As I sat staring at my computer screen the minutes seemed to take hours to pass, as today was the day that I’d been dreaming of for months. Today I was leaving blighty behind and heading over to the land of frogs legs, garlic & blue and white striped shirts.

The clock finally reached 12:30pm and I was free no more work for 9days. I don’t think I have ever cycled back from work as quick as I did today, nothing was going to stop me buses, red lights they never stood a chance.

Chris was picking me up at 4pm but knowing him all to well this was likely to be around 2:30pm! It was a good job the majority of my gear & food was already sorted the night before and all I need to do was grab a few of the last minute essentials and I was ready for the big adventure.

As expected Chris rang and asked if I was ready yet? It was around 2:40pm and I could tell from his tone he was just as excited as I was. So with all my gear loaded in his car we set off back to his to load it all up properly. 20minnutes later everything was loaded and with room to spare too, a removal man would have been impressed with the way we had packed the car.

Chris said his goodbyes to his wife and little ‘un and we were off to meet Tom & Nick, then with Tom & Nick in tow we headed off to the services to meet the rest of the lads. As we pulled into the services all the others were already waiting for us and with handshakes all round and introductions made as I have not met Andy and his son Matt before and a Burger king meal to fill the empty stomach we were on our way to Dover.

We were due to take the 2am crossing but we arrived way before that and managed to sneak on to the earlier 12pm crossing. The 2hour crossing seemed to fly by and with a bit of grub and a few bottles of cider along with the customary Carp stories swapped we were docking into Dunkerque.


The next part of the journey was the toughest as I’d never been one for long car journeys and this was going to be a long one! It was dark for the first part of the journey so there wasn’t a lot to look at but with the I pod and a few cans of red bull and a couple of pitt stops along the way we made it to Lac Desire fro around 8am.

We weren’t allowed on to the lake until 12pm so with the day getting ever warmer we basked in the glorious French sunshine until Andy the owner came to fetch us. We all sat down in the shade and were supplied with ice cool drinks which were very much needed as the temperature was now up to 31oC. The rules were explained to us, all of which were fair and sensible and then we had a tour of the lake and back to the shade and more cool drinks and the most important part, the draw!.

There were 8 of us, so 8 numbers went in to the hat and to my surprise I came out 3rd and opted for my second choice of swim number 8, the others all selected there areas and we set about unloading the mountains of gear and bait we had.



I had planned to get everything sorted before even thinking of setting the rods up but as I was sorting the bivvy out a Carp crashed out in the middle of my swim. Now that my plan out the window as I scrambled round putting a rod together and I soon had a bait in the area the fish had shown.

The rest of the afternoon was spent plastering on the sun tan lotion as the temperature soared to 34oC and getting everything set up in the swim. Nothing had occurred on the rod I had put out to the showing fish so I reeled in readiness to have a good marker round my swim. As I skipped the rig in it became obvious that there was no bait left on the hair and this was to be my first but unfortunately not my last experience of the dreaded poisson chat!.

The next hour was spent exploring the water in front of me and it soon became apparent that the deepest part of my swim was only 3.5ft deep. I decided on fishing 2 rods along the far tree lined margin that I was sure the carp would use as a patrol route. The third and final rod was put in my right hand margin under some inviting overhanging trees. All 3 areas were treated to a liberal helping of Vision baits Ocean protein 18mm hydro boilies with the help of the catapult and throwing stick.

With everything sorted I sat back and enjoyed the beautiful French sunshine for the rest of the afternoon, nothing much occurred to any of us apart from it becoming obvious there were a lot of Carp in front of Chris & Andy. The evening soon drew in and we enjoyed a fantastic BBQ on the open fire pit and a few beers but before long everyone was ready for bed after a long exhausting day.

The night passed off fairly quiet apart from the odd bleep here and there that I put down to the poisson chat although the margin rod had seen the most attention so I decided to check it, and there sure enough was my first poisson chat impaled on my size 6 long shank, he was quickly released and I went for a chat with Andy & Chris who were both up.



It turned out that nothing had been caught yet but there was a lot of carp activity in front of Neil, Ben, Chris & Andy. As the morning progressed the sky darkened and it soon turned black and I was treated to my first French thunder storm. The rain lashed down for at least 2 hours and as the storm abated the lake surface was literally steaming the water was that warm.



Another storm soon passed over and Chris had the first run of the session that he unfortunately lost due to a hook pull. As the rain still came down into the evening I decided on a early night as we had booked breakfast for 9am the following morning.

During the night the first fish of the trip were landed a 17lb Common and a 23lb Mirror to Chris & Andy respectively. A massive fry up was devoured in the morning sunshine but the forecasters had predicted more rain and a drop in temperature on the way which was good news for the fishing.

As yet I have not seen a single Carp show in the area I’m fishing although there have been a few showing down the far end of the lake just out of casting range typically! . Chris & Andy have continued to catch steadily throughout the day and it’s become apparent they have a lot of fish in front of them. I have seen a few more carp show down the far end of the lake so I decide to reel in and go and try a little stalking, despite there obviously being a few fish down there frustratingly I failed to get a take.

