Having had a baby last year I was certain my angling in 2010 would be limited. My wife was keen to get away and have a relaxed week so what could be better than a week by the lake with the odd day out sightseeing and dabbling in the local fare. I was booking a bit late in the day and most places were full when we could go. However Angling lines mentioned Laroussi, renowned big fish water with a small cabin which had become available for rental. The trip was booked and we were on our way.
The Laroussi cabin
We arrived at the lake late on Saturday evening and were royally greeted by the lakes owner Mehdi and his wife Carolyn. The cabin is excellent with a pull down double bed downstairs and a mezzanine floor with two singles. The cabin was spotless and had all the facilities we needed including all the linen, towels and lots of hot water. There is a large supermarket 10 minutes down the road for all supplies.
The cabin is very comfortable inside
The lake is a real gem and if you’re into your feature finding then this is the place to go. Humps, bumps, bars and channels it has them all. You certainly need to find the right spots which I only managed on one rod, the other two rods lying dormant for long periods despite my continual efforts.
A very happy angler with his family!
As I was on a family holiday I only fished at night, resting the swim during the day definitely helped keep the fish in the area. I used a marker set up to locate spots and then boated baits in the microcat onto those spots. During the week I did not receive one take from the gravel but seemed to have success in the light silt just off the gravel spots especially on the shallower humps.
I pre-ordered bait from Mehdi which included Quest baits Raja Spice boilies and also the Special Crab. Sizes ranged from 10mm up to 20mm. All takes were on 14mm glugged baits tipped with glow in the dark corn. I also had a 25 kilo bucket of Laroussi Partiblend made which was a real stroke as the lads who fished the previous week had all caught well using it. It’s a lovely mix and saved all the hassle of taking it.
Rigs were all fairly simple with short stiff hybrid links on the harder areas and kd rigs on the softer silt incorporating the raja spice pop ups. Each boat consisted of one handful of seed mix and a good spread of 20-40 boilies of different sizes. Flying back leads were used on all rods.
At 7am each day the fish provided us with their daily exhibition of crashing and it was clear that the water is packed with some real kippers! I was delighted to catch my first 50lb carp in 20 years of chasing and of course like the London buses another came in a matter of days at 52. Brilliant!!
In total I had a 56lb, 52lb, 48lb, 45lb & 38lb mirrors, 52lb sturgeon and 15 other Grass and Common carp ranging from 17lb to 23lb.
Thanks to Mehdi and Carolyn for making our week at Laroussi so special. They really did go out of their way to do anything to help us. Thanks also to Angling Lines for setting the whole thing up and placing us with another angler and his son from sunny Blackpool. Thanks Danny for all the pics and video and well done on all your fish. Thanks to young Bailey, Danny’s son for helping me play in my 52!!!! Pukka!
Chris Evans, August 2010
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