French venues – French venues – On the Internet – carp fishing in France for the pioneer

The Internet provides a wealth of information to the carp angler, including many websites on French carp fishing and venues. This month I will hopefully raise a few eyebrows by making you aware of the amount of venues available on the information superhighway. The web pages and sites listed have been added to my explorer favourites for future sessions, most have commonalities in that they contain big carp and are well stocked.
In order to write this article many hours of research has gone into its compilation, over 10 years of surfing to be more precise! It looks like a list of plain old website addresses and quite a boring article? However! Once you follow the links in your Internet explorer you will realise the wealth of information being presented!
Probably the most frequently asked question is which are the best lakes? This is a very difficult question to answer due to one person’s rubbish being another mans treasure, in other words, it all depends on what you are looking for. I’ve made this statement in the past and am saying it again to hammer home its relevance.
Most of the lakes within the websites below will accept direct reservations less for the public waters, where no prior reservation is required, being public they are open to all i.e. turn up and fish once you have purchased the carte de peche.

lakes tio suit varrying degrees of fishing experience

In this piece there are lake’s/links to suit all abilities from the beginner to the big lake pioneer. I have refrained from giving website addresses of UK owned venue’s as they should be within the commercial fishery focus section. My articles are non commercial orientated i.e. no venue owner has asked me to write about their lake nor would I if they did, if I make reference to commercial fisheries it is by my own doing, not of outside influence! Therefore I am at liberty, within reason to tell you how it is and how I rate them.
A person’s perception of a lake is usually different to what they see on arrival. In the past I fished a well-known private venue that held a lot of big carp. However the place was crawling with rats, as soon as the sun went down, they appeared. It was so bad that I would resort to taking traps with me. Even those were sprung within a few hours of darkness. One night I recall waking up to find myself eye to eye with a beast of a marsupial, it didn’t hang round for long as I attempted to end its life with the aid of a stainless bank stick. Unfortunately, the battle scars are still visible in the way of a small hole in the side of my bivvy from the stainless spear that was launched in its direction. This is one of many venues that have large rat populations.
Hygiene is of major importance when fishing lakes like this, rats are a carrier of lipto spirosis, commonly known as weil,s disease. In the worst case lypto spirosis can be fatal! Prior to my first trip I had gathered as much information as possible but no one had mentioned the rat infestation. So does that perfect venue exist? I would suggest that it does not.  Every venue has some feature that is not what the visiting angler expects, here are a few examples: crowded, trouble from locals, rats, deep, toilets not up to scratch, poor directions, bad swims, smaller than advertised, too many small fish, under stocked, no boats, not scenic, too expensive, dirty, crayfish, poison shits (American catfish) snags and noisy. The moral of the story is, don’t let the unexpected spoil your trip, accept the disappointment’s if there are any and concentrate on being there enjoying it, adapt, improvise, overcome and above all work to catch!
The vast majority of people now have access to the Internet either in their home or via an Internet cafe, how many get the best out of it in regards to venue research? Most tend to use one search engine and one language? In fact the best place to find French lakes is within French search engines using phrases wrote in French! I know you probably don’t speak French. That can be overcome with use of translation websites. Here are a useful words, peche (fishing), carpe (carp) and nuit (night). When these phrases are typed into a search engine it will pick up on the French language and list many sites that contain them. The pages are in French as that is the language you typed; a quick web page translation will soon have it appearing in English.
As an example for you I have carried out a search using yahoo, within the first page I found a few lakes that look interesting, one of the venues in the upper half of the search page was:
Parc Loisirs
http://www.parc-loisirs-brou.com/peche
The page is in French but lets see what I can find out about the place from the small amount of information within it? I see night fishing is allowed, there is a photograph of a big carp on their Peche (fishing) page. Other facilities within the complex include golf, swimming pool and a bar. On looking at the photograph of the lake I note that it is a fairly large and there is a photograph of a bivvy on its banks! The fishing cost is 17 euro per 24 hours and there are 10 posts for night fishing. Looks like an ideal venue to combine a family/fishing holiday, as there is a camping site and gites (wooden cottages) close to the lake. However! Due to the water activities it may be very busy in peak holiday periods, therefore I suggest mid summer periods are avoided. Unless of course your first priority is a family holiday and the second being fishing, wonder if the wife would fall for it? There is a large beach area which are normally good spots as carp move in late evening to feed on the food that has been un-earthed by bathers. I have caught carp to over 40 lbs (18.14 kg) from those types of spots in the past. Next time I’m in that area I will go out of my way to visit and carry out a little more research.
Looking back on the last paragraph you will notice how much information that has been gleaned from this website even though the website has only a small amount of information on it and the pages are not in my primary language. You too can gather information on venues through the Internet by copying the above process? I recall reading a letter but cannot recall from which magazine: anyway it was from an angler looking for a complex that would be suitable as a fishing and family holiday? Here is one and you will find more below that fit the criteria!