With the night fast approaching I get the rods back out and top the swim, I’ve switched the margin rod to fish out in the open water just of a patch a of weed that I found. We have the biggest BBQ I have ever seen, there is so much meat I think we must have eaten half a pig each!. We stopped up late round the fire pit swapping more Carpy tales and discussing the way we think the session has gone so far.

The 3rd morning of the trip was soon upon us and I was still bite less much to my frustration, although I had been getting constant liners all night as fish were passing though my area. The night was not so quite for a few of the other lads as Chris & Andy continue to catch and Ben has landed the first 30 of the session.

With the others starting to catch and the apparent lack of carp activity in my area I started to become a little anxious and decided that if nothing had happened by the next morning I would make a move down to the far end of the lake where the carp were still crashing. I took the marker rod and found 2 nice areas that I baited quite heavily in readiness for the move the next morning.

With everyone having now caught apart from me & Matt I was secretly hoping that I didn’t catch during the night thus making my decision all the more easier. As darkness descended Nick to my left hooked into a very powerful carp that wiped out two of my lines and that coupled with the fact I’d not seen a Carp in my area for days and the poisson chat still as annoying as ever and my confidence at an all time low I was willing the morning to come round.

As the next morning dawned I opened my eyes and my heart sank immediately, it was hammering it down this was the last thing I needed. So despondently I rolled over and went back to sleep. When I finally woke the rain had eased off and that was that., everything was quickly packed away and carted round to the other end of the lake. Whilst I found moving tough as I was enjoying the banter with the lads ultimately I had come to catch fish and if they wouldn’t come to me then I would have to go to them.

Even as I was setting up in my new area there were carp crashing in front of me and my confidence that was last night shot to pieces was now overflowing and I just knew I’d made the right decision. With everything now ready I flicked two rigs out into the area the carp were showing in and the other on to the area that I had baited the previous day.



My decision to move was soon justified after one of the rods put to the showing fish was away and after a short scrap a dumpy mirror lay at the bottom of my net that weighed 21lb. After a Matt popped round to help with the pictures the fish was slipped back, But the action didn’t stop there as in quick succession I landed Mirrors of 18lb & 24lb and all those hours spent blanking were now a distant memory



It seemed as though the fish had really gone on the munch this afternoon as a text came through that Chris had landed a mind bending 5 30’s and that Neil had landed not one but 2 PB’s in the space of minutes! . The action never stopped there either as my right hand rod went in to meltdown as a fish tried to escape. After a long hard fought battle most of which took place under the rod tip I managed to draw the biggest common I had ever seen over the drawstring and in to the net.

Matt came round again to help with the weighing and the photos and as we hoisted the fish on to the scales the digits shot up to and settled on 33lb 1oz and boy was I chuffed as it was a new PB common. The rest of the afternoon passed quietly and I reeled in and baited up for tonight before going round to join the other lads to catch up on the day’s events.

I was soon itching to get back round to my swim and I got the rods out ready for the night ahead. I lost a fish during the night that snagged me on something. The morning and afternoon passed without much action apart from the odd carp letting me know they were still in the area.

As evening approach I banked two in quick succession a mirror of 23lb and a common of 25lb. The next run came at 1am and as I clambered out of my sleeping bag the rate at which line was being taken from the spool had me slightly nervous about picking the rod up!, nervousness put aside I grabbed the rod and tightened the clutch and leant into whatever was stripping line off my spool. Then everything fell slack whatever was on the end had gone! I wound in to find the rig in perfect working order. Was it one of the lakes giant Catfish that go to well over 100lbs? I guess we’ll never know.

I recast the rod and climbed back into bed still slightly shaking from the experience, the rest of the night passed off quietly so at about 11am I wound in, re-baited and trotted off to have a shower and see the other lads.

I got back to my swim some 4hours later and quickly got the rods out and it seemed the resting of the swim had paid off as within 20 minutes I had an angry mirror in the bottom of my net and it was a good ‘un too as I placed her on the scales the digits settled on a weight of 31lb 10oz and that was my 2nd 30 of the trip, as I released the fish a big shout went up from the other lads and I knew someone had landed one of the lakes bigger inhabitants. As it turned out it was Andy that was the lucky captor of a massive 43lb Mirror, top angling and thoroughly deserved.

As the final evening of the session drew in I had what turned out to be my 8th and final fish of the session which turned out to be a Mirror just over 30lb. The night passed off quietly and it was soon morning and time to pack everything away, we said our goodbyes to Andy & Marie and set off on the long journey home and as the ferry approached the white cliffs of Dover our adventure had come to an end. With over 80 Carp landed and 4 PB’s smashed it sure was a week to remember.

nice one yam yam sounds like you had a good time. get them pics up!!

wont let me add anymore attachments to the post so here are some of the fish

As i said at the time mayyte! good dangling

Nice one Yam, good read!

nice one yam,

lol good read mate.

Ive only been to france once to lac de lesmont and i can so relate to the buzz leading up to the trip, funilly enough i can also relate to the frustations due to lack of fish lol ... as i blanked.

During the day Andy took us to visit lac desire and this was just a few weeks before the first anglers arrived. The lake looked lovely then, just needed to mature a bit. The social area and cabins where all spot on too, what with his hand made seating etc

(i supplied Andy a load of underground cable for there too)

some nice fish mate the move paid off
3 weeks till i go on a work party to bounty work 9 till 4 then fish .im buzzing