Maiden French fishing trip....A storm's brewing.

Another morning, another enjoyable sleepless night. I sat on my bed smiling with the previous nights achievement. 69lb was a huge weight and to catch a bigger carp the following night is unbelievable. After a coffee I reeled in and baited the swim with a scattering of boilies. The sky was looking miserable so I grabbed my coat and camera and set off to visit Fenlon. Parked at the swim was Mick's van. He was doing his daily round visiting each angler and getting the nights news. Walking into the swim I see Mick and Fenlon down by the rods and noticed Fenlon holding 1 high in the air with rod tip buckled over. He was deep in battle!! The left hand spot had paid off and something was putting up a fight. With a thick band of weed in close this fish knew where to head. For 45 minutes Fenlon was locked into something that was buried in weed no more than 5ft from him. Keeping the pressure on  Mick was saying "let the fish know who's guv'nor" and "don't give him an inch, keep the rod held tight". 30 seconds later he changed and the words "right what's this bladdy fish doing except making a mug of you" blurted out his mouth. All of a sudden the weed broke from its roots and the carp was surface bound and swam into the net. It definitely put Fenlon through his paces. Mick hung around to see the scales read 29lb 1oz and then headed off to see the other anglers.

Carp back to its home safely and the kettle was fired up. My good friend looked shattered. The heat and humidity was taking its toll on Mr Fenlon and I suggested he reeled in and tried catching up on sleep. It didn't take much persuading and he was tucked up. I walked the short trip to my swim and prepared a bucket of bait for later that evening. The rest of day was spent watching the water and baiting the spot with boilies and throwing stick. With rain coming down at times throughout the day the carp were crashing everywhere. All the fresh oxygenated water was hopefully playing to our advantage and the carp were using a lot of energy. From past sessions the rain has always provided me with bites so I was high in hopes the carp needed to feed.  

Evening was fast approaching so I baited the spots with the bucket of bait and cast the hook baits for the night. My dinner was cooked and the rain came down again. This was another heavy downpour followed by thunder and lightning. A phone call home to speak to the Mrs and my son got me a bit emotional. I always take him fishing and the longest I've fished for without him was 2 nights. Talking with him about school and the things he was doing after school made me realise how much I was missing father n son time. Finishing the phone call with good night, I had a quick tidy up in the bivvy and put myself into the sleeping bag. My phone received a WhatsApp message that made me smile and laugh. 

Wednesday morning came round with no action on the carp front. The weather had brightened up and the plan for the day was to all visit the next town for beers, food and chat about the trip so far. A 15 minute drive and we were parked up and looking for somewhere. We found a restaurant and entered to order beer. A lady greeted us and she had 8 anglers looking at her with stunned faces. Her attire was simply high heeled shoes and a short blue dress. On a 20, 30 or maybe even a 40yr old this would be normal. At a guess the woman behind the bar was close to 60 and her suntan was so dark that DFS could add a new colour to their brown leather range. Beer going down well and the atmosphere amongst us was lively and we needed some food. The restaurant we were sat outside had stopped serving food. And the restaurant next door had also stopped serving. In fact everywhere was closing and it was only 1pm. Heading back towards the vans and Karl asked a shop owner where we could get food. It turns out that on a Wednesday between and 1 and 5pm, the French have a siesta. Hungry and disappointed we headed back towards the lake. Driving through a small village we noticed a bar and pulled up. We all walked in asking for beer and the land lady was quickly pulling pints. After another 4 pints the land lady knew she was on to a winner and offered us omelette and pomme frites. Give that woman a medal. It wasn't long and she right footed her husband out of bed and was serving up food. Bellies fed and a couple more beers and it was time to get back to the lake. 

Driving in yet another rain storm we quickly got back to the swims to sort the rods out. By the time everyone had baited up the rain was really heavy and the thunder was back. This was the loudest thunder I had heard and seemed really low. Another epic lightning storm mixed with lake filling rain pour had everyone sat in their bivvys. Laying in my sleeping bag trying to get an early night was going to be impossible. I had the cover over my face and the lightning was so bright I could still see the flashes. My only thought now was "please don't get a bite. I don't fancy holding the fishing rod ready to get struck by lightning".

'till next time...

Carper Dee