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River Rhone Result For Roman!
Mainline carper, Roman Buczynski has been in contact with this report following an interesting session along the banks of the River Rhone. Over to Roman to take up the story..."The objective of the session was to try and latch into a 50lb plus river fish. Basically trying to connect with one of the big pre-spawning river females, which tend to group-up at this time of year. Originally I was planning to hit the Grand Rhone, however due to higher levels of snow fall in the Alps this winter (which was evident from the sky as I flew into France) the snow meltwater was keeping the main river temperature slightly lower than is usually anticipated for the year.
Not dissuaded myself and my french fishing partner began our recce's. Starting immediately by vehicle to visit various known spawning areas that historically have been known for fish to visit. However, as experienced anglers all know, the fluvial movements of rivers change the topography annually, so no area is the same year in year out.
The initial recces and weather reports indicated that things would be tough for the first few days especially with 80km plus Mistral winds that would make accessing some areas very dangerous. So the first night we settled on a known area that always holds fish.
An uneventful night catching-up on 36hrs missed sleep, found us loading the boat on the roof and making tracks again and much was the same for the preceding 4 nights. Which found us only catching one fish! It seemed that on the stretch of river we had now zoned in on, we seemed to be about a day behind the fish/500m as they migrated to the area they wanted to be in.
Finally another midday recce in 25 degree blazing sunshine, gently cruising in the boat we found the fish. A huge group of fish spread across a large area of shallow water. A mixture of males and huge females. With many fish over the benchmark 20kg mark as well a couple of submarines we estimated on or near the 30kg mark.
We spent an hour or so watching these fish and rushed back for our fifth move of the session. It didn't take long for us to catch and we were in for a busy night with fish to over 40lbs. With a few lost fish as the fish ripped off over the shallow rocks cutting us off immediately. Again at 09:00 the fish had moved and we pushed a few more hours out, before we moved again. On this new area we were catching the carp no further than a metre from the bank on glowing spots that had been fed on heavily. Fish to low forties with no big girls to show.
The last day found us back on the Grand Rhone to try and nick a bite off a snaggy town centre stretch that holds resident fish to over the sweet sixties. We fished into dark until reluctantly we wound the rods in before we attracted any unwanted attention. I flew home the next morning, with the first few minutes of the flight following the route northwards over the river course that I have become so fond of over the last few years.
Bait for the trip was a mixture of gear from Mainline that I flew out with (I remember being stood in baggage drop off at the airport in the early hours with 30kg of Hybrid boilies smelling from my bag.)
We didn't latch into any of the big girls, but again the trips are seldom wasted and the information gleaned from this trip will pay dividends for future trips. The fish I saw have truly opened my eyes on the possibilities of this river. Now back in the UK, trying to catch up on a weeks missed sleep and nursing the cuts from brambles and sticks. I am raring to go back to get myself a lump."
