Venue- Valvert - Noyal Pontivy, Brittany.
Many French towns and villages have their own lake or plan d" eau and Valvert is fairly typical although I must mention that it is one of the few locally that can be fished on a general licence without the need of an additional day ticket and is open all the year round. I would estimate the lake at between 4 - 6 acres. fairly shallow , 1- 2 metres with the deeper water at the car park end. In summer and autumn there is often margin weed which can be troublesome. It is a venue I have fished on a number of
occasions and it seems fairly consistent. We have been grateful for this little lake when the Blavet has been flooded or out of sorts. In May 06 Vince Stuckey of Langport had a superb 17 kilos of skimmers, bream and tench. But that was May and the reality I face is a chill wind facing me and the threat of a soaking. To be honest this was a last chance to fish on this visit but I felt the odds were against me and I feared a blank, the wind howled into my face as I set up 11metres of pole. Ideally I would have opted for 13 metres but in this wind 11 was likely to be a handful. I carefully mixed a half kilo of sensas etang and set up a 0,4 fly barbetta float 012 to 08 hooklength shogun line and size 20 b511, elastic was a lightly tensioned 4 , this is as light as I like to risk here as have encountered some bream tench and hybrids that certainly do not mind mixing it a bit. Well time to have a go. I cupped in two smallish balls of groundbait laced with just a few casters and maggots and huddled against the first shower of the session. The shower was much worse than the apparent threat and I cursed my decision to fish. Just to add to my misery a group of teenagers arrived in the opposite car park and began the usual wheelspin and braking tricks with which I am sure you are all familiar. They then got out of their vehicles and began messing about on the kids slides, added irritation ! For company I had about 5 French anglers all fishing for predators. The first 15 mins were spent trying to hold on to the pole and I was tempted to feed another shorter line, however as I mulled this over the wind dropped just a little and the rain eased, even better! The float lifted a little. Bingo! A bleak, not exciting but blank avoided. Over the next hour 3 more small fish followed still not exciting but bites, I was feeding very frugally by cup and with such little response felt my options were very limited. I do not know why the youngsters opposite were making such a noise but one scream was so loud that I looked across, looking back, no float and the elastic tensioned nicely on the strike and a 12oz skimmer was guided to the net. 6 more followed steadily until the last fish pulled out at the net. The light was fading now and Heather arrived with some seriously calorie laden confectionary. French patisseries! Bunter cakes! Chris and I were both addicts! To be honest the session was better than I expected the weather did sort of improve and I suppose nearly 6lbs of fish in these conditions is ok. The French anglers returned, one of them proudly carrying a pike of no more than two pounds, someones supper was assured. After a short but friendly chat with them it was back to the cottage to make sure that French wine standards are being maintained. Well it is a tough life but someone has to do it and I look forward to my next visit.
Sunday 21 January 2007
Saturday 20 January 2007
Viaduct fishery
I decided to fish the Viaduct at Somerton. Ian Parsons and Steve Long have made an excellent coarse venue of these fomer trout lakes and a silver fish match on a Saturday
was very appealing . I considered having another go on the Isle but Saturday was far more convenient this weekend than Sunday. I am also aware than the likelihood of doing well was remote, it is not a case of being unduly pessimistic but there are some very good anglers who fish this venue regularly and they would be very hard to beat.
Arriving at the venue I at first thought I must have got the day wrong as there seemed to be very few people about. I was very dissapointed to learn that only
8 anglers were there, but with the weather looking reasonable I drew peg 81 on Cary lake. With so few fishing , pegs were left out , leaving generous room for everyone. I had sought the advice of Steve Kedge because he is in such good form this year and also a very genuine guy. Steve was of the opinion that fishing fairly short, line to hand was likely to be my best option and to also have a look at 13 metres.
On the whistle I cupped in 3 hens egg size balls of groundbait laced with a little hemp and caster and began loose feeding caster on the 3 metre line. 1/2 hour on the long pole
produced just a few small fish and a lot of problems with very small fish, even a switch to double caster did not stop the little blighters having a go on the drop . bulking the shot helped a bit but things were very slow. I then switched to the short line but with a very poor response I was concerned that all was not well even at this early stage and did not like the fact that there was no wind on the water because I was being sheltered
by the spit of land that extends around 20 metres into the lake. I kept feeding the 3 metre line, moving shot around, changing depth and varying my pattern of feeding but alas all I could muster were odd roach and rudd , after 1 1/2 hours of this I got the
distinct feeling that I really was going nowhere but such is my lack of recent experience
here I did not really know whether to change tack or keep faith in what I was doing.
