled up in the corner of the lake in
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| Fish 3: 35lb 9oz 7am Tuesday |
swim 12, they were spawning very late this year due to a very long and cold winter, no one was fishing in swim 12, and the group decided to leave it that way, mostly because it would of seemed rude not to fish your drawn swim, we had left all the corner swims free, with two fishing on each bank, which gives a lot more water for everyone to fish, It was better all round just to leave the fish undisturbed and in peace whilst they done their business, decides people were picking off the odd fish here and there, but I did wonder and hoped that they were going to move around the lake.
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| Stalking the margins |
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Well for the first few days it was very quiet with the only action being at dawn when the fish seemed to leave swim 12 and come through John's swim then through mine and then turn around and head back to swim 12, where we had managed to hook and land a few fish between us each morning, was the large baited area working, and stopping the fish going any further?, the fish definitely weren't crashing anywhere else on the lake during the night. Except I had noticed regular crashes during the day, to the right of my swim, and every time John walked the rigs out to our markers to clip the line at 75 yards, he disturbed fish
resting in the shade of the trees, I couldn't resist, from Tuesday I baited up the margin just 1 meter
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| Fish 4: 25lb 9oz Wednesday 3am |
from the bank under a overhanging tree, with about 5 10mm Kream Krunch boilies every four hours or so, on Thursday I put a bait out which was a fluorocarbon combi rig with a critically balanced Innovate 14mm Jaffa pop up 20mm, fished slack line, the rod had only been out 40 mins and as I returned to put a few more boilies out, the reel began to click and line was being taken, as I reached for the rod I struck, I had hooked and landed 22lb 7lb mirror, somewhat of a sneaky daytime bonus fish.
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| Fish 5: 34lb 10oz Wednesday 4am |
The nights for me and John had been quite steady with fish and missed runs, which kept us awake most the night resulting in us going to sleep earlier and earlier as the week progressed, as we both were getting tired, but Thursday night I awoke to what sounded like a domestic cat going for a swim, there was explosive splashing in the lake just left of our boat, I ran over to see what was causing the commotion, and realised that a large predatory fish maybe a pike or catfish was attacking my landing net which was in the water holding some live bait Rudd which we were fishing for pike with. I grabbed the net and attempted to scoop it
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| Fish 6: 28lb 10oz Thursday 3am |
under the large fish which was still attacking the net. but It got away, then moments later, I could hear what sounded like a group of people walking through the woods behind us, inquisitively me and John headed into the woods to investigate. As I peered through the gate to the fishery I could see 3 wild boar, only little ones, Never seeing boar before, I had to get a closer look, they was not phased or bothered by us or the torches, John opted to stay put whilst I crept closer, the boars were really not bothered
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| Fish 7: 22lb 7oz Thursday 3pm |
at all and had definitely seen me. but then I heard a very loud angry snorting to my right followed by hoofs being dragged along the ground, similar to a bull in my imagination, I looked round and saw a large dark shadow, was that the daddy boar? I wasn't going to find out, and in a crazy and comical Blair Witch moment, a terrified me, turned and run as fast as I could through the woods with my head torch light bouncing around, all the way back to my swim.
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| Fish 8: 22lb 1oz Friday 7pm |
The last night was here, and although I had landed 8 fish I still hadn't beat my PB of 37lb, I wasn't giving up, the signs were good, early evening and fish were crashing all over the lake for the first time all week. In a last ditch attempt to bag a new PB, I fished all three rods to the 10 meter baited area in front of me but spread the gap between the rods by 5 meters. With leaving early the next morning we had opted to pack the bulk of our tackle away including the bivey, and sleep under the stars, a gnats dream
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| Fish 9: 38lb 1oz, Friday 11pm |
and our worst nightmare, but It wasn't long before I was awoken by something different than the high pitched buzzing of a blood thirsty vampire insect, my bait alarm, bingo! I landed a beautiful new PB mirror carp of 38lb 1oz. Unfortunately for John whilst the fish was being unhooked it had managed to splash water all over his sleeping bag, completely soaking it!, it was at least 5 meters away lol. After gaining confidence during the week I recast the rod back to where it was between my two other rods, two hours
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| Fish 11: 37lb 11oz, Saturday 5am |
later, another run on the same rod. and a even bigger PB and my first ever 40lb plus fish was on the bank, a fish known as "The Pretty One" tipped the scales at 45lb 6oz. And again I recast the same rod to the magic spot, and again the bite alarm woke me up, I savoured every moment of the fight, knowing that this was the last fish I was actually willing to catch, I was so knackered by now, and before even landing the fish I had decided to call a end to the fishing. The last fish was a big common weighing in at 37lb 11oz.
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| Fish 10: "The Pretty one" 45lb 6oz "new PB" Saturday 2am |
I had landed three of the biggest fish I have ever caught all in one magical night all on the one rod, how and why none of the other rods had runs is a mystery. I stuck to my game plan, it had come good and I smashed it on the last knockings. A night that I will never forget, it left me totally knackered, completely satisfied and absolutely ready to leave, this was without doubt the best fishing trip I have ever had and would like to say a really big thank you to John, with his help in clipping the line at 75 yards, landing the fish, one even from a boat in the dark, and taking photos and video footage, I know I would of struggled and not of landed half the fish I did without his help. The week really drummed it into me how much help is actually needed in fishing for big fish, All the guys made it a team effort unselfishly leaving their rods for quite some time, with long walks to offer assistance to others that were playing fish, and hats off to them all. Because there is nothing better than sharing the excitement of a big catch with friends.
