Date: November 2009

Details: Bait and Tackle advice

Bait
The most frequent question we are asked here at La Gléhias is “how much bait do we need?” Of course the fish feed differently at different times of the year and different fishermen fish different techniques, but as a rough guide we advise approximately 4-5kg of boilie and 6-8kg of pellet (or 8-15kg of particle) per angler, per week.

Our Carp pellet is developed specifically as a nutritionally balanced Carp feed and does not contain high levels of oil. Our Halibut pellet which is higher in protein and oil levels will still not cause 'oil slicks'; an oil slick on the surface does not make it a good bait, in fact quite the opposite is true as the attraction smell is on the surface and not on the bottom where you need it. Also, sealing the surface of the lake may cause adverse effects on the underwater environment of the lake as toxic gasses may fail to escape.

In the Summer temperatures, larger pellet of 7-9mm is a good idea due to the faster meltdown time in the warmer water, this will also ensure your background bait will not get eaten away by small fry and stick around long enough to attract your quarry. Having said that, we would advise the use of small pellet in conjunction with the larger, as the smaller pellet's faster meltdown will help to give a more ‘instant attraction’ effect.

Most big wise fish will not pick up, for example a red boilie fished over a brown bed of pellet, and confusion will play a big part in catching these fish. This is where it pays to mix a lot of whole and broken boilie into your mixed size pellet; not only is it visibly confusing, it also makes it a little more difficult for the Carp to be size selective in what it picks up. However, all this said and done, if presentation is not good, or the Carp senses something is wrong, the whole baited patch will probably be left alone!

Bait quality and flavour are of key importance in your fishing and in my opinion Quest Baits in quality content are second to none. Shaun Harrison has developed his baits to be a Carp food in their own right; not just a nutritionless flavour carrier. This means the fish will instinctively see it as a source of nourishment.

We do not believe in a 'lake bait' as we believe the fish wise up to one flavour, and we will not stock bait that we do not believe in. The four flavours we have here on site have been rigorously tested and used by our anglers over the last three years, some flavours will be slightly better than others at different times of year, but the Carps love them all is evident if you read our feedback.

If you are planning on using Quest Baits boilies, you will need to order the main bulk of your bait with us at least one month before your holiday to ensure that it will be here ready and waiting for you. If you do run short whilst here, we should always have enough pellet and boilie in stock to top you up.

Trying baits which are untested on any water can have mixed results. You will either find great success, complete failure, or a slow start to the runs as the fish may be wary or unsure of something different. Recently a young angler brought some 'Dynamite Baits Garlic Hemp' with him, he assumed the fish liked the spicy flavours because they love 'Quest Baits Rahja Spice' boilies - a reasonable assumption, but he had little success getting runs until he substituted it for plain hemp on the third day.

By all means, do try different flavours as you might bag up, but do be prepared to change something if it's not working well.

Tackle
Since opening in 2006 we have seen several anglers lose many fish before they manage to land them, this is usually down to hooks being too small. Having a light set-up may look more inconspicuous, but it’s doing you no favours if you don’t land many of those hard earned runs.

While rods and reels don’t need to be the best quality in the world, they should be man enough to reliably handle Carp to 40lb plus, or Catfish to 70lb. What is of more importance is the quality of your line and end tackle, i.e. rig tubing, leadcore, leadclips, leads and hooks etc; always buy the best you can afford, after all, these are the parts that are in the water under scrutiny!

Mainlines ideally should have a 12-15lbs breaking strain and hooklinks a couple of lbs lighter, size 6 barbless hooks in wide gape form or standard size 4 barbless hooks are good for the Carp fishing, and barbless size 1-2 for Catfishing. 2-4oz leads and 2.5lb to 3.5lb test curve rods should cover any type of fishing on our lakes.

Many anglers will argue against this and it is entirely your choice, but we would advise you use backleads to ease the angling pressure on the lake. This becomes more important if there are many lines in the water; it can help to turn what might be a moderately difficult week into a very successful trip.

Tactics
Big pit reels are not necessary on Lake Lauren as you will never need to cast more than 90 yards. Accurate casting will give you a massive advantage as the fish tend to be concentrated close to features on the far bank or amongst the reeds. Most anglers have no problems with this at all, but practice makes perfect and several anglers have gone home better casters than when they arrived, though if you are not too confident, we advise you bring a bait boat. If you are a few meters off target with each cast, you may slow up the potential for runs.

Spodding out mountains of bait to the middle of the lake is not necessary or advisable as all you will do is fill the Carp up quickly and slow them feeding. The approach of "little and often" is best and will keep the Carp coming back for more. Method mix seems to draw more Roach and Tench than Carp, and bigger pellet and particle is the way around this with a good few freebie boilies (whole and broken) thrown in to ensure the silver fish aren't getting most of your bait away.

I am very happy to spend the time with you on the bank, and help you with tips and advice on casting as we have had several novice and younger anglers learn to bait accurately whilst here and they have managed to bank many a big fish.

Time of Year
People have different reasons for fishing at different times of year, the biggest of which is governed by when you are able to get away for a week or two for a fishing holiday! In terms of angling, every season has its advantages and disadvantages.

Spring can be very productive as there will have been little or no angling pressure on the lake over the winter, and though the fish may not feed heavily at times, they will feed fairly confidently. Up until the end of May the fish are at their heaviest, but may not be feeding as prolifically as they will in the summer. Smaller baits of 12-18mm are advisable at this time of year due to the lighter feeding habits of the Carp in colder water; so if you want really huge fish, and the possibility of landing a 'Lake Record', this is the time for you to come!

Summer is the time when lake temperatures start to soar along with the fish's metabolism. Weights will have dropped a little due to spawning, but there should always be more hungry Carp looking for bait, and though the Carp may sit around and do not much during the hot summer days, catch rates should be higher, particularly at night when bright sunlight has faded away but the water stays warm.

Autumn can be an excellent time of year as the Carp will have started to pile on the pounds and will be feeding eagerly while the water remains warm. The air temperature may be slowly dropping now, but the lake has been known to stay above 10 degrees right up until December, and this keeps the Carp feeding fairly strongly, so don’t be too worried about coming as late as October!

Weather
A temperamental thing which reeks havoc on the fishing, but for which we unfortunately have no control!

In early spring 2007 we saw anglers going home burned and saturated each week as many parts of Europe had their worst summer in years. Summers here can get blistering hot, as they did in 2005 and 2006; the nights however, are reliably cold here in spring and autumn so good quality sleeping bags are a must.

If you are unsure of anything please feel free to contact me here at La Gléhias.

Lee Johnston

Date: October 2009

Details: Winding in for the Season

One of the main things I have noticed this year is that the fish were more evenly spread over the entire lake. There seemed to be no particular concentration of Carp in the reeds or on the Gorse bank and from one week to the next, the productive areas would change. Last winter the fish were only fed in the deep end of the lake, and I believe that this has stopped the fish being concentrated only in the shallow reeded areas which seems to have helped ensure that the catches are more evenly spread over a group of anglers. The intension is to do the same again this winter.

Unsurprisingly, Quest Baits Rahja Spice and Liver B8 seemed to produce the goods over the Season yet again; catching both most, and the biggest fish in a great year of PB busting fishing here at la Gléhias.

The fishing picked up well in April despite a bit of a slow start due to a sluggish spring warm-up, and although less fish were banked early on, the rewards for those who fished here at the beginning of the season were immense as the Carp had piled on a staggering amount of weight through the winter.

Carp which were around 25lb last year were seen on the bank at between 29 and 33lb, in fact the average fish weight until mid May was 29lb 12oz, and almost every other fish landed was 30lb+! Unfortunately none of the three lake biggies were banked before spawning, one of which was certain to be in excess of 44lb, with the others hovering around 40-41lb.

May saw our biggest spawning since we opened in 2006, and it was a relief to see as the last three years spawnings were very drawn out due to inconsistent weather and angling pressure. The week after this gave for some difficult fishing which is normal as the fish recover from such an energetic event. Although the average fish dropped 5-6lb over night, as they came back on the feed anglers enjoyed seeing braces on the bank and were achieving up to six runs in a night.

In June we stocked in a batch of 24 smaller Carp of between 15 to 29lb, including a few big Koi of around 18lb. This was to help make the fishing a bit easier for our younger anglers, and was also intended to create more competitive feeding between the existing big fish. It was three weeks before any of these fish began to show and I am guessing this was their settling period.

The big Carp continued to show steadily through out June and July with Nick Higgins putting the largest one on the bank at just under 39lb, this fish is well known to us and had already spawned, dropping about 4-6lbs two weeks before it was caught. My gut feeling tells me that this will be the first ‘la Gléhias 50’ at some point, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how heavy this fish is next year.

As the hot weather really began to pick-up in August, the bright sunshine slowed down the daytime fishing but the nights became much busier with as many as 30 fish coming out in a week.

August produced some very pretty fish as well, including a couple of big Koi Commons and a pure white 10lb’er. It was also nice to see the Grassies putting in a regular appearance after being stocked in two years ago as babies to get rid of any potential weed problems.

Our smallest Cat was banked by Tommy (Top-Cat) Chantler at 49lb showing that it too had a 9lb increase in weight since last year; the biggest Cat is now expected to top 65lb if any one can manage to land it!

September continued to fish superbly as it always does with the Carp starting to pile the weight back on for winter. Average weights were back up to around 27lb and catch rates were decent too with around 20 fish landed in a week.

Finally, a great BIG THANK YOU to all of La Gléhias' guests for visiting us here this year, and we are already looking forward to seeing next years anglers here on the banks of Lake Lauren.

Bon Pêche,

Lee, Tracy, Lauren, William, Sam and Jake :)

Date: September 2009

Details: Lake William Mini Progress Update….

The month of May saw our biggest spawning since we opened Lake Lauren in 2006; the combination of angling pressure and crappy summers over the last two years has made spawning a long drawn out stop/start affair which dragged on for weeks. This year was very different, and it was all over after a four night and day lake frothing session, which was good news for the fish and our anglers.

The result of this gigantic spawning is just becoming apparent with literally thousands of mini Carp showing up in the lake, including a high proportion of cracking little Ghost Koi. Although most of these fish are only between 4 and 12oz in weight, I found it hard not to take advantage of their arrival and have taken out around 200 of them to grow on including 60 of the Ghosties before the big Cats devour the lot!

These rapid growing baby Carp have been moved up to Lake William which is currently being used as a stock pond to eventually become part of the stock for both lakes, and they should hit a minimum of 10-12lb within two years. Lake William already contains a good head of fish which are growing on at an alarming rate.

The stock so far consists of approximately;

50 Common and Mirror Carp of 5-15lb
140 baby Common and Mirror Carp of 4-12oz
12 Koi Carp of 6-8lb
60 baby Ghost Koi of 4-12oz
20 Grass Carp of 1-4lb
5 Albino Grass Carp of 2-4lb
Crucian Carp of 1-2lb
Golden and Green Tench of 1-4lb
Roach and Red Roach to around 1lb 8oz
Rudd to around 1lb 8oz
Bleak to around 10oz

This is probably the last of the fish to be added to this lake until the big change around happens, as we feel that any more may stunt the rapid growth of the Carp.

The long term plan is to move half of all these Carp back to Lake Lauren along with a further 20 new Catfish to be added to the existing 3 Cats which presently go to 60lb+ to create a specimen predator lake with Carp to around mid 30s. We will then move most of the big Carp from Lake Lauren to Lake William to create a 'predator free' specimen Carp lake with Carp to around 50lb and a good head of other coarse species to go for as many of our anglers do seem to enjoy a bit of float fishing as do I.

Meanwhile in Lake Lauren, the big Carp are feeding very strongly and the resident Cats can be seen on most evenings feasting on the thousands of baby Carp in the shallows, so the weight should be piling on nicely for next year!

Lee

A close up of two baby Ghosties	Unusual Red Roach	A close up of a pretty baby Mirror
Our 2 year old son Sam with a 4lb Carp he caught from Lake william	A net full of Baby Carp	Sam with a Tench caught from Lake william to check on weight progress

Date: August 2009

Details: A New Record to Beat…

22 Grassies were originally introduced into Lake Lauren three years ago at weights of between 8oz and 3lb to control the growth of weed patches in some shallower areas of the lake. The fish did their job really well and have now grown on enough to get caught on 20mm baits, so we thought we would create a new award to go for as they grow on further.

Matt Clarke from Burton-upon-Trent has started the ball rolling with the new record awarded to him for catching a beautiful silvery 12lb Grass Carp. The vegetarian fish was tripped up at mid-day with a Quest Baits 20mm Rahja Spice boilie wrapped in Rahja paste, planted close in half way along the Gorse bank.

Matt is fishing here with his old school chum Lewis Gadsby, and between them have had many other cracking fish this week including a 47lb+ Cat, a 19lb Koi and Commons and Mirrors to over 37lb

Superb fishing chaps, keep it up!

Lee

Date: August 2009

Details: Doctor Fish has the Cure for Matt!!

Matt Clarke and Lewis Gadsby from Burton-upon-Trent arrived here on Saturday the 22nd for a weeks fishing. Matt had expressed a desire to catch a big Cat from the word go, although I don’t think he expected to land one the way he did.

The Carp are in a 'night through to morning' feeding cycle at the moment and the two anglers had been kept awake all Sunday and Monday nights by runs every other hour with cracking Carp to 29lb 12oz coming out. The afternoons so far have been very quiet and so seems a good time to catch up on a bit of much needed sleep.

On Tuesday afternoon Lewis wound in to give himself and the lake a rest, but Matt decided to leave his rods in while he had a bit of a snooze; he was feeling a little under the weather probably due to the baking hot sunshine on Sunday and a lack of sleep through the busy nights. At quarter past four, his right hand rod gave a few non eventful bleeps and he put this down to silver fish pulling at his 2 x 22mm Halibut pellets which were planted under a batch of over-hanging trees on the Dam wall.

After a few minutes or so of this intermittent beeping, the line went slack and the swinger suddenly hit the ground. Realising that nothing small could pick up the large pellets, he struck into it. Following a fifteen minute tug-o'-war, Lewis slipped the landing net under the big Moggy. It was at this point that he realised a pestering Tench had become hooked on his size 4 while trying to nibble the bait away and this floundering fish had obviously proved too tempting for the Cat. This is the first time a Catfish has been caught effectively with a 'live' bait.

The Rubens scales showed 47lb 12oz on the dial, not including the 12oz Tench the Cat had attempted to eat! This same fish had been landed 3 weeks earlier from the same area at 49lb and so probably hadn’t been feeding a great deal since it was last caught.

Matt has since recovered after all the drama and felt considerably better by the evening.

Well done Matt

Date: August 2009

Details: The Chantler's are Doing It Again!!!

The Chantler family are here for their third visit and have set the lake on fire yet again!

So far during their trip we have seen 30 fish banked ranging from 10lb up to a whopping 49lb, including a pure white Koi Carp of 10lb, a Grass Carp of 11lb, five 30's to 36lb, a gorgeous brace and to top it all, a huge Catfish; and they are only half way through their holiday!

Current 'Lake Record Catfish' title holder Tommy 'Top Cat' Chantler is fishing for the Cats with squid on two of his rods and going for Carp with Quests superb Liver B8 on his third. Tommy has incredibly managed to hook and land the first Cat to come out of the lake in a year on the one rod which he set up for the Carp!

The 49lb Moggy is known to be the smallest of three in the lake and amazingly was last caught from exactly the same place and on the same bait a year ago by Thomas Chantler (Tommy's son) who had it at spot on 40lb.

Three quarters of the fish have been taken on Quests Liver B8 with the others falling to Rahja Spice and Pineapple Crush; so far……

Date: July 2009

Details: The Boys get Braced!!

George Hill(15) from Norfolk hit the jackpot on Thursday the 9th of July by landing himself a superb specimen brace of La Gléhias muscle.

After a quiet night on Lake Lauren, George managed to get the first fish in the net after a fifteen minute battle at around 6am when immediately his second rod tore off. The two fat mirrors were taken on Quests Rahja Spice and Fruity Trifle, both coming from the shallow reeds, weighing in at 31lb 14oz and 27lb 12oz.

