A Trip to Ribiere............
Paul Fletcher - May 2002
fishinfletch@ntlworld.com
At the end of May 2002 my wife and I spent a lovely week at the Angling Lines Holidays run venue Domaine de La Ribiere near Limoges. I thought it would be nice and maybe useful to tell you about our trip from start to finish, warts and all!!
Planning
Like most anglers, we started to plan our trip in the Winter of 2001. Bridget Keep at Angling Lines Holidays HQ took all the stresses of sorting our holiday away from us. All we had to do was to decide on a venue, give our preferred ferry times and give her our car details and we were booked in! This left me the decision on tackle, bait and how everything (and the wife) would fit into the car!! One thing I would mention on the planning front is to spend time viewing the Angling Lines Holidays website as this gives you lots of useful information and also some articles (like this one!) which will also give you fair reports on your chosen venue. In addition you will find that Bridget, David and the Angling Lines team have visited most of the venues so they can give you 1st hand experience.
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The Journey
The months soon passed and we were packed and ready to go! We had decided to take a Friday ferry in order to get a head start on the weekend traffic. This proved a great idea as we heard some frightening reports from anglers who joined us at the venue on Saturday night! As Liz was pregnant we also decided on a stop over midway through our journey, just to take the pressure off the journey. I would certainly recommend this to anyone as you can have a nice rest on route and then arrive at your venue feeling fresh and ready to go. We arrived at Ribiere at lunchtime on Saturday and I calculated that it took us approximately 7 hours in total driving time from Calais. One this I must add is the excellent directions we received as part of our holiday pack, they really helped us travel from the ferry to the lakeside! If you already haven't got one I would recommend buying a Michelin French Road Atlas as they are an invaluable addition to your holiday planning. |
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La Ribiere - the set up...
You can not fail to be impressed with the set up at Ribiere from the first moment you arrive when you drive through the secure electric gates! (you get your own remote control enabling you to come and go during your stay). The whole complex is set in numerous acres of beautiful established French countryside with the accommodation set on a slight hill overlooking the impressive lake. You have a great choice of accommodation from individual apartments to rooms with a communal kitchen. All are within 150 yards of the lake for the anglers and 75 yards from the swimming pool for the kids! |
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Or if you prefer to really concentrate on your fishing, you can just bivvy up besides the lake! Due to Liz's condition we booked a room and I bivvied up by the lake - the best of both worlds really and due to some very wet weather we endured I did spend a couple of nights in the room with Liz! (Sorry guys!!). It was also great to take advantage of the nice showers!
The owners live in a large house in the center of the grounds and are always around to offer help and for a chat! Plus you can use the expertise of Eric the on-site bailiff / guide who will be able to show you around the lake and give you useful tips.
Facilities
Wow..........where do begin? In addition to the quality accommodation you can enjoy all the facilities which make the venue a great family holiday. You have a swimming pool, sun terrace, boule court, Barbeque, donkeys & roe-deer. In the communal kitchen area you have microwaves, TV's and much more.......
When we visited it was the World Cup 2002 so we didn't miss a game and had a wonderful party when we beat the Argentines!!!
There is also plenty of safe areas for the kids to play.
If you are 100% bivvied then you can enjoy the separate shower/toilet facilities to make your stay more comfortable. |
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The Lake
I know this is what you are waiting for............. on our arrival we met up with Eric and took a nice stroll around the lake. The lake is long and quite thin, and about 25 acres. It has 19 good sized swims and most have nice features to fish to. During our walk we spotted loads of carp and it was easy to see that they like to patrol the margins and the shallower end. I likened the lake to a English Estate Lake with a defined dam wall area (depths to 20 feet) right the way down to the shallower marshy end (down to 2 feet).
There are a couple of underwater hotspots in the lake and these are well detailed on the Angling Lines website site. The old bridge is a real holding spot however I would avoid the old river bed as it tends to be very slimy and the fish did avoid it when we were there.
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I decided to fish midway along the lake on the accommodation side as I felt that I could benefit from the movement of the fish whilst still being quite close to Liz up at the accommodation area. Other members of our party spread all around the lake and we all settled happily into our swims and started the massive job of setting up 4 rods each and our bivvies! My swim enabled me to fish rods in all different features - the margins and midway out towards my marker float which I had rowed out. You can use the on-site rowing boats for positioning markers but not for rowing baits out or baiting up. (Don't be put off by this as you can easily cast to likely looking features in most swims - I used my spod set up to good effect as well). The one problem I found was the weed which can make presentation difficult. Its does thin out and you will find the clear areas by spending a bit of time with your feature finding gear. |
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My mate John was fishing the swim to my left and had similar features and depths to me although he could just about reach the old bridge area where quite a few fish were rolling throughout the day. Ian chose a lovely looking swim close to the Dam Wall. This gave him some cracking looking margins to try together with some deeper water where he planned to target the massive catfish which also inhabit the lake! I would say that all the swims on the lake give you lots of features to fish to so don't worry too much if you arrive to find a few other anglers on the lake. During our week the lake had 12 anglers fishing and we all had plenty of room and caught fish. One guy turned up late Saturday night and positioned himself on the opposite bank to me. He chucked out a method feeder and an hour later he banked a PB 30+ Mirror!!!
