Carp Fishers Abroad Ltd
News from the Lakes
Visit these pages regularly to keep up to date with what's happening at the lakes and the fish that are being caught.
Chalet Lake is now full to the brim again. The new platforms have all been built. The reed beds all dug out. All the carp, grass carp, kois and a dozen catfish put back. Another 100 big carp introduced. A new roof put on the Chalet. More pictures in the Gallery section.
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Hi David.Just to say what a fantastic trip we had at Meillant. The lake has outstanding natural beauty and tranquillity. We all really enjoyed living in the forest for a week and being so close to all the wildlife. The fish stock are a lovely strain of carp and were all big framed and healthy, providing a real battle when hooked. We took just over 2,700 lbs between 5 of us for the week. Highlights included pb mirrors of 36lbs and 51lbs for two members of the team and a 230lb haul in 5hrs fishing for myself. Needless to say we will be back to get some more of that! Awesome place. Photos to follow.
Many thanks
TE
Sept 2013
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Work started at Chalet Lake last week to return this iconic carp fishery back to Division One status again. We have asked our guests what they wanted and now we start the work to deliver.
The Lake was completely drained last week and all of the fish have been removed. The fish we want to keep, which include all the carp which weighed up to 58lbs, four beautiful pet koi carp and about twenty grass carp up to 50lbs have all been put safely in a pond next door where they will spend a large part of the winter before being moved back into Chalet Lake again.
All of the silver fish, which were mostly roach and roach bream hybrids along with all of the catfish, which between them weighed about 8000lbs, have been removed and disposed of. I will restock some cats back in the Spring but am undecided how many to return. I started with the idea we would put a dozen same sex monsters back but am now thinking the number should be just four. Same sex equals no breeding and no repeat of the population explosion that we have seen in recent years. Do I hear Cheering from some of our regulars?
To see more pictures go to the gallery.
Chalet Lake is empty now and will be left empty for a couple of months to let oxygen get into the silt and start to break down some of the organic load that has built up in the last twenty years. If the frost gets into it, so much the better. We will start filling again at Christmas.
The gap left by all the silver fish and cats will mean that the carp will have plenty of natural food and room to grow again. Additionally, anglers bait will be snaffled by carp and not other nuisance fish. This is all really good news. If we can find some properly nice fish, we will introduce some more carp as well. I expect to see the growth rates rocket again next year.
To see more pictures go to the gallery.
A review letter from one of our valued repeat customers…
“As anticipated, the lake didn’t let us down & I never managed to fish any night as 15+ runs every day was more than enough. Clearly the fish were held up in front of the reeds and what we call the ‘Tree Swim’.
John struggled slightly fishing further along the field bank in the shallows. He did however spend a couple of days stalking a good dozen cracking fish out of about 1ft of water in the silty arm in the woods.
It was great fun to watch each explosion when hooked. Waders, strong line and holding his nerve helped.
Tom stopped his focused cat fishing after Tuesday by which point he had caught over a dozen cats, with 10 over the 50lb mark!
The final fish count was well over 110+ Carp, with 43 of them over 30lb and 10 over 40lb. Included in these were 3 Koi (18lb, 22lb and 30lb+). Numerous Grass Carp up to 49lb, Commons and Mirrors upto 45lb. Together with 25 Cat fish, alot of which were caught on Tiger Nuts fished over seed.
I suspect these were simply attacking the fry and picking our baits/lines up by mistake. It always amuses up how you can have a quiet period and then within 5 minutes all four of you can be into fish with multiple runs very much the norm.
Chalet Lake remains one of our favourite venues that we have discovered over the past 25 years which is probably why this was our 7th or 8th trip. Fish are largely immaculate, the setting out of this world, and the rural nature sucks you in every time. A true jewel in ‘Carp Fishers Abroad’ crown.
Its a privilege to walk its banks.”
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Having fished Chalet Lake many times before I had heard a lot about Lake Melliant but never had the opportunity to partake in the action. This year however, I was fortunate enough to have a short window in my diary where a friend and I could get out there and have a short 4 day session on the lake.
After a relatively easy drive down we arrived to see fish crashing all over the lake, patches of bubbles and feeding fish some only 40 yards off the stagings. Anxious to get the rods out the walk around was short and sweet and within the hour we were both fishing.
My first run coming before I’d even got the bivvy up, a 30lb 6oz mirror and from then on the runs never stopped.
Over the 4 days we landed 50 fish between the two of us, including 8 x 30’s and 3 x 40’s, the largest fish being 44lb 14oz.
Whilst I opted to move around and fish different areas, Ant fished his 3 rods in the same spots for the 4 days, all cast out to 40 or so yards, taking 29 of our 50 fish. Given that we had never fished the lake before this was a great result for us. We both fish very different styles, with different approaches and certainly different baits, which just goes to show how fishable this water really is!