The bigger of the two brace of carp was a distinctly scaled mirror named 'Kinky', which having been stocked in two years ago at 23lbs is a fine testament to the weight some of our fish are gaining.

George is fishing here with school friend Max Moore(also 15) and between the two of them have had several terrific fish from 21lb up to 31lb 9oz. George's dad Peter and uncle Chris also here for the week, aren't really carp fishermen but have still had the float rods out to enjoy some great Roach and Tench to around 3lbs on sweetcorn.

Well done George

Keep em coming!

George with one of the brace at 31lb 14oz	Proud George with his specimen brace	Max helped land the 27lb 12oz mirror

Date: June 2009

Details: More Stock and Big Plans for La Gléhias

We were so impressed with the quality, condition and growth rates of the fish stocks we bought from Laurent Bigot two years ago, there was never any question of going anywhere else this time around. The last batch of Carp were all between 22 and 26lb and many of these have grown on to become low 30's with one coming out regularly at around 34lb.

This time, we were looking for slightly smaller fish to compliment our heavy specimen stock to make the fishing a little easier for some of our younger anglers and keep them busy in between landing the big lumps.

On Wednesday the 17th of June we took delivery of another 24 Carp of mainly Mirrors and Leathers ranging from around 14lb up to 29lb 12oz. These also included 3 beautifully iridescent scaled Ghost Koi/Common crosses of between 17-18lb. This does bring the lake average down a bit, but we are hoping to see an increase in catch numbers as a result.

We had forgotten how chaotic and comical a summer stocking can be; in summer temperatures the fish are already lively to say the least, and then the fish are delivered in highly oxygenated water which turns them into absolute lunatics! Stocking photos became a bit of a joke, after at least 3 tail slaps in the face and half the lake ending up inside my waders whilst being laughed at by Laurent, his friend, and my own wife, I gave up trying to pose and look cool and just settled for a handful of pics of the few calmer ones!!

Discussions are now under way with Laurent to supply us with a large batch of Catfish to stock our second lake. Lake William is already stocked with many Carp which are growing on rapidly along with the huge population of Rudd and Crucians.

Early plans are to create a predator free specimen Carp Lake with a massive head of other unusual and interesting coarse species, and a separate Cat lake also with a large head of smaller Carp. We are aiming to do this for 2011, but more dates and details will follow as estimates and info comes back to us.

Watch this space!

Cheers

Lee

(Please click on photos to enlarge)

A few close-ups		A few funnies

Date: April 2009

Details: 30's All The Way!!!

We would never describe ourselves as a "runs water"; nor should we want to, we are a specimen fishery after all, and aim to give you the angler a good average catch weight.

Last year, the average fish weight was around 26lb 8oz. Over the winter a different feeding strategy was introduced to help the fish pile on the pounds, and this seems to have paid off as the average fish weight caught so far this year is up around the 30lb mark, with only one fish coming out at just under 20lb!

This seasons fishing started out quite difficult with anglers competing against an abundance of natural food (tadpoles), and icy rain cooling the lake and slowing down the fish feeding, so fishing conditions were not ideal! And to top it off, an early spawning seemed imminent with many of the captures oozing spawn on the mats.

However, after a week of hot sun, the fish finally decided to come on the feed again and catch rates have begun to pick up nicely. Anglers have been seeing a 30lb+ Carp on the bank with every other fish landed, and we've still yet to see how much weight the lake biggies have put on…

Date: October 2008

Details: Variety does seem to be the Spice of Life!

For the most part of 2007, Quest Baits 'Rahja Spice' was definitely King of the lake catching the most fish, with 'Special Crab' coming in a very close second. We noticed that by the end of that season there were flat spots in the catch numbers for these baits, and we put this down to the fish wising up after being hammered on these flavours for several weeks at a time.

For 2008, we made the decision to include Quests 'Liver B8' and 'Pineapple Crush' to the la Gléhias range of on site baits adding more variety of flavours, textures and colours etc.

Now the 2008 season is winding down, and after looking through the catch records for this year, adding more flavours to our stocks does seem to have paid off as catch rates have been higher on average than last year.

We estimate that roughly the same amount of fish were caught on the 'Rahja' and 'Crab', with catch numbers being bumped up a bit with many good fish being caught on the 'Pineapple Crush', and with 'Liver B8' out fishing all the others. This became especially highlighted when anglers who had ordered a variety of flavours had consistently higher weekly catch rates.

Although 'Pineapple Crush' took the least fish, in all fairness this flavour was the least sold. However, it also seems to have most regularly caught the bigger fish, being responsible for breaking the "Ladies Lake Record" twice this year.

The 'Special Crab' fished superbly early in the 2008 season and then slowed up a little around the end of May, but still worked well when fished in conjunction with other flavours on other rods. This bait was fished hard in 2007, as much as up to six weeks in a row, and on a small lake, the fish will soon start to get wary of it. I believed that the 'Special Crab' could have caught even more fish had it not been used quite so heavily, and this year seems to have proven exactly that. It has also been noted that more 'Commons' and 'Cats' are hooked on this flavour than any other flavour on our lake, so if you're after a big PB 'Common', make sure you've got some of these in your arsenal!

The 'Liver B8' worked much like the 'Rahja Spice' in the sense that it fished reliably well in all conditions, and kicks out fish when all else fails. For example, I have noticed that after a big cold down pour and a sudden drop in lake temperature that the catch rates can drop off a bit, but these two baits can keep the fish slowly coming in when nothing else seems to work.

When we are asked "Can we bring our own freezer baits?" (Maple-8's, KG1's, etc) we will always say yes, but do be aware that while some anglers have emptied the lake on their own baits, others have failed abysmally. For instance, plain prepared hemp can help your baiting no end, but oddly, Garlic hemp seems to act like a Carp repellent on our lake and 'Tutti-frutti' has never done well at all here.

We are extremely happy now with the selection of boilies that we sell here at la Gléhias, and are fully confident in our fishes love of them. When ordering baits (or bringing your own), we would suggest you bring a mix of at least two or three flavours, maybe one predominant flavour with one or two other flavours to back it up.

Quantity wise, 5-6 kg of 20mm boilie per man per week seems to be about right, and if you are using our 5 and 7mm pellet, again 5-10 kg should see you through the week. If you are going to use smaller pellet, particles or method mixes, you will probably need closer to 10-20kg per man per week of this as the silver fish and Tench will be able to get this away. For 2009 we will be adding a 9mm carp pellet to compliment our already extensive range of baits at the same price as the 5 and 7mm carp pellet.

We are aware that every lake behaves differently to different baiting so please don’t hesitate to call us if you have any questions at all.

Cheers and Bon Pêche

Lee

Date: September 2008

Details: An Unbelievable August

What a month we've had here at la Gléhias; a staggering 110 specimen Carp have been banked and 4 Lake Records have been smashed along with many, many PB's.

Thanks to Tommy and Thomas Chantler, all three catfish were seen inside of one week after not seeing any for over a year. The smallest is now known to be 40lbs, and the largest is a monstrous 53lb'er (now named Top Cat or TC) which has put on an unbelievable 14lbs in the last twenty months.

Last years bad weather really messed up the spawning season and made it drag on and off for months and this probably hampered the fishing a bit, but after two good spawnings this year the fish are definitly packing the weight back on for the autumn. Carp averaged just above the 26lb mark which is actually not bad for summer weights, and the heaviest Carp landed in August was Golddigger at 37lb which was captured by 'Bluebell Lakes' manager Dave who was fishing here with Fox consultant Matt Ridley.

Lake Records broken this month include; the "Ladies Lake Record" now at 34lb 12oz, the "Men's Lake Record Catfish" now at 53lb and the "Juniors Lake Record Carp" was broken twice at 35lb and then two weeks later at 36lb 4oz by Jack Evans(14) who may also have been awarded the "Juniors Lake Record Catfish" title if he had called me to confirm the fishes weight, estimated to be 40-46lb as his scales only went to 40lbs.

