Etang de Planchon - Catch Reports 2011

Week 25 saw Rob & Emma from Preston here for a long weekend and it also saw the arrival of Mack & Alfie Hope from Staines.

Mack & Alfie were very laid back over the week, very easy going and were itching to get on the lake.
They fished Buzzard and Hawk on the left side of the lake and were keen to get in the action.
Between them they managed to land 24 fish, but they lost 5 fish each over the week.
They made a few rig adjustments along the way.
It seems the fish were having a smart week and doing what they could to not make a visit to the banks of the lake as you will see from Robs report further down.

Mack and Alfie caught on Trigga, DVB Skunk & Plum, DVB N-tice & DVB Skunk & plum all topped with fake corn.

Mack landed 14 fish over the week totalling 314 lb 6oz, his biggest was 34 lb.
His catches were: 34lb, 30.8lb, 27.10lb, 25lb, 23.2lb, 21.6lb, 21lb, 20lb, 19.6lb, 19.4lb, 18.8lb, 18.6lb, 18.4lb & 18lb, .

Alfie landed 10 fish over the week totalling 226 lb, his biggest was 28 lb 2 oz.
His catches were: 28.2lb, 28lb, 23.4lb, 23.2lb, 2 x 22.2lb, 22lb, 20.4lb, 20lb & 17lb.

Mack has booked his return for April next year and Alfie may well be joining him.

Rob & Emma arrived Friday afternoon and left Monday afternoon, Rob fished 3 rods for the weekend and the plan was to let Emma catch a few of his carp (after he had caught the first few that is).
Both Rob and Emma fish so they were both looking forward to landing a few.
Rob started the weekend off well with his first 3 fish falling to 3 pieces of fake corn over a small bed of pellet. After his good start he, unfortunately, managed to lose 11 fish, 3 of which were lost by Emma.
Rob decided on a change of tactics and removed his KD rigs and went for blowback & simple rigs, this worked in his favour and he landed another 6 fish before he left. They were caught on Trigga, Trigga & fake corn and Scopex and fake corn.

Robs total catch for the weekend was 9 fish totalling 205 lb 10 oz, his biggest was a 29 lb 10 oz common.
These were his catches: 29.10lb, 2 x 26.8lb, 26lb, 23lb, 19.8lb, 18.6lb, 18.2lb & 18lb.

Rob & Emma have already booked 2 more trips for next year, both a long weekend and a full week.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a few pics:

Week 26 saw the arrival of Peter Creasey, Stuart game and his 2 sons Nick & Jon from Wiltshire.

All four guys were fishing virtually the same methods, Jon & Nick had not been carp fishing for a while and their PB’s in the UK were around the 10 lb mark.
This was Jon & Nicks first fishing trip in France, but Peter and Stuart were regulars.

Stuart helped his 2 sons set up initially, showing them how to set up their rigs and what to bait up with.

Peter and Stuart were quite competitive; from the time they arrived there was banter about who will have the biggest and who will have the most.

The fish were not playing ball this week, whether it was the weather changing (hot during the day and cold at night), the full moon or pressure change, who knows? But this meant that 3 of the guys catch numbers were low.

Peter landed both the most and the largest of the week, Stuarts 2 sons managed to beat their dad in both more and bigger fish. Stuart of course claims he had to let his sons do better than him so as to give them the bug for carp fishing.

Here is how they did:

Peter Landed 19 fish using a mix of bottom baits, pop ups and fake corn. His total weight was 420 lb 12 oz and his biggest was 30 lb.
His catches were 30lb, 28lb, 27.14lb, 27.12lb, 25lb, 23.8lb, 23lb, 22.8lb, 22.6lb, 21.2lb, 21lb, 20.2lb, 20lb, 19.8lb, 18.4lb, 18.2lb, 18lb, 17.10lb & 17lb.

Nick landed 6 fish using N-tice, sweetcorn and tutti boilies topped with pop ups or fake corn. His total weight was and 133 lb 8 oz and his biggest fish was 28lb.
His catches were: 28lb, 27.8lb, 22.8lb, 19lb, 18.8lb & 18lb.

Jon landed 5 fish using boilies topped with pop ups or fake corn. His total weight was and 106 lb 8 oz and his biggest fish was 27lb.
His catches were: 27lb, 23lb, 21lb, 20lb & 15.8lb

Stuart landed 4 fish using Stinky fish boilies and sweetcorn boilies, he said he wont hear the last of this, in fact he was sure he was going to hear about it, from his sons, all the way home
His total weight was and 89 lb and his biggest fish was 25.8lb.
His catches were: 25.8lb, 23.8lb & 2 x 20lb.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a few pics:

Week 27 saw the arrival of David Morley for 1 day, Harry Goulding from Coulsdon and Mike Crawford from Chessington, for a couple of days.

