Early Spring Session with Iggy

After a long period with almost no time to go fishing it finally comes to an end in the shape of
one week fishing in France. It was not a regular fishing trip, no this time I had company from
one of my best friends Koen Machielsen and believe it or not our girlfriends. It all started
when another very good friend and solar team member Wes Lagaert called me with the
question if I’m interested to go fishing at a lake somewhere in Mid France. He had to cancel
his holiday because duty calls at work. It didn’t take long to decide and we were very keen to
fill in. The lake itself was around 5hec, very shallow and most important we had it all to
ourselves. On the domain was a luxury bungalow, big enough to fill in a whole family. Inside
the bungalow everything is present that a modern house had. Normally, not my cup of tea
when I’m off fishing but it convinced our girlfriends to come along.
After a 7 hour drive and some traffic jams around Paris we finally arrived at our destination.
The first impression of the domain in total was mind blowing. With a temperature of 28
degrees, blue sky and a very nice lake it felt like the perfect place to find our piece of mind.
Again it’s something different that I used to do but we have to give it a go. While unpacking
the gear we noticed something in the corner of our eyes. First I thought that I didn’t saw it
well but after staring at the water surface for a while it become very clear that the carp were
spawning. I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. It was only still half April. I wanted to be
certain so I put my hand into the lake just to feel the temperature of the water. There was no
doubt now, it was their time a year.  Courage fell in our shoes but we would still try to make
the best of it. The first night almost nothing happened, so we decided to take a look at the
shallower bays at the back of the lake. The water in general was far from clear but here in the
shallow bays it was a large mud pool due to the presence of carp. We looked at each other
without saying a word and start to set up the gear. The plan was to stalk the carp for a few
hours with single pop up chods. At the end of the afternoon we managed to catch our first
carps this way, but we weren't really convinced of the way they were hooked.
It seemed that this method would not be the key to success. The following afternoon we were
again stalking them in the shallow bays. This time we used the ronnierig with different pop
ups then the day before. We wanna see if color and smell would make any difference. Again
we caught a few fish but did not achieve the desired result. We felt that it contained more.
Also at night when we fished at the bungalow swim we caught some fish up to 15 kg. But yet
again the carp were not properly hooked. Normally the ronnie setup never disappoints me
before. It has something to do with the way they were feeding. Anyway something has to be
adjust because our last 2 bites were also lost. We had to think carefully about how we were
going to solve this situation.
The strategy was to go back at the bays the next morning where we going to test solars new
rig material and the new solar wafters, in particular the red herring. I had poured these wafters
about 2 weeks in advance with the RH max attrax. The thick liquid was sufficiently
withdrawn and smells delicious. The driving force of the wafters was still optimal and doing
their job. It soon became clear that this adjustment was one of gold value. After fifteen
minutes of fishing, the first 40lb mirror is lying on the unhooking mat. We also received
confirmation that the supplied RH / Quench boilies were seriously well accepted by our found
friends. So this was the key that opens the door, regularly leaving some food behind and then
skimming the edges with the RH wafter.
We knew immediately that it was not going to stay with this one fish. In a time span of 5
hours we caught no less than 8 fish including some 40lb mirror carp. We also applied this
technique to the bungalow swim overnight and again not without success. In the early

morning the absolute climax came when I managed to catch one of the top fish on Koens rods
at 53lb. Due to the sudden change in the weather in the form of rain and the halving of the
outside temperature, we decided to just fish from the bungalow for the remaining days,
keeping in mind that the fish would now roam more. The Cuttings were fished and supplied
with more precision. Once again our tactic was the right choice and many fish were piloted
into the net. During the last night it ran so fast that all 6 fishing rods were out in the morning.
Koen finaly caught what he deserves. This time my rod delivered a stunning 49lb mirror.
Speaking of settle the score. Tired but very satisfied, we can look back on a very successful
holiday. We will definitely come back here someday. Keep looking, changing tactics and in
particular, scour the water surface for signs of carp. These are the main rules that made our
session successful.