It was also nice to see a pure white Koi at around 11lbs and an orange and black Koi at just under 14lb showing me that they are growing on nicely along with approximately 15-20 other Koi yet to be seen on the bank. Small Grassies are now beginning to show a couple of times a week as they near double figures as four were seen last month at just under 10lb along with several others caught mainly on float between 5 and 8lb. on the subject of smaller fish, 40 small Carp of around 2- 5lbs were moved last month from Lake Lauren and put into Lake William along with 40 small Grassies to get to work on the weed which appeared after it finished filling back in February.

Bait wise, roughly 65 percent of all fish were taken on Quest's new Liver B8, Special Crab or Rahja Spice, while the rest were caught with Quest's Pineapple Crush, Mainline's Maple-8 or Terry Hearn's Source.

September is looking like the fishing will carry on as brilliantly as last month as the fish seem keen to pile on the weight this year and are feeding stronger than ever at the moment. In fact, it's likely that we will see two or three fish well into the mid 40's for March, April and May next year.

Can't wait!

Lee

Date: August 2008

Details: Juniors Lake Record Blown out of the Water!

Jack Evans (14) of the Warren party on holiday with his uncle, aunt, cousin and friend came to us on Saturday the 23rd of August with a desire to land a big Catfish, he knew the chances of doing so were slim as he was really only geared up for the Carp. Incredibly he managed to land one on the first night from the Gorsebank with a 25mm Halibut pellet. Unfortunately Jacks scales only went to 40lb so he didn’t get an accurate weight of the big fish (estimated to be around 46lb), and because he didn't call me to weigh and photograph it he lost his chance to claim the "Juniors Lake Record Catfish" award.

However, it's not all bad news as the lucky lad managed to bank another monster the following morning. This time a big 36lb 4oz Mirror known as "Halle", it was tripped up at 11.00am on the Sunday morning with an 18mm Rahja Spice boilie. Jack called me this time to claim his award and it was my pleasure to give it. Jack gets a personalised bottle of low alcohol Bretagne Cider with a champagne style cork.

Well done Jack!!

Date: August 2008

Details: Another Fat Cat Hits the Bank!!

A second big Catfish has been landed within a week here at la Gléhias. The 40lb Moggy was landed by Thomas Chantler who tempted the monster in with a 20mm Quest Baits Liver B8 boilie. Being a very light coloured fish, with distinctive granite-like markings, it was noted that this particular Cat hasn't been seen on the bank since being stocked in October 2006 at 29lb 9oz.

The big fish was taken from under an overhanging tree on the dam wall close to the barbeque corner where the water is around 6 feet deep and was landed at around 10.30pm on Sunday night. The current Lake Record Holder is Thomas's dad Tommy who took the record Catfish just last week at 53lb.

Thomas has also had approximately 14 other carp ranging from 18lb to 28 lb – so far……

Well done Thomas!

Date: August 2008

Details: Squids In for a 53lb Cat !!!!

Tommy Chantler and his family came to us on Saturday for their 2nd visit in two years. On arrival Tommy vowed to get a Catfish on the bank before going home, and with only three Cats in the lake he had his work cut out. Despite being hooked most weeks, no one had managed to actually land a cat in over a year, and that makes this catch even more special.

The 53lb Giant Tadpole fell to a small whole squid fished on a size 1 hook tight in to the Gorsebank and was landed at 5.30am on Monday the 4th August making Tommy the new "Lake Record Catfish" title holder.
Already this week, Tommy's son Adam (15) has taken the "Juniors Lake Record" with a 35lb mirror and his wife Clare has upped the "Ladies Lake Record" to 34lb 12oz. What can this record breaking family do next?

Well done Tommy!

Date: August 2008

Details: Lady's Lake Record hits mid 30's

Congratulations go to an amazed Clare Chantler who landed a massive Mirror of 34lb 12oz to claim the "Ladies Lake Record" at 4.00am on the 4th of August.

The rain belted down all night until the buzzer screamed off and then it kindly let up while she landed the PB fish and it started raining again straight after it was released. The big beast came from the BBQ corner and was taken on a single Quest Baits 20mm Pineapple Crush boilie with no background baiting at all.

An all round great result, Well done Clare.

Date: August 2008

Details: Junior Lake Record tumbles

Adam Chantler (15) on holiday with his family, landed the big fish known as Halle at 35lb midday on Sunday the 3rd August.

The Chantler Party arrived late on the Saturday evening and it was a bit of a panic to get the rods in before dark. Adam's first fish came that night in the shape of a 27lb mirror and the next was the 35lb PB breaking monster, both fish were taken on the superb Rahja Spice. What a great start!

Well done Adam, Keep em coming!

Date: May 2008

Details: Shaun Gave Lee the Runs All Night!!

I know it sounds a bit sad, but I was really excited to hear about Shaun's new Liver B8 recipe from Quest Baits, and couldn't wait to give it a good testing. When you watch fish as closely as I do, your gut starts to tell you what baits should work well, and I was well pleased to be proven right.

The new B8 arrived here at la Gléhias last Thursday afternoon, and after looking at the 5 day weather forecast, decided to try it over a couple of sessions from Saturday onwards. My son William (9) and I got down the lakes and set up for the night just before 7pm. I put out 3 rods into some of the usual likely spots and a 4th rod out into the middle of nowhere; all using the new Liver B8 20mm, on 25lb Mantis, stiff all the way to the size 4's.

I then set about baiting up around my hookbaits. For this I had pre-soaked about 2kg of 7mm carp and 5mm halibut pellet in lake water for about 2-3 hours along with about 30 broken boilies mixed in. This was to moisten them just enough to get the pellet slightly sticky so when it was balled in, it still broke up roughly back into individual pellets with a nice cloud around it to create some instant attraction. I only baited up around the first 3 rods as I wanted to see how effective a Liver B8 would be on its own in a particularly difficult spot out in the middle of the lake.

By 10.45pm I was getting regular beeps on my 1st and 3rd rods which were out in the reeds so I knew at this point there were carp grubbing about in these swims and it was now just a waiting game. At 1.40am, a slowish run came from my 3rd rod that turned out to be a Common of 23lb 6oz - the smallest fish of the night's session.

By around 2.00am my nerves were on knife edges as the first 3 rods were now getting knocked about regularly. At 10 past, a screaming run came on rod 1 which was planted at the inlet and, being unable to sleep, I was on it like a rocket. Annoyingly the run stopped as I touched the rod, so I decided to wind it in to check the bait and re-cast back to the inlet.

By about 2.30 the same rod was off again and this time I connected with the fish, a pristine but bad tempered 26lb Common. I renewed the boilie and re-cast to the same spot again.

3.20am and I'm out of bed again, rod 3 is already running and I don’t know for how long as I had managed to fall into an incredibly deep sleep! I strike and ARGHHH, I felt the fish for a moment and then ping, nothing there. Still, I put the rod back in where it should be and go back to bed. Amazingly, William is sleeping through all of this!!

At 4.45 I had a short run from the 1st rod again, but this stopped before I could even unzip the door, I was so shattered that I decided to leave this where the fish dropped it.

One hour and many beeps later, rod 4 tore off with such force that it pulled the front of the rod sideways off the buzzer! This one REALLY had the hump, and didn't get any happier as I struggled over the next 15-20 minutes to wear it out and get it in the net. The struggle was well worth it as it turned out to be one of the lake biggies; a Mirror named Golddigger, this time coming in at its heaviest weight yet of 40lb 7oz. This is a new PB for me and certainly made up for all the lack of sleep.

At this point, having weighed and photographed the fish and got my rod back in the water, it was now 6.30am and I had decided to pack up at 9.00. Just as well really as I got another screamer from rod 3 at 8.50. An unknown deep, thick-set Mirror of 27lb 14oz - a lovely fish to end on. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Shaun's new bait turned up more unknowns not seen since stocking, and I've a feeling the Cats should love it too!

I will get some much needed rest today and go back again tonight as there were fish still lumping out over the baited spots even as I was winding in!

Total weight of Carp landed in one night 117lb 11oz.

Thanks a lot Shaun; I got next to no sleep at all!!!

Lee

Golddigger at 40lb 7oz	Golddigger	27lb 14oz Unknown Mirror

Date: April 2008

Details: 'Big Bazza' does it for 'Big Baz'!!