David has a holiday home locally and decided he might try his hand at fishing for some French carp, David fished only for 1 day but managed to land himself a 20 lb 6 oz Mirror.
He was happy with his day and I look forward to seeing him again.

Harry and Mike fished for three days, they fished on opposite sides of the lake and Mike did not fish the nights.
Unfortunately Mike didn’t catch, Harry managed to land 4 carp while fishing on 2 rods, 3 of which beat his current PB.
They were 23.10lb, 21.12lb, 19.14lb & 17.14lb.

Harry & Mike plan on coming back next year but doing a full week with a few others in tow.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a couple of pics:

Week 28 & 29 saw the arrival of John Rathbone & Geoff Busby, from Birmingham, for a long weekend (4 days) fishing trip. John’s wife had purchased the trip, for him and his mate Geoff, as one of his 40th birthday presents.
John and Geoff had never fished France before and were looking forward to getting some French carp on the bank.
When they arrived Geoff said how lucky John was when it comes to everything, including fishing, no surprise then that his 1st night and early morning he managed to land 3 fish, 2 of which were 30’s.
The 4 days were very hot, even reaching 31 degrees 1 day, they still managed to land 9 carp between them, the biggest being Johns 30’s at 30.08 lb & 34lb.
Here’s what they caught.
John caught 6 fish totalling 156 lb 3 oz, they were: 34lb, 30.8lb, 28lb, 22lb, 21.14lb & 20lb.
Geoff caught 3 fish totalling 58 lb 10 oz, they were: 21.2lb, 20.4lb & 17.4lb.

The weekend also saw the arrival of 2 guys who live about an hour away from Etang de Planchon, they came to do a 48 hour session.
Iain & Jean-Jacques managed to land 4 fish between them.
Jean-Jacques caught 2 and they were 24.4lb & 22.8lb, Iain also caught 2 and they were 19.12lb & 16.8lb.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a couple of pics:

The Full Monty at Etang de Planchon

Week 30 saw the arrival of Mark Trippett aka Trip, Mark Crawshaw, Tom Burns and Wim Snape from Sheffield.

Wim Snape, now 26 years old is most famously known for starring in the “Full Monty” as Nathan (13 yrs old), the son of Robert Carlisle in the film. Since the Full Monty, Wim has appeared in “Emmerdale” over 6 months, a number of episodes of “Heartbeat” over the years,” Holby City” and “Doctors”.

The week was the most active one fishing wise since the lake opened in March this year.
A fantastic time was had by all with some great banter, laughs to the point some of us got a belly ache (Wim and his imitation accents are to blame for that one and Trip and his numerous costume changes).

The number of fish caught in a week by any one group was broken this week, with a total catch of 107 fish.
Trip broke the record for catching the most commons and was well on his way to breaking the record for catching the most fish by any one angler in a week, however, circumstances arose on the last night to hinder his efforts, it comes in glass bottles and it is red.
I do believe Trip slept well that night.
The current record to date is 56 fish and Trip caught 52 fish (so so so close).

Mark Crawshaw did add to the groups catch but spent most of his week taking some cracking photos of the lake and surroundings. Mark said he loved Etang de Planchon because it was an ideal place for photographs as he is a budding photographer.
You can see some of Marks pictures on the Etang de Planchon facebook page, and also you can see some of Marks work on his Mark Crawshaws photography facebook page.

In total the group caught 107 Carp totalling 2457 lb 14 oz, of which 4 were 30’s and 16 were commons.

Here’s how they did individually.
Mark Trippett (Trip) fished mainly on Sticky vortex, mixing it up with fake corn, Proper Job pop ups or just as a bottom bait. He used blowback rigs with an in line running lead.
He managed to land 52 fish totalling 1211 lb 8 oz and his catches were:
34lb, 30.2lb, 29.14lb, 29lb, 28.14lb, 24.8lb, 28lb, 27.12lb, 27lb, 26.14lb, 26.10lb, 26.2lb, 26lb, 25lb, 3 x24.6lb, 2 x 24.4lb, 24.2lb, 2 x 24lb, 2 x 23.10lb, 23.8lb, 23.6lb, 2 x 23lb, 22.4lb, 4 x 22lb, 21.14lb, 21.10lb, 21.8lb, 21.6lb, 4 x 21lb, 20.6lb, 2 x 20lb, 19.10lb, 19.8lb, 19.2lb, 19lb, 18lb, 17.2lb, 16.2lb, & 14.10lb
Well done Trip

Tom Burns fished much the same, using sticky Vortex with or without fake corn.
He managed to land 26 fish totalling 640 lb 2 oz and his catches were:
31lb, 29.10lb, 4 x 27lb, 26.8lb, 4 x 26lb, 2 x 25.8lb, 2 x 25lb, 2 x 24lb, 2 x 23lb, 2 x 22lb, 3 x 21lb, 20lb & 19lb.

