Reels On Wheels French Safari

Well Friday afternoon we had everything packed into the van and were just waiting for the last angler (Chris) to bring his tackle round before we set off on the Reels on Wheels Safari.

Chris turned up spot on time at 9pm and once we had loaded up and topped up with fuel we set of to meet up with Nick and John who had driven up from Devon that afternoon and were trying to get a bit of rest at the services on the M2.

11pm and we pulled into the services and we all met up and had some strong coffee after all this was going to be a long night; it was great to see Nick again, we hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas we also got to meet John who proved to have a great sense of humour and was so enthusiastic about his trip it was infectious.

We arrived at Dover at about 12.30am and then sat about waiting for our ferry which wasn’t due to leave until 2.45, the wind was whipping round the docks and a few members of our group were starting to get a bit worried as they suffered from sea sickness.

Once on board the ferry we found out where we could all go and have a cigarette and waited for the off; as soon as we had left our moorings and before we even left the harbour Chris started to look a little green and he got worse and worse as we got out to sea he looked and felt terrible and spent the whole crossing being ill. Luckily once we got back onto dry land he recovered quickly.

We left Calais at about 5.30am and drove through the wind and rain towards our goal, Sunset Lake. We got to the bailiff’s house at about 8.30am and were advised that all the Welsh lads were already at the lake, so we shot off and the whole group were together at the lake, swims were sorted out, advice taken from the bailiff and we all set up in the rain for what we hoped would be a great weeks fishing.

Well Saturday turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, drizzle and not a sign of a fish anywhere, but hey, it was only the first day.

Sunday started off a bit brighter and got a lot brighter when Martin Cronin hooked into something huge, after half an hour of playing the fish he had to get into the boat to continue playing it, the fish towed Martin and Richie round the lake for another half an hour before they finally netted the fish, a giant 54lb+ sturgeon. Martin’s best ever! Things were looking better. Martin later landed a good carp of 32lb.

That evening we all got together at the mobile home and enjoyed a few drinks and a BBQ - there were a lot of long faces as the water was very quiet and apart from Martin and Richie no one had even had a sniff of a fish..

That evening both he and Richie were plagued by catfish and ended up bringing their rods in at about midnight as they were fed up with cats but before that Richie did have his PB with a cat of well over 50lb..

Next morning (Monday) most of us were still fishless but we were cheered up when Martin hooked into another sturgeon this time he was assisted by Luke in the boat and after another long fight he landed another huge sturgeon, after having a good look at it and weighing it we all agreed that this was the same fish again!!!!

During the rest of the day the whole lake was very quiet and there were mumblings of ‘no fish in the lake’ and similar comments, a couple of people were even talking about going home if they remained fishless.

By Tuesday morning Kenny and Luke were sick and tired of not catching fish and had started to pack up, but Richie had slipped round the back of the lake to a very snaggy small bay and had caught a couple of mid 20’s despite these catches both he and Martin decided that they had had enough and caught enough fish to go home as well so that just left six of us on the lake by Tuesday lunchtime.

Chris decided he would try his luck in the snaggy bay and Nick decided to take over Richie’s swim, Julz and I were unable to move as we were in the only swim that she could get into and Ben decided that he would tough it out in the same swim he had been in for 4 days.

Chris’s move into the snaggy bay really paid dividends for him, on the first day he had two fish, both mid to upper 20’s, the next evening he had a huge carp out which he needed help weighing, so Ben and I went round to help him out, it was enormous and tipped the scales at 43lb 8oz.

First thing Thursday morning we had a couple of beeps on one of our rods just as we were preparing to reel them in to rebait; as I got the rig near the bank I realised there was a small fish on the end, Julz and I had managed to catch a PIKE on a boilie, as it turned out it was the biggest pike ever caught from the lake and Julz’s first ever pike tipping the scales at 5lb 15oz but we were both over the moon and our whoops could be heard all over the lake, it may not be what we were fishing for but at least it was a fish.

Chris had already asked us to come and take some photos of another gorgeous fish he had already caught earlier that morning which he was holding in a sack, this was a huge common but before we got sorted for weighing Nick hooked into something large so I ran round the lake to help him land it. Nick was very intense as he had hooked into a sturgeon so I started getting the boat ready to chase the fish around the lake. What an experience that was no matter how hard I paddled the fish was still pulling us towards the snags, however Nick has immense experience playing big fish and slowly he got the fish nearer and nearer the boat but then how do you fit a 5’ long fish into a 3’ landing net? (Yes, I grabbed the small net not the big one), but eventually I managed to get its head and half its body into the net and with Nick holding on to the net and the tail, we managed to paddle back to dry land, photos were taken and the fish weighed, after much discussion it was agreed that it was the same fish Martin had earlier in the week but all the bait going into the lake meant it was a couple of ounces heavier by the end of the week.

After the sturgeon was returned we went round to photograph and weigh Chris’s fish which was a gorgeous common that weighed in at a hefty 39lb exactly.

Ben was offered the chance to fish next to Chris in the snaggy bay for the last day in an effort to get everyone a fish (John was happy he had caught a few perch and was away in France for the week) Ben did manage to hook one but it got snagged up and the hook ended up pulling, so unfortunately Ben remained fishless for the whole week.

That evening most of us packed up all our gear and we had a lovely social evening in the mobile home all having showers and putting on clean clothes ready for the journey home. On Friday morning Chris packed up his gear and loaded it into the big blue van and we were all ready to leave. After bidding a fond farewell to Steve (the balliff) and his wife Shirley (you were both great - thank you for your hospitality) we set off to try and get a ferry a day early: within an hour of arriving at Calais we were being loaded onto the ferry and luckily for Chris this time we had a lovely smooth crossing. Everyone arrived home safe and well but exhausted.

Thanks to everyone who came along - the social side of the week was fantastic, even if the fishing was not what we had been led to expect.