Well, it is the end of another very harsh European winter.
Spring is almost in the air
and Darrell and myself are packing the vans meticulously
because we’re on our first, big European trip.
The lake we’re primarily targeting is going to have fish 50, 60, 70,
maybe even 80lbs.
We’ve got to cover every eventuality.
There’s loads of tiny catfish in that area.
We might be using huge hookbaits, we might be using tiny hookbaits.
So, basically we’ve got to cover every single base that we can
and hopefully turn up and be able to adapt
to the fishing that’s presented to us and catch some absolute whackers.
The water we’ve set our sights on is in central France.
This part of the country has a mega history for truly enormous fish.
But with that comes a fresh set of challenges.
The journey down is far longer than a normal trip to a French holiday venue
and once in country we expect the local anglers to give us a frosty reception
as they’re all very protective of their public waters.
After a full day of travelling,
we arrived at the lake just before it got dark.
Come on, let there be no-one there.
In true Darrell style,
his eyes were locked on to the water as soon as he saw it.
Night fishing on this lake has been banned for the first time ever.
So we scanned the water as long as possible hoping to spot just one fish
as the light fades.
With nothing to go on, we head to our local digs
to start preparing for the early start the next day.
Here we go.
Making the most of days-only fishing means a very early start
but it is so important to get to the lake at first light
to see where the fish are showing.
We didn’t see any signs of fish in the first half hour
so we tuned in the walkies and split up.
The lake’s around 60 acres in size so spotting fish is never going to be easy.
To make things even harder, it’s split into two halves
so it made sense to have eyes on both sides at the same time.
I’ll go round to the big bit around the corner
and we’re covering almost the whole lake between the two of us, then.
We’ll just keep looking until something presents itself.
Yeah, definitely, mate.
It’s silly both staying in one part when you can spread yourselves out a bit.
Yeah, two sets of eyes are definitely better than one.
- Right, keep on this, yeah? - Okay, mate.
There’s been a lot of planning and preparation in advance of this trip
and it’s nice to finally be here.
I always approach these sessions with a little bit of anxiety
because you just don’t know how it’s going to pan out.
We don’t really know what’s in here. We know there’s quite a few big ‘uns
but we’ve come really early to try and avoid the crowds
and there’s no-one here, or one guy fishing
which is ideal from a not being bothered by other anglers point of view.
But obviously it makes it hard for seeing them.
So I’m not going to rush to get the rods out at all.
I’ve got no interest in just casting out into nothingness
and hoping it’s going to go off.
If we have to stand in the rain all day looking
then that is what we will do.
This is not how I pictured it.
Supposed to be doing this in shorts.
Dan to Darrell. Come in, Darrell.
Come in, mate. Are you all right?
Mate, I am now, I have to admit, I’ve gone back to the van
and put all my winter clothes on. It is absolutely freezing.
My hands are falling off.
When you offered me those gloves earlier, I should have took them.
I’ve put a second pair on. I’ve got some waterproof ones.
So the other ones are drying out in the van
but, yeah, it makes all the difference, a nice pair of warm socks
and an extra layer on.
But the good news is I think I’ve seen one.
Roger that, mate. I’ve seen absolutely nothing here.
It’s as dead as a door nail.
It’s a nice vantage point here.
This bay doesn’t look as big.
I would say Gigantica size, 35 acres, something like that, I reckon.
But it’s nice. This is the narrowest point and you can see the whole thing
and I’m pretty sure I saw one about 120 out off this bank,
just out in open water, just turn over.
That’s a good start, mate. Sounds promising.
Yeah, there’s a few cormorants out there working it as well
and I didn’t see it, I just saw the splash.
But you know when they move a bit more water
and the ripples go out a little bit further.
It just looked like that so I’m going to keep them trained on that spot
and if I see something else, then we can act on it.
Roger that, mate.
I’ll keep looking round here for a bit longer and then I’ll come round.
Okay, mate. I think breakfast is coming as well
which is very welcome.
Fuel for the team.
Obviously when you come to a big lake,
you’ve got to try and cover it during the best hours
and the best hours are obviously the first couple after light.
They’re the times when the fish are most prone to showing
and if you both look in the same part of the lake at the same time
you could be really missing what’s going on in another part.
