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little prod on the deck feeling forhard areas. We found a couple,deposited only a couple ofhandfuls of freebies over each spotand then retreated back to theplatform. We didn’t want to overdoit on the first night, plus we knewwe could get the baits in betterpositions when we could see.

THE STOCK...Lac Chateau Cavagnac is home tosome huge carp. When we say“huge”, we really mean “HUGE!”There are approximately 500weighing between 20-30lbs, 150weighing 30-40lbs, 150 from 40-50lbs, 30 over 50lbs and three x60s. And although that soundsridiculous and outrageous, the bestis still to come… All the fish lookEnglish! You only have to take alook at the snaps in this feature toget the gist of that, but if yourequire more evidence, tap in the

web address into your address barand you’ll see what we mean.

Here’s a fact for you. So far,60% of their customers havereturned with personal bests. Oh,and look out for Felix ‘the cat’. Asour Dutch friends put it. “He urrr,weighs 50kgs. That’s exactly110lbs. Don’t put your foot intothe water coz he’ll bite the damnthing off!”

THE NEXT DAY...You have two and a bit optionswhen it comes to eating atCavagnac. One: you can sortyourself out – self-cateringbasically. Or two: You can go all-inclusive. That is the betteroption, because sweet Mary thefood is awesome. We’d heard it wasbefore we left, and the rumourswere true. The ‘bit’ part of theoptions is you can either go backto the lodge for your breakfast and

evening meal or have it deliveredto your swim.

Seeing as it was the firstmorning, we went for the ‘deliveredto your swim’ option. Fully loadedup and ready for action we took tothe boat. What we were looking forwere little holes in the weed – hardspots – spots that had beencleared but weren’t too obvious. We found six – three of them being ‘that’s a bite’.

JUST ON DARK...We hadn’t had a bleep during theday, but it didn’t matter. We werenow coming into what we felt wasbite time. And we weren’t wrong.

I had just got into my bag whenAngus’ buzzer sent out a singlebleep. That was followed momentslater by a continuous chain ofthem. It was moving at the start,then got snagged up and thenstarted moving. Just when wethought we wouldn’t need a boat,it all locked up again.

We jumped into the boat andheaded in the general direction.Angus was panicking that the size 6 piece of steel wouldn’t hold, but I had faith. Momentslater we were sat next to theweedbed where the fish was heldup. After much ‘changing directionof the line’ we looked as though itwas gone. Angus then gave theline a pull and all of a sudden thishuge lump appeared. It was like ashaved Labrador!

Angus by this point was gigglinglike a kid. We’d managed to get this

behemoth of a carp into the net,but now we had to get back to thebank. We made it. On the scales itwent 48lbs. Its eyes were the sizeof yours or mine and the head onit; simply it was humongous.

What could have only beenliterally seconds after we’d sackedthe fish up, my left hand rodtightened up. “Yep, its on.” Luckilythis time we didn’t need to go outin the boat – the Nash Bolt Cliphad done the do and lost the lead,so the fish just wallowed on thesurface all the way in. Mine wasn’t quite to the standard ofAngus’, but it was a pukka, almost looking English carp thatwent 26lbs on the scales.

FRANKIE!“Aaaaa, it’s my friend Frankie! Do you know why we call himFrankie? Because he has a hugehead – like Frankenstein!” David,the Fishery Manager told Angusand I in his broken English as weparted the sack.

It looked even more impressivein the light, and after a quickphoto sesh, Angus realeased the monster.

“Hey, Angus, let me give you ahand out,” David said. We all knewwhat was coming… Just back ondry land, Angus is sent flying backto the water! It’s a tradition – anda good one at that – that if youshould break your PB, then you gofor a dip. Angus broke his by some 16lbs, so really he shouldhave done his 100 metres!

I can honestly say I’ve never fished somewhere and felt so relaxed.

I got in on the action moments later with this 26lbers.

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THE REST OF THE TRIP...The rest of the day was spentgetting the traps ready for thenight ahead and then having a‘roach match’, using a piece of linetied to the end of a rod and a size10 baited with a piece of fakecorn! It worked, though.

That night brought another twobites. Angus’ fish went exactly 20lbsand mine was a 23lber. Again, bothfish were in mint condition. By nowthere were fish coming out all overthe lake. It has produced twoforties, a number of thirties andquite a few twenties – and we stillhad another night to go…

The following day I found whatcan only be described as theultimate spot. It was one of thosethat you just knew would do you abite. However, the wind wasgetting up, the boat was flying allover the place and it was seriouslyhard work out there on your own.In the end I got a hand fromAngus and the area was primed.

Bang on 6 o’clock the lockeddown clutch still managed to turnand I was away. Seconds afterconnecting into the fish, the lineparted. Angus did the sensiblething and turned away, while mychoice of words can’t be printed.

HOME TIME...Our plane was at 3 o’clock in theafternoon, but we packed up atmidday and headed back to thelodge for a shower and a social.We’d had a belter of a trip, butone lad who had a rocket of onewas young Harry Davis who on his final morning nailed a new PB of 30-plus-pounds.

For us, this has to be theultimate holiday package for a ‘bigfish venue’. You get picked up atthe airport; you get top-notchfood; you get top-end tackle touse; and best of all you’re fishingfor what can only be described assome of the finest carp in France.Arrr, that said, the second bestthing is the fact it takes less thanan hour and a half on the plane.

So thank you David, thank youTom, thank you to all those whomade the food, and thank you Mr.Nash – we will definitely becoming back! Cue: stop rhyming

and get booking a Ryanair flight toget back out there!

BOOKING...Seriously, you’d be a fool not tocome here! To book your place,simply phone Rosie Barham directon: 01702 233232 ext 229 orcheck out the website at:www.nashresorts.com and you’llfind all the details you need.

Angus with his second fish of the trip. This one went exactly 20lbs.

Young Harry with his new PB. Over 60% of their customers have returned withpersonal bests. How very true!

The brute that is Frankie… All 48lbs of him.

Angus going in to celebrate his new PB.

A later afternoon purler.

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