Lac de guerledan day 5

Day five and it is my turn to choose again . I decided to go for Guerledan , after yesterdays disaster I felt we just needed to catch a few fish. Guerledan has been very consistant and after really heavy rain overnight I was unsure about the river. On arrival we were a bit dissapointed to find that the lake had risen a bit and that the swims were a bit more difficult to fish. However, after yesterday , none of us felt like charging around looking for somewhere else to fish so with wind and light rain in our faces we settled down to fish. The Chief had drawn first and chose the swim that Roger had done well on three days ago . Roger drew second and I was supprised when he opted for the middle swim. This meant that I had drawn last choice every day! Suspect maybe? Two very dodgy characters I might add. Anyway I had to fish the same peg as before but this time I decided on the feeder. The main reason for going with the feeder was the persistant heavy drizzle , I do not enjoy fishing the pole in wet conditions, the joints often stick and its just a pain keeping things dry and organised.I put out about a kilo of groundbait laced with caster and hemp through the feeder. It does not happen very often but the tip went round while I was tightening up. Bingo! Bream first chuck! For the first hour things went very well I was catching steadily and thought I was keeping up with the Chief . The second hour was not quite as fast but I thought I had about 15lbs in the net. Roger was really struggling in the middle but I was enjoying a neck and neck battle with the Chief. Then disaster struck , Roger decided to pack up and come the other side of me. I did not mind that but explained that he had disqualified himself from the 5 euro bet , to which he replied something quite unprintable. Just as he passed I had unhooked a bream and left the rod lying on my right , whilst fiddling with the keepnet, I looked round and the wheel of Rogers trolley had snapped my line. I had to gear up again cursing the clumsy sod under my breath while claiming a foul. I had also lost my clip marker and while I was making the rod up again Roger was merrily feeding his swim. To be honest I doubt it made much difference but my swim just was never the same , bites just faded away to nothing. At weigh in Chief put a hefty 43lbs on the scales while I was nowhere near with 27 lbs. Roger came with a late run and weighed 24lbs, not fantastic but still almost 100lbs between us. The following day was due to be the last fishing day but the weather was so appalling we went to the pub instead. All in all some good days fishing with two good mates but the weather got us all down a bit , the " summer " of 2007 was on us. Modesty almost prevented me mentioning who won the overall points ( despite drawing last everyday )
A good week even if the draw was a bit dodgy. Maybe see the rascals again next year,

May Diaster

Day four and it is Rogers turn to choose again. In fairness to Roger the swims he really wanted to fish did look nice. But the weather had turned quite nasty by now with a cool northwesterly blowing down the valley. To be honest three consecutive days fishing is enough for me and I was contributing very little by way of ideas. We decided to try and get on the other side of the lake to get out of the wind and rain. I am always a bit grumpy but even Chief seemed a bit down, Roger is always his cheerful self provided he can throw a feeder into water and he is in peaceful surroundings. The upshot of this is that we end up on the outlet of the dam. the water is like tapwater and after 2 hours none of us has had a touch. Time for a beer. we get days like this.

bar le blavet may o7

Day three and it is Chiefs turn to choose so we are off to the famous Bar Le Blavet stretch. Sadly there is no longer a bar of that name, Gildas died of cancer last year after a short illness. He , along with his wonderfully kind wife Cathy were so good to the anglers that visited . He is sadly missed, it is just not the same anymore. This stretch is where it all began one evening when I caught 100lbs of bream for the first time, that was 14 years ago. The Bar is now a boulangerie but there are many anglers who have enjoyed tremendous fishing here over the years and will always remember this as the Bar le Blavet stretch. We drew for pegs and Chief chose the downstream peg. I drew last ( hat-trick ) so I was on the upsteam peg as Roger sat in his favourite spot with the factory fans behind him . The river is fairly wide and averages about 2.5 m deep. It certainly is not beautiful here among the factories. I decided today to fish the feeder . Enough of Roger collecting our 5 euro notes that easily, today would be an out and out feeder battle. Balling in at about 30 metres we all decided to attack . The Chief was the first into action with a bream after 20 mins. After 30mins I was encouraged by a line bite and 10 mins later had my first fish on worm and caster. After a couple of hours it was clear that there going to be no 100lbs+ catches today but we were all catching a few bream. I got the feeling that the fish really did not want to settle and several that I caught had the spawning "sandpaper " feel. Now ,. I think the Chief likes taking us here to gloat about past glories and it is true that he got the drop on us a couple of years ago by catching right across. However the bream today are being caught just past the middle and with 1 1/2 hours to go I could not pick a winner. At the end The Chief seemed confident that he had shaded it and weighed 26lbs + . Roger just short of 20lbs and my 10 small bream + 2 eels went 33lbs. Something I had noticed was that the sky colour had changed to an ominous dark pink with deep purplish clouds, I did not like the look of that at all. On the way home Roger & Chief took some revenge by buying kebabs from a roadside stall. They know bloody well I am on a diet, still I guess that is what mates are for.