So by separating and covering as much water as possible,
you can really keep your eyes on that water
and when one shows, focus on it and then, yeah, you won’t be too far wrong.
Brother. What’s happening, then?
Out there. See whatever it is, is it a duck out there or a grebe?
- It’s a duck, I think. - Where the white sign is,
just a bit beyond that.
I saw one that showed further over and slightly left
and one that was right of it and about that sort of range.
But it could be a cormorant going down
but it looked like a bit of white water, you know,
when a fish moves a bit more water than a bird, doesn’t it?
You didn’t see a cormorant come back up?
No, no.
- Boom! - Bosh!
I think that was a carp, bruv, don’t you?
That was close as well.
- I’m going to fish here, mate. - I reckon you might.
Is that all right? You can go down there if you want.
Yeah, it looked alright.
Get in!
You should get the gear, mate.
It changes everything, doesn’t it? Seeing one proper changes everything.
- It’s on. - We’re on, mate. It’s on.
Get them bits of yellow out there.
I look at carp fishing as it is a very simple thing.
If you are where they are and you fish technically well,
you will catch them.
So as soon as I’ve seen one, I just want to get my rods out.
Before that on a low-stocked lake, I’m thinking there’s no point in casting out
because you could be hundreds and hundreds of metres from a fish
but as soon as you see one,
if you can put your rig within a few metres of that fish,
that could be the tip of the iceberg, it could be a herd of them,
and I’d be running back to the car, getting the wheelbarrow
and wheel spinning all the way round here.
Can’t get the rods out quick enough.
It’s so exciting when you’re seeing them show.
I just got back into the swim and another one’s shown out there.
So I’ve whacked out the rods, or just one of the rods
just to mark the range and gone round the distance sticks.
There’s 21 wraps, 84 yards.
So I’m going to go 21, 22, 23, just stagger them out there.
And see if I could snare something quick.
No bait at all. I’m sure Darrell’s going to fish singles as well.
As this time of year with the water cold, the fish are showing,
a bright one in the right place is usually enough.
European anglers often tell us that our tactics won’t work on their lakes.
Our success in Germany a couple of years ago
and in Belgium the year before,
proved the same winning baits and rigs will work everywhere.
So we stuck to our game plan, not using the boat
and getting out as quickly and quietly as possible.
With it being our first day on a brand-new lake,
there was no way we were going to go in with heavy baiting.
A softly softly approach was far more likely to produce a quick bite
and whilst I was surprised it happened so quickly,
I wasn’t surprised it was Darrell that got the bite
as he’s an absolute master at this kind of fishing.
Okay, so recast a rod to a fish that I’d seen
and didn’t get a very good drop but I’ve got my bead
pushed right up the leadcore leader
and I wasn’t sure if it presented, I’m asking questions of it.
What’s the clarity of the water like?
I’m really unsure, all those thoughts going through my mind.
Do I need to put some bait out to help them find it?
And, yeah, just a couple of bleeps, I felt the line.
Everything had gone slack and I wound up a load of slack,
maybe 20 metres or so before I made contact with the fish.
And we’re into one, it feels all right. A little bit of weed about.
Love you.
Good stuff, eh?
It feels alright.
Brand-new rods, these.
Christened, this is the christener.
There it is.
That’s changed the mood a bit.
I was proper doubting the water clarity, I was really doubting it,
thinking it might be better to plumb and bait.
Hang on, here he goes now.
Bosh, yeah!
- Yes, come on. - Get in.
- Yeah, man. First one. - Good work.
Yes!
So this morning I’ve gone in to the left of Dan
and Dan was right on the fish first thing
and the only other fish that I’d seen that wasn’t in front of him
was to the left of him, in close,
roughly 30 to 40 yards out in front of the next swim.
So I put them out at that sort of range but I never saw another fish there
and slowly as the day’s gone on, I’ve seen more and more fish showing
between 80 and 120 yards out, again, mostly in front of Dan.
But as the day wore on, they came a little bit more left
until they were in front of me and I repositioned two of my rods out there
and one of them, the one that I probably fancied the least,
the one that went down into the weed produced the fish.
