Tel: (France) 0033555534844 How to Get There.
Contact : Tony Morrell
Four hundred and twenty miles, it may sound like an awfully long way to go but when you think about what’s at stake, its nothing. Its six hours, its four football matches, its twelve episodes of Eastenders, it’s a quarter of one day, its…not an awful long time at all, and you to can experience some of the best Carp fishing you’re ever likely to know.
Situated just twenty miles from the large town of Limogues in a beautifully picturesque region of France known as the Limosin. An area which has over four and a half thousand registered lakes and ponds. You can’t look anywhere without tripping over one. The main usage of all these waters is for fish farming, this means that the region produces some fantastically proportioned and conditioned fish.
Owned and superbly maintained by English Carp anglers, the waters are breathtaking. The smallest and first pond is in a tiny remote little village called Chalivat. All major roads and thoroughfares are a good fifteen minute drive away so the peaceful surroundings and quiet remain continually uninterrupted throughout the year, with the only exclusion being the frequent and high pitched scream of a bite detector signalling another take!.
There are now three lakes, the original lake of about three and a half acres with a stock consisting of around two hundred and fifty fish, over two hundred twenties and nearly fifty thirties! the rest, a small handful are all between fifteen and twenty. These small few are growing fast and are in a race to hit the twenty mark before they get caught and moved to one of the other ponds!. With a massive average growth rate there are also around half a dozen which are well into the fourties. A huge selection of the fish we’ve caught from this incredible water can be seen in the gallery (link at bottom of page, or through gallery menu on main page). The numbers of fish caught in a week ‘record’ is being bust week after week. We fished the first week the complex was open in April 99’ and caught fifty three carp between four of us including no less than thirty five twenty pounders. Considering we all had previous personal bests in the high teens before we went we were all over the moon. The catch was topped off by a single thirty, which made the elusive weight buy a mere three ounces. The four of us left vowing to come back and reap the rewards of fishing we could only dream of in England.
Since this time the records of fish caught have been phenomenal, with one man fishing evenings and nights only, having sixty three fish in a week!! Including several thirties. In the last few weeks since my writing the ‘record’ has gone once more, two anglers having eighty two fish including ten thirties in one week!! Reading through the comments book and fishing diary at the lake you can really begin to appreciate the incredible numbers of fish that this place produces with an almost alarming regularity.
Last season began with an average of one or two thirties a week and reaching at least three times that by the end.
You can see for yourselves the catch stats for the trips that we’ve organised over here. I’ve now been four times in the space of twelve months and will be planning several new trips over the coming year!
After the original trip in April 99’ organised by my father I decided I should sort out one for a load of my fishing mates and we’ve never looked back. The serenity of the setting and the relaxed atmosphere are incredible. Tony the owner can cook meals for you at a marginal cost and believe me its worth it. For the sake of winding your rods in twice a day and missing out on a bit of fishing its more than a fair exchange. Everyone I’ve ever taken has been amazed at the meals produced, Tony really does the biz for you while you’re there. Tony’s a great laugh and there’s plenty to be learned about the fish and the pond and how to catch, you’ve just got to be willing to listen.
The house and facility is kitted out with English toilet (nice one) shower and all usual amenities (and plenty others!) and you can organise with Tony in advance of your stay whether you want to bivvy up or make use of his house. The house will sleep six and there’ll still be room on the pond for you to all fish. We had a brilliant time during all our visits and have all caught personal bests on numerous occasions.
The house is right along side the edge of the pond and the porch goes right up to the edge, so you can watch what’s crashing out in your swim while you’re eating you’re dinner! The pond is around three hundred yards long and about eighty yards wide at its widest, at the dam end. The water depth changes all over from twelve or so feet a rod length off the dam to about three feet or less up by the small island in the shallows at the far end. Trees run the whole length of the house side of the lake providing excellent shelter for the fish to congregate under so fishing is often good from the other side casting to the over hanging trees. Gravel runs under the tree line and out into the lake for some yards, it can be very shallow tight in under the trees but this certainly doesn’t put them off feeding. They can be seen crashing out under the trees hour after hour in the afternoons and through the night. The huge volume of fish means they are visible clearly from dawn to dusk and you can hear massive fish throwing themselves out continually. When the fish really get down to some feeding the whole place turns into a cauldron of fizzing and bubbling, if you’ve never seen a patch on the surface fifty feet square bubbling like a Jacuzzi then you don’t know what you’re missing. The view is something I’ve never witnessed anywhere else, considering the depth of the water the disturbance on the top is unbelievable. Its somewhere that sees so few people walking around or noise that from out of nowhere fish will leap out at your feet, the amount of fish we caught from casting to these leaping beasties is fantastic, with more taking than not!
So, get yourself off down to Tony’s the place is extraordinary, you won’t find any where with this volume of fish in such a pond and all of incredible sizes, the average weight from our first trip was twenty two pounds, the average twelve months later after a year of heavy feeding ( and being fed by Tony in the winter ) was twenty seven and a half! I had a fantastic weeks fishing during some terrible weather and got thoroughly soaked but, then again you can’t help the weather and its like that week in week out over here! You can expect to get a real suntan even at the beginning of april, and in February I was stood playing a fish in only t-shirt and shorts at two in the morning and didn’t feel cold at all, it can be brilliant there and get incredibly hot with temperatures in the eightys and ninetys not uncommon at all.
If you want some very competitively priced fishing in unparalleled surroundings with great company and fantastic fish then this is the place for you, you can call Tony to book up, or for a chat about the place on TEL: 0033555534844 (france, don’t worry it will be answered by an english person!) and don’t forget to mention where you found out about it!!!
Anyway hope you catch a few!
Jut & Andy (CarpSlags)…..