Sixty something Barry from Fulham London is the first to receive the 'La Gléhias OAP Record Carp Award', started this year. Here for the week with his wife Fran, daughter Tracey and two grandsons Charlie and Jamie, Barry hooked into the big 36lb 12oz Mirror just as the sun went down on Wednesday 9th April, beating his previous personal best by around 25lbs!! This meter long lump hadn't been seen since being added to the lake back in February 2006, and Barry took great pleasure in naming the beast 'Big Bazza'.

Well done Baz !!

Lee & Tracy :)

Date: March 2008

Details: Lady's Lake Record Smashed in First Week!!

Congratulations go to a very happy Linda Hemborough of the Beveridge party, who took the Ladies Lake Record Carp title at 8 o'clock in the morning on the 28th of March with a lovely Common of exactly 27lbs, upping her PB by almost 10lbs!!

Her partner Nigel has also beat his PB whilst here with a distinctive known fish called Cod coming in at 33lb 8oz.

Well done to both of you!!

Date: December 2007

Details: A GREAT BIG THANK YOU….

to all of our customers of 2007 for making our first year such an incredible success. It's been hard work and quite hectic at times, but it's also been entertaining, great fun, and very rewarding – and we've made some great friends along the way too. We can say in all honesty that we feel very lucky that every single person who chose to stay with us here at La Gléhias were a real pleasure to have, and we look forward to seeing some of you again over the next few years.

Looking back over the year's feedback, we can see that many, many PB's were smashed several times over each week, and lake records were broken with regularity throughout the year. We have seen many anglers and non anglers alike going home very happy, some people even complained that they were going home heavier than when they arrived! (a real compliment, thank you - TJ), and all this gives us great encouragement knowing we must be doing something right.

And finally we would like to wish all of you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year, and hope 2008 brings happiness and good fortune to us all as we look forward to the next season.

Cheers and all the best,

Lee, Tracy, Lauren, William and Sam (aka Spud).

Date: October 2007

Details: Nemo does it again for the Ladies!!!!!!

On holiday here for the second time this year with her husband Peter, Debbie Wright had her eye on the ‘Ladies Lake Record’ title (and the accompanying bottle of wine) from the moment she arrived.

Bankside regular and true gent ‘Nemo’ obliged Debbie by gracing her un-hooking mat in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Taken on two Mainline pineapple boilies, ‘Nemo’ came in at 20lb 6oz - a good few ounces heavier than when back in September, Dawn Timbers kick started the ladies lake record with the same fish!

A well deserved personalised bottle of white goes to our new ‘Ladies Lake Record’ holder Debbie.

Well done Debs!!

Date: October 2007

Details: Lake William Slowly Starts to Fill

Lake William has now been fully cleared of the trees which were rooted to the lake bed and the lower part of the main sluice has been repaired.

Platform stilts and main cross joists are now in place for 4 spacious single swims of 5.5mx4.5m and 2 extra large double swims of 6.5mx5m. The lake now also has a small new island in the in the shallow end as an additional area to fish to, the island is approximately 9mx3m and has been laid out with two bays to face the anglers with a deeper gulley dug out in front of each, this should prove to be another great holding area for fish.

Although we have had little rain since the project began, and the water table is low, everything is on schedule as the 3.6 acre lake has already regained nearly four feet of water. Being spring fed, we expect it to take at least over the winter to fill completely.

The re-stocking of some of the smaller sliver fish has already begun with the gradual introduction of a ton of 6” Tench, Perch, Roach and Rudd. The bigger fish - Cats, Carp and possibly Sturgeon - are planned for stocking in around winter 2008.

Please click on the photos below to enlarge.

Date: September 2007

Details: And we're off!!!

Dawn Timbers Is the first lady to get herself a personalised white wine award for the Ladies Lake Carp Record, having landed a 19lb 12oz mirror known as Nemo at 3.50 am on the 6th of September. Dawn commented on how well Nemo behaved himself on the bank for the photos, a true Gent!

Dawn is currently here with her husband Martin who has had several fish from 18lb up to 28lb and broken his Common PB with a gorgeous 27lb’er. Also fishing with them is their son Kieron who has had several good fish from 24lb upwards, and broken his Carp PB with a lovely deep bodied 33lb 6oz Mirror.

Well done Dawn, Keep catching!

Date: August 2007

Details: New Award for Youngsters

Adam Goddard (14) of the Rooney party had a wish come true when he landed a 32lb 7oz beast on Tuesday 31st July after only having his rod out for around 15 minutes. The fish is known as Golddigger and is normally around 39lb in weight but due to heavy spawning has lost over 6lb recently.

Adam and his family were so pleased with his catch that we felt we had to invent another award for the younger anglers (under 16’s); he was given a personalised bottle of low alcohol cider with a champagne style cork.

Well done Adam, you showed the big boys how it’s done!!!

We have also decided to do a similar personalised white wine award for the ladies, so come on girls get catching!

Date: July 2007

Details: Work Begins on Lake William

The second lake at la Gléhias has been gradually drained down over the last two weeks and the bulk of the stock of small fish have been transferred into Lake Lauren. Rumours of a large Catfish in it by the locals have been squashed as only small carp, roach, rudd and tench were found to be present. Features found on the bottom include 3 hefty tree stumps, 4 large gravel bars and 2 large gulleys. The lake already has many marginal features such as large over hanging trees and bushes and is reed lined the whole length of the back with a spectacular forest behind, these will make great holding spots for the fish and provide anglers with excellent areas to fish to.

The lake has a sunken forest in it and needs to be cleared as this would make it near impossible to fish, it also has a leak on the main sluice close to the bottom and this will be repaired while it is empty. Plans are to construct up to 6 large decked fishing pontoons approximately 5m x 4m in size to jut out over the deeper parts of the lake.

We are planning to stock a large head of carp of around 10-20lb’s to grow on with the occasional lump of between 30-40lb’s and also around 15 cats of around 15-20lb’s with a couple of 40’s. The initial plan of large pike has been scrapped due to concerns of the species being too fragile for repeat capturing. Along with the large fish, we will be putting back an extremely high number of roach, rudd, tench and perch, partly as the staple diet for the cats but also for the anglers who want to fish for other coarse species in between the carp and cats.

We expect to have the bottom of the lake cleared of trees and have the platform stilts set by the end of august and refilling by mid September. We aim to stock the lake late in 2008 to open for the 2009 or 2010 season. The lake will be ideally suited for up to 4 anglers who want drive and survive only at first, but long term plans are in place to provide accommodation as well.

click on the photos to enlarge

Autumn 2005 showing tree tops breaking the surface	Gravel bars on the far edge and the forest background	The deepest gulley can be clearly seen
Me attempting to upright one of the leaking outlets 10 foot down in the lake	The largest tree stump, normally with just the top exposed in 2 and a half foot of water	A view across the shallow end with 4 foot of water drained out

Date: July 2007

Details: Hi angling lines,

Thanks for a fantastic week fishing, we had a great time.

We had the food package, which was excellent and all home cooked food. We came home fatter than when we went!

Lee and Tracey were fantastic. They were both very helpful, friendly and willing to help, providing useful tips and advice on fishing and the local area.

We are looking forward to going back next year and eagerly await next year’s brochure so we can book our next holiday.

Regards,

Richard Pinnuck, on behalf of the Pinnuck party 7th – 14th July 2007.

Owners Comment: So glad you guys had a great time. Thanks for taking the time to write in. We enjoyed having you all here and are looking forward to seeing you all again soon. P.s. Let me know if you want that Tartar Sauce recipe! Tracy & Lee :)

Date: July 2007

Details: 9 out 10 Cats prefer Rahja! - (Probably)

9 out 10 Cats prefer Rahja! - (Probably)

Russell Irons of the Pinnuck party came to la Gléhias in search of a PB Catfish and brought with him some lovely smelly purrpose made baits, ranging from fishy meatballs to 35mm crab flavoured pink pellets. He is also fishing for the Carp using Quest Baits Rahja Spice – known to work very well on our lake.

Having failed to find the Cats on the first two nights with his super smelly baits, he had just got all his rods in on the third evening ready for the night ahead, when fifteen minutes later a slow, gentle bite occurred. Suspecting it was a big Carp tentatively picking up the 20mm Rahja on his middle rod, Russell lifted into it to find he had hooked what he came for.

