If you are going to take the time to read this to the very end you will certainly have several questions in your head, did we write this for our customer? did we pay them to write it or did they receive a week’s free fishing to receive such a good write up?

Well, the answer is no to all of the above. Yes we knew the family had a wonderful time and yes it was a pleasure meeting the whole family and seeing them all have a wonderful time at the lake and in all fairness we didn’t know the unfortunate circumstances as to how they ended up at our lake at 4am in the morning.

That said upon their return to the Uk we did not expect to receive the following write up on facebook, fair to say we were supprised and the detail and all of the compliments.Previously the lake record for the amount of fish landed in one week was By David Talbot, 48 fish in total, there is now a new record of 57 fish within one week.

This is the text from the face book post, you can also see the post on face book together with the catch photos of the 57 fish caught.

Holiday nightmares to amazing red letter session 57 fish landed to over 50lb.

This will be a session to remember forever !!!!!!!

Well we set off on our fish family fishing holiday to France after years of telling the girls how good it is in France and how nice it is we searched for weeks and weeks to find the right place and we found somewhere we thought was going to be perfect, but we would later find out it was about to become a nightmare. I will only post small amounts on this post as it’s a positive read / review of our red letter session.

So as the excitement set in on Friday evening ready to go to France, van was packed we was all in bed struggling to sleep because we could wait to set off and the alarm rung at midnight and we all got up jumped in the van and set off the time flew by as it always does on the way anticipating what was to come what monster we may catch, the time we would spend as a family the laugh and memories that were ahead of us but boy was we about to get a reality check.

So the crossing went as planned and about an hour out from the lake was where all the issues started. Driving along and the dash board lit up like a Christmas tree and we were in limp mode we wasn’t even there and our holiday was in the hands of the van, we got to the services had a look did a bit of research and found out the van is over heating( still to find the issue fully ). We managed to grab a bite to eat some fresh oil after dipping the oil it was like sludge so presumed this would be the issue so grab that and some tools to prepare to do a oil change on the road side of anything happens again. We managed to get back onto the road and get the van out of limp but not knowing when if we would even make it and already making plans to get the van and ourselves home but we made it just about managed to get there slow and steady made the arrival. Upon the arrival things seems good but we was soon to find many many issues with the venue and facility’s to which we couldent stay at the lake and we was there less than 4 hours with problems piling up and piling up to the point we had to leave at this point us and the kids had enough we loaded the van back up at 10 at night and set off on the road thinking our holiday was over, heading back toward Calais to drive as long as we could after our 12 hour journey we had already had just to get back towards home and find a hotel to rest our heads and the kids heads before going home the next morning.

Now here is where the story takes a turn, i messaged as many people who I could think of in my angling that could possibly find me something to still give the kids and partner a holiday and a good friend Lee put some posts about was messaging people at 10pm at night trying to find something and he did Mike from Etang St Pierremont was contacting Lee while I was driving and then I was told to pull over to make arrangements, Mike had a no show and offered us a place this week and his help didn’t stop there he was 5.5 hours from us and he said we can go now this is at 10pm at night he offered us a place to stay if we could make the drive so we did it we made the choice to drive through the middle of the night and get there. We got the snacks and drinks at the ready set the kids to get some sleep and we drove through the night and Mike kept in-touch with us the whole way there keeping each other updated.

We arrive 4am Mike greeted us he had preheated the accommodation ready for our arrival so we could get the kids straight to bed showed us everything we need and offered us an invite up to his seating at his house the next morning, we are so so grateful for this man he had no reason other than the kindness out of his own heart to stay up till 4am to provide us with a place to lay our heads and stay for the week.

The next morning I was up early and walked out to the stunning view of the lake and was watching the carp bubbling and crashing out and Mike came down and invited us up he gave my kids breakfast and gave us coffee and told us all about the lake and facility’s and local areas we could go for supplies as we had nothing with us and no time the previous day for food but Mike made sure we had everything we needed.

Mike was leaving the next day to go back to the uk and he gave me all his tools and things I needed to get my van up and running he didn’t need to but once again he went out his was to help us out, he showed the girls where the cat food and treats were so they could play and feed the cats there were a pleasure to roam around the lake keeping the girls entertained.

There’s everything you could need here from massive carp to pool table to play at the side of the lake with bbq and sun lounger and the caravan to stay in including ac which was a god send on the really hot days you can get away from the heat and chill out and nothing and I mean nothing was too much to ask Mike helped us out from the moment we got there to the moment we left he was amazing and this was just the start to what turned into an amazing adventure begun.

So we went out got supplies and come back and then we got set up for the fishing taking a few pointers from Mike and then my own experience of angling we got a plan together and well did it happen the rods wasn’t even in 2 hours and we was in we had our fish fish and mission completed we set out with no expectations but to have fun and try catch a few fish and we had caught the biggest fish the girls had ever seen and little did we know this was the start of our incredible record breaking session.

The following evening before Mike left for the uk he found out is was my birthday and once again invited us up to his home to have a drink he brought us Prosecco and beer and we sat around with him for hours talking the world to rights and was a pleasure to be in his company and feel so comfortable and just have such a great birthday after everything the previous days it was all behind us and then everything was just becoming amazing this was to be a trip of a lifetime.

We fished through the night and the following days and we worked hard at the fishing while the girls were playing and when we got into fish they would jump on the rods and managed to catch themselves some Tench and myself and my partner was catching carp we started off fishing over small pockets of pellets and boilie with a dumbbell RG boiled over the top of course in squid as I wouldn’t go anywhere in the world without it small hand full of loose offering with the pellet crumbed in half’s.

The session just started becoming better and better we didn’t stop catching we watch catching fish after fish for days catching French pb after French pb my partner catching fish she could only ever imagine the size of resulting in us both catching fish to just over 50lb I mean how often do you go away and catch multiple fish of 50lb of this place is just amazing.

We soon run out of squid hook baits we had chased these fish around for days watching the water every morning and every night watching for fish showing and not introducing much bait just solid bags to these showing fish and this was working for around 4 days then we seems to struggle and the fishing slowed up so we knew we had to make a change we put it down to the hook baits that we had run out of we just couldn’t seem to catch them on coloured baits (maybe in my head or maybe reality).

So we changed up we decided to start sticking some bait in and sticking to spots we found a couple of clay spots and we started putting In parker baits sexy spot mix and chilli hemp and pellet and within 12 hours this was working using tiger nuts topped with maize we started doing fish which resulted in fishing two spots like this two rods in one area and one in another and boy did they start coming in thick and fast. Some point we would net the fish and the next rod was already going off omg this was a session of a life time, and guess what I was with my family we was all together experiencing one of the if not probably the best session I have ever had in France.

The week went past far too quickly and non of us wanted to leave we all had such an amazing time and we are already booking to go back as we had so much fun and honestly Mike is an amazing man you couldn’t ask for a better man to be your host , we are so so appreciative of your generosity and good will during our stay anyone wanting to visit this place get into with Mike at https://www.facebook.com/share/1E93H6Pbdy/?mibextid=wwXIfr.

I have probably missed so much off this amazing story but honestly if you are looking to find a place to take your family in the heart of the country side to relax which is amazingly peaceful and quiet and your own privacy then this is the place to go Mike will and does go above and beyond to make sure you are all looked after.

Mike Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking in my family when we needed it the most.

The total for the week included in the 57 fish landed was below and what an average fish stock this place truly truly had
Tench – 9
Grass carp – 2
Doubles – 3
20s – 7
30s – 22
40s – 12
50s – 2