Lac GEURLEDAN MAY O7

The second day of our break and it is my turn to choose the venue and I have opted for the top of lake Guerledan. This magnificent lake is some 6oo acres I am told and was created by flooding the valley Hydro electric power is generated at the dam end. On arrival we drew for choice of swims , Roger won again and chose the swim furthest from the inlet . Chief drew second and to my surprise chose the middle peg leaving me on the peg nearest the inlet. Roger and the Chief opted for the feeder but I went with the pole again . Plumbing up I had about 3.5 metres at 13 metres out. I chose a 1.5gr jolly to 012 with o1o hooklength . The bottom is fairly flat so I put in 8 stiffish balls laced with caster . Almost immediately I got a response and was catching decent skimmers and hybrids on red maggot. Looking around I could barely see Roger but Keith seemed to be really struggling he also seemed more interested in his new gadget , the camcorder . I was still going steadily, so kept my head down and was enjoying it. When after about two hours Chief said he was switching to the pole I thought I must have got it right when he explained that he felt his swim was better pole fished but that Roger was sacking up on the feeder. Could not get the logic of that but carried on anyway . To add to the skimmers and hybrids, I was now getting some good size roach and the odd bream to 3lbs. The swim began to die a bit so I reballed with another 6. They certainly liked that and I was now going well and I put a good few in the net in the last 1 1/5 hours. I knew I had a goodish weight and had seen off the Chief but how had Roger fared? Well he had sacked up ! weighing in just a fraction short of 50lbs of skimmers , hybrids and bream to 4lbs. Chief ran up the white flag and returned about 20lbs of skimmers while I weighed in 38 lbs. A good day on a venue I rather like, more than 100lbs between us with no prebaiting and no prolonged wait for fish to arrive. Still got to get some coin from Roger the splodger, the crafty old devil is having it too easy. Another day tommorow!

bon repos Rr BLAVET may 07

Each year for the last 12 or so I have travelled to Brittany in early May for a weeks fishing and a total break from work. Roger Coombes from Bridgwater has accompanied me on every trip joined by various other friends. Joining us for the last 4 years has been Keith ( the Chief ) Dowdell. The format for our days fishing is a lie in , lunch at leisure then kick off at 2.30 ish. We take it in turns to choose the area to fish , draw for choice of swims and have little side bets on the outcome. Today it is Roger who will choose and we go to Bon Repos . Roger draws first and chooses the upsteam peg .Chief draws second and sits in the armchair peg in the middle and I get the downsteam peg. Normally I would be more than happy with this but there is a snag. My swim is a bit of a parrot cage to say the least and I do not have the time or equipment to improve it much. For this reason I am more or less obliged to fish the pole, so I set up a 1.25g jolly to 08 shogun hooklength and a b611 sz 18. I blagged some groundbait from Chief because he had a mountain of it and I was feeling lazy. I put in 6 babies heads at about 12 metres and one in short on the shelf. Both Roger and the Chief opt for the feeder and the Chief is first on the scorecard with an early bream. 1 hour in and I have not had a bite, I am sratching my head a bit because usually there are plenty of roach and skimmers here. The chief lands another bream but I am still biteless. Going into the third hour I am still biteless but I hear Roger land a fish and can feel my grasp of a 5 euro note slipping painfully away. Out of desperation and to rest arms and back I come in on the inside line and to my supprise the float slips away. It felt a decent sized fish but I pulled out, not my day! By now Roger and Chief were catching odd bream, skimmers and hybrids but its tough going. I still cannot get a touch at 12metres and the flow has increased slightly. Back on the inside and voila at last a skimmer of a pound. Chief has a camcorder now and insisted on filming the event but at least I have made him wait to use it . He really is becoming a Mr Gadget but a few minutes later he realised that he had left the cooker on back at the cottage so he was off to turn that off and its courgette and tomato crisps for supper. Mr Gadget, Mr Pastry! what next? Back to the fishing and I start to make the odd bite and catch a few fish. 12 to be precise. Chief is back now and catches a few more but Roger is being very cagey. At weigh in, Roger estimates 15lbs and weighs just over 24lbs Chief weighs in 18lbs and I feel I may just get the nod with those late fish but alas 12ozs short with 23+ lbs. Slow start but Roger is off with the loot and we are on the way to the pub.

