Domaine de la Ribiere… A great first trip - can’t wait to get back! by Brian Skoyles

Fishing a new water can be a bit of a hit or miss affair, so being able to rely on good advance information and advice can be a real asset when sorting out your holiday carping. Graham Drewery and myself fancied a trip to a different water, Angling Lines sorted out our Ribiere trip and did us proud. Directions were easy to follow and the complex clearly signed. Graham and I were met by the owner Michel Bonneau and introduced to the Domaine de la Ribiere bailiff, Eric.

After being shown our Gite (very well equipped with all mod cons, cool and spotlessly clean), Eric took us for a look at the lake. One very useful item that Eric had, was a ring binder containing photographs from each of the pegs when the lake had been drained. It gave you a brilliant idea of contours etc, as you could line up lake bed features, standing in the peg, with the photograph in front of you. We were to borrow the book several times during the week!

We selected our swims with Eric’s help and advice, then set about unloading the van and making sense of the mountain of gear. By early afternoon we were sorted and fishing.

The week really split into two halves, a relatively quiet first half and a superb second half.

In the first half the conditions weren’t quite right for where we were fishing, with the wind pushing away from us. We moved swim, and the wind swung round and increased, so we moved back. This time it felt right … and it was right!

With the wind pushing in towards us, we reckoned the margin in front of us was a good bet, and we weren’t going to ignore it. Advance advice was to bait-boat to the far margin and Graham and I put rods across the lake as advised, but with a facing wind our main tactic was to bait areas close in, to the left and right of our swim. We put out markers and then baited around them. We scattered the baits, about 60 to 70 or so, over quite a wide area, and intended to re-bait after we got a take. The thinking behind this approach, was we thought the fish were moving around the area in front of us, rather than really getting their heads down, so a scattered approach, seemed logical, rather than a much heavier concentration of bait. Graham also used PVA bags of pellets with the hook-baits as an added attraction. Both of us used standard bottom bait and or glugged baits on the hooks.

The Wednesday night was French fishing at its best, lovely surroundings, lovely weather, and runs to both of us. Graham and I shared five fish, I had two. We were well pleased. Graham got the numbers, but did not have luck on his side size wise, his best fish being 28/8. I was the opposite, with my two fish being 34/4 and 40/8, both commons in superb condition, and boy did they scrap. It’s a great feeling when you think you are getting to grips with a fishing situation. The approach was working. Scattered baiting with a top up after every take was working well, and we had three more fish during the morning.

All too soon our week was running out, but the last twenty-four hours was to be pretty special, especially for me, and the British lads to our left. One of my rods cast slightly left at about 20 yds range was the real hot rod, so like you do I put a second rod close to it, to maximise my chances. Those two rods produced four fish, 26/0, 36/10, 41/8, and 45/4. Graham had two more fish, but again was a bit unlucky with the sizes, best fish 26/2.

As we sat taking in the morning sun, we noticed that one of the British lads was into a fish. Eventually it was netted, and a shout went up, arms were spread …. “It’s massive”. We went for a look, and it was MASSIVE! ….. All fifty-nine and a half pounds of it …. A truly magnificent fish.

All too soon it was time to pack up. This we did rather leisurely, taking most of the morning. We still had a couple of hours and sat on the grass with just the rods out. I really wanted Graham to get amongst the bigger fish, he’d worked his socks off all week for some lovely fish and deserved a big fish, so we did some rod swapping, I had one of my rods on Graham’s buzzer, Graham had two of his rods on my buzzers, fishing the “hotspot”. With half an hour to go, Graham’s remote burst into life, and he ran to his rods, then turned back to me …. It’s your rod! I picked up the rod and bent into a good fish. Sometime later after a dogged fight I slipped the net under a good fish. It was Sod’s Law, as the needle went to 31 lbs. What did Graham have to do for a big fish? Just at that moment my buzzer burst into life, once again Graham was there and this time it was his rod. The rod on the “hotspot”. He struck into a fish that just ripped line off the spool. Eric and I stood behind him with fingers crossed, this looked like a seriously big fish. 15, 20, 25 minutes later, and, still the fight went on, this just had to be the fish Graham was after. With nerves jangling, gradually the fish was brought to the net, but with it, elation turned to gut wrenching disappointment. It was not a huge fish, but a mid twenty hooked in the pec. Hence the spectacular fight. It was un-hooked and returned, unharmed, weight unknown. There’s always an element of luck in any session, I’d had it, Graham hadn’t. It’s easy to say, that’s fishing, but at that moment I knew how Graham felt.

We packed the last few bits and pieces away, and went back to the Gite. We had a bit of a social with Eric and the British lads, then checked the van was ready for an early start. We finished the week with a lovely meal in the on- site restaurant, and had a final walk round the lake. We will definitely be going back.

All in all it was a great week.

The organisation by Angling Lines was superb. The lake, and its fish everything we could have asked for (some of the most hardest fighting fish I have come across for a long time). Michel and Eric were extremely helpful, and the other anglers good company.

If you fancy a week away in lovely surroundings, with excellent facilities, and hard fighting fish, you could do a lot worse than Domaine de la Ribiere.

Brian Skoyles

*The above is an extract from a full Angling Times Feature (June 28th 2005)