March 2009 Catch report for www.Blavetvalleylakes.com 1st week April 2009

February 2009 Catch report for Oaklands Lake www.carp-fishing-in-france.euAlan, the owner, invited me over for a day's fishing, so on the morningof 27 February I duly arrived. You're late said Alan as I arrived athis swim mid morning. True I said. Just take a look in the net saidAlan, and see what I have just landed. I did and seconds later abeautiful 36.8 mirror lay on the unhooking mat. What a gorgeouscreature exhibiting all her wonderful winter colours.As he slipped herback I wondered if I could beat that.But I did!!

Lessthan 10 minutes later I had hooked into an absolute monster.It was atleast twice the size of the big mirror but unfortunately it was Alan'sdog! It had picked up the baited rig I left on my bedchair and hookeditself. That's good I said to Alan - at least I know the rig works!! Hedidn't laugh. We gently unhooked her and she was fine. During the restof the day we landed 12 carp between us with Alan's biggie being thelargest landed, but we had a good twenty and 10 upper doubles. What agreat day's fishing for the end of February!! Thanks Alan.

September 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

September was to see the last of the anglers on the lake for the season, taking carp to 47lb and cats to 102lb.
 Simon Grant and brother Chris, both from the Leeds area, banked 14catfish and 25 carp between them in their hectic five day session.
The Leeds boys visited the Lake intending to fish mainly for the bigcats, but edged their bets a bit with a 50 / 50 approach, after seeingthe carp rolling.
They were not disappointed with the carp fishing as a bonus and saidthat the cat fishing was far better than they had expected.
Simon banked 15 carp from 22lb to 41lb, along with 3 x 50lb plus and 2x 60lb plus catfish, whilst Chris took 10 carp from 21lb to 44lb and 9catfish from 38lb to 102lb. Summary- As a relatively new venue to the French carp scene, Etang Niroux isstarting to show that it too has the potential of becoming as popularand as well known as some of the big name lakes that have been aroundfor a while .There are many big carp in the Niroux that have never seena carp angler, and they have yet to be banked, weighed and photographedfor the first time .During 2008 we have to say that we were more thanpleased with the results of those few anglers (and there was only afew) who came to fish it.We are confident that during 2009 some reallybig fish will grace its banks, along with some big hits too, due to theincreased numbers of anglers that have now found the lake and booked itwith us.

Catch Report For Moulin de Bley 2008 September Early September saw one of the better weeks on the lake for the big numbers of the bigger carp
Mat Smith from Tring Hertfordshire took 39 carp to include, 5 x 40s to 48lb,25 x 30s(mostly uppers) to 39lb, and 5 x 20s to 28lb.
Also during this all action week, Nigel Monk from Essex, in his impressive list took his 30th different40lb plus carp at 47lb from the Bley in 4 years. Nigel’s week didn’t end there, as he also weighed a stunning new P B 41lb common and 20other nice sized fish to end his 15th trip to the venue.
 This allaction week started within 30 minutes for Lea Brown also from Tring,who took a new P B after just 30 minutes on the lake at 45.12 lb.
 Lea finished his week with 29 fish, mostly all over 30lb, plus 2commons well over the 40lb mark.  In total 129 carp were landed for theweek by the six anglers, with very few fish under 30lb. There were 16different 40s to 48.12 banked, and large numbers of carp over 38lb werealso weighed during the week. September continued to fish well withplenty of carp coming out to anglers to  over 50lb. Jane Chadwick fromWorthing, really showed the guys on the lake, that it’s not just  a “man thing”, taking a few nice sized carp to include 3 x 40s to 47lb.

August 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

August was of mixed weather conditions with the carp and catfish feeding most of the time
 Paul Alan’s party from Gloucester who came mainly for the big catfish,but also took advantage of the carp fishing took over 50 fish betweenthem.
 They took plenty of catfish to 88lb, grass carp to 45lb and carp toover 40lb, with almost all of their carp being over the 30lb mark.
 Other anglers during the month saw carp to 47lb, grass carp to 52lb and catfish to 79lb.

Catch Report For Moulin de Bley 2008 August- During August the weather was mixed with heavy rain and flooding on some days, to soaring temperatures on other days.
Despite this, most anglers still had plenty of fish, with some of themtaking over 30 fish each. Notable catches were from Graham Hares fromKent who took 34 fish, to include 5 carp over 40lb,several catfish to64lb plus good numbers of 20lb and 30lb carp. Graham was aided andabetted by his12 year old son Joe, who says that he caught most of thefish on his dad’s rods for him, and showed his dad what to do!!
Thanks Joe for helping your dad, he may bring you again?
 On the lake at the same time and helping one of Grahams other son’sDan, was Big Alan, who took 4 different 40lb plus commons, 17 mid toupper 30s to 39lb and
 3 upper 20s in the hot peg 7.
First time “ever” carper Dan did manage a 40lb common and a 34lb mirror, and only really fished for 3 days.
We take this opportunity to thank Carp Runs bailiff big Alan for all ofhis help with all of the young carpers on the lake and some of the”bigger boys” this year.
We know some would have struggled a little with out his time andefforts spent with them, and many since their trips have thanked us byletter.
 A big thanks, to big Alan, the guy with a lot of time for every oneand a very popular bloke indeed around all of our lakes.

