Well, four of us have just returned from a week at Vaumigny.
I have been looking forward to this trip, after the death of my Dad recently, my head was all over the place, and this holiday was pretty much the only thing that had given me something to focus on and look forward to.
The week for myself and my mate started off pretty much as bad as it gets. After driving 280 miles, 20 miles from Dover, the car breaks down. I've had my Passat nearly 3 years, and not had a single problem with it. The recovery driver says there's nothing he can do, and asks me where I want the care recovering to. Not knowing the extent, and being eager to carry on with my trip, I asked if he knew a local garage. He said there's a VW main dealer 8 miles away. He recovered the car to said place, I told them I was off to France for a week, and that I would leave the car with them until I return. I picked up a hire car(which my break down cover will pay for), and set off. We had to catch the later ferry, but we were arriving a day early so it wasn't a big issue .We get to the lake around 10pm, have a walk around, and have a quick chat with the other 2 members of the party(Wooly and Deepend).
We decided to fish 2 swims side by side, that had produced a big hit a few years earlier for us. I setup 3 different rigs, a snowman with 3 stringers, a glugged pop-up and a bottom bait with a 3 bait stringer, and just threw them out. I had a rough idea of the swim layout, and there are no snags or features so I was confident the rigs would be fine.
So we had the rods in, and bivvies set up by around midnight, at which point we turned in after a long and pretty stressful day.
I had a screamer on my bottom bait rig, and after an initial run I realised that it wasn't a carp, the fight was far more explosive, it was a sturgeon. After around a 10 - 15 minute fight, I had a 27lb Sturgeon on the mat. I got my mate up to take a few pics, much to his annoyment.
The night went peacefully after that for us both, not a beep.
It was my mate's first trip to France, he's been fishing with me since we were teenagers, he is just now getting more into carping, so he was eager to get going the morning after. So we reeled in, checked our rigs, all was fine. Out went the marker rods and we did around 30 minutes scoping out our respective swims.
The marker rods stayed out and we both decided to fish at around 90 - 100 yards, and put out some bait with the throwing stick. My mate had never used one before, so I sat and watched for 10 minutes as he slammed around 1/2 a kilo into the margins or straight up into the air. He picked it up though after around 20 mins and was hitting his marker pretty well.
I baited up and out went our rigs. The day produced several screaming takes, but each time we both hit into nothing. I was back-leading, but may mate wasn't as he had a bar in between his swim and his baited area. We both had these takes all day, and it was getting very annoying. Wooly and Deepend were having the same problem on the opposite bank. In the end we put it down to fish towing some very poor rigs that were still carrying leads around.
Saturday and Sunday passed without a fish, just more of these annoying liners. We ended up leaving them and the line would settle eventually again.
Monday morning around brought a screamer, and after a short fight I had a 24lb6 mirror on the mat. Still nothing for my mate.
Later on that day brought my mates first proper run, he hit into what must have been one of the big sturgeon, his rod was bent double, and the fish was taking line even though he was pretty much locked up solid. It kited to the right and smashed him as it hit the snagged area, to say he was gutted was an understatement. I consoled him with a beer, and he put his rod back out.
Tuesday saw a creamer around 9am for my mate, and after spirited fight he had his first fish on the mat, at 17lb15 it was his biggest carp to date, so he was still chuffed, and you could sense the relief.
We had planned on moving swims that day, but the fact we had both had a fish, and weather deteriorating meant we stayed put as we would have just had a load of soggy tackle if we moved.
Nothing else happened, and after seeing the guy in swim 1 fishing to the island, the a guy in the bay having plenty of fish, it became obvious that the fish were not in open water.
Wooly and Deepend were getting plenty of action on the opposite bank with the sturgeon. So we upped and went, it took a few hours to move everything round, as it's a 30 acre lake.
Within an hour I had a screamer close in, but I was smashed instantly in a snag under a tree, and even though fish were showing there, it wasn't a fishable area, I could have hooked 10 fish, but I would have been lucky to land one. It was frustrating to have fish topping so close, but getting a bait to them in an area where you could land them was impossible.