Nuelliac bridge 15 april 07

After such a good days fishing as yesterday on the Mayenne it is often difficult to get motivated to go again the next day , however having got on well with work this week , due to the brilliant weather I decided on a final shot at the Blavet. On arrival at the bridge it was obvious that things had changed in just the few days since I had enjoyed such good roach fishing. The water was much clearer , the flow reduced, and less fish movement by far. On the plus side it was windless and overcast again , so this time I opted for the waggler just to fish further out and pick up a bit more flow. I set up a 3aa peacock insert fishing 08 shogun hooklength to sz 18 b611. Fishing up in the water at about a metre I immediately started catching small roach . These tiny fish began to become annoying so I stopped feeding any maggot and just fed caster & hemp instead.
Swopping things about a bit with depth and shotting patterns did not really improve things much as the majority of fish were still small. I had the odd better roach and a chub of around a pound plus a couple of those big dace that Chinese Fred catches but I can not. All in all not as good as the last time I was here and glancing at my watch I thought about another ten mins would do . The next cast produced not the usual small fish but a solid thump on the rod tip and after a couple of lunges a hybrid not much short of 2lbs was in the net . Nice end to the best fishing break I have had for ages I
thought , still time to put it in again ( actress to the bishop ) another almost indentical fish, well I never! Someone smiling at me? Well sometimes all the water runs in your ditch ! I put it in again and down went the float , the next couple of minutes were spent testing an ABU 1044 in reverse gear and my mind trying to work out what I had hooked , too quick for a bream or probally a tench , my mind set on a good chub or a carp or possibly a foulhooked pike or zander. After quite a few quick runs the fish thumped hard close to the far bank for some time before I finally took control and was
supprised to see a hybrid of possibly 4lbs plus. HG and I struggled to get a photo of this fish due to camera playing up ( discovered spare batteries in case 2 days later )
This trip has been a bit like writing my own scripts, time for home and a bottle of red.

river mayenne april 07

When I was a young man I was often shocked about how sentimental older people were about friends and family that had died. I understood grief and loss but always struggled to understand the sentimentality. When Chris died so young I understood
completely.Part of the grieving process for me is to go to the places where we went together and to remember the great times and wonderful friendship. The very last time Chris and I fished together was on the Rr Mayenne in the town of the same name in Normandy. That day we had enjoyed good fishing and of course endless banter. I always knew that I would return here and HG and I made the 3 hr drive from Brittany. We booked into the same hotel and ate at the same little Italian restaurant that Chris and I had discovered by chance. I found this comforting, coping with grief is a personal thing. It was some supprise then, that the following day having looked at the very swims we had fished and fully intending to fish here I suddenly felt I could not fish there, so opted for a spot further downstream beside a small hotel. HG was very kind even though I was messing her around a bit. The swim I chose eventually had more to do with convenience than looking " fishy " in fact as HG drove away I thought how hopeless my watercraft has become , 100 metres above a weir, 60 metres wide no nearside tree cover at all and no fish moving whatsoever. What was I thinking! Now my experience of this river is that , up to now , but on the basis of just 4 visits , the best coarse fishing river I have ever fished. It is different from the Blavet in that it is tree lined on both banks , although a towpath runs behind the trees on one bank in this area . It is also a tributary of the great Rr Loire. The colour is also very different having a slate grey hue as opposed to a sort of clear vinegar look of the Blavet. Looking upsteam I again thought how much better the swims further up looked but HG would need to find me , so I was stuck with what I had chosen. At least the weather was kind , overcast, warm and windless , also the banks were flat and the access easy so if I blanked, well so be it. Plumbing up I found a gentle slope of around 2.5 m at 8 m out to 3m at 12m where I intended to fish . The bottom was obviously silty as the plummet kicked up bubbles. A few bleak began to top now but of greater encouragement something slightly bigger in the middle of the river. I cupped in a little groudbait and on first run down was pleased to find more flow than expected. Fishing red maggot slightly overdepth and held back , the first 1/2 hr produced not a touch , then down it went and a 12oz skimmer was in the net. The next hour produced just 3 more of a similar size plus odd bleak on the drop, irritating little sods at times. Hour 2 was much more productive as a succession of quality skimmers to 1 . 1/2 lbs came to the net just on the 2 . 1/2 hr mark the Ist bream arrived , followed quickly by a couple in successive put ins. I then had a bite on the drop and hooked and pulled out of a fish of maybe a pound and a half, but what it was intrigued me. I had just seen a vivid silver flash before it jumped out of the water and pulled out. The next thing I knew a swim that seemed to heading towards a bagging session had just died a death. With not a touch for fully 20 mins I decided to re ball with groundbait. While making up the mix I had left the top set in the water in front of me and the next thing I knew elastic was streaming out, bloody hell! whats going on ? Well it turned out to be a sea trout almost certainly the same fish that I had lost earlier and a new addition to my specimen list ( at least not a turtle ) A few more balls of groundbait and it was back to bagging , the bream were not big and I had a chub of 2lbs plus a roach of 1lbs and 1 1/2lbs . Its been brilliant fishing each time I have been here, HG and I slipped the fish back carefully rather than weighing but making a guess at each fish size we estimated around 55lbs in 4 1/2 hours fishing. Excellent lovely river.