2 1/2 hours in I did get a bonus tench of about 2 lbs but still no pattern of bites.
I added very little in the next hour except odd roach and a 1 lb perch, odd forays to the 13m line produced just odd small skimmers so I tried putting a section on the inside line and upping the feed rate, still very little response. a look on the 13m metre line did produce a 1 1/2 lb skimmer but I just could not string bites together. The remainder of the match just ebbed away and I was forced to accept that I had got it wrong on the day. A 2 lb skimmer on the whistle was nowhere near enough to get anywhere near and sure enough a paltry 10 lbs 14 oz was all I could muster putting me 6th out of 8 . Pretty dismal but c.est la vie . Nick Collins won with 23lbs 60z followed
by Dave Roper with 21 lbs 1 oz. Generally the venue had fished very well and I can only plead incompetence for my poor result. Must try harder!
was very appealing . I considered having another go on the Isle but Saturday was far more convenient this weekend than Sunday. I am also aware than the likelihood of doing well was remote, it is not a case of being unduly pessimistic but there are some very good anglers who fish this venue regularly and they would be very hard to beat.
Arriving at the venue I at first thought I must have got the day wrong as there seemed to be very few people about. I was very dissapointed to learn that only
8 anglers were there, but with the weather looking reasonable I drew peg 81 on Cary lake. With so few fishing , pegs were left out , leaving generous room for everyone. I had sought the advice of Steve Kedge because he is in such good form this year and also a very genuine guy. Steve was of the opinion that fishing fairly short, line to hand was likely to be my best option and to also have a look at 13 metres.
On the whistle I cupped in 3 hens egg size balls of groundbait laced with a little hemp and caster and began loose feeding caster on the 3 metre line. 1/2 hour on the long pole
produced just a few small fish and a lot of problems with very small fish, even a switch to double caster did not stop the little blighters having a go on the drop . bulking the shot helped a bit but things were very slow. I then switched to the short line but with a very poor response I was concerned that all was not well even at this early stage and did not like the fact that there was no wind on the water because I was being sheltered
by the spit of land that extends around 20 metres into the lake. I kept feeding the 3 metre line, moving shot around, changing depth and varying my pattern of feeding but alas all I could muster were odd roach and rudd , after 1 1/2 hours of this I got the
distinct feeling that I really was going nowhere but such is my lack of recent experience
here I did not really know whether to change tack or keep faith in what I was doing.
2 1/2 hours in I did get a bonus tench of about 2 lbs but still no pattern of bites.
I added very little in the next hour except odd roach and a 1 lb perch, odd forays to the 13m line produced just odd small skimmers so I tried putting a section on the inside line and upping the feed rate, still very little response. a look on the 13m metre line did produce a 1 1/2 lb skimmer but I just could not string bites together. The remainder of the match just ebbed away and I was forced to accept that I had got it wrong on the day. A 2 lb skimmer on the whistle was nowhere near enough to get anywhere near and sure enough a paltry 10 lbs 14 oz was all I could muster putting me 6th out of 8 . Pretty dismal but c.est la vie . Nick Collins won with 23lbs 60z followed
by Dave Roper with 21 lbs 1 oz. Generally the venue had fished very well and I can only plead incompetence for my poor result. Must try harder!
Monday 15 January 2007
hollowlegs round 5
I have decided to create this site in memory of my best friend Chris Patten. If any information helps any other angler I am certain Chris would have been delighted.
For anyone who did not know Chris he was a very talented angler and a wonderful
friend to many people. He died of cancer just 46 years old and I have missed him every day since. After his death I became very depressed and more or less gave up fishing although I have forced myself to go now and then, this new year I am determined to go more often.
