Oldfellah

This spring we had a Dutch angler fish our lake armed with what I consider is the best feature I have yet seen on a baitboat. The large (very large) bait compartment at the rear of the boat contained a large screw type device that spread the bait over a wide area. A very expensive boat I must add. I have found that on waters where bait boats are used widely the carp will start to shy away from little piles of bait and a larger, carpet of bait is usually more succesful. Although we allow baitboats on our lake I always emphasise that all the best catches have come from large beds of pellets with boilies over rather than the smaller baited patches created by baitboats. Best method can be carpet baiting by hand from our boat morning and evening and then topping up with the bait boat throughout the day.

I have never been a fan of spodding but this year we had some incredible catches made by anglers do just that. The succesful mix was based on Vitaline with a mixture of pellets and tinned tuna plus a little hemp. Since then I have had some of the lads bring Vitalin over for me and I now regard it as an essential part of my armoury. Not spodded but made into large balls and placed in the swim by boat it has worked a charm. Best of all its cheap !!! lol

Berkeley Big Game in either 12 or 15lb bs will do you for most of your carp fishing needs. Tough, reliable and cheap.......thats why I have used it for around 30 yrs !!

Got to agree with the other answers given. Seems to me that most of the fancy rigs one see's in the magazines are more designed to catch anglers than carp !! Keep it simple....I now use a bog standard running rig with x line hooklink, 12 turn knotless knot and sixe 6 (4 at times as they come up a size smaller than most hooks) Aya Iseama hook. I like at least a cm between end of hook and boilie and that does me for 90% of my fishing.

Quite right Roy, sorry if my post may have seemed misleading....quite unintentional. We certainly would fit the requirements but so would lots of other good venue's out there but a 'runs water' is quite difficult to quantify. Last year was our first year and we had one angler catch 82 carp fishing mainly days. About 8 were 30's and of the remainder half were 20's with the remainder being doubles. This year catches are down but sizes are higher and I feel that is the way with fisheries, as the fish grow and get caught they get wiser so each year the expected catch per angler will include bigger fish but quantities will be down. One water I fished over here about years ago would see 30 or 40 carp per week for me with average weights of around 18/19lb but including the odd 30. Each year would see bigger fish but a drop off in numbers and this year the water has thrown up a 60 and a host of 40's and 50's but average catch rates are very low indeed. Thus, generally speaking a runs water today is unlikely to be the same in a couple of years. We try to reduce fishing pressure by only having a max of 6 anglers on our 15 acres so catch rates are still very good but there is no guarantee that future years will be the same despite having around 500 carp stocked.

Depends really on what you mean by a 'runs water' ?? If you are interested in catching carp of any size with stacks of singles and the odd bigger fish then there are several candidates, however if you are after a venue where you can catch between 15 to 40 carp in the mid teens to low 40's then perhaps the following may suit you...www.carpdreams.com Blog...carpdreams.wordpress.com Chose carefully and be sure to have a good time.

I also have reverted to Big Game after trying most of the 'new' lines and would suggest it bis an good starting point. If you fish slack lines and want a good sinking line then I suggest you take a look at X line. Sinks like a stone and also makes cracking hook links.

I know what you mean Chris, I have had some pretty dreadful experiences especially in my early days of French fishing so can sympathise with your comments. As you say there are a good few 'cowboy' type operations over here but it is fair to say that there are also plenty of good honest venue's where offering a quality carping holiday is the norm. I think that one of the biggest problems is that so many anglers travel to France for the first time with unrealistic expectations of what fishing is like over here and are misled by websites and advertisements that paint a picture that is difficult to fulfill. We took a policy decision early on to make sure that we were totally honest regarding fish stocks and facilities so the first time visitor arrived in the full knowledge of what awaited him. Our weblog (carpdreams.wordpress.com) is also updated almost daily so any existing or future client can assess exactly what is being caught every week rather than just look at a website gallery of smiling anglers and huge fish and believing thats the norm. The truth is that many of the more popular venue's will see far more fishing pressure through the year than most uk venue's and the fishing can be difficult accordingly. One thing that the prospective French carper should look out for is how many anglers are allowed to fish per acre of water. One of my pet hates was to arrive at a venue and find it crisscrossed by lines and having nowhere to fish to find a bit of peace and quiet to do my 'own thing'. We have a maximum of 6 anglers in 15 acres because thats the way I like to do my fishing !!! Anyway, good luck Chris and well done on highlighting a few 'home truths' regarding the French carping scene. Our address ?? www.carpdreams.com (in Indre, bottom of the Loire Valley)

I agree with a lot of what you say Chris, especially the cost (cotisations) of being registered. I would just point out that our siret number is clearly seen on our website and we also have food and drink licenses (how many do ???) as well as full closed water status. I, and my family, also live full time next to the lake in the old millhouse and most importantly.......we certainly do not make loads of money but run the fishery as a way of life !! Tight lines, Jim.

I fished over here for around 3 weeks a year for the past 10 years and have had some great fishing and experiences but also some real nightmares with hole in the ground fisheries, drunken anglers, fighting on the banks, food I would not give my dog and terrible or non existant facilities. I have also loved many trips to quieter waters, caught some stunning fish and made many long standing friends whilst fishing over here. I love the French countryside and fishing so much that I now live here and have my own fishery.

