French Carp fishing

[madcaravanner]

We take a caravan holiday every year to Europe, and we are building up a group of friends in France. Most of these are Brits who have moved over there and opened caravan sites. This is my fishing exploits from this year at such a place.

The site is called Twin Lakes it’s near Montendre in Charente Maritime. It has two carp lakes hence the name. Folk staying on the site get to fish for free and as the lakes are totally on private land no licence is needed either.

The bottom lake
This lake holds Carp (Common, Mirror and Leather) up to 35lb that we know of, I fished this lake at the beginning of the tourist year (May) . The Carp were full of spawn and very lively when you caught them. They are what I would describe as slow runners (they set off as if they don’t realise they are hooked then go like a bat out of hell)

Tactics
On this lake there are two that work surface float fished bread and Dog biscuits and Cat food on the bottom, and the pole is risky. Trust me I went through Boilies, Sweetcorn, Worms, pellets, and host of other esoteric baits without any fish. BUT put a chunk of French Bread on a size 2 hook! you got a fight eventually. On some days the fish were visible especially the one we nicknamed “Jaws” for it’s habit of taking bread of the surface like a Whale going straight up and crashing back into the water, usually about 3 feet away from you when you were fishing around 4 rod lengths out.


The Top Lake
This is a new lake about 7 years old dug by the previous owner of the campsite. It’s still settling down but does hold Carp and a few silver fish Nase and Roach that I know of. The Carp here are a lot easier to catch and a lot more aggressive takers and they RUN.
The baits are the same which upset some anglers when they had been fishing all day with tons of boilies (and a bait boat) and I ambled up showed one of them a certain spot and he cast in only to bank a 10 lb’er within minutes. Same bait and tactics work on this lake too.

I caught quite a few large Carp there during my stay and upped my Personal Bests on a lot of the sub types
Mirror Carp is now 27lb 5oz (although I also had one 23lb that was almost a leather)
Common Carp is 13lb
Leather Carp is now 10lb

The main point of this site for me is that is miles from anywhere “touristy” it’s real France; the site owners Sandra and Garry are brilliant folk from South Yorkshire. The bar is always a happy place and the food is great when everyone gets together and has a real French style eat in.


It's address is

Twin Lakes
La Faiencerie
17130
Soumeras
Charente Maritime
France

33 5 46 49 77 12
Twin Lakes France: Family Holiday Caravan Park, Tourers, Camping, Fishing Lakes
twinlakesinfo@hotmail.co.uk