July 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

Thehigh temperatures in July didn’t stop Martin Corkett from LeightonBuzzard from taking over 40 carp from 18lb to 52lb.Martin took 5 x 40sduring the weeks action along with other carp from 18lb to 37lb.TheBeds angler’s average weight was just over 33lb, with most of his fishcoming at night from short range and heavy baiting .Amongst hisimpressive list Martin also took a 52lb P B grass carp on his lastnight at the venue, and told us that he lost an even bigger one at thenet a few hours later. July continued to fish well with some anglerstaking up to 25 fish in a week with carp to 48lb, and catfish to justover the 100lb mark.

June 2008 - catch report for www.etangchassin.co.uk Had a few groups of french anglers on around 70 carp to low 40s been out

June 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

Despitethe heat and difficult fishing conditions, Peter Cook from HavantAngling Hants, still managed to get into the fish in numbers, takingover 30 fish from 20lb to the mid 40s. Pete also had a few cats to 50lbduring what was a very hot week.
Shane Foster from Welwyn GardenCity took 20 fish of similar weights to Peter’s, the following week asthe heat continued.
June was to continue to be hot and Humid, but despite the heat, JoeWright, Editor of Carpology Magazine in his 4 day visit to the laketook 20 good fish to 44lb.
Joe’s 2 other colleges from the Magazine, Ashley and Angus also sharedabout the same amount of fish between them, with Ash taking one of theLakes stunning commons at 39lb to top off his visit.
 Please check out the full 4 page article with photographs that waswritten by editor Joe for his magazine for the August 2007 addition ofCarpology on our website.

Catch Report For Moulin de Bley 2008 June continued to be warm and sunny with most days seeing the fish with their heads down and feeding well.
 Ian Brown and  Keith Prowse, both from Summerset, along with 6 otheranglers  banked 97 fish from 20lb to 45lb. A lot more carp could havebeen caught during the week by the party, but some of the younger ladsdecided to fish for the cats for most of the week, taking a dozen or socats to 65lb. One other notable catch from the month was Mark Stevensfrom Milton Keynes, who took 30 carp including 5x 40s to 49lb, 20 x 30sto 38lb and 5 x upper 20s in 5 days.

May 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

DarrenJeffrey's from Boston, and his party of 4, fished similar tactics tothe bad boys, using plenty of bait.  They took 84 fish between them toinclude 19 x 20s to 29lb, 52 x 30s to 39lb and 11 x 40s to 46lb, and afew catfish. Mark in the party did a new P B 46lb grassy, with otherbig grass carp lost at the net. The Boston boys said, that the fish inthe lake were so powerful, that they just couldn’t believe just howhard and how long the fish fought for. They also told us that aboutanother 30 fish were lost between them during their all action week. Wewould like to add at this point, that for those of you reading thiscatch report and thinking the Boston boys must be novice anglers, youwould be very wrong, as Darren and Mark were top rods on the Bley in2007 with 110 fish between them in one week. Towards the end of May sawJohn and David Simms from Doncaster carrying on from the previous weeksaction, and bagging up with plenty of carp from the dam wall end of thelake. Their week was cut short however, due to John badly hurting hisfoot and having to return to the U K half way through the week with sonDavid. We didn’t get to write down exactly what they caught, but wethink that they had taken more than 30 carp for the half week to theupper 40s, and a catfish to 60lb, as we had spoken to them the daybefore John’s mishap. One other notable catch for the month was fromPaul Owen from tones of tackle 2 u.
Paul’s impressive hall of carp included 21 x 20s to 29lb, 12 x 30s to39lb and 3 mid to upper 40s totaling 36 carp and 1 cat of 49lb. Go to. www.tonsoftackle2u@aol.com

April 2008 Catch report for www.carpruns.co.uk lake Niroux

Amongst some of the first anglers to arrive on the lake in April were Brett Ades from  B A D Baits, along with some friends.
 The 4 Kent lads were into the fish right from the start of the week,and didn’t seam to mind too much about the poor weather conditions, didit rain or what.
 The “ Bad Boys” banked 74 fish for the week, and their impressivenumber of fish was to include 57 carp, with almost all of the carp overthe 30lb mark and a few 40s. The lads from the Ashford based baitcompany also took 17 catfish to 60lb, with Dan in the party also doinga new P B Grassy of just over 51lb as bonus.
 Gadsden in the party, and a regular caper to France, did say that atone point during the week, when the fish were really having it, it waslike fishing a big 30s  runs water, just one 30 after another, thenanother. Gadsden took 25 carp between 30lb and 42lb,a few 20s and 3 xcatfish to 51lb.
Other notable catches during April were from Tony Baker and partnerLinda from Cheshire. The North Country duo took some nice fish of whichmost were over the 40lb mark to 48lb. Linda also banked a New P Bgrassy of 46lb and was all smiles for the rest of the week with hersilver prize.
We would add that Linda already holds the Bley record grassy at justover 40lb, and says that next year she is determined to take one of the“real” Niroux biggies.
We asked her, how big do you want um Linda?
Her reply was, how big you got um !!