New, Dutch Ocean Fresheeeeee
Yves Kemps.
Lac de vielles forges.
Lac De Vielles Forges France number 1 of our list. The 135 hectares large lake is 200 km away from our home in the Netherlands. We had planned this trip one year back and were all ready and excited at last we were going to fish it. The trip.  Saturday morning about 05.00 Umberto and I waited for our other fish mate Davy to arrive. We set off from home at about 06.00 taking it easy the journey took just over 2 hours. After sorting out license earlier that year all we had to do was arrive and unpack, but to our horror our booked swim was taken my two French carp anglers. These men planed to stay in the swim until Monday three days time from now. With no other choice we had to pack the boat and search for a new location to fish. This was devastating news, the trip was pre-booked a year ago and this peg had our name on it. The local French bailiff was not helpful and only said that when they left we could take over that spot. With very little bank to fish on from this point we had to get all the gear in the boat and make many a journey to and from to our new home where ever that was going to be???


Beginning session.  It is now about 15.30pm and we finally cross the lake and take up position on the opposite bank. Once all is unloaded Davy and I set off to search for features with the boat and echo sounder. We find many tree-stumps lie and that the deepest point only 1.2 meter amounts to. Outside a channel on a 100 meter from the sharp point to 1.8 meter deeply there become a track of Oily Crab boilies from the first marker to the other one 100 metres away.  We have had so much success with Oily Crab in Holland we were confident once the fish found our bait we would be off to a flyer. All carp are immediately on and after digested food the fish return back to the feed the spot again and again. And as cherry on the cake we fished them along side the Oily Crab 22mm pellets. The stink of the smell would attract the carp to our spot very quickly we all knew. Davy stands already with a bent fishing rod in his hands. About 16.00 comes the first fish of the session already on our un hooking mat a mirror of 19lbs UK20.9lb. Next was my second fishing rod screaming and jumping violently in its rest and after a quick fight another carp of 21lbs UK23.1lb has been landed at 16.15. The guard the peche comes by to see us as we are the only anglers on the lake catching carp and is interested in what we are doing. He informs us we are paid up till Wednesday and said our preferred swim will be reserved, but we already knew it was too late.It is now 17.00 and Umberto has also his first mirror of the session 13 pounds. We have only been fishing an hour and have landed 3 carp whilst other anglers around us have been blanking for days. A beautiful beginning or not?. It remains calm till about 20.00 with everything in order we relax with a few beers, then my rod is off again this time the furthest one away and a lovely mirror of 28lbs UK30.8lb comes to me from the baited wall of Oily Crab. During the night we had 20 carp between three of us we were very tired with all the hard work and no sleep.


“14kg UK30.8lb“

Day 2 around 07.00 celebrations began again, 3 carps within the hour. With the largest a mirror for me of 20lbs UK22lb. This was warm day and we fond it hard to sleep in the humid temperature. At 08.00 hour the sun burn already violently. The coming hour furnishes yet two more mirrors on with weights around the 19 pounds. We are wondering when all the common carp will visit our spot. For the noon yet we already answer on our questions with namely 2 scales of 13.5kg UK29.7lb and 16 pounds and 4 mirrors with a 35lb Mirror for Davy UK38.5lb. This evening we enjoyed a small barque and drank beer pleased with are results, we relaxed outside on our bed chairs soaking in this beautiful lake which was our home.  In day two we caught 16 carp, Davy with the heaviest at 38.6lbs.


Day 3. We decided to stay in this swim not wanting to go back to our booked spot now the results and work was done t get the fish feeding from our spot. A mirror round 08.00 only falls then again quiet till 16.00. The wind had changed direction and the rain came pouring down a no more beeps came our way until the middle of the night we had 3 more fish to land all small mirrors.

Day 4.  It remains the whole morning calm and it appears on it that through the defence change the fish has been pulled away from the reservation. After the noon begins Umberto starts to roam around the lake for more action. He finds a shallow part of the lake and see carp rolling in that spot. With the use of walkie talkies we prepare our selves for stalking these carp. He returns to collect us and we travel about 400m down the right hand side of the lake. We carefully and quietly stop just short of the spot and sneak around the vegetation to get close to the un spooked carp enjoying themselves basking in the late afternoon sun. This turns out be very productive an in the next crazy hour we land 4 beautiful mirrors of 12.5kg UK27.5lb, 13.5kg UK29.7lb, 15kg UK33lb and a 15.5kg UK34.1lb with much happiness we return to our base camp before darkness arrives.

Day of departure.  The wind now again has been turned and is back where it started and our buzzers started screaming precisely between 07.00 and 08.00 we landed 5 carp. Everything became top again in our swim by noon w had ulled in 10 carp and at 15.45 the largest fish of the trip came from my Oily Crab wall. The final drill of the session produced this 38lb mirror UK41.8lb.



“19kg UK41.8lb“

Conclusion. In total, we took 59 carp in 4 complete days. With a total weight of 495 kilos UK 1098lbs. We lost 13 fish, 8 of them due to line breaks with the many tree stumps submerged under the water. We found them mostly when wading out into the water when the black lump was on the echo sounder. Then when we came across this later in the lake we knew what they were. In the clear areas we found no carp, where the tree stumps we had multiple beeps on the fish finder.

Tight lines,
Yves