It was reading Jamies blog and a good weather forecast that prompted me to book in to the 5th round of the hollowlegs league on the river Isle. Heather my, wife was pleased that I wanted to go, so Saturday was spent rounding up a bit of bait and tying a few hooks. Right up until the evening I was unsure if I really wanted to go but the thought of seeing old friends was reassuring.The draw was at the Crown Ilminster and it really was good to see around 20 people most of whom I know. I drew peg 126 at Isle
Brewers and was told it was a real flyer, it occured to me during the drive to the peg that the last time I fished the river I had drawn this very peg and had won the teams of 4 with a very low 8lbs of roach when the river fished badly. Above me on a peg that had recently produced a big roach weight was Neil Dring who knows the river well and has a good record on the river, below was Rockin Roy Fowler on peg 128 another regular who would know the peg well and how to fish it. My peg is the crown of a bend and from that experience a few years ago I knew the most likely roach hideout would be well up the peg. The shallow swim is no more than 2ft deep at the neck boiling in the middle with a smooth glide far bank and fairly narrow. normally I would have have opted for a short line but because I was fairly sure that I would be catching small fish quickly and the likelihood that pike would menace the fish at some stage I opted for an unusual approach. 4.5 metres to hand, I knew this compromised
control and presentation to some extent but felt that to build a competitive weight and avoid as much pike interest as possible catching quick to hand was vital, pulling out of fish especially at the last moment and the tree above me would look like a christmas tree. Dream start, the peg is solid roach and my 1 grm jolly hardly trots a foot before burying , a few adjustments to depth and shotting and I am reasonably happy with
things catching good stamp roach, a trouble free first hour I estimate a thumping 8lbs
in the net I know it cannot last . I have never heard of 30 lbs + roach weights on this river. After about an hour my first problem comes from a most unlikely source, an odd looking bite provided a thumping response and elastic streaking upstream , chub my immediate thought, good bonus but instead up pops a 12oz roach hooked in the tail. gently, gently guide towards the net but alas hook pulls out, rig in the tree. new rig takes a while to shot up and get right, some momentum lost. A steady 2nd hour
but one or two bonus 12oz ers . 3rd hour becomes a bit frustrating . I am bumping a few
now and am catching much smaller stamp of fish also first pike strike arrives. A group of people arrive with children and a black labrabor, they are very noisy and begin throwing things into the river so the dog jumps in some 20yds above my peg .They stayed for nearly an hour and certainly did not help my cause. Soon after they had gone I suffered 2 more pike strikes one of which ended with the rig up the tree again,
2 hours to go and the dream of a big weight began to fade , however I still knew that there was a stack of fish in front of me. It seemed to me that there was more than one
pike and they were lying in the slacker water, it was at this moment that I made a decision to fish the shallow boil in front of me to try to avoid these pike. I knew it was a gamble but yes, final answer ? Chris , yes final answer! shortening the rig to 4 m I fished further down the peg and upped the feed drastically. After a poor initial response it was tempting to risk the slacker water but my first attempt produced a 3oz roach followed by a tail walking 4lb pike , no, definitely fish the boil. After 30 minutes of intense feeding the swim suddenly responded , a good run of roach was followed by 3 successive 12oz fish and a steady last hour . I knew I had a good weight but would hate to have to estimate it. It suddenly occured to me that I was also on a golden peg and a win would be worth £200 . I had also drawn the scales but the other 3 I was due to weigh in had
had bad days and left. All 3 are good anglers but caught very little. Why the fish are so tightly packed at this time I have only guesswork to go on. I had to be weighed in by the next section . Digger Denslow had 7lbs + and Neil an excellent 19 lbs 1oz .I felt fairly confident after seeing Neil weigh that I certainly was in with a shout but 2 weighs and 29 lb 10 0z was a genuine shock to me , my best weight on the river ! Just 5lbs short of the all time record weight and I am led to believe the best ever roach weight. I know I did not really fish that well but what a way to start a blog , a new year and thanks to all in the Crown afterwards . Neils 19lb 1oz was easily 2nd and Martin Heards 8lb+ of dace chublets and roach put him 3rd. I endured a lot of banter about winning the golden peg
on my 1st visit in a long while but it was all lighthearted.
For anyone who did not know Chris he was a very talented angler and a wonderful
friend to many people. He died of cancer just 46 years old and I have missed him every day since. After his death I became very depressed and more or less gave up fishing although I have forced myself to go now and then, this new year I am determined to go more often.
