Beaurepaire tips and tactics in France

Carp fishing holidays with Angling Lines – On route from Island lake myself and Iain Macmillan stopped for a night on another of Angling lines venues named Beaurepaire. This lake is completely different to the one we had just left, it is only approximately 5 acres in size and absolutely stuffed with carp that average between 15 – 25lbs. Whereas Island lake is classed as fairly difficult but with an average of over 30 lbs and a lot of 40s. They are two completely contrasting venues, one being suitable to the bigger fish angler and this one more suited to those that are not looking for the biggest carp but to catch a lot of fish. I am typing this after 8 hours of fishing on Beaurepaire and already we have had 9 takes, with the majority being high doubles. In a short sentence it can be described as a commercial, easy carp lake not too far from Calais in secure surroundings.

The drive will take approximately 1 hour 45 minutes with a toll charge of 12 euro, it is a very easy journey with only one main road to travel on, south on the A26 to junction 14 followed by a 5 minute drive cross country to the venue. The lake itself is manmade fairly open with few features, the main one being a gravel Island in the central part close to a pronounced peninsula.

Lake swims and features

We chose to set up for the night on what looks to us, the most popular area of the lake.  The swims are situated on a large ‘spit’, this area commands the whole lake, in fact there isn’t a spot you couldn’t cast a bait to from here.  However, the lake doesn’t really have any marked swims apart from the ‘spit’.  We feel this is a good thing, as you could basically set up camp anywhere.  All the banks are very comfortable, with grass areas covering the whole circumference of the lake.  If there are a few of you planning on booking the whole lake, the ‘spit’ could be your base, this would leave the rest of the banks free for you to stalk for a few hours or just wander around with a rod and a net, casting to showing fish.
The main feature on the lake is the Island, there is a large shallow plateaux to the right of the Island, with a sharp decline in depth.  The margins average around 3-4 feet, this would certainly be an area to cover during the hours of darkness.  The lake is horseshoe shaped, the top end averaging 4 feet in depth, to the right of the ‘spit’, where as the larger area closest to the entrance averages 4-6 feet.  We caught fish from every area we presented a bait, so all that is needed here is normal watercraft.

Facilities for your holiday

On arrival you will notice a large cabin near to the fishery entrance that houses everything that is required during your stay. It is split into 2 rooms, one containing a table, chairs and bait freezer, the other room containing a clean shower and toilet. A fitted electric cooker lies against the opposite wall that again is clean and tidy, a lot easier than cooking with the Coleman I’m sure you’ll agree.
Although baits are not available onsite Angling lines own range of baits can be ordered and waiting for you on arrival, this range includes cooked particles, pellets or their range of boilies.
The local village has a couple of bar restaurants and tabacs (cigarette shops)  The village bakery has freshly baked baguettes delivered on a daily basis and make a nice snack when coated in butter and dipped into a cup of hot soup.
The nearest supermarkets can be found in the town of …………. which is a ….. minute drive.

A few lines on the approach

Our initial approach to Beuarpaire was a fairly cautious one to begin with.  We had left Island Lake with the bait supplies being very low for our standards, so this would have to be the basis for our starting point.  Once we had plumbed around for a short while it was obvious that there were very few features on the lake other than the Island Rod mentioned earlier.  This Island was straight out in front of me, but just to the right hand side was a very carpy looking drop off, the depth went from 12 inches to around 4-5 ft.  I’d seen a few fish stick their heads up around this area so a small P.V.A bag of Mainline Response Pellets went flying out to the spot, the tasty morsal on the hair was a standard 14mm Maple-8 boilie.  I then decided to introduce a few spods of bait to an area probably 20 yards to the left of the drop off, just incase any fish were hanging around slightly off the Island drop off.  We got the rods out in double quick time, as you do, on went the kettle(obviously by me!) we sat back for a few minutes, Rod then commented it maybe a night water.  Just as he’d finished his sentence one of the rods on the bait flew off, so much for that theory I thought.  After a brief tussle over the back of the shelf a lovely high double graced the landing net.  Back out went the rod, then on with the task of finishing my coffee.  I topped the spot up with 5 spods of Response Pellet but no sooner had I finished spodding when the rod at the base of the shelf was away.  The only minor problem there was coaxing the fish over the very shallow area in front of the Island, the fish played ball eventually after some gentle persuasion from the X-Flite.  Another high double was quickly weighed and returned, quick change of the rig, attach another small bag of pellet, then back out to the spot.
The action continued every half hour on that rod, but as we sit here the action has ceased.  I expect it’s just an area they were holding up in for a while.  Just for the record the baited spot hasn’t produced another bite, strange really, the spot is only 20 yards away and I’m sure these are hungry fish, ah well we’ll see what action the night brings.  Rod was in a similar predicament, his takes were only coming to the one spot, so as you do, he quickly cast another bait tight to the productive spot.  The result, an instant fish on the bank!  With only being on the water for a few hours, and this being our first visit to the place, we have already worked out these fish seem to prefer a small mouth full of food as opposed to a banquet.  Maybe it’s the time of year or the fish have been hammered on large beds of bait, it’s certainly worth taking on board for any French trip that less could mean more, it’s all to easy to think fill it in, these fish are easy to catch, mug fish, etc, etc, but as in England it pays to be slightly different on occasions.
On the rig front, the only thing we changed were the hook sizes, I went down to a size 8 E.S.P Big T or Longshanx and Rod changed to a size 8 mugga.  Hooklinks remained the same as Island Lake, either Kik-Bak 25lb or 12lb Flourocarbon, hook baits as I’ve already mentioned were 14mm Maple-8.  Tomorrow we are going to try some of the Mainline Hi-Vis Pop-Ups, just to see if we can pick up any of the bigger fish, as the saying goes ‘you never know’!!!

Carp fishing Holidays with Angling Lines

If you are looking for a venue where you will catch loads of carp within easy access of the northern ports then it may be suitable to you, however don’t think you will catch 40s and 50s as you will not. I cannot see any anglers struggling on this lake, most will bag up with carp in the high double and twenty pound bracket. Don’t be surprised to have several runs in quick succession and be so tired that the rods are wound in at night for some well-earned rest. It’s a manmade-heavily stocked runs water where most methods will produce fish! Take plenty of bait as big hits are the norm!
Angling lines are the largest provider of holiday venues in France and cater for all tastes, from small runs waters like this one to big fish venues, I must say they provide a very professional service that has stood the test of time. The detail within their reservation package is excellent with more information than required, including an A4 sheet of useful French phrases. The directions supplied were very accurate and followed to the tee, we found no need to dig out the French map.