There was also a nice family fishing the shallow end of the lake. This area was full of fish when we arrived and they certainly didn't mind showing themselves - rolling and crashing! They had the most action of the week however they found it hard to land the fish - once hooked they headed straight for the snags. Like most other anglers of the lake they were enjoying a combined angling / family holiday - an ideal venue!
One thing I will mentioned about the shallow area is that the fish were quite obliging to stalking. Our very own David "just call me John Wilson" enjoyed some good sport early in the week stalking fish with bread and off the top. Worth a try if the buzzers are quiet or you are there during a hot spell.
Best areas - That's a difficult one I'm afraid. However at the time we fished there certainly was a pattern. If you were after lots of runs and didn't mind the size of fish then the shallower area was the place to be. If you preferred to sit it out for bigger fish then the Dam Area was much better. There were 2 French guys fishing close to the Dam Wall and they enjoyed some good sport with fish to low 30's. They weren't really doing anything special but the fish seemed to hold there. I made a big mistake when deciding where to fish by setting up mid way along the accommodation bank. My 'hope' was that the fish would patrol around the lake like they were doing when we arrived (it was hot then) and I could intercept the fish along the way. However what I didn't anticipate was the drastic change of weather conditions. The first couple of days were very hot then it rained and rained and rained ..... ... ...... .. .....!!
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NB - Please note that since we went to Ribiere the lake has been stocked with many more carp and this may affect the location of the fish. Chat to Eric and take his advice. Also walk around the lake until you find the fish, as I mentioned previously they do show themselves.
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Baits and Tackle
Baits - Like any fishing in France these days I would recommend that you take a bait which you are confident on. The last thing you want is to sit behind your rods with an unproved bait! I took Nutrabaits Big Fish Mix Boilies in various sizes and with a fruity flavour. In addition I took some of the excellent Dynamite Tiger nuts and a bag full of X-Seed mix. My fish came on both baits with the tigers doing well especially in the margins. If I went again I would drop the seeds and take some mini betaine pellets with me for both PVA work and spodding. John did well using PVA bags and pellets over his fishmeal boilies. Other anglers did well by just using boilies or the method mix and fishmeal boilies. Like I said before take something you are confident on and put it in the right place and you will be alright! |
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Tackle - Again, just take the gear which you use at home. My 4 rod set up consisted of Fox 12ft 2.75tc rods, Daiwa Tournament Pit Reels (Although Shimano Baitrunners would be OK) and 15lbs Daiwa Infinity Duo line. On the business end I used my normal UK rigs of 3 ft of Fox Leadcore, 2-3oz leads and either stiff rigs or braid set ups to size 6 hooks. Just make sure your tackle is well balanced and strong just incase one of those big cats takes a fancy to your bait - YES...........they do get caught on boiles aimed at carp!!!!!!!!! Other useful fishing information
If you've got one and can fit it in the car then I would recommend taking a bait boat. This will enable you to reach those difficult areas and make sure your bait is nice and tight to your hookbait.
Take care where you bivvy up as the banks can get very boggy should the weather change. Dave and his lads in the shallows had to move their bivvies after some prolonged rain.
Surrounding Area.
Whether you are taking the family or not you will find plenty of non-fishing things to do fairly close by to Ribiere. You are only 30 minutes from the lovely city of Limoges. Here you will find plenty of nice shops, restaurants and lots of the famous Limoges porcelain. You will find lots more things to do by checking out the leaflets in the accommodation or by chatting to the owners.
For food shopping you only have to drive 5 minutes up the road to the Supermarket. Just turn left out of the gates and you will soon come into Chalus and you will also find a boulangerie for those lovely fresh croissants and fresh bread!! Chalus also has a petrol station incase you need to top up fuel.
We were also lucky to enjoy a fantastic meal out in a local village restaurant and I would really recommend trying this as the food and wine in this area is to die for!!!
Overall impression of La Ribiere.
In summary I would say that La Ribiere is one of most beautiful and well set up venues we've been to in France as it offers a stunning lake with top class accommodation and facilities. However I must say that when we went last May the fishing was rather disappointing. I only caught a dozen fish to 16lbs which did take the shine off the long journey down. There were some better fish caught with a couple of low 30's and a few 20+ fish caught by other anglers. My comment at the time was "This is a fantastic venue for both anglers and families alike however it just needs more fish!" This is now being addressed with some fish already stocked and others on the way in readiness for the 2003 season. This will really finish the venue off and once they are in I wouldn't hesitate to drive down there again. In the words of that famous muscle bound actor..........."I'll be back!"
Paul Fletcher
fishinfletch@ntlworld.com |
