Going public

How Dan O’Kelly overcame ravenous catfish and unproductive swims to land the biggest carp living a 1000-acre French public water

 Issue 13 (Nov-Dec 2016)    Dan O’Kelly    Dan O’Kelly & friends

This summer [2016] I decided to take a break from carp fishing and concentrate more on the sea. With the warmer months coming to a close it was time for me to start thinking about an autumn carp session in France. I find October/ November the best time to hit the big public French waters. The weather is cooling down and there is not as much human activity around the lakes and a bit more peace and quiet can be achieved. The shortening hours of daylight and drop in temperature are the signals for the fish to get a bit of grub into them. The females really start to produce eggs and need to feed them. So, all in all it’s a good time to be over there. My travelling and fishing partner was Davey Phelan (aka Edgy Dave) and Peter Thornton (aka Thorny) was going to be floating about as well. Neither group had fully decided where they were going to fish but we ended up meeting up and fishing together anyway. I had heard of a new night zone opening up on a lake I always wanted to fish so that was going to be our first stop for a look.

Due to the limited number of ferries to France from Ireland, we were going to arrive in on French soil at 4 or 5pm so there was no chance of arriving at the lake before night fall. Instead we did most of the drive and then crashed out in one of the lay-bys on the motorway for the night, getting up early in the morning to go and explore this new night zone. Long story short, we couldn’t actually find the night zone and didn’t like the look of the area we thought might well be the night zone. So, we reluctantly left to look at some other lakes in the area. You’ve always got to have a plan B when it comes to public water fishing in France. It’s not like booking a commercial where your swim is guaranteed. The night zone could be full and you’ve just got to move on to the next lake or river. We looked at one other water we had fished before with good success, where the night zone was empty but we decided not to fish it as it’s not reputed to have massive fish. We did have fish to 45lbs from it last time but I think that’s about as good as it gets. In France it is nice to know you are within a chance of a true monster… Again, we headed on but kept this lake in mind. Within an hour we were at the next stop and to our surprise the night zone was completely empty.

As you can imagine, there was a scramble to get our gear out and claim some areas. We picked two swims and tossed a coin for left and right. I won the toss and opted to go on the left. Then we had to go and launch the boat. I had brought my 17ft Bourke boat this time to make moving gear, dropping baits and fighting fish in rougher weather easier – easier than an inflatable anyway. After launching the boat we got the first load of gear to the swims and proceeded to set up. After the camp was sorted we then had to go afloat again and map out our swims. This was done with the help of a GPS plotter and H-Block markers. The GPS is a very handy bit of kit in France due to other lake users robbing your makers on a regular basis. The lake itself is just under 1000 acres and the lakebed, for the most part, is just flat – and when I say flat I mean flat; it’s like a football pitch! This unique topography means that you get massive undertow when the wind builds up. The fish move around like grazing cows, so for the most part you’ve just got to bait up and wait till they get around to you.

“With the swims baited and rods out we now had to play the waiting game. Normally this lake is very slow and it can be over a week sometimes before you get a run”

Being able to way-point or mark your swims on the plotter makes life a lot easier. There’s nothing more annoying than somebody robbing the marker from the spot you’ve been feeding for a week, leaving you wondering if you’ve dropped the rig in the baited swim or not (thankfully there wasn’t too much human activity around the lake during our two week session and no markers were robbed or moved).

With the swims baited and rods out we now had to play the waiting game. Normally this lake is very slow and it can be over a week sometimes before you get a run. The water was thick with algae which did nothing for our confidence. But, on the plus side it had rained very heavily on the Friday night, the night we were on the ferry, which had been the first rain in 75 days, we were told. Now, this is the perfect scenario for autumnal French carping as the dissolved oxygen levels in the water would be very low otherwise. Such a sudden burst of fresh oxygenated (rain) water brings the fish to life and in my experience most waters will fish their heads off for the next week or so. On the Sunday we had a strong wind all day creating big waves and oxygenating the water even more – perfect!