Wim again fished much the same style, again using sticky baits.
He managed to land 21 fish totalling 434 lb 16 oz and his catches were:
31lb, 26lb, 24.8lb, 24lb, 23lb, 4 x 22lb, 21.8lb, 21lb, 19.8lb, 19lb, 3 x 18.8lb, 18.4lb, 17.4lb, 16lb & 2 x 15lb.

Mark did fish a little and he fished the same as Trip.
He managed to land 8 fish totalling 171 lb 12 oz and his catches were:
29.2lb, 23.2lb, 22.8lb, 2 x 22lb, 18.12lb, 18lb & 16.4lb.

The lake has been quiet since they left and the dogs are missing the pampering.
I look forward to seeing them all again next year.

Well done guys and thanks for a cracking laugh.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a few pics:

The final week of a great first season at Etang de Planchon.

A big thank you goes out to everyone that came to Etang de Planchon this year, I hope you all enjoyed your time here as much as I enjoyed you all being here.

Week 32 saw the arrival of William Clement de Grand Prey, Matthew Lower, Tristan Parsons and Benjamin Davidson from East Sussex.

The previous week there was no one fishing the lake so the fish were fed each day until the day before the guys arrived, when they did arrive the lake was buzzing with lots of fizzing all over the lake, which made it difficult for the guys to decide between themselves as to which swims they wanted.
They all decided on lady luck and having paired up ready to go each side they decided the toss of a coin would make the final decision on which side they would fish.

Will & Ben ended up on the right of the lake and opted for Owl & Harrier, while Matt and Tristan ended up on the left and opted for Buzzard and Kestrel. There was no rivalry between the guys, or so I was led to believe, but in the words of Will in his parting comments in our visitors book it was ‘Game on’.

The guys had come prepared and brought some bait with them but they had all ordered some cooked maize and Will also decided to start with some cooked hemp.

Between the 4 guys they managed to land 78 fish totalling 1786 lb 2 oz, a good catch for the week, and there were a few whispers from will that he didn’t record all of his fish because he forgot (likely story).

They even managed an impromptu close range boilie fight.



So here’s how they fished.

Matt fished Buzzard and caught the most fish for the week, 30 fish totalling 673 lb 4 oz, his biggest was 33lb.
The majority of his fish were caught on Grange and Corn.
This is what he caught: 33 lb, 29.8lb, 28.8lb, 26.6lb, 26.2lb, 26lb, 24.10lb, 2 x 24.8lb, 24.6lb, 23.10lb, 2 x 23.2lb, 23lb, 22.8lb, 22.6lb, 22lb, 21.2lb, 20.10lb, 20.6lb, 19.14lb, 19.10lb, 19.8lb, 19.4lb, 19.2lb, 18.10lb, 18lb, 17.10lb, 16.4lb & 16lb.

Ben fished Owl and caught 13 fish totalling 289 lb 10 oz, his biggest fish was the largest for the week at 35 lb 2 oz.
The majority of his fish were caught on Trigga topped with fake corn.
This is what he caught: 35.2lb, 29.2lb, 28.4lb, 25.2lb, 25lb, 23.10lb, 21.6lb, 20.2lb, 20lb, 19lb, 18.10lb, 17.4lb & 16lb.

Tristan fished Kestrel and caught 22 fish totalling 514 lb, his biggest fish was a 31 lb common that he caught twice within a matter of days.
The majority of his fish were caught on corn or Grange.
This is what he caught: 2 x 31lb, 27.10lb, 27.6lb, 2 x 25.8lb, 25.4lb, 25.2lb, 24.10lb, 24.8lb, 24.6lb, 24.2lb, 24lb, 23.6lb, 22.14lb, 21.2lb, 19.10lb, 2 x 18.8lb, 18.4lb, 16.4lb & 15.8lb.

Will fished harrier and caught 13 fish totalling 300 lb 4 oz, his biggest for the week was 29 lb 10 oz.
The majority of his catches were on DVB N-Tice topped with green corn.
This is what he caught: 29.10lb, 29.8lb, 26.2lb, 24.2lb, 23.4lb, 22.2lb, 3 x 22lb, 21.6lb, 21lb, 20lb & 17.2lb.

A big thank you again to everyone who graced the banks of Etang de Planchon this year and also for all the support I have had from all of you this year.

I look forward to seeing most of you next year.

Check out the catch reports & photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/catch.htm

Check out the gallery photos here: www.carp-fishinginfrance.com/gallery_catch.htm

Here are a few pics: