Hi all
I live in the south of france and am about to start fishing a big lake nearby (600 HA) called Lac Montbel. Very few people fish for carp and most go for pike because they eat all of them!
I have bought a dinghy because you could never cast the distance needed and will start to look for features, depths etc. I understand the carp feed heavily on natural baits like crayfish so must search out where the crays live.

Does anyone have any basic ideas?
Paul Cann http://www.salagou.ismysite.co.uk has kindly given me some tips relating to another lake he fishes about 3 hours away but i wonder if anyone had any tips? I was thinking of using maize to begin with as it is not widely used on this lake. But I also want to tempt the carp with something similar to crays. What bait out there actually smells like crayfish?
I realise i will need large, hard baits to stop the nuisance fish and crays but any other advice is appreciated.

Its a huge lake as you can see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb3rjGoSgI0&NR=1 the canadian airforce use it to fill up their firefighting planes!

Any thoughts or ideas welcome. I intend to spend a lot of time there!
Cheers
Guinness

COARSE FISHING OFFERS
CARP FISHING OFFERS
FLY FISHING OFFERS
SEA FISHING OFFERS

Guests - this sponsored link will vanish when you log-in. Click here to register for free.

Hi
use a fishmeal type boilie and cover it in mesh such as this
http://www.bristolangling.com/8529/Fox-Arma-Mesh.html

and a video to show you how here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Px04ENhlbo

or use shrink tube such as this by carp'R'us called rap-it
http://www.anglers-cabin.com/www.anglers-c...ch=&sought=

Ive used this shrink tube before on lac du st cassien and despite it being black (and much cheaper) I caught carp no probs.
http://chandlery.marinestore.co.uk/search/index?query=shrink

Use maize but also use trout pellets around your hook bait, that should help to pull in the crays which will in turn attract the carp.

Good luck and pm me if I can help any more.
Cheers Matt

Cheers for all that info - much appreciated

A few thoughts and to be honest most of it depends on the problems you encounter. Some waters with bad cray or poisson chat problems can be almost impossible to fish with soft baits. I found tigers the only thing that worked on a couple of really bad waters. On the moderate crayfish waters then hookbaits made with something like nutrabaits granite mix works very well. Netting works to some extend, but crays can tear it off - and don't forget they can and do cut through or tangle up your hooklengths, I tend to switch over to 20lb+ amnesia in such situaions. Another solution that worked for me was fishing popups straight off the lead - i.e. 10 - 12 inches off the bottom. That also seems to help in deep massive lakes, where you can only find lighter weedbeds and then only with an echo sounder. Very simply though be prepared to experiment and take multiple 'solutions' with you to see which works best.

Rob.

Another vote for the good old Growler! Never known a French water they havnt worked on and despite what you may hear they dont need to be pre baited to get the carp on to them.

Blimey!! Looking at one of the other Utube postings the lake does tend to dry out a little? Afraid I can't offer anything that has not been offered above as we don't have the same problem with Crays here. Chat? YES!! But certainly not crays. But I am pretty sure I have seen crayfish smelling additives?? But of course Carp will quite literally eat ANYTHING!! And catching crays is not an art form?
I'll certainly ask around for you as I too live in France although quite a way from yourself in the lush north! (See sig?) But best of luck!