The angry Moggy took around 20 minutes to bank and came in at 38lb 11oz smashing his previous PB and setting a new lake record, excellent stuff!

Well done Russell!

Date: May 2007

Details: Catfish Lake Record Broken

The Simkiss party arrived on the 19th of May and have been faced with the challenge of fishing a lake waiting to spawn combined with bad fishing weather for the first two days and nights of their holiday.

The group had struggled the first few days to get many runs and had only managed to get one fish on the bank. Having lost several fish, including a large Catfish estimated to be over 45lbs, it soon became apparent that the Carp had something else on their minds….. So, with a change of tactics and a bit of heavy baiting, the Cats became the targets for the nights ahead.

The plan paid off on the first night of this approach with Lee Simkiss landing a new Lake Record Cat at 36lb 1oz from the gorse bank at 4.00am. The Moggy was tempted by two hair-rigged 25mm halibut pellets fished over a 2.5kg bed of 5 and 7mm halibut pellets and using an 80lb braid rig it was certain to make it to the unhooking mat.

Less than fifteen minutes later another of Lee’s rods tore off, and this turned out to be one of the smaller Carp named Nemo at 21lb 7oz, the same fish he had caught 3 days before at 21lb 8oz - What are the chances of that?!!!

With two days and nights to go, let’s see if they can find that elusive 45lb Cat. (Watch this space).

The group are currently planning a return trip in September.

A well deserved bottle of wine!

Well done Lee.

Date: April 2007

Details: The Wine Starts Flowing For Lake Record Carp

James Barr and his party have been fishing the banks of Lake Lauren since 21st of April and have been soaking up the sunshine during the hot days early in the week. With temperatures hitting 102 degrees, the fishing has been a bit slower than normal during the day and the fish have been mostly hitting the banks at night. On Tuesday, it started to cloud over, and by nightfall it had started to rain, and because it was raining the fish decided to keep the anglers up all night!

Team leader James, hit into 3 Carp before coming across one of the real biggies. The 40lb 2oz lump known as ‘Golddigger’ was hooked in the shallows on Quests ‘Special Crab’ boilie and landed in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A personalised bottle of wine has been awarded to the new “Lake Carp Record Holder”.

All that precise baiting and rod planting paid off!
Congratulations and well done James!

Date: April 2007

Details: Fun starts with Lake Record Cat

Shaun Fox, a member of the Keith Judd party, has been breaking his Carp PB. In fact he broke it three times in one night up to 33lb and then broke it a forth time the following night with a mirror of 37lb 4oz, and if that wasn’t enough, the night after that he landed his first ever Catfish at 35lb 8oz and set a lake record!

We thought it was time this man slowed down to have a drink, after all every other fish he has landed is a 30+. So it was a good excuse to invent the “Lake Record Drink”. Shaun (the fish magnet) Fox is the first person to receive a personalised bottle of wine with the catch details and date on the label.

We have decided to continue this and award every angler who sets a La Gléhias Cat or Carp record a similar personalised bottle as well. And with several Carp and Cats in the lake heavier than the current lake records, we expect to be giving out many bottles early on, so make sure you let us know when you catch one!

Well done Shaun

Date: January 2007

Details: First Fish of 2007 Sets New Lake Record

On the 6th of Jan, I went down to the lake to try a bit of testing on rig presentation and had me a nice surprise. I put 5 rods out in regular hot spots all with differently presented end tackle i.e. some popped-up baits, stiff rigs, long hairs, light leads etc.

After getting all rods in the water I only had about a 15 minute wait and the first and only run of the day came (it had to be on the furthest rod away, about a 100 yard run to strike it!). It took about 5 minutes to get it to the bank, at this point I saw how big the fish was and then it decided it wanted a real fight, it hung on for another 10 minutes with my heart banging out of my chest before I managed to get it in the net. I really wasn’t expecting a result like this while experimenting, not only a new PB for me but also a new lake record at 40lb 2oz!

Incidentally, the set-up that caught the fish was a 22mm boilie cut in half with a pop-up grain of plastic corn on a 10cm soft braid rig with a long hair and light lead. Pop-ups don’t seem to produce many fish on our lake but they do seem to produce the bigger ones for some reason.

I am fairly convinced this record won’t stand for long as I know of at least 2 other mirrors which I suspect are bigger, and recently I have seen a common feeding in the deep margins which looked a fair bit bigger than the 40 I’ve just caught.

Good luck to all our guests in 2007

Lee

New Lake Record - 40lb 2oz

Date: January 2007

Details: One Last Carp for 2006

The weather had warmed up a little over the last couple of days and I had seen some Carp activity in the shallows this morning when I was feeding the lake. It looked as if it was going to be a dry day and I couldn’t resist having a dabble.

I shot back to the workshop and got my rods, tackle and bait and dashed back to the lake. By the time I got set up, it was 11.30am and the sky was black and I couldn’t see any sign of the Carp that were there earlier. I decided to stick it out for a few hours and see if I couldn’t winkle one out.

I put three rods out, all in the margins up against reeds with Quest’s Fruity Trifle boilies combined with pop-up fake corn on the hair to act as a visual beacon for the bait. I also scraped the entire surface off the boilies to reduce them to around 13mm and release a bit more scent in the cold water. Around each hookbait I put only four or five broken boilies for additional attraction - bear in mind I am competing with 8kg of high protein feed going in the lake every day in the winter just to make the fishing that bit harder!

By 2.30pm, I was sitting miserably in a hurricane with torrential rain, already thinking about packing up, when I noticed the line had gone slack on my third rod. This was when I realised I hadn’t turned the buzzer on! I reeled in the slack and struck it to find after a nice 15 minute scrap, a beautiful peachy 27lb 9oz mirror on the other end. Well worth sitting out in the storm for.

The last three sessions on the lake have also confirmed that the weight of the fish is well and truly on the up with many of them at least 4lbs heavier than last recorded, some as much as 7lbs over and we expect the weights to continue to rise further through to the spring.

Happy new year to all at Angling Lines and all of our customers,

Lee and Tracy 

Date: November 2006

Details: Quest Baits Testing causes Lake Eruption

Having recently spoken with Shaun Harrison at Quest Baits, we decided to try out a few of their boillie flavours in the lake to see which had the best results.

I always think of spicy baits for catching Barbel and Chub and as far as I know, no one had tried any in our lake, so first on the list was Rahja Spice.

On the 27th of October I set up for a 3 hour session as the sun was coming up, the first run came within 15 minutes and turned out to be a 24lb 14oz mirror, great start. Half an hour later came the second fish of 25lb 8oz. By 10 o’clock I was into my third and biggest fish of the session a gorgeous Mirror of 29lb 9oz, and finally at around 10:45 I finished with an 18 pounder.

I absolutely cannot wait to give this flavour a go on a river.

Two days later, again as the sun was rising I was set up in pretty much the same spot and ready to give Special Crab a go. As with both of these flavours I had been trickling a hand full of boillies in all around the lake each day for about a week before hand to make sure the fish recognised them as a food source.

This time I barely had a chance to put my third rod out when the first one screamed off, 23lb 4oz again a good start, however ten minutes later there were two rods going at once. I managed to land one of these at 24lb 6oz as the other managed to shake the hook out before I could get to it.

Still, I got all three rods back in the water and sat down thinking I’ve probably ruined the swim for a while with all that commotion, but it wasn’t long till my left rod tore off and gave me another good mirror of 26lb 6oz.

The short session’s final run came at 11:00 and I knew this was a decent fish as soon as I struck in to it, I was proven right when I weighed the two toned Leather in at 32lb 2oz.

All of these fish were caught just 15 feet from the bank on 18mm sized boillies and were fished over a bed of 7mm Halibut and 5mm Carp Pellet with a hand full of whole and broken boillies around the hookbait.

I was astounded by the effect of the Rahja and didn’t think the Special Crab would be able to match it, but the results speak for themselves. I have come to the conclusion that Shaun Harrison must have been a Carp in a previous life to develop baits so attuned to their taste!

We will definitely be stocking these flavours in 18 and 22mm for sale to our customers. I have yet to try Fruity Trifle and will keep you informed of the results.