One point to consider is that monofile actually absorbs water and becomes weaker with immersion. Fluorocarbon does not absorb water so the breaking strain remains unaffected. I have never used x line as a main line (stick with my Big Game) but I have used it extensively for hooklinks for several years now and can honestly say that it has never let me down.

I would suggest that your first port of call is to speak with the owner and establish what pellet and boilies he stocks. With most well managed carp fisheries feeding pellet throughout the year it becomes and accepted food source so it is always worth buying on site if possible. With boilies ir really is an open question as we have weeks on our lake when 5 kilo is more than enough and others when anglers will use 20 kilo of boilies and several sacks of pellet. So much depends on fish stocks and weather when you are there but having fished France for over 10 years before moving out here I always used a good quality fishmeal boilie and quite honestly you will find that most quality baits will work. The so called 'euro boilie' is not the norm these days and many of us have top quality boilies hand rolled for sale.......quality because thats what helps our carp stay in great condition and grow !!!But, as said earlier check out what is available on site. Hope you have a great holiday.

I quite agree with the previous two answers. The rod will be more than adequate for most carp fishing, we used to consider the 1.75lb tc as the norm and 2lb as heavy. I use my old Chapman 500 for float fishing and stalking at my fishery and have taken fish to mid 30's without any worries at all and thats only 1.5lb tc. In fact the biggest single factor in losing fish to hook pulls is rods that are far to stiff.(thats just my opinion of course). Enjoy it.

I have tried most of the new 'wonder lines' over the years but always go back to good old Big Game. Tough, reliable and cheap.

Not heard of the venue but be warned that surface fishing is rarely succesful over here. I have tried it many times in various venue's and even fed floating pellet to the carp in my own lake (the ducks ate most of them ) but unless the venue is overstocked with pasties bottom fishing is vastly more succesful.

Been using flurocarbon hooklinks for all my fishing over here in France for close on 5 years now. I always use the grinner and have never had a problem. The important thing is the choice of line as many flurocarbons tend to be very unreliable (Berkeley Vanish in particular) so I have been on X. line and rate it very highly.

I take it you are looking for a venue with a house or such like for exclusive use......in this case your best best will be one of Tony Millers venues. www.millersfrenchcarpandcats.com

Your current reels will be absolutely fine for the lake you are fishing. Our lake is 15 acres and reels like the 8000 are used by a great many of our anglers and they never consider they are at a disadvantage. My only reason for changing from my own 8000GTE reels for French fishing was the much better clutch on my Longcasts. Have good time !!

Hi Budgie, we are in Indre.....thats 100 miles north of Limoges at the botton of the Loire valley.

Had 3 ballista's a few years ago and had one shatter first time out. Very through action so nice to play carp on but not great casting tools. I now have Ng's and feel they are in a different class to the Ballista's. Lovely soft tip to avoid hook pulls but lots of power in the middle for distance casting.The blanks for the Ballista's appear to be quite thin walled and are left unground to give extra strength whereas the Century blanks are low diameter but thick walled giving far great all round strength. Having said that plenty of my visiting anglers use Ballista's and are very happy with them!!

That applies to pasties but not to carp over 6 kilo's or so. Small 1 or 2 year carp are of little commercial value and if bought at all will fetch only about 1-2 euro's per kilo.

Hi GH, no critisism intended however carp as thin as those in your pictures are so far removed from the norm for healthy carp that I can only assume that lack of nourishment is the cause. As said by another poster it could be that certain fish are suffering from a parasites or some other problem but most certainly they are not a specific strain of carp but suffering for whatever reason from malnourishment. Obviously that is only my opinion. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.

The fish in the picture looks like a very, very underfed Galician/common cross. Also looks like it has vitamin deficiency causing blindness. If the lake has been stocked with young farmed carp the original 'wild' carp will be a lot older and will not be able to compete for food with the younger, more vigorous farmed carp. Seems to me that the lake owner could do with feeding with a quality carp pellet to ensure that desease doesn't set in in the spring. Sorry to seem a bit negative but it saddens me to see such a poorly conditioned carp.

A lot of good and interesting advice given but one point often overlooked is how water temperature effects the feeding process of the carp. It is common practise when we are feeding our lakes that water temperature really dictates how much pellet we put in at any given time. Below 15c the carp become far less active and consequently require less food for energy whereas at the other end of things when we have water temperature in the mid 20's the carp are likely to be feeding hard throughout the day/night so food is in great demand. When I am fishing the water temperature is often my first check before I decide how much/type of bait to use. A further point is that in cold water conditions the nutritional requirements of carp differs from those in warm water with a much higher carbohydrate requirement and far less protein than in warm water. The good quality fishmeal boilie that scores well in the summer may not be the best choice for winter fishing. It was noticeable at our fishery that in the past couple of weeks, as water temperature has been dropping, the good old shelf life pineapple pop up has outscored the usual hnv boilies that do the business in the summer.

La Horre is a cracking water with some great fish but they need to be earned. I have heard on the grapevine that next year will be the last for La Horre as a fishery....in 2009 it is to be returned to a nature reserve. Some Dutch anglers fishing my water a few weeks ago are regulars at Le Horre and apparenty were told on their last visit there. A great loss but the fish will be removed by the French fish farmer owner and put into another lake so that should be interesting.