A thoroughly enjoyable trip and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet but busy fishing holiday with some quality, hard fishing French carp.
To see more pictures go to the gallery.
When we canvassed all our regular guests last winter about Lake Meillant and what we could do to improve it, the overwhelming response was to change nothing. They loved the fact that when they arrived, there was nobody there, nobody to tell you where to fish, cast and what bait to use. No opposition to squabble with over who has which swims. It is the sort of lake and fishing that I dreamt about forty years ago, long before the ‘circuit’, ‘names’ and ‘branding’ were ever considered to be part of our sport.The lake and surroundings are genuinely stunning, the fish already huge. So we changed nothing but have improved a lot.
All the platforms have been rebuilt and are now huge. Plenty of space to bivvy up on and move around. There are, of course, plenty of places to fish from the bank if you prefer. The bridge over the culvert has been replaced so you can sneak round the back to stalk fish in the shallow water more easily. There is a new platform in the top lake. And we have introduced a lot of new fish this year to make the fishing a bit busier. As a result we have had several reports of parties banking more than a hundred fish with the best almost 60lbs.
We will continue to look for ways of changing nothing and improving a lot.
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Just as we asked our guests last winter how we could improve the fishing and surrounds at Lake Meillant, we did the same exercise for Chalet Lake. Unlike Meillant where the overwhelming response was to change nothing, we have received lots of suggestions on how we could improve Chalet Lake and as a result we will be under taking a major overhaul there this winter. These are our plans.
There are quite a lot of silver fish in the lake which seem to support an ever increasing population of catfish many of which are now huge. Whilst I like a few cats as a bit of variety and extra fun, the numbers are now too high in my view. So we are going to drain the whole lake so that we can sort out all of the fish. The fish we want to keep, all the carp, grass carp, our pet koi, and fifteen big cats (all of the same sex!) will be put into one of the adjoining lakes for a few months while the main lake refills over winter and everything else will be sold off. Anybody wanting to buy catfish between 20-70lbs for stocking in France should get in touch! When the lake refills, we will transfer all the fish back to the main lake again. What this will do is rebalance the fishery to something closer to the Chalet Lake of fifteen years ago, which was an outstanding carp fishery. Removing the silver fish and most of the cats will free up a lot of space and food for the carp to grow even more. When we have assessed the numbers of carp, we will introduce new fish as required. Just to scotch the rumour mongers at the outset, none, repeat none, of the big carp will be removed.
Emptying the lake also gives us other opportunities. The overflow on the dam, which has been leaking at various rates for years will be completely rebuilt and raised to increase the water levels on the lake all year around. This will also help in late season, when evaporation caused by hot summers usually takes a foot or so of water out of the lake. The reed beds on the Chalet bank have grown to considerably larger dimensions that when we started. My favourite swim right at the top of the shallow arm is almost unfishable, so when we drain the lake, we will get in with a machine and dig all the reed beds back to sensible sizes again. At the same time, we will rebuild all of the platforms on the Chalet Bank to give much easier access to the water to make landing and returning fish easier. The higher water levels will help with this as well.
On the far bank, the sunny swim will be opened up again with a low platform partly covering the bank and water to give a large flat area from which to fish. There is another swim to the left of the sunny swim that gives access to the top of the left arm, which is particularly good when the wind blows in there and this will be opened up again.. Finally the swim on the far side of the dam is very productive but the dam wall is usually three feet or so above water level so we will put a small platform there to scramble down onto to make landing and returning fish easier.
What this will all do is return Chalet Lake from being a really good fishery this year, back to an outstanding one in 2014. Watch this space!
We will be going down to start work on the platforms the week beginning August 31 and then doing the drain down in November. If there is anybody out there interested in helping out in return for free fishing then please get in touch via the e mail.
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I just wanted to let you know what a superb week we have just had on Chalet Lake!
We arrived to see the lake full and very coloured but we need not have worried. Our week was nothing short of excellent; we were only a small party but manged to catch over 70 carp between us, up to 51lb. The fish were in excellent condition and the action constant all week from all areas of the lake.
We can’t wait to get back! We have been going to the lake every other year since 2004 and each year it just gets better and better with the fish showing great growth rates.
Please see a couple of photos from this years trip, the biggest being 51lb, a daylight photo. Another of 49 1/2lb was taken during the night time.
To see more pictures go to the gallery.
The revamp at Lake Meillant continues apace. The new platforms on the main lake are all in place. We still have to replace one or two sections of the old walkways which we will do on our next trip down in early June but the main platform areas are now fabulous. We will build new swims in the top lake in June but before doing so, we are awaiting feedback from guests fishing the lake over the next few weeks. There are of course plenty of spots to fish from the bank if you don’t like using the platforms.
The new fish have settled in well and are giving good sport even though conditions have been ridiculously cold and horrid for the last few weeks. Take plenty of bait!
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