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FRENCH
50’S BONANZA
The tale of a fantastic trip to Millstone Pool in
France in May 2007 for Hinders consultant Jock
Downes.
Those of
you who might have read my report of last
year’s trip to Millstone Pool may be thinking -
here he goes again catching dozens of huge carp
– must be an easy lake this Millstone
Pool! Well this year was something of a
crashing down to earth. Last year
we caught 71 carp including 22 forties and 2 fifties,
between 3 of us, while this year we managed only 35
fish between 4 anglers. Quite a change, but
there is a story behind every set of statistics and
this is the case here.
For
2007 we had invited my long time friend Brian Parker
to join us at Millstone Pool and Brian was looking
forward tremendously to the trip. The 4 of us
have been friends for over 25 years but we
don’t often fish all together, so we were
looking forward to a weeks fishing, barbecues and
cold beers. The weather however, which had nearly
always been very kind to us in France, was to play a
major part in the weeks fishing.
Saturday
started with us getting to the supermarket for
mid-morning, and while inside the heavens opened and
the high plastic ceiling roared as a torrential flood
of rain hit the area.
Glum faces all round suggested we would have to
suffer the discomfort of setting up the tackle and
bivvies in wet conditions, but thankfully by the time
we got to the lake the worst of the storm had
passed. The previous weeks’
anglers fished on till 11am so by the time we got a
good look around the lake it was well after midday,
and we were all keen to pick a swim and get set up
before the next rain storm came
in.
On
these French trips we operate a rota system, so that
each angler gets first choice of swim once every few
years. This year it was
Richard’s turn for first swim choice, as if he
needs any bloody help catching carp! Inevitably,
after a bit of consideration, Rich chose the point
swims 10 & 11, an area we knew was probably the
most consistent on the whole
lake. Here you would be
guaranteed plenty of takes and plenty of lumps
too. My swim choice just had to be Swim 1 by
the mill house where I had taken 12 forties and a
fifty the previous year, but I was a little concerned
that the left hand side of the swim had been closed
off for 2 months owing to bank erosion. This
meant that everyone fishing Swim 1 had been fishing
my quiet little corner, previously a virtually
unmolested piece of
water. But there
were plenty of fish bubbling and crashing within
30-40 yards so I was happy to go in there.
Brian chose Swim 8, probably the next best area on
the lake, and Phil opted for Swim 9 where he had deep
water margins on the far bank and quite a good margin
close in.
The
fishing was very slow to get started and as usual it
was Richard who got into the fish first with a string
of monsters over the first few days, including a
couple of fantastic fifties.
Fishing method style as usual Richard was getting
action but complained that it was
‘patchy’ fishing. He’s
catching fifties and the action is
‘patchy’!!!!
For
this year I had opted for the same groundbait
approach of the previous year, using plastic
sweetcorn on the hook. The groundbait
recipe is virtually the same as I used to such good
effect last summer at Dinton Pastures, minus the Partiblend
(particles are not allowed at Millstone
Pool). My groundbait recipe was as
follows, all using Hinders Bait.
3kg
Nutz
Sludge
2
tins Sweetcorn
3
handfuls Nutz
boilies
250ml Hemp
Oil
250ml Corn Steep
Liquor
250ml Pineapple
Tiger Slime
25ml
Betalin
25ml
Nutz
Concentrate
2
grains of Enterprise
Plastic Corn (Tutti Flavour) were balanced up to
be slow sinking on a Fox
Barbless Size 4 SSBP Hook, tied to 6 inches or so
of braid and fished inline with a 1½oz or 2oz
flat pear lead. This was
fished either method style, with a tiny PVA stick
of groundbait or dumped out of a remote control
boat.
Last
year I caught the majority of my fish casting across
into 5 feet of water off the dam wall, but it very
quickly became apparent that this area had been
stuffed with bait for some
time. Rotten boilies and
sweetcorn were popping up all over the place and my
rigs were coming back covered in stinking black
chod. Although the fish were
fizzing up occasionally on the old spots, I
wasn’t too happy fishing in amongst chod and
rotten bait. Indeed my first
fish came from an 8ft deep spot straight out early on
Sunday morning, a lovely clean 39lb 12oz mirror of
typical French character and a fine way to christen
my new Free Spirit
‘S’ landing net. I photographed
the fish with the camera’s remote control and
got the rods out quickly for the dawn feeding spell,
but strangely nothing else happened. In fact
after this action it was to be 1am Tuesday morning
before my next take, most unlike Millstone
Pool. Phil and Brian were also struggling to
catch and it was only Richard who was catching
regularly, and that was only a couple of fish a
day. By Monday the rain returned with a
vengeance, and for the next 4 days it
poured with rain virtually without a break. The
miserable conditions made socialising virtually
impossible, and we ended up having to take our
barbecue into the shelter of the mill house just to
get it lit.
On
Monday night I hooked and lost one, and a couple of
hours later landed a good fish of over forty pounds
which was foul hooked in the gill cover. I was
not a happy bunny as you can imagine.
This
39lb12oz mirror was my first fish of the week, on
Sunday
Tuesday
morning I had 3 fish but to be honest although they
were fine examples they were smaller than I hoped for
at 28lb4oz, 35lb and 37lb14oz.
To
have landed just a few fish after 3½ days was
unusual for Millstone Pool in our experience, and by
this time Phil had landed just 1 fish (a cracker at
mid-forty something), while Brian was fishless.