It was reading Jamies blog and a good weather forecast that prompted me to book in to the 5th round of the hollowlegs league on the river Isle. Heather my, wife was pleased that I wanted to go, so Saturday was spent rounding up a bit of bait and tying a few hooks. Right up until the evening I was unsure if I really wanted to go but the thought of seeing old friends was reassuring.The draw was at the Crown Ilminster and it really was good to see around 20 people most of whom I know. I drew peg 126 at Isle
Brewers and was told it was a real flyer, it occured to me during the drive to the peg that the last time I fished the river I had drawn this very peg and had won the teams of 4 with a very low 8lbs of roach when the river fished badly. Above me on a peg that had recently produced a big roach weight was Neil Dring who knows the river well and has a good record on the river, below was Rockin Roy Fowler on peg 128 another regular who would know the peg well and how to fish it. My peg is the crown of a bend and from that experience a few years ago I knew the most likely roach hideout would be well up the peg. The shallow swim is no more than 2ft deep at the neck boiling in the middle with a smooth glide far bank and fairly narrow. normally I would have have opted for a short line but because I was fairly sure that I would be catching small fish quickly and the likelihood that pike would menace the fish at some stage I opted for an unusual approach. 4.5 metres to hand, I knew this compromised
control and presentation to some extent but felt that to build a competitive weight and avoid as much pike interest as possible catching quick to hand was vital, pulling out of fish especially at the last moment and the tree above me would look like a christmas tree. Dream start, the peg is solid roach and my 1 grm jolly hardly trots a foot before burying , a few adjustments to depth and shotting and I am reasonably happy with
things catching good stamp roach, a trouble free first hour I estimate a thumping 8lbs
in the net I know it cannot last . I have never heard of 30 lbs + roach weights on this river. After about an hour my first problem comes from a most unlikely source, an odd looking bite provided a thumping response and elastic streaking upstream , chub my immediate thought, good bonus but instead up pops a 12oz roach hooked in the tail. gently, gently guide towards the net but alas hook pulls out, rig in the tree. new rig takes a while to shot up and get right, some momentum lost. A steady 2nd hour
but one or two bonus 12oz ers . 3rd hour becomes a bit frustrating . I am bumping a few
now and am catching much smaller stamp of fish also first pike strike arrives. A group of people arrive with children and a black labrabor, they are very noisy and begin throwing things into the river so the dog jumps in some 20yds above my peg .They stayed for nearly an hour and certainly did not help my cause. Soon after they had gone I suffered 2 more pike strikes one of which ended with the rig up the tree again,
2 hours to go and the dream of a big weight began to fade , however I still knew that there was a stack of fish in front of me. It seemed to me that there was more than one
pike and they were lying in the slacker water, it was at this moment that I made a decision to fish the shallow boil in front of me to try to avoid these pike. I knew it was a gamble but yes, final answer ? Chris , yes final answer! shortening the rig to 4 m I fished further down the peg and upped the feed drastically. After a poor initial response it was tempting to risk the slacker water but my first attempt produced a 3oz roach followed by a tail walking 4lb pike , no, definitely fish the boil. After 30 minutes of intense feeding the swim suddenly responded , a good run of roach was followed by 3 successive 12oz fish and a steady last hour . I knew I had a good weight but would hate to have to estimate it. It suddenly occured to me that I was also on a golden peg and a win would be worth £200 . I had also drawn the scales but the other 3 I was due to weigh in had
had bad days and left. All 3 are good anglers but caught very little. Why the fish are so tightly packed at this time I have only guesswork to go on. I had to be weighed in by the next section . Digger Denslow had 7lbs + and Neil an excellent 19 lbs 1oz .I felt fairly confident after seeing Neil weigh that I certainly was in with a shout but 2 weighs and 29 lb 10 0z was a genuine shock to me , my best weight on the river ! Just 5lbs short of the all time record weight and I am led to believe the best ever roach weight. I know I did not really fish that well but what a way to start a blog , a new year and thanks to all in the Crown afterwards . Neils 19lb 1oz was easily 2nd and Martin Heards 8lb+ of dace chublets and roach put him 3rd. I endured a lot of banter about winning the golden peg
on my 1st visit in a long while but it was all lighthearted.
Wednesday 10 January 2007
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