French Success - Ben Hart - Bait-TechBait-Tech

French Success – Ben Hart

Just recently myself and a couple of close friends decided on a last minute trip to France. Heading to a small private water in the Limoges area, which has a good stock of carp and the average size being over 30lb. The water was decided on as it was a social holiday and we wanted to make sure everybody had a good chance of getting a bite or two.

On arrival at the lake we done the standard lap of the water to get an idea on where the carp may be holding residence on approaching one corner of the lake it was fairly apparent that there was numbers of fish present. Mud clouds and bubbles everywhere being a clear indication the fish were obviously hungry and willing feed.

All being a little excited to find so many fish feeding on our 1st lap, we made the decision to all get a single rod out of the car and cast a PVA bag to the area the fish were holding. After about 20 mins of fishing my Triple-N Wafter and bag of broken Triple-N Boilie was picked up and resulted in a lovely 27lb 14oz mirror to start things off, shortly followed with one of my friends checking in with a 46lb mirror.

The fish seemed to move off after a quick couple fish and the next couple of hours was very quiet so we all drew swims and went about getting our bivvys set up and then getting some much needed rest after the 12hr journey. The next day I was up fairly early priming my swim with a mixture of halved and whole Triple-N freezer boilies in both 15mm and 18mm, also adding Growler Tigers and Scopex Super Sweetcorn to mix with a liberal dousing of Pineapple Stick Mix Liquid and Nutty Oil for added attraction.

I decided to keep the mix simple as I didn’t feel the need to add lots of different food items and complicate things when I was fairly certain the fish would happily feed on a mainly boilie approach. After id sorted and primed my swim I decided I’d make myself a couple of margin stalking spots just to give myself a break from the confines of my swim every now and then. The margin mix consisted of the exact same mix that I was putting in my swim along with plenty of Triple-N Stick and Bag Mix just to help bind together making it easy to squeeze together for introducing into the edge.

Rigs and hook bait wise again I kept things ultra simple as I didn’t feel the need for anything complicated or time consuming when constructing them, so simple knotless knot rigs with coated braid and only the hair striped back with a size 4 hook. Hookbait was a Triple-N Pop Up which I had doctored with a small hole bored out on the bottom of the pop up then counter balanced with putty, turning the pop up into a Wafter.

The fish came steadily throughout the week with us all catching regularly with plenty of the fish being 30lb plus, just by feeding consistently with the spomb, topping up after every fish.

The 3rd day of the trip I had a passing visit from my mum and dad on there way home from their villa in Spain.
with my dad being a mad keen angler like myself he couldn’t help but have a quick stalk. After about an hour of him grabbing himself a 9ft rod and net a shout could be heard from the other side of the lake coming from a small tree he had tucked himself under. His prize was a new PB in the shape of a 34lb mirror, caught about 3ft off the bank and I think from the look on his face while the fish lay in the mat he was fairly happy with what he had just achieved.

I was made up for him as well as its not everyday you’re fishing a lake in France and your parents pop in for a brew and to catch a new pb! The rest of the week was as consistent as the 1st part with fish being caught regularly, managing 42 fish between with everyone having fish to over 40lb, and my biggest being 41lb 12oz.

I even managed to bag three fish off the surface, one being the second biggest I’ve ever caught on a floater at 39lb 2oz.

All in all it was a great social holiday with friends, family and the bonus of plenty of fish being caught, definitely a place I will be visiting again!

Ben Hart
#TeamBaitTech