All the dozens of carp that had been in front of
Brian when he set up on Saturday had disappeared on
Sunday. The water was clearer than
we had ever seen it before and the large shallow area
to Brian’s right was clearly devoid of
fish. Brian is not one
to sit blanking for long, so late on Tuesday morning
he moved to Swim 12 on the opposite side of the dam
wall to me, where he had access to deep and shallow
water, and where there were occasional fish crashing
and bubbling. There
weren’t many other options for him but as it
turned out he couldn’t have made a better
decision. On Tuesday evening he hooked the
hardest fighting carp I have ever seen.
For about 40 minutes a large mirror powered around in
the deep water in front of the swim, and although
Brian patiently played it into the edge on ½
dozen occasions, the fish always tore off another 50
yards of line back to where it came from.
While Brian was playing the fish I managed to catch a
mid-twenty, tie up another rig and chuck it back
out! When I popped back round to see how he was
getting on, he was still playing it! Eventually
the fish gave up and a beautiful 42lb mirror rolled
into the net. Shortly afterwards, he caught
another of almost identical weight, but less energy,
so the move of swims was definitely worth the
effort.
Richard in
the meanwhile had continued to knock out good fish
and by now was well on his way to catching the bigger
fish that were his stated aim. Tuesday evening
I had a couple of mid twenties, then nothing until
late Wednesday morning during very heavy rain, when a
very hesitant take had me by the rods. The line
twitched again and the indicator lifted then settled
back again. As I picked the rod up the
line pulled tight again and a firm strike led to a
horrible grating sensation up the line. The
line was pointing straight down about 10 yards out,
but the fish was boiling on the top about 30 yards to
my right in the shallow corner. This is one of
the few disadvantages of using fluorocarbon main
line, in my case 20lb
X-Line. The line is so heavy that it lies
flat on the bottom, which keeps it out of the
carp’s way, but sometimes the line snags on the
bottom or picks up lots of debris. By swinging
the rod from side to side I managed to free the line,
which suddenly zipped away to my right down into the
shallow corner where there were snags and
rocks. The fish boiled on the top and then a
massive bow wave swept out into the deeper
water. The fish plodded around for a while and
then grudgingly started to come in. Since the
water was so clear I got a good look at the fish as
it gurgled on the top, and my knees went to
jelly. It was huge! The fish slipped over
the net cord and I heaved a sigh of relief. If
the line had got stuck on the bottom just a little
more solidly I would never have landed the
fish. On the mat the fish looked enormous, a
great round lump with massive shoulders, not fat just
solid. Brian came round and together we weighed
the fish at 56lb 12oz. I was sure I recognised
the fish as the same one I landed last year at 49lb
8oz, but I didn’t say much at the time,
preferring to wait and compare the photos at
home. We weighed the fish using a weigh staff
(Cygnet Tackle) and Fox digital scales, and to be
honest a weigh staff or crook is the only
satisfactory way of weighing big fish like
this. The fish is held safe and steady and the
scales make it easy to read the weight
.
At
56lb 12oz this Millstone lump is a personal best, and
was exactly the calibre of fish we go to France
hoping to catch.
Phil
and Richard both came round to admire the fish, the
biggest we’ve had in France. To think
this pretty 7 acre lake is capable of producing such
tremendous fish is surprising, not just the maximum
weight, but also the sheer number of 40lb and 50lb
carp. For the record the fish took 2 grains of
Enterprise
Tackle Plastic Corn on a Size 4 Fox
SSBP Barbless Hook, attached to 6 inches of ESP Strip
Teaze in 20lb. A 2oz Hinders Inline Gravel
Lead was attached to 20lb X-Line.
Wednesday
night passed without further action, as did most of
Thursday, and it was late afternoon, when the rain
finally relented after about 4 solid days, that I had
the next take. A screamer on the right hand
rod, fished a little shallower at 7-8ft, resulted in
a stunning 41lb 12oz common, a personal best and as
hard fighting a French carp as I’ve ever
hooked.
Personal
best mirror and common in consecutive chucks?
Yes please!!!
With
the rain holding off for much of the day, it was a
relief to get some stuff dried off finally in the
weak sunshine, and we managed to have a half decent
dinner. Tonight it was a very tasty and very
rich chicken casserole with stir fried vegetables
Provence style, accompanied by cold beer or red wine
- very nice!
About
815pm I got the rods back out, just as the rain
started, and almost immediately there were fish
fizzing like mad over the groundbait. 20
minutes later and another hesitant take resulted in a
heavy weight plodding about in the deep water and
after a short tussle, another massive mirror rolled
into the net. I called Brian over and we
weighed another impressive Millstone mirror at 51lb
6oz. The rain was chucking it done by now, and when
Brian took the photos there was a bit of moisture on
the lens, but one of the photos is just about good
enough to show here.
51lb
6oz leathery lump made it a fifty, a forty, and a
fifty in consecutive casts!
My
last 3 fish had now weighed 56lb 12oz, 41lb 12oz and
51lb 6oz, not bad for a slow week! By now
Richard had notched up an incredible 4 50s to 52lb,
with back-up 30s and 40s, while Brian had notched up
his 3rd 40 on the trot with a stunning
47lb 8oz mirror. Phil had now landed several
good 40s to 47lb, along with back-up 20s and 30s, so
it was all in all a better week for average sizes
than we had at first thought. Although overall
numbers were down, sizes were up.
Millstone
Pool is a delightful place to fish, well run by Symon
and Tony Osborne, and with a stunning head of big
carp. We have been there 3 times now, and that
is probably enough for most anglers. Next years
venue is already booked, in fact we have already
booked for 2009 and 2010 as well! Nothing like
planning ahead!
For
more information on
Millstone Pool Fisheries click here
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