Etang Commelles
On scrolling further down the search page I notice a lake that I have visited in the past the web site address is as follows: http://www.etang-peche.com and the name is Etang Commelles, it is a series of lakes each of them around 20 acres. The 3 lakes are set in a mature forest valley and you could not wish for a more tranquil setting. The first lake near the entrance is said to have the larger stock and the second lake the biggest fish. Carp have been caught to high 40lbs (21 kg) and the complex is not over pressured due to not being heavily advertised. During my short visit I caught carp to 27 lbs. I recall seeing several photographs of 40 lb + (18.14 kg) fish in a picture board at the entrance, I enjoyed the few days I spent there and is another lake I have book marked for future.

Etangs Hostens
http://www.hostens.fr/peche.htm
This is a series of 5 lakes in the Bordeaux region, the largest at over 100 hectares with depths averaging 5-7 metres. The lakes are said to be well stocked with carp to well over 40 lbs (18.14 kg) the area is popular with tourists. There are several beach areas on the lakes which means they will get busy with water sports during July/August and when the weather is hot at weekends. The lakes are run by a fishing society and the necessary permits can be purchased on arrival.

Domaine St Christophe
http://www.domaine-st-christophe.com/index_en.html
Christophe is a fairly deep venue that is well stocked, the average size is said to be around 24 lbs (10.88 kg) with many 30s (13.60 kg) present.

http://www.fnp-halios.com/cartesite.asp?type=4
This page is within a website called nature peche, on following the link you will find a map of France, on the map are a number of links which when clicked will lead you to a number of lakes and rivers. The information is not comprehensive, however there are a lot of venues listed.

Etang Chigy
http://www.chateaudechigy.com.fr
An ideal venue if you are looking for a campsite with good carp fishing nearby! In fact the lakes within this complex are in the grounds of the campsite. Many 20 lb + (9.07 kg) fish have been introduced and big hits are fairly common. It is another site that caters for family/fishing holidays. There are a number Chalets and apartments available for hire.

Etang Morimond
http://www.aventuriers.com/fr/france/champagne_ardenne/52_dec_peche_chaumont/index.shtml
This venue is located near Chaumont. It is 12 ha (27 acres approx) and is next to a campsite. The lake record is over 50 lbs (22.68 kg)

 
Lac Aiguilles
A recently opened lake in the South, it is larger than the average size private lake at over 70 acres containing over 12 ton of carp with the biggest going over 60 lbs (27.21 kg)! From what I can see on the website, it looks to be my type of venue – good size lake, scenic, big fish and not too many anglers allowed!
This is a definite for a future winter session due to its geographical location (south coast) if anyone visits before I do be sure to get in touch so that I can pick your brains before my own trip! The cost for a week’s carp fishing is 153 euro (approx £110) I would like to see some of the big fish photographs placed within his website? It’s a long way to travel without first seeing some fish photographs of the lake’s inhabitants.

Pioneering new lakes

When attempting to make reservations on any of the lakes above you must bare in mind that the owner may not speak English, therefore emailing translated messages is recommended.
Not all lake owners allow boats; some only radio controlled boats others insist on traditional baiting methods these being the catapult, throwing stick or spod. My preferred method is spoding, a good spod rod and plenty of practice and it is not difficult to put a good bed of bait out at over 120 yards. I use my old amorphous 13 ft 3.5 lb test curve rod, when locked it will put a full spod over 140 yards. Note the compressed blank locked and ready to be launched! Also note that we are working as a team, one filling the spod whilst the other is casting (see photograph) By the end of the 6 night session we spod over 50 kg of maple 8 to an average range of 110 yards! Just because no boats are allowed does not mean you should boycott a water!
I will end this article with reference to an email from the editor asking me to place all weights in lb and kg, I thought I would go a little further and design a conversion chart that can be used as a quick reference guide from pounds to kilograms. I am guilty of making approximate conversions in my head and believe many other writers do the same, for a more accurate conversion see table!
In the mean time I am off to France for my second session of the year, carrying out a RECCE for a Group 8 Army competition which is ran from 14 – 21 August. The competition is open to Army, Navy, Air force and civil servants. I know there are many forces personnel based throughout the world that read this publication, so if you are one of them and wish to participate please get in touch with myself on the following email address. In addition I am looking to invite a couple of high profile anglers to join us for the week and present the trophies at the end of the competition, any takers?
A thank you goes to our sponsors: mainline and fox they have supported us for some time now – we greatly appreciate their support! However we are looking for prize donations from any company, anyone who wishes to donate to this prestigious competition, please contact myself on the above email address.
In the next article I will focus on a few more public venues that most of you have not heard of, its ironic really to think that there are hundreds of them containing big carp with legal night fishing. How many public venues can you name – Cassien, Orient, Amance, Madine, Saone, Mosselle, Gondrexange, Seine, Salagou, Liez, Du Der, Lot and Vouglans. Pathetic! These are only 0.5 % of the public lakes and rivers that are available! I will name a few more in future articles.
Imitation baits

Enterprise rubberised imitation baits are a very popular alternative these days and are now a valuable addition to my rig bag, and have found them extremely resistant to nuisance species. My fishing partner actually landed a crayfish whilst using a couple of the enterprise popped up golden grains as single hook baits, a couple of carp were landed and a crayfish was hooked on the underside! Although it made an attempt at devouring the plastic it did not succeed. The crayfish obviously recognised it as a food source decided to have a go but failed to remove the plastic sweet corn from the hair, it goes to show how attractive and life like these baits actually are.
Staying on the PVC theme, the enterprise night glow boilie’s come in a range of colours and flavours which include a night glow neon blue and neon green and must say that I am impressed with them, for their buoyancy, pest resistant properties and the amount of carp I have landed whilst using them. During trials I have found them as good if not better than other methods, they are extremely unlikely to be ripped of the hair. They have found their way into my armoury and I am sold on the idea, a large step forward ounce you overcome the apprehension of using a hook bait that is unlike a standard boilie.
During the last 12 months I have caught many carp with a line aligned sweet corn with a standard mainline or Enterprise luminous pop up. Alternately the line-aligned sweet corn can be fished on its own and is an extremely effective presentation and hooking arrangement. It works on a similar principle to Frank Warwick anchor rig i.e. due to the protruding sweet corn on the shank it tilts the hook not unlike a ships anchor. When the floating plastic sweet corn is used the hook tends to sit underneath the corn hiding it to a certain extent. If this rig has not been used on your water I suggest you give it a go!

Night Fishing with Stealth

Another option open is the illegal method, taking the risk and night fishing in unspecified areas. Before I tell you how to go about night fishing in these areas, the consequences of being caught must be pointed out. Even though the chance is slim, it is still present. The minimum punishment you are likely to receive is a slap on the wrist from the Bailiff. The maximum is confiscation of tackle until the fine is paid, which could be as much as 1300 francs. I have not had any problems and don’t know anyone who has. What I will say is that I have not blanked fishing these areas. The decision is yours! Night fishing these areas is practiced a lot by the French anglers with no problems, but not so much by visiting anglers. I cannot condone this type of carp fishing, as I am guilty of it myself and maybe one day I will pay the consequences. A few basic self enforced rules need to be followed if any one decides to give it a go.
Move to one of the many areas away from population, preferably in the cover of woods. Also using a boat to transport your equipment to unreachable spots will provide peace of mind and keep you out of sight.
Keep your noise to a minimum and don’t shout. This prevents unwanted attention from reporting eyes, if you are not making too much noise and keeping the night time noise to a minimum then you should not have any dramas. Bright lamps at night combined with the indicator volume turned to the max, is a sure way to give your position away. A small head torch is more than adequate for any night sessions.

Use a brolly or a medium sized green bivvy, the Day-Glo camping tents are another way of attracting unwanted attention to your swim. Also, collapsing the bivvy during the day gives the impression you are not staying the night.
This type of fishing requires some stealth and camouflage. Choice of swim is important as problems may occur when it is made blatantly obvious to all, that you are staying the night. I saw one French carp angler bivied up with a huge Euro dome in plain view 30 metres from the main road! If he can get away with that, then I cannot see a problem when I keep myself to myself hidden in the wooded areas.
The French anglers I know rarely fish the night zones and when asked if night fishing is a problem in no night zones the reply is usually, “use discretion”.