Welcome to Carp Heaven
By Dean Macey

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Dean Macey was offered a trip to France to target giant carp, he didn’t need asking twice…

CARP have come to dominate fishing both in England and over on the continent for many years now, and that looks set to continue long into the future.

I have been jumping on and off the carp bandwagon ever since I started fishing more than 20 years ago, and in that time I have been lucky enough to visit some great venues and catch some cracking fish on both sides of the water.

So, when an invite came to spend a couple of days in France carping with friends Dave ‘Chippy’ Jones and ‘Mr Bling’ Nick Walbrie, I jumped at the chance. There are hundreds of venues to choose from when traveling abroad, with lakes that resemble inland seas, right through to small, intimate ponds. But the common factor with so many of them is that they hold monster fish.

Our destination was Lac Chateau Cavagnac – a spectacular-looking 52-acre lake set deep in a valley in the heart of the French countryside. And with fish to over the 60lb mark and plenty of back-up lumps, it ticked all the boxes. For me, the appeal of going abroad is the relaxed attitude I tend to adopt, and the fact that I love learning new things, whether it be rigs or using a boat to find your spots and lower the baits in.

The days leading up to the trip seemed to drag, but eventually we found ourselves heading up the M11 to Stansted Airport ready for a short flight to Rodez. From there we were picked up in a first-class, fully loaded people carrier and driven just 20 minutes to the lake. We arrived in the dark, which would have put most people off setting up, but with only two full days and three nights at our disposal we decided to sort our tackle and get a couple of rods out.

Not knowing what features were in my swim I relied on the knowledge of Tom – the head bailiff – to point me in the right direction. Never be shy in asking for help when it’s needed. Most bailiffs are more than happy to put the punters right, and their understanding of the venue will always prove valuable. Once the rods were out it was time to get my head down and try to catch up on some much-needed kip, so I was on the ball the following morning.

That night I struggled to drift off – the anticipation was too much – but eventually I managed to slip into a light sleep.

The alarm was set to go off just at sunrise, but it never had the chance to work as I had the greatest wake-up call of them all – a screaming Delkim! Jumping out of my bag, I calmly made my way towards the rods to find one of them hoped round as an angry carp tore line off the spool at a rate of knots. I lifted the rod and gently feathered the spool to slow the fish down.

Once I’d done that and stopped it, the strangest thing happened – it swam the whole way in towards me with no problems at all. As the fish moved within range of my head torch I realised just why the fight was so weird – it was a grassie. And just when I was starting to wonder about the reputation of the species, it lived up to its billing as a man-beater when I slowly slid it over the net. It went absolutely mad! At 21lb8oz it wasn’t a monster by any means, but it was a start, and grassies don’t have to be big to look impressive.

My first sight of the lake came just minutes after sorting out the fish, and even though both the lads had told me how beautiful a place it is, nothing they said could have prepared me for the view I had as the sun came up. Large beds of lilies were scattered around the lake, trees that have been standing for many more years than I have seen hung over the margins, and fishy-looking bays were dotted everywhere. All this without a sniff of any weed! Yes, you name it, Lac Chateau Cavagnac has it, providing anglers with all they could want in a venue.

Unfortunately, that view didn’t last very long because the heavens decided to open, raising the water level and filling up all the boats, which delayed the rods being put back out for the day. Eventually the rain, which at times stung the skin, eased. And when it did it gave us a much-needed opportunity to empty the boats and get out on the water to replace the baits and do a little exploring with the marker rod, feeling around for some firmer areas in the silty bottom.

If these areas can be found it gives you much better bait presentation – and a greater chance of some action. Once all the rods were out we sat back to enjoy the atmosphere, and as our first day came to an end a dinner fit for a king was delivered to the swim. That was duly polished off before the rods were freshened up with new baits and put back out for the night. Little did we know that we would get very little sleep!

Dave was first off with a magnificent looking common of 32lb before Nick had two takes that resulted in a mid-20lb common and a chunky mirror of 28lb 12oz. I had a couple of runs myself, ending up with a 24lb 12oz common and a fish that dropped off not far from the net. As always, it felt like a ‘proper’ one.

As morning broke on our last full day’s fishing we were surprised to find that the temperature had dropped 9ºC. That, coupled with the heavy rain we had suffered not 24 hours before, left us thinking we had properly unlucky. Dave, however, never read the rulebook and picked up two glorious fish to 28lb 8oz. I also had a bit more good fortune than I expected when I picked up a low twenty just into dark, but with a cold night predicted, we were up against it. As we woke on the last morning with only a few hours’ fishing before we hit the road, David, the fishery manager, suggested that we go round to another swim where he thought a fish would be on the cards.

Not one to sit around twiddling my thumbs, I accepted. Sitting in the new swim, I was gob-smacked at the stories David told me of giant carp he had caught. Then, out of the blue, and with only minutes left before we had to head off to the airport, my right-hand rod signaled a few bleeps.

While we waited for it to roar off we noticed that the rod-tip was ever so slightly nodding and the line was kiting right. Lifting the rod and winding down to the fish, I was relieved to feel a firm thud before it started taking line extremely slowly, as though it didn’t know it was hooked. Making sure the fish didn’t kite into the large bed of lilies to my right, we took to the boat to land it.

There are few things in fishing that can compare with playing a good fish from a boat, and once you get over the top of them, they tend to fight deep and not run off all over the place. After a magnificent scrap, which saw the fish grow in my estimations every time I saw it, David safely slid the net under my biggest carp of the visit. At 34lb on the nose, it wasn’t one of the really big girls, but it was a cracking way to end a trip that was dogged by bad weather. My thanks go to both Tom for helping me on the first night and David for that last fish – both guys know their stuff. What a place it is – I’ll just have to go back again for another crack at the giants. Still, that’s not a bad thing at all, is it?

Reprinted with kind permission of Angling Times

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