Les Etangs de Chantereine offers you the chance to fish for carp to over 60lb, many of them are dark fish, looking more like old English estate lake carp. Read our venue review here.
So the time had come to make our yearly crossing of the channel, to fish a relatively unknown stock of carp in the hope of landing a French whacker. Our chosen destination this year was Les Etangs de Chantereine in France, having seen some of the photos of the stock, our 8 strong group of carp anglers couldn’t wait to wet a line.
Having travelled around 3 hours into France, we arrived at our destination. We were met by the bailiff, who was very helpful & passed on some info on how it fished the previous week. So a steady lap of the lake to familiarise ourselves with the swims & fish locations resulted in a draw for pegs. Unfortunately, I came out next to last, I chose a peg which no one fancied, but it meant I could get on the back of some showing fish “The Rickety Board Swim”.
With the swims now chosen we each set up camp, always keeping a close eye on the water looking for any shows. A few casts of the marker float enabled me to map out the swim & reveal what lay beneath. The lake bed was relatively weedy all over, with this in mind I decided to fish a chod set up. This would enable me to counteract the weed to a certain extent & ensure the best presentation.
It wasn’t long before all 3 rods were on the dance floor, with around 10 spods full of bait on each spot. After around 2 hours of being in my right-hand rod tore off, with what felt to be a sizeable lump. The fish kited right down the marginal shelf, I could feel it rolling, the line flicking off the dorsal, then ping, a cutoff! A few choice words later I was setting the rod up again. This time I switched to leadcore rather than naked, a choice which later resulted in all 3 rods being fished this way.
Feeling more determined the rod went back out, knowing there is fish in the swim & they were responsive to what I was putting in. It wasn’t long before the right rod went into meltdown again, after a spirited fight a 29lb 13oz mirror was in the net! Absolutely buzzing, it’s always nice to get the monkey off your back.
Over the next few days, it became apparent almost all my bites were coming between 6-9am & 5-8pm. By the end of the week I ended up with 10 fish from 15 takes, 7 x 20’s, 2 x 30’s, 1 x 40.
The venue is Drive & Survive, it had 2 toilets on site with shops nearby. What the venue lacks in facilities, it certainly makes up for with the stunning stock of fish. It really is a true credit to Andy the owner. I’d just personally like to thank Andy for letting us fish the venue, as well as Glyn from Burton Bait Rollers for supplying the bait. Thanks for reading, Ben.
For more information and booking please click here.