Peter arrived late that evening and decided to fish to the right of Davey. I think myself and Davey were asleep by the time Peter got his rods sorted and set up. I awoke at 7.30am to the surprising sound of one of my rods beeping. It’s not often you get a run on the first morning on this lake. The result was a 25lb 8oz common. Not a monster by any means but a great sign of what was to come. I did notice that my bait was squared off by the poisson chats. Now, this was a concern – I knew that the lake had to have these small catfish because I’d seen them in the lakes above it on the system and it was only a matter of time before them made their way to this lake. They are a real problem across France and you’ve got to be geared up for them bait and tackle wise. Later that day I reeled in the rest of my rods to find that all the rigs had been hammered by chats. I was fishing snowman presentations with 30mm hardened hook baits and 20mm pop ups. The pop ups were decimated and they had even started to reduce the 30mm hardened baits.

Our baiting strategy was to fish with only 24mm boilies and tigers to reduce the number of silver fish and bream in the swim. This in turn makes the swim less attractive to big wels catfish, which I think scare the carp off (as discussed in issue 12s Ask the Experts ). But chats are a different story altogether. They will reduce the 24mm boilies and tangle your rig in no time. (For most of my fishing I use 25lbs Mantis but long Mantis rigs were not going to work on this session so I had to change to a shorter rig and a less supple material, Snakebite in 25lbs was called off the bench and did the job nicely). We were also using shrink wrap from Korda on the boilies. These don’t just cover the boilies like most but are perforated to let some smell and attraction out but still provide enough protection to stop the chats getting their hungry gobs in at the hook bait. Big hard particle baits like Brazil nuts and tiger nuts are fine as the chats don’t seem to like them. In these situations it’s hard to know how much bait to apply each evening – how much has been whittled away and eaten by nuisance species? Strangely, Davey’s and Peter’s baits were not touched, and Davey’s left rod was not that far from my right hand rod. This situation remained the same for nearly a week before the chats found Davey’s and Peter’s baited areas.

After the good start I had it went downhill for me. Peter had his first fish on the second morning, in the shape of a 28lb 12oz common and his swim came alive after that. On the third night he had three fish to 49lb 12oz – so close to the fifty he craved but a lovely fish all the same. The following night he had another three fish and a dropped run, the best going 34-4. Also that night, Davey got on the scoreboard with a double run resulting in commons of a 27-8 and an immaculate 34 pounder. His swim started to produce consistently after that night, with one or two runs most nights. Peter’s was flying and he was having sleepless night with all the action. Soon he was getting on for 20 runs, and the fish were fighting unbelievably hard, some lasting over the hour mark.

With the passing of each fishless night for me, I convinced myself that the fish would move up the line of markers and bait that we had put out and find my areas. Davey and I were using the same bait, a mixture of a few base mixes we had and the UTCS Blue Oyster from Nutrabaits to flavour it, which we acquired in Main Irish Angling . Davey was catching well so I knew it wasn’t the bait that was the problem but rather the swim I was in and after seven fish-less nights it was clear that I would have to move swims and away from the 20kgs of boilies I had invested in this venture.

“after 7 fish-less nights it was clear that I would have to move swims and away from the 20kgs of boilies I had invested in this venture”

So, I pulled pegs and moved to the end of the night zone to the right of Peter. It’s a great swim but the only problem is that there is a massive line of rowing buoys in front of it which you have to fish over in order to get out to the fish. Apart from some tricky back leading and captive back leading it also means that when you’ve got a run you have to hit the fish, set the hook and then let the line go slack, launch the boat and get out over the fish before tightening the line again. This goes against all your angling instinct’s but there is no other way of you getting the fish back safely. So you’ve got to be prepared for it boat-wise, with nets etc. I had five nights left to save my holiday so it just had to be done.

I had not been waiting long that same evening before the effort of changing swims was vindicated. At 11.15pm my left rod spun off. It was exactly 300 meters out from my swim (I was able to work this out with the aid of the GPS). Firstly, I had to set the hook then push the boat out after untying it, put my life jacket on and get the engine started to get me out the 200 meters plus I needed to play the fish safely. It takes a bit of doing to reel in all the slack line (as you don’t want it getting caught around the engine) and drive the boat in the right direction in the dark on your own, but these are the things we do for a fish! This fish and I did battle for the next hour and a half. I was convinced that it was a really big fish but in the end it turned out to be an immaculate 33lb 8oz common. I simply could not believe how strong it was! Peter had informed me of the strength of some of the fish he had done battle with but until you experienced it yourself it was hard to believe it. Every now and again you encounter a bionic fish but this amount of hard fighters in the one session was ridiculous. Later that night I had a small mirror of 18lb on one of the middle rods, followed by a 35-8 mirror on the far right rod. These two fought like normal carp but then I had another bionic fish on the far left rod, which had me out in the boat for over an hour again. The result was another 33lb 8oz common.

“This fish and I did battle for the next hour and a half. I was convinced that it was a really big fish but in the end it turned out to be an immaculate 33lb 8oz common”

After my move, my holiday had taken a massive turn around and I was now cursing how few days I had left. I was on the fish and had four days to do as much damage as I could. The next night I had a three twenties to 26lb. Peter’s swim slowed down but Davey’s swim was continuing on as normal. He had a 44-8 common, which is a great common for there and was actually the biggest common I had seen out of the lake. Understandably, I was brimming with confidence now and I had a feeling that a big girl might come my way.

During the third night in the swim I had a run on the far left rod and a 29lb mirror graced the net. Then, just before dusk, one of the middle rods melted off. I did my usual routine; struck the rod and then got in the boat and got out over the fish to play it. The fish felt strong but this was not unusual on this session so I just plodded on. An hour later and I had still not seen the fish and was starting to wonder if it was another bionic thirty or maybe simply a bigger fish. When I got the fish under the boat it just felt ‘different’ to all the other fish so far. It’s hard to explain but when the fish took off I could sort of feel the length of the fish, if that makes sense. At this point I was into the fish for an hour and a half and had still not seen it. When it suddenly appeared just under the surface and swirled I only caught a glimpse of its head and tail and I could not make a decision either way on its size based on what I saw. The wake it left on the surface though led me to believe it was a good fish.

There was an east wind blowing that kept pushing me back to my swim and back to the rowing buoys and ropes. I had to leave the engine ticking over and consistently monitor my distance from the ropes. If I got too close for comfort I would just knock the engine into reverse and head back out into the lake slowly.  Another 15 minutes later and I was to finally get my answer as to the size of this carp as the the fish came up from under the boat and laid flat on the surface right under my net. It was the big one, the lake record fish and I could do nothing but try and steer the fish down and away from the net, not wanting to risk the hook getting caught in the net and possible losing the fish. With my heart pounding strongly now and trying my best to focus, it would be yet another quarter of an hour till I had him up on the surface again. This time, thankfully, he was done and I managed to slide the net under the huge mirror. A small spill of emotion later and I was rowing back to shore where I could see Peter waiting in anticipation. Before I’d even got to the bank he asked me was it the big one, to which I happily replied “YES!”.

It was only when I got the fish onto the mat and went to unhook it that I realised that it was on a new hook pattern I was trying out from Hybrid Tackle  called the Multi Hook. In fairness, the pattern was not that different to what I normally favour but they do seem a lot sharper. I could only get my hands on size 4’s before I left Ireland so I was only using it on one rig with a slightly smaller boilie, a 26mm hardened bait. Anything over 26mm and I go up to size 2’s. Anyway, when I looked into the fish’s huge mouth there was the Multi looking back at me. I would prefer a size 2 for a fish of this calibre but the size 4 had no problem holding onto this fish for two hours, so I’ll have no problem using them again!

“A small spill of emotion later and I was rowing back to shore where I could see Peter waiting in anticipation. Before I’d even got to the bank he asked me was it the big one, to which I happily replied “YES!” “

It was all a bit of a blur but next was the weighting process to see how big it really was. We used two sets of scales to make sure we got it right and he drove the needle around to 58lb 8oz on one set and 59lbs on the other, so I took the lower weight. I actually caught this same fish before at 64lb so we were hoping that it might be a bit bigger but I was still very happy with the weight and this fish had made my holiday! I had no more fish for the rest of the trip, not that I minded, and finished up with ten fish. Davey managed a total of eight fish to 44-8 with three lost, and Peter, after having nearly 20 fish, stayed on for another week and had just one fish for his extra week – but it was the fifty he so badly wanted, at 51lb 8oz! It’s a rare thing when a group of lads go away to France and all have a good hit so I was grateful for the session and am already looking forward to my next one. Roll on 2017!

Tight lines,

Dan O’Kelly