Lee

24lb 14oz on Rahja Spice	25lb 8oz on Rahja Spice	29lb 9oz on Rahja Spice
24lb 6oz on Special Crab	26lb 6oz on Special Crab	32lb 2oz on Special Crab

Date: October 2006

Details: Pregnant Tracy lands pregnant shape fish!!!

It was a horrible rainy Sunday, and I kept waiting for it to ease up so I could get a couple of hours in down at the lakes. It wasn’t showing any sign of stopping, so at around 4 o’clock I decided to go anyway.

I set up 3 rods and planted them perfectly into areas which regularly produce, two of these spots were already fizzing and I thought “it won’t be long now….”

After 3 hours with not even a knock, Tracy turned up to see if I was coming home for tea any time soon. I wanted to give it another hour so she decided to wait with me.

Having promptly nicked my seat, my umbrella and my Carp mag, and gotten her self settled in for the hour, I decided to take a wander around to see where the party was at, cos it certainly wasn’t booming over my rods today!

I’d only turned my back for a minute when I heard the alarm screaming! I turned to run back to my rods, but at 9 months pregnant, I hadn’t seen her move so fast in ages, she was off her seat and had managed to nick my rod as well!!

My well placed bait had been snapped up by one of the new stockies – a gorgeous 26lb 10oz Common. I had to let Tracy have it. She was beaming from ear to ear – very pleased with her self indeed, especially having beaten her PB by 17lb 10oz!!

Not bad for a ‘Fish-wife’!!!

Lee

Date: October 2006

Details: What a year! And we’ve only just begun…..

It’s the end of the holiday season and while most other venues are winding down for the year, we at La Gléhias are still gearing up for our first ‘reel’ season in 2007.

The Farmhouse accommodation is just about finished now - complete with the new barbeque and play area - and ready to receive its first guests in the new year.

Lake Lauren has been beautifully landscaped and we are really happy with the results – even though we do say so ourselves – and the lake itself is now stocked to the back teeth with massive Carp and Cats. Although you can never guarantee the weather or the fishing, you would be hard pushed not to catch something! In fact almost every one who fished it broke their PB, some people several times!!!

Not having had much time to fish the lake earlier on in the year, I have been very dependent on the catch reports from the few ‘Day Ticketers’ and friends we have had at the lake, and although all the reports have been really encouraging, it’s still not like testing the water yourself. I did however manage to get on the banks for a few days here and there through September and October and give it a proper go.

I found watching the water for an hour or so for clues of where the Carp are has paid off immensely when you cast in, and you can usually pull out fish after fish after fish when you find one – Just ask Darren (see Sept 2006 – Massive Haul). I think this puts paid to the ‘Urban Legend’ that big Carp don’t shoal.

Casting in blindly will still catch you Carp, but at a much slower rate. Margins should not be ignored and will often pay off even right under your feet, particularly in the deep end. Stalking into the shallow end margins can also be very exciting on float.

Pre-baiting also seems to work very quickly, as in three or four hours after throwing in a few handfuls of broken boillie will produce Carp in the swim in most shallow areas of the lake.

Floating baits seem to be ignored by the carp at the moment, but maybe that will change as more and more people try and introduce it. Bottom baits seem to be best with popped up baits coming a close second. Method feeding has hardly been tried at all, and I’ll be testing this out soon.

I have also noticed a lack of ‘bleep bleep’ bites or drop backs on the buzzers, nine times out of ten the Carp bites tend to be ‘full on’ screaming runs with very little warning if any – heart attack fishing! And several people have commented that the Carp in the lake seem to be extremely aggressive fighters. The Carp don’t appear to be put off by the rain either. In fact it seems to set the lake on fire!

All in all we are really pleased with the way the lake fishes and are very confident that our future anglers should enjoy some real good quality fishing, in terms of both size and quantity of fish.

We are looking forward to a great year in 2007.

With warmest regards,

Tracy & Lee :)

Date: October 2006

Details: More Big Carp & Cats to 39lb 9oz!

Initial heavy stockings are always filled with at least a little apprehension. With the health and welfare of the fish always paramount, how the lake will adapt to such big changes are always a concern. Having said that, La Gléhias are very pleased with how the newcomers have settled in since the initial Big Carp stocking of February. So much so, we felt that the lake could in fact cope with just a little bit more….

We have just had Laurent Bigot deliver another twenty big Carp to around mid 20’s and three Catfish to around 40lbs! - giving something else to go for. We expect these to grow on very rapidly due to the high numbers of Tench and Rudd in the lake for them to munch on.

Lee & Tracy :)

Date: October 2006

Details: New BBQ’s & Play Area

We now have a barbecue area at the lakes, and a large barbecue and play area with swings, slide and picnic bench set in the wild orchard adjacent to the Farmhouse for those who rent it for their stay.

The orchard, filled with several different varieties of fruit and nut trees, is a lovely place to spend a sunny afternoon, if you can tear yourself away from the lakes that is!

Tracy & Lee :)

Date: October 2006

Details: Darren & Scott – part 3

It seems we can’t keep these boys away! Back again for another 24hour session, after a great success two weeks before, the lads pulled out a total of seven fish this time around, with an average weight of around 22lbs, the biggest of which being 25lb 12oz caught on La Gléhias boillies by Scott.

See you again soon :)

Date: October 2006

Details: Willow Trees are Out

Around 15 months ago, we planted 2 young Willow trees in the lake to give a central feature to fish to, and although one of them proved to be a carp magnet, they have become a bit of a nuisance as every now and then, the hooked fish have run round them and snagged, resulting in a few lost fish, and who wants to lose a fish when it maybe your personal best on the hook?

Date: October 2006

Details: Stalking

I had a chance to get a few hours of fishing in this week and thought I’d try a bit of stalking with a boillie on the float. Looking for fish sign i.e. silt stirring up, bubbles or bumping in the reeds, almost every other cast paid off, I managed to land two fish of 19lbs and 22lbs before I connected with a 32lb Mirror, which was fun with 8lb line on a float rod I can tell you! I finished off the morning with another Mirror coming in at 22lbs. All in all, I was well pleased with myself as I had broken my float PB twice in a five hour session.

Lee

Date: October 2006

Details: The Bricolage Boyz

Patrice and Sylvain, both extremely competent Carpist’s, were keen to try the lake out for a night and a day. By morning, they had had four fish out to 26lb 12oz. The fish continued to come out steadily throughout the day, to a total of eight fish with an average weight of 23lb.

Cheers for the great review lads,

Lee & Tracy :)

Date: October 2006

Details: Long Lost Relatives…

Having not seen my Dad for a while or my baby brother Laurence for over a year, it was great to have them both come down for the day for a spot of fishing and a barbecue.

Unfortunately, fishing on the tail of Darren and Russ’s enormous success, I wasn’t convinced they were going to have an especially good day. As it turns out, Laurence had a great afternoon, catching four carp between 18lb to 22lb and breaking his PB in the process; all in about five hours.

Well done Laurence, maybe I’ll see a bit more of you now?

Tracy :)

Date: September 2006

Details: Massive Haul

At about an hour before dark, with just enough time to buy bait, bivvy up and cast in, fishermen Darren and Russ arrived on the 30th September for a 24 hour session and had the time of their lives.

By sunrise, having had very little sleep through the night due to the non stop screaming of their bite-alarms, and having to get up constantly to land yet more fish, they were convinced that things would eventually slowdown enough during the day for them to catch up on some much needed shuteye. Fortunately, they were wrong. The session produced 24 fish (not including six that were lost, one of which was estimated to be well over thirty pounds that snapped him clean off in open water), eight over 20lbs up to 28lbs with a guestimated total catch weight to be just under 400lbs! Not bad for a 24hr session!!!

Darren commented “although we didn’t land any of the 30s or 40s, it’s probably the best fishing I will ever have in my life.”

Unfortunately, I was only on hand with my trusty digital camera for a couple of the fish landed. The rest, the lads took photos on their camera phones which we couldn’t use.

Thanks for the great write up boys,

Tracy & Lee :)

Date: September 2006

Details: Angling Lines Visit

With Gareth Watkins from Angling Lines due to show up at La Gléhias for a video/photo shoot of the venue, Tracy and I organised there to be a couple people on the banks in the hope of catching a few good fish for the camera.

