Island Lakes, France. The return...the planning begins.

January 10th 2020, 5.30pm. A text message from the main man Adam Fenlon had landed in my inbox reading "Do you want to fish Island Lakes again. Need to know ASAP as there's 2 spaces available and we are top of the list with a queue of carp anglers who wish to go. The dates are Saturday 20th June till Saturday 27th June". Like a mad man I was in the office at work to check holiday availability. After persuading my boss to allow me to overlap 1 day with another member of staff the reply was simple. "Looking good boss". Island Lakes the return was happening and with 5 and a half months my mindset was preparation already. How am I supposed to sit on my hands or even get any sleep for the next 5 and a bit months? My experience of Island Lakes 2018 was the best to date throughout my fairly short fishing career. The buzz of going to France for the 1st time was exhilarating but I was not expecting the trip Fenlon and I went through. This time however, I am worse than a kid on Christmas Eve. The thought of going back to the beautiful surroundings that Island Lakes is engulfed in is enough to go fishing for a week and blank. It truly is a special picture perfect place.

Swim 12

Swim 2 courtesy of Joe Andrews

The next excitement filling my mind and causing sleepless nights is the carp that reside under the water's surface. These are some of the best carp my eyes have come into contact with. And they are tricky characters too. It's not an easy lake and we were told this before the last trip. "It's a hard lake to fish, it is no runs water, bites can be very tricky to come by and it is full of weed" were some of the comments we received. Since fishing there we can go in fully prepared. I am sticking to my same tactics. Fish simple effective rigs, do all my homework when I get there and do not rush. I will be there for a week. Get the bivvy up and be comfortable. Watch the water like a hawk and put the marker rod through its paces from the off. I spent over 6 hours plumbing around in swim 12. I have all that information written down in my trusty blue book and should I feel swim 12 again I can refer to all my details. The swim choice has to come 1st though so I am not thinking too much about where I want to setup. For now I can think about the swims and where I would be searching throughout the water. The double swim 5 and 6 is on my mind as I spent so many early mornings watching the water with carp bosching and feeding similar areas each day. Swim 5 was always on Fenlon's hit list but the choice was never made by us. Swim 7 and 8 was occupied by Andy and Karl on the previous trip. Again, I spent a lot of time watching this allocated water the swims cover. It would be nice for Fenlon and I to fish a double swim in June but let's get there 1st and see what the carp are telling us and where everyone wants to fish.

Looking towards swims 5 & 6

As for now sat at home thinking about tactics and the lake, it would appear I am in need of a few rigs to be tied. So the tackle box comes out and the components I am confident in are placed in front of me to start tying fresh rigs. With the tablet set up and Ridge Monkey videos on YouTube playing I start tying. Unaware of the time passing by I realise my Korda rig box is unable to hold any more rigs. I must have been preparing rigs for France in my head. 29 snowman rigs, 10 multi rigs and 17 Ronnie rigs take up the space and impossible to fit anymore in. Oh well at least fishing sessions in the near future are covered with fresh rigs. 

'till next time...

Carper Dee