Bonjour, and welcome!

It seems that every angler in Europe heads for France these days... tell us where you have fished and your experiences there!

I've been a few times

Valdore
Farm Lake
Deux Pierre
Notre Damme

Going to Lesmonts next year

All have been good with the exception of this years trip to Notre Damme, at the time owned by Champagne Carp Tours. I think they have now folded but if anyone is thinking of going here then please listen and DON'T do it

Let me see...

I've fished at:
Gravier du Saule
Les Calleaux
Etang du Rouge
L'tang de L'abbey (near Authon)
L'tang de L'abbey (Champagne region)
Lac D'Orient
Valdore
Goncourt Great Lake
Lac Amance
Lake in the Woods
Lac de Madine
Grosley ser Rilse
Lac de Boux
Domaine de Vallee ( the 120 acre lake, not the 12 acre lake)
Fox Lake
Kingfisher lake
Heron Lake


I'll fill them in as I remember them from here!
Just thought of 3 more, but can't remember their names! lol

mac, what did you think of farm lake mate? we went this year, i loved the place. it was very weedy though, but a lot of fun. biggest i had was 38.12, but one of the lads had a 51 and a few 40s. had quite a few 30s out, really enjoyed it. we are booked on there next year as well, end of may. also been to

valdore
farm lake
village lake
cassien

davec wrote:

mac, what did you think of farm lake mate?

I think it was 2005 when we went mate, 3 of us. We did OK(ish) with all of us bagging a 40 but we didn't really catch the number of fish I was expecting. When we went, me and a mate fished a double swim and there was plenty of stumps in the margins, had a rod near these at night and a few runs but lost fish so fished away from them and the runs slowed down big time. An old(ish) couple were bailiffing there sleeping in a camper van, they couldn't do enough to help us.

It's certainly a place I would consider again

Jaffa can give a lot more info on the place if you want it

its changed a bit then! colin is the ballif now, living on site in a large cabin. he does breakfasts etc as well, which are good. he also does bait, which is very reasonable indeed. i know quite a bit about the place to be honest, having fished it for a week, and with colin being such a sound guy, we did learn a lot. looking forward to going back anyways

I did trips out to Farm lake(then called Stour Valley farm lake) and was baliff there for around 9 months. It was renamed for while after I left and new owners came in to Lac Vert. Do Kevin Benham and A fella called Pete Young still own it?.....Well lease it off Olivier Even?

kind regards Jeff

yes kev does own/lease it off olivier jeff. maybe you can tell me some things about the place then? didnt realise you were ballif there, you must know a lot about it then? there are about 8 50 plus in there now by all accounts. about 25 to 30 40`s, lots of 30 plus of course. i fished the double island swim for a couple of days then moved in to ballifs where the caravans are. very interesting lake full of features. only problem we had was the bloody weed, it was really bad. lost a lot of fish (i lost 13) in the weed. we didnt realise, and were not told prior to going that it was very weedy. next year i will go with braided main line. was there a weed prob when you were there? much appreciate any info you would care to enligten we with

Dave we are talking about pre Kev/Pete days I baliffed. I would say 8-9 years ago. There were no 50s and only one 40 in there back then and aside from around 50 or so origionals, I helped stock all the fish in there. Also the lake had next to no weed, no club house and not even a baliff caravan. That was introduced just after I did the baliff bit, but prior to Kev and Pete taking over the lease.

To be honest, there were only two productive swims back then, one being church point, a doule if memory serves me right, or at least a loose termed double, as there was two swims really close and tight together. The second was the last swim on the main bank. the one that is right at the end of the grain silo, just before the outlet/inlet pipe. This latter swim was the more producetive and "normally" produced the bigger fish. I must dig a map of the lake out, but from memory this swim was the one directly before the baliff swim, which I think was on the main causeway. Anyhow. the swim I am reffering to, has a rather large plateau at around 120 yrds and to the right of the swim and this is where all the fish came from.

I need to refresh my memory and once I have I will report back with a bit more precise info.

kind regards Jeff

interesting how the place changed then. the fish have come on a heck of a lot then. its a nice place tp spend some time i have to say now. a lot of the big fish came from the large plateau area you talk of. the 40`s and 50 came from that spot. the ballifs swim faces the island on the right hand side of the lake. the double faces the island on the left hand side of the lake, i presume this being the church swim. one of the biggies is close to 60 now, it could do that next year. if you can find out anything that would be great, interesting heairng about the lake though and the origins etc. much appreciated

Quote :

the fish have come on a heck of a lot then.

For sure some of the fish will have grown on in that period of time, but I do know for sure that the lake has received stocking since I was there. If my info is correct, the lake received some of the larger(not largest) residents from Frog lake when Olivier lost the lease.

kind regards Jeff

started my French fishing sorties back in 2004 been addicted ever since

Dreamlake 3 2004
Dreamlake 5 2005
Dreamlake 4 2006
Dreamlake 4 2007
Dreamlake 3 2008
Valedore 2 2009

I know Dreamlakes are not everyones cup of tea but ive had some excellent fishing and catches over there,met some good mates and had some great times

This year we decided to try different venues every year,so tried Valedore.....very good if you like catching sturgeon (excellent fighters by the way)

have booked up a week at Etang La Planchette for next years French session....anybody tried this new venue yet?