Oakview Magic

One of the best parts of my job is trying out new venues when they join the Angling Lines books. Clearly I can’t get to every new one, but I do try to fish at least a couple every year. Of course I know the venue is going to be spot-on, it wouldn’t have made it into the Angling Lines group if it wasn’t, but I nevertheless still arrive with a keen sense of anticipation.

So it was when we pulled up at Oakview Lake the first week in June 2009. We’d had an uneventful overnight crossing to Caen so we arrived fresh and eager. The weather was good, the birds were singing and the venue looked superb. We were met by the owners Martin & Shirley Barker who took us on a quick tour of the lake and the accommodation. Martin & Shirley are very professional owners who had researched the carp fishing market thoroughly before they even bought the venue... and it really shows. Throughout the trip I was very impressed with them, their attention to detail & eagerness to learn is commendable. There is no doubt in my mind that they will become one of our most successful venues.

The Accommodation
The wooden lodge is brand new and just 30m from the water’s edge. It’s been built & equipped to a very high standard, you really want for nothing. To be honest you’d be happy to spend a week here even if you didn’t fish... a very good point to get across to any non-anglers. An added bonus is a Sky equipped TV. Just after we arrived the FA cup final kicked off... needless to say the fishing had to wait for a couple of hours! There’s also a DVD player and a very comprehensive list of titles Martin & Shirley loan out on request ... as I said, you’ll want for nothing.

The Lodge

The Lodge Swim

The Lake & the Fish
The lake is just under 3 acres with an island in the centre. Because of the way it’s been shaped it doesn’t feel small at all. The banks are beautifully tended and it really is a picture postcard setting. Martin & Shirley also own quite a bit of the surrounding land and they’ve already started work to make it more accessible... in a couple of years I reckon you’ll be able to take some interesting walks without ever leaving their land.

Just as with everything else they’ve done, Martin was meticulous in his research before he stocked the fish. The lake was completely drained and the big machinery came in to completely de-silt it and deepen it in places. Take a look at the pictures – fascinating! There’s a deeper channel that connects the bottom left & top left of the lake (looking from the Gite). I made a mental note to find that with the marker rod as it’s probably used by the fish as a highway and could be a good spot for a bait. However, as it turned out I didn’t need to find it... but more of that later.

Click to enlarge these photos

The lake has received three stockings of carp, the second & third ones being from France’s best fish farmer, Michel Bigot, in November 2008. In addition to a stack of 20’s there was a 25lb leather, a 29lb common and 8 mirrors between 30lb and 38lb.

So... on to the fishing
I chose to start my session in front of the lodge – why not, it’s just so handy! Martin allows the use of baitboats, so from this swim everywhere is fishable except the very back of the island.

For bait I started with my all time favourite – Quest Special Crab, which Martin sells on site. If you made me choose just one boilie it would be this one. However as a back-up I had the Surf n Turf boilies too. Both boilies have a good percentage of fishmeals & fish oils, ideal when the waters warm.

I used a combination of 10, 15 & 20mm boilies fished over the top of the Quest Garlic Feast which is a mixture of 10 different particles with a background Garlic flavouring – Martin sells a very similar product on-site. Also added per baitboat hopper was a handful of mixed sized trout & carp pellets. You’ll notice that everything I use is in mixed sizes. I think this is really important in presenting a natural baiting situation for the carp to come across. It also helps by not letting them regulate the amount of “suck” they need to take the baits in, hopefully meaning they’ll be less on guard when it comes to taking in your hookbait.

The Bait

Garlic Feast

I fished a 10mm bait on a long hair, tipped with a piece of plastic sweetcorn. I rarely cast out these days without a plastic bait tipping the boilie on the hair. It’s a technique my colleague Shaun Harrison showed me, together with the combi-rig I now use for the majority of my fishing. The plastic bait has a number of advantages; if the water’s clear enough it’s very visual, it adds buoyancy to the rig (meaning the bait goes further back when the carp sucks it in) and it gives you complete confidence that you have a bait on the hair even if nuisance species are a problem. I always use a mixture of particles as my bac kground feed and this invariably includes sweetcorn & maize, so the plastic sweetcorn blends in nicely.

The advantages of the combi-rig are many – you can find out more about it by watching this short video clip. Suffice to say since I’ve started using this rig & baiting combination my fishing has been much more successful. I know the bait & the rig are spot-on leaving me to concentrate on that oh so vital ingredient... location. It’s testament to the effectiveness of the rig that in this 37 fish capture I only lost two fish through hook-pulls, a very reassuring statistic. Nearly every fish was hooked in the centre of the bottom lip – perfect positioning. If you’re struggling for confidence give it a go... I know you’ll be rewarded.

My rig of the week

The left hand margin swim

I fished 2 rods out to the island by baitboat and one cast down the left hand margin with a PVA bag. All rods proved equally successful which just goes to show you don’t have to use a baitboat.

Everything at Oakview is an easy cast and swims down the margins can be baited up more effectively by hand than by a baitboat (better spread) so don’t despair if you’re not a baitboat user.

One word of caution – if you fish to the front of the island by baitboat don’t take the boat too far in under the tree canopy. At around 1m from the bank there’s a mass of thin Weeping Willow roots. They get stuck around your boat propeller and that’s it... you’re stuck! How do I know – because I did it & had to swim to retrieve the boat! Martin does have a row boat on site – a safer option obviously. However, best bet is not to take it so close.

Full of goodies

Off to drop its cargo

When I did swim out I had the benefit of feeling around the bottom with my feet. At the edge of the canopy, about 3m from the island, you’re in around 1m of water & it’s a lovely clear bottom. Perfect! And so it proved to be with many fish being taken from this spot.

How did I do?
I’d decided to fish days only ... unless the fishing was difficult. The first evening produced nothing and it wasn’t until 7pm on Sunday that I banked my first fish. I took another two before dark, including a lovely 30.12 mirror, so things were starting to happen.

The first 30 of the session.

From the Monday onwards it just got better and better, my best day being Tuesday I believe when I had 12 fish. I had a couple stalking down the bottom end but all the rest were taken off the bottom.

It was fantastic fishing with a very good average size. I finished up with 37 fish.... 5 x 30s....24 x 20s (10 x 25lb+) for a total weight of 800lb+ and an average size of 24lb. That’s without doubt one of the best catches I’ve had using standard bottom tactics... and I loved every minute of it.

So in conclusion....
Oakview has a tremendous future and I’ve no doubt it’ll become a very popular venue. The owners are extremely professional and have created a first class fishery. We were blessed with fantastic weather & fantastic fishing. Happy days!

If you fancy a trip to Oakview give me a call... it certainly gets my full recommendation!

David Keep

david@anglinglines.com
01246 857600 ext. 24