62...
Just under 30, mate. 29 and a half.
Lovely.
Well, here he is. The first fish of the French adventure.
We’ve come all the way down here to central France.
It’s March, it’s cold and to catch one on the first day,
that is a mega, mega result.
It came after repositioning the rods and that was the key.
That’s the thing that’s made the difference.
Spending the time this morning looking for the fish,
found them, making the cast but then making some adjustments.
Seeing that fish show, casting out there, absolutely buzzing.
So this is my rig for the session in France.
Normally I don’t really change too much
from what’s worked really well for me in the past
but having fished with Dan, especially on Masterclass 4,
watching him catch all of those fish in Germany,
it suited what I wanted.
A pop-up rig, fishing low-lying pop-ups and the ability to quick change,
keeping everything quick and minimal.
I saw him doing it. I’ve changed it a little bit.
I’m using a size 6 Wide Gape X.
It’s a hook that I’ve got loads of confidence in
and people say can you use it with a Wide Gape.
Most people use it with a Kurv Shank, and of course you can.
It’s worked really well for me.
And in this session in France I can move that bead up.
We don’t know the lake. There’s a little bit of weed around.
If I want to cast to a showing fish and I don’t know what the bottom’s like,
I move that bead up knowing that if I get any form of drop,
that will be presented perfectly over the top.
The light is now dropping on day one
and we haven’t seen any fish show for quite some time now.
It was a major, major result, Darrell getting that fish.
He plays it down but he is the best of the best.
And to come on a new lake and get a bite this early in the year
on your first day is a major result.
I felt like my best chance was probably this morning.
I saw fish showing out here, got all excited
and I got decent drops on the rigs, I knew they were on clear areas.
It was about the right range as well.
I can’t explain why it didn’t happen.
But what I’m going to do now, I’m going to put some bait out
and then once we’ve wound in, put some bait out,
just scatter a few Spombs around just so there’s a bit of smell in the area
at that same range that I saw them this morning.
Then come back and start here tomorrow.
I’m not going to get the gear out of the car,
I’m just going to look and look and look.
If they’re on the bait, brilliant, if they’re not and they’re elsewhere,
then we’ll be driving round and setting up on them.
But a real result for the team for day one.
But personally I wish I’d caught one.
Good morning. It’s day two.
Up early again. Got here about half hour before it got light
and the mist has made it very difficult to do any fish spotting.
It means high pressure as well, we’re going to get good temperatures today.
I have seen one fish show straight in front of me out here
but well beyond the bait that I put out last night.
Darrell, on the other hand, is getting his rods out now.
I’ve left my gear in the car.
I didn’t really want to commit to a spot
just in case they started showing somewhere else.
Getting a bite yesterday put Darrell a long way ahead.
He’s marking his area up, last night, he’s baited up at long distance
probably about 30 yards past me.
So anyone that knows match fishing will know the guy that fishes furthest
catches the most.
So I’m a little bit concerned that I’m too close in.
But I’m not going to be hasty.
It’s only the second day on a completely new lake.
I’m going to keep watching, see what happens.
If they start showing longer past my bait,
I won’t even bother about fishing on the bait at all
and I’ll just go out longer and see what occurs.
But really at the moment I’m following Darrell’s lead
because he’s a master at working lakes out really quickly.
It’s no surprise he’s had a bite on his first day here.
I’m going to be watching him and seeing what occurs.
So it’s day two.
Obviously having caught, I’m keen to fish back where I am.
But, yeah, tactics wise I’m not 100% convinced that I’m doing it right.
One fish is the tip of the iceberg really.
There’s more to be caught certainly.
I’m thinking it’s spring, the water is warming from the surface down
and the fish are probably quite high in the water.
Having looked at Google Earth, this particular end of the lake
is peppered with features.
So I think if you are knowledgeable about the lake
and you knew which features were the ones and the correct depth,
I’m sure there’s more fish to be caught.
But at this moment in time we’re hedging our bets,
trying to keep disturbance down.
I have located a piece of gravel in my swim near to where I caught
but it still feels on the drop 10, 11, 12’ deep.
So Ideally I’d be fishing on a feature that was 7’ deep.
So it’s