Paul and The Cheeky Boys in France

I had got a week booked off work with no plans as such for most of it , other than a couple of days fishing , then out of the blue a trip popped up to France as someone had dropped out and there was a place available , a quick phone call to Darren Cheek and i was in (thanks for the tip off Dean Aldridge ) . So on Friday the 31st of May I set off to collect Darren from Essex and then down to the channel tunnel.

We arrived at the fishery at about 8 in the morning and made our way to the lake , by now I’m like the walking dead as I’d been awake 26hrs , so passed out in my chosen swim for a few hours before setting up.

By mid afternoon I had 3 rods out all on clean spots amongst the weed , about 2 hours later the right hand rod was away and I soon had a 69 cat in the net, happy with my first French cat, I settled down for the night , another came in the night at 82lb , the week carried on pretty much as it started with bites coming day and night , I lost a few due to hook pulls and 2 cut offs ?.

By the end of the week I had landed 15 cats and 2 carp to 45lb , my best cats went 58lb, 65lb, 69lb, 81lb, 82lb 84lb, 86lb, 96lb and 113lb.

Rigs consisted of 100lb siluretres hooklinks , 4/0 glt penetrator hooks and a lead clip with a 6 ounce gripper lead , hookbaits were big cat 24mm pop ups fished 4 inch above the bottom nicely balanced with 2 x fox ssg pop up weights , free offerings were a mixture of big cat pellets and 20mm boilies all soaked in big cat krill crab and salmon bait sauce.

Big thanks to the guy who lent me a baitboat with gps fish finder which was key in keeping the spots topped up at night with pinpoint accuracy , top man thank you very much.

All in all a very enjoyable trip with Darren Cheek, top bloke and all round nice guy. Back home now with another set of memories to cherish. Thanks Paul