Back to the car, I phoned the garage, who had promised me that the car would be on the ramps on Tuesday, after not hearing anything I decided to phone them. They told me they were behind and that my car was next on the list. I told them I lived 300 miles from where they were located, and that I needed the car ready on the Saturday.
We baited up an area at around 90 yards, we put out spod mix, and sprinkled boilies over it. As we settled down, the heavens opened, and with one of the loudest cracks of thunder I've heard, a storm ripped in, hailstone, wind, fork lightning, the lot. I got another screamer in the peak of the hail storm, again I was smashed to the right by a sturgeon in this snag.
Wednesday night brought nothing for any of us down that side, the weather had seen to that, the fishing died off completely.
Thursday came around, and I decided we should fish the a submerged tree in the middle, surrounded by a scaffold structure to warn anglers of the huge snag. It was around 220 yard I'd say, so we had to row the baits out.
I had the rods locked up solid, and I was ready to hit a few beeps and crank the fish away from the snag. I got a few beeps, and hit into a fish, I felt a few lunges, and the fish had indeed made the snag. It cut me off at the hooklink. We put the rod back out, but dropped it about 10 yards short of the feature, we'd put a small of bag of chops on just as an attractor to draw the fish out.
That night, i had 3 bleeps and the line tightened, I hit into it, took about 5 steps back and cranked the reel as hard as I could. I got the fish away from the snag and into open water, game on. The fish kited to the right and under the trees, I was convinced I'd lose it now. I had to try and bully the fish out, which I managed to do, and the fish was netted. It tipped the scales at 31lb9oz, not a monster by any stretch, but a very welcome fish, and one we had worked hard for.
I phoned the garage again Thursday, I was greeted by "ah, Mr Ashton". My heart sunk, I could tell it wasn't good. I was told that the oil pump had gone while we were on the motorway, and that my engine had run dry. He said the rattle was due to the filtration going, and there were deposits of sh|tty oil.
He said there were 2 options, to do a full system flush which takes 11 hours, and may still not cure the problem, or swap the pump. I asked what the price was, and nearly fell in the lake when he said it the best part of £1,000. As I was stranded, and had no real other options I told them to go ahead as I needed the car by Saturday. I told them that if the car was not to be ready, they needed to contact me instantly so I could arrange someone to pick us up.
I carried on fishing, and we decided to put 3 baits out to the snag at range. My buddy had a run on a rod he'd put out for the sturgeon, on some amino soaked pellets. Again he had a fish kite in under the trees, he couldn't give any line as the fish would have gone deeper into the tree roots close to the bank, and he was cut off again. He was pretty gutted at this point with only 1 fish to his name.
Friday saw me hook into a big fish from the snag that made it's way into open water, I couldn't do a thing with it, it was either cat or a huge sturgeon. It just swam towards the island, and even at 250 yards the strain on the line was immense, I just locked up and lent back trying to turn the fish, and the hook pulled, gutted. My mate had one more hookup with a sturgeon, which resulted in another hook pull. This was pretty much where it ended as regards to the fish, Friday and Saturday morning came and went, and we were on the road back home.
I phoned the garage from the ferry, they told me they needed to contact me, and that the new pump had not fixed the problem, and the car was still rattling, and the car was still telling you to stop the engine. I was due to pick the car up 30 minutes after the call, and load up the gear, and then take the hire car back. I arranged to have the car towed back up north, and told the VW garage there was no way I was paying them £998 when the problem was not fixed, after some haggling I had to settle for a £400 bill or the car would not be released.
After what felt line an age, traveling at 60mph from Dover in the back of the recovery truck, we got home at 8:30pm last night. I had no idea whether I'd enjoyed the trip or not, my head was in bits and I was feeling bad that my mate's first foreign trip had turned into a nightmare, cars breaking down, storms, and 1 fish to his name.
This just goes to show, not every foreign trip runs smoothly, and they don't all turn up racks of 40lb fish, sun and fun by all.
Ah well, can't win em all, roll on September...
So we can do it all again
p.s - Sorry for the epic
The 31lb9
