An Update From Blue Lake

Blue Lake – looking across the lake from swim 7

General

Paul Cooper and I visited Blue Lake last July, before it was stocked and the going was tough.  The lake had been stocked during the winter and we had returned, hopefully to catch some carp.

On arrival we had a good look round and set up in pegs 10 and 11.  Plumbing gave 18 feet in  peg 11, I was not happy with this in early April as I thought the fish would be in shallower water due to it warming up quicker. We therefore moved onto pegs 6 and 7 – Paul chose peg 6 and I went into peg 7.

I had a good plumb around and found a gravel spot 70yds out with a depth of 7 feet, just what I was looking for.

Paul had slightly shallower water in peg 6.  The lake had matured in our absence and it looked absolutely gorgeous.

Tactics

I decided that I wanted to concentrate the fish in one area and not spread them out by having several baited spots. I put out 10 spombs of Quality Baits HG 42 boilies to start with as I didn’t want to put a lot of bait out and then find out I was in the wrong area.

Paul decided to bait up several spots close to underwater mounds and bars.  Paul was off to a flier and had caught 7 fish before I had caught anything.

However, I started to catch on the first night and had caught 4 carp by morning, baiting up with 5 spombs of boilies after every fish.

Paul’s catches and tactics are explained fully in his April Blue lake article.

It was obvious to me that I had found a good spot and put out a couple of KG of boilies and I continued to catch on Sunday, having 11 fish by sunset, baiting after every fish.

I then made a big mistake I put out about 5kg of pellet, I started to catch sturgeon and bream straight away and decided to reel in for the night.  On Monday I reverted to Boilies only and started to catch carp again.

I persisted with the same tactics, of boilies only, all week and caught consistently throughout.  As I was catching well I only fished 4.5 nights as I was on holiday and wanted to relax, how can you enjoy it if you are shattered?

In total I had 36 carp and 4 sturgeon.  The majority of the fish were twenties, with 5 x 30lb+ carp; I didn’t manage one of the 40s.

By careful baiting I kept the fish going all week, the more boilies I put in the more I caught.  The fish went crazy on Friday morning and I had 11 fish, I had two on at once several times during the week.  I decided to pack up and give two other lads a go in my swim, Paul (not Paul Cooper) and Tony, see their feedback, moved in and had 15 fish.

We supplied them with some of Quality bait’s HG42 and HG47 as it is an outstanding bait, but I am biased as I developed the HG42.

Summary

Superb action packed venue, lovely lake with the chance of some 40lb plus carp.  This lake will become a favourite of many anglers.  I hope to fish the venue again in the near future as I really enjoyed it as it is my idea of the perfect lake.

Fishing France at Blue Lake