Les Telliatts PB's for John Walker! 5th November, 2015

Cygnet Brand Manager, John Walker has been in touch with this story following a success trip to Les Telliatts in France... 

"Nearly two years after booking our trip, the October Trakker/Cygnet jaunt to Les Telliatts in France had actually arrived, all the prep, waiting and scheming was about to come together! Or not… After getting to the lake it was a quick walk round and then the dreaded draw. I’m not normally lucky in these situations and my run of form continued, coming 9th out of ten. Ah well. I slotted in down the unflavoured end of the lake in a swim called ‘The Double’, which after reflecting for a few minutes gave me a lot more water than I initially thought. 

When fishing on the French paylakes, I like to try and establish my spots early. I’m firmly of the belief that the fish are checking you out very early on whilst finishing off last weeks bait. By Monday afternoon most of the previous groups spots should have been cleaned off which (hopefully) means they have to start visiting yours. With this in mind I started to introduce 18mm Cell at a steady rate of 1kg per day on two spots straight away. The Cell is an instantly recognisable food source to carp and catches everywhere I take it. The idea with the steady baiting being to build the spots over the course of seven days, piling loads in to start can instantly kill a swim if you aren’t careful and when you’ve put bait in you can’t take it out. 

All was quiet down my end until Tuesday night, there were a few fish coming out around the lake but nothing to make me think I had got my tactics wrong, I was seeing plenty of evidence that they were in there, just not in front of me! Completely out of the blue at 8pm my left hand rod absolutely melted off and after a heavy but unspectacular fight, my good mate Jerry slipped the net under a rather large carp. After hoisting the fish up onto the mat we got her on the scales for a reading. When the needle settled on 60lb 8oz I was pretty made up, I had just smashed by PB by exactly 8lb! That was the trip made for me, if I didn’t catch another fish I wasn’t overly bothered. I didn’t re cast after that, I stuck another kilo of Cell out with the stick and rested the area for a few hours, flicking the bait out just before midnight. Dale opposite bagged an awesome 55lb mirror half an hour after I had mine but again, we had seen nothing, all the activity being up the other end of the lake. 

Wednesday afternoon came round and whilst baiting up I saw a fish just about break surface down the margin to my left. I had the rod leaning up against the bivvy so quickly dispatched a hookbait in its direction. I had barely turned the Delkim on before the bobbin smacked the rod and it was away! After a proper scrap I slipped the net under a 53lb 8oz mirror, and what a carp! Proper chunk that one. After a few shots, more Cell was dispatched to the spots for the evening and a quiet night followed.

First thing Thursday morning, I just flicking the kettle on and the same rod was away again. This time the fish went absolutely crazy and eventually snagged me tight into the margin on the left. Steady pressure eventually told and she came towards Jerry waiting with the net. I could see the fish as it came over the marginal weed, it was a common and a big one at that. On the scales she went 58lb 8oz, which was a new PB common, I was absolutely over the moon!

That was the end of the action for me, the fish drifted up the middle of the lake for the rest of the week with Thursday and Friday being very quiet. Not that I was bothered! Absolutely awesome session and can’t wait to go back, if we can get on! "