Four anglers on the lake this week for what was going to prove to be a challenging session, the end result was not fantastic but it was a 150% improvement on their last visit. Like all groups they would have liked to have found one or two more but in the end they had to settle for what is a very respectable catch : 17 Big Carp to 54lb Although not massive in number The Boys did find some stonking fish and those 17 big carp weighed in at over 736lb with an average weight of over 43lb, I reckon that is a great session by most measures. Ashley and his better half Jeanette were here for their firs ..read more

My season started yesterday with the arrival of a group of 5, only 4 fishing and 3 have been before, hopefully they will have a good session, I will let you know how they get on next weekend. Meanwhile Simon has been over from the UK for 6 days for a pre-season-tester, he brought his good friend Jamie along for the ride, my hope was that they would provide an indication of how the season was going to start. If you have been reading my winter SITREPs you will know just how bad the weather has been for the last several months, and it did not improve this week, it was going to take a monumental e ..read more

I hope you are all enjoying a nice Easter break, we are trying to use it as an excuse to do less than normal but I am not sure it is working out that well. I have normally got all of my pre-season jobs done by now and waiting for our first guests to arrive but the weather has been so bad this year that we are behind schedule. The weather for the last 3 months has varied between showers and torrential downpours, I can count the number of dry days so far in 2024 on one hand and still get change from 5 fingers, we are saturated !!!! This shot of one of my tracks gives you an idea of the state we ..read more

We had to say goodbye to the last of our cats yesterday, Red. Red had been poorly for some considerable time with a whole variety of problems, generally attributed to old-age, after all he did manage nearly 18 years. Red goes by many different names depending on what mood either of us are in and what he is getting up to at the time; Red, Redmond, Ginger Minger, Little Man, but my favourite has always been Squinty, it is a rare day when anyone saw Squinty with his eyes fully open. Despite being a small cat he was ferocious and another one of his nicknames was Killer, if it had 4 legs and was f ..read more

The good weather that we ended January with did not continue as I had hoped, it has been very mild but once again we have had an abundance of rain in between the good stuff, and as I write this there is so much water entering the lake that it is actually in flood The changes in the climate continue to be quite obvious, January was officially the wettest but warmest ever, and once the stats are gathered and compiled I feel sure that February will also break a whole load of rain-fall and temperature records. It is that time of year when I am making sure that everything is done around the lake fo ..read more

Well, the mad flurry of activity around the opening of the 2026 calendar on new year’s day was quickly sorted and then life reverted to a more normal winter-tempo: SLOW. Typical of January it has been dark and wet so work has been predominantly based around decorating, and I must say I have caught up with a few jobs around the house, some of which I have been putting off for years. The weather has been atrocious, storm after storm after storm, the first 3 weeks of the month were a bit of a write-off to say the least so I had to take advantage of every dry spell. Thankfully the last week has se ..read more

Most of you will know that I traditionally supply two flavours of boilie in two different sizes, Hotspice and Calamar King, both in 15mm and 20mm. This takes up a lot of freezer space and forces me to plan a long time in advance to ensure that I have the correct stock in place to meet your orders. Most of you will also know that for the last few years it has been my intention to combine the two in to one and remove the need for pre-ordering. Welcome to French Crab: French Crab is fishmeal based with loads of of hidden tastes that leak out over a period of time and in all conditions making thi ..read more

The calendar for 2026 opened on New Year’s Day and as expected it was a manic session, I was inundated with enquiries and it took me the best part of the day to wade through them all. I really do hate having to disappoint people which is why I apply rules to the process and I apply those rules as fairly as I can. Unfortunately there are some very popular periods in the world of carp fishing and when I receive multiple applications for the same weeks then it stands to reason that some of you had to miss out. To those of you whom I have been unable to accommodate I do apologise, and all I can sa ..read more

Here’s hoping that Santa was good to you all and everyone had a very merry Xmas and that you are all looking forward to a great New Year. Helen and I have had a bit of slow-down-time since the end of the season, our list of things to do remains as long but we made a conscious decision to do one thing per day, we have also managed to control ourselves and ensure that we are only working outside when the weather is good and inside when the weather is bad. So far it has worked out well and I have spent most of my time catching up on the decorating, purely because the weather really has been that ..read more

I know that many of you are waiting for the 2026 calendar to open simply from the number of inquiries that I am receiving, and believe it or not I am already getting inquiries for 2027. To clarify the situation the 2026 calendar will open at midnight on the 31st December/1st of January. That will be from midnight central european time as the new year arrives in France, or 2300hrs UK time on the 31st of December. I am always inundated with applications, many of which will be for the same weeks, so I have no choice other than to apply some rules, and I must confess that I rely on my computer to ..read more