A quick trip update.
The drive down from central Scotland was long thanks to the A1M being shut randomly with long detours down country lanes, but a nice choppy sail woke me up.
Arrived at a very beautiful Plan d'eau Artemps - a sort of association fishing lake. It is divided into a sort of snake lake with silvers, carp and pike, and a larger 'carpodrome' pond seperated by grilles to prevent the fish from mixing.
We spent the full day here, and it was surprisingly busy with about 20 fishermen using a mix of poles, carp methods and lure fishing. However we didn't see any sign of fish life at all on the main lake. We tried wagglers on and just off the bottom using worm, maggot and sweetcorn, and put out cage feeders but didn't get so much as a float wobble. In my opinion either it is heavily overfished or the population is being kept quiet by some large pike.
We gave up and tried the carp lake, where after an hour or so a very bright looking fish fell for a feeder with a krill pellet.
This was the only fish I saw being caught by anyone the entire day. We gave up soon after and headed back to a spot we wanted to return to on the canal de la sambre à l'oise that we have never fished. It is closed to navigation and as such is quite weedy.
We had a better time here, as soon as we arrived the water was boiling with small fish. After a bit of feeding we got a good swim going with roach and perch every chuck. Eventually we got into some larger and very pretty looking perch.
Just as we were packing up one of the feeder lines started screaming off with this chap.
We had a shot at the Canal du Saint Quentin but thanks to some high winds and what seemed like a very strong undercurrent in the canal, presentation was an absolute nightmare and we only managed a few average sized perch. We found a lot of French folk doing the same as us, camping wild and fishing out of the back of the van.
We spent much of the week going round the Federal Plans d'eau (association lakes) but never saw any fish life in any of them, despite large numbers of anglers giving it a shot. Just as we were leaving one angler pulled out a carp about the size of himself, which got knocked on the head before he phoned all of his friends to drive round for a look. Perhaps that's why there's not many fish to be seen!
In the end we returned to the canal de la sambre à l'oise for some very pleasant and relaxing fishing for a couple of days.
All in all a bit disappointing, but bearing in mind we've only been coarse fishing a few months and that we had no local knowledge it wasn't a total waste of time. If I was to return I'd limit myself to fishing the canals as they're very easy to park up beside and spend the night, as well as enjoy some relaxing and productive fishing for silvers and perch. This is far more up my street than waiting it out days for a trophy.
In honestly we probably passed more productive places on the way down the A1M, but at least we returned with a van full of belgian chocolate and decent wine