Gareth and his son William arrived quite late in the afternoon after being held up elsewhere. Having already had about seven good fish out to about 25lb before they arrived, things had started to quieten down a bit, and we were worried that we wouldn’t get anything on film. Fortunately, not long after parking up his van, Gareth barely had time to get the camera out before Bob latched into a gorgeous 31lb Mirror. Excellent timing Bob!

Colin and Brenda were also down for the day, and Colin encountered ‘Cod’ again, but this was earlier on in the day and didn’t make it to film. Sorry ‘Cod’!

Shortly after tea, Gareth’s son William Bivvied up for the night and had a few good fish out to 25lb, and a couple more the next day.

The following morning, I met Gareth at the lakes for some ‘Rod Bending Action’ on film. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I hooked into a 23lb Mirror followed by a 27lb Mirror. Perfect!

Date: August 2006

Details: Darren, Russ & Scott

Three lads, Darren, Russ and Scott came down to La Gléhias for the day. Both Darren and Scott left with new PB’s, in fact Scott was on his first Carp fishing session ever and landed the known fish ‘Nemo’ at 22lb, so called as he has a little fins.

Keen to return, Darren and Russ have said they want to come back next weekend.

Lee & Tracy

Date: August 2006

Details: Feedback from the lake.............

Keen to get some feedback and results on how the lake performs, we decided to let a few ‘Day Ticketers’ fish the lake for this season only. The feedback has been invaluable, all very positive.

However, whereas some of the more experienced fisherman have enjoyed fishing to the Willows in the lake, and were able to control the Carp away from them once hooked, the lesser experienced fisherman have been tending to lose a few good fish around them and were getting frustrated. Hence, they have to go! The trees that is, not the fishermen!!!

Catch results have been encouraging, with many broken PB’s and positive comments about the lake itself and the surrounding area - beautiful.

Date: July 2006

Details: Colin & Cod

Having met Colin and his lovely wife Brenda whilst out walking, they have become firm friends. With a genuine interest in what we are doing with the lakes, and a growing interest in the fish, I have encouraged Colin to become a competent fisherman. At 71, and having not done any fishing since he was a lad, Colin has taken to it like a duck to water – if you will excuse the pun.

Preferring the float, Colin surprised us all when he landed a 23lb big scaled Mirror, that he named ‘Cod’. Colin has since had a bit of a relationship with ‘Cod’, having pulled him out a couple of times since then.

P.S. Cheers to Colin and Brenda for the many beautiful plants they have donated to the lakes.

Lee & Tracy :)

Date: June 2006

Details: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!!

My daughter Lauren and I were enjoying a nice relaxing afternoon of float fishing for Roach and Rudd as the weather was lovely, when Lauren (9) shouted over “Dad! Dad! The Roach is pulling all the line of the reel!” I could see she had hooked into a Carp that turned out to be a whopping great 24lb Common, beating her previous PB by 17lb! It took her about twenty minutes to land it with a bit of help from her old dad when it ran around the sluice. She is now a fully fledged committed Carpist, and likes to throw a rod in with me whenever she can.

Having had no success on the local lakes at Plemet, our friend and neighbour Colin came down for the afternoon with his granddaughter Laura (10) for a spot of float fishing. Within the couple of hours they were there, Laura must have pulled out at least fifty Roach, Rudd and Tench to around 8oz and said “This is more like it Granddad!” It just goes to show that size isn’t everything!

Date: May 2006

Details: Lee’s Birthday

For my birthday, I fancied a bit of float fishing and a BBQ down at the lakes with my family. Turned out to be a good afternoons fishing as I hit into a big shoal of Rudd to 1lb 4oz, and a few 2lb Tench. The surprise of the day, a 32lb Mirror on the one carp rod I’d put out in the margins just under my feet. The BBQ turned out okay too! :)
Lee & Tracy

Date: April 2006

Details: The Lake Awakens

Having had no time for fishing myself, I took a few hours out of the building work to treat myself to a bit of fishing to see if it was livening up at all. With three rods out, within an hour I had banked a 21lb Common, and around an hour later latched into something big. It took about 45 minutes to land and turned out to be the third biggest fish in the lake. The golden coloured Mirror came out at 38lb 9oz, and Tracy named it ‘Golddigger’. Having landed my PB, I packed my rods down and went home very contented.

Lee

Date: March 2006

Details: Our First Fishermen

Early March, Ellis, Mitty, Lou & Ollie arrived in a pick-up, crammed with tackle, bivvies and bait; they had just enough room to fit themselves. Having had just enough time to set-up their bivvies, the Heavens opened and for five days and five nights, the rain and wind hardly let up.

Ollie’s bivvy gave up the battle on the second night and self-destructed. I lent him mine, but his clothes and bedding were soaked. We hung his stuff from every available hook in the Farmhouse, but without central heating, it just wouldn’t dry. Ellis was unperturbed by the lake forming inside his bivvy, and just bucketed it out every morning. How he didn’t drown, I do not know.

The lake was still stone cold from winter, and the icy wind and rain wasn’t helping. Two days of watching the rain through the fly-screen past before Ollie latched into his first fish of the week - a stunning 31lb 8oz Common which he named ‘Mr Honions’.

Having had no luck with bottom baits and having tried just about everything else, Lou had a bit of an experiment and tried popping up a big lump of French loaf about 5’ off the bottom of the deepest part of the lake by the sluice. This paid off dividends as he landed his PB – a big fat Mirror of 30lb which is now known as ‘Lucky Lou’.

Fed up with the weather, I showed the lads around the local area on a few evenings. We hit a couple of bars and restaurants in Loudeac and La Chéze, and they met up with some friends they had made on the ferry over, and a good time was had by all.

Final fish of the week was to come on the second from last day, when Mitty netted a Mirror of 30lb 8oz, which unbelievably turned out to be ‘Lucky Lou’!

On the last night, we had a ‘Film, Beer & Curry’ evening. The boyz supplied the tinned curry (luverly nuked) and beer, and I supplied the films, after which the lads crashed out at the Farmhouse and managed to dry out a bit.

Despite all the wind, rain and soggy socks, the lads all had a great time, three of the four leaving with new PB’s, and have said they definitely want to come again – at a warmer time of year though!

Thanks Lads

Lee

Date: March 2006

Details: New Loo!

With the Big Fish in, our friends couldn’t wait to come and fish the new lake. With the pressure on, the Drive & Survive Shower Room & Toilet was finished in the nick of time.

Date: February 2006

Details: First Fish Out

My mate Chris had been helping me work on the Farmhouse and lakes, and wanted to get an evening’s fishing in before he went home to England. At last the snow and ice had melted off the lake, so he set up two rods for the evening.

Being convinced that natural baits would probably work best; Chris set one of his rods up with a big ball of worm on a hair-rig, and planted it in the margins. Within a half an hour, the buzzer was screaming. He struck into the first fish to come out of the lake after the heavy stocking – a long 28lb Mirror that he named Tea-Bag for his best mate Tea-Bag-Tel. Having broken his PB, and not wanting to stay in the cold much longer, we decided to go back to the Farmhouse and celebrate with a warm beer & pizza!

Cheers Chris!

Lee

Date: February 2006

Details: Picture Postcard – Snow

I’ve never seen anything like it. Brittany may be warmer than the UK in summer, but man is it colder in the winter!

Date: February 2006

Details: La Ville Louet – A French Farmhouse

Having found the perfect site for our fishery in June last year, we secured the perfect home for ourselves and accommodation for our paying guests in February this year. Being the closest property to the lakes was pure luck and was obviously just meant to be. Being made up of a row of four houses with only one being habitable, we knew we had our work cut out for us.

Date: February 2006

Details: Initial Heavy 1 Tonne Stocking!

Having discussed our needs at length with Simon Horton of Horton Management, we went ahead and placed the order for our first stocking of Lake Lauren at La Gléhias.

The main stock of 68 new Carp went in with a good mix of Mirrors and Commons without a hitch. Initial heavy stockings are always filled with at least a little apprehension, with the health and welfare of the fish always paramount. How the lake will adapt to such big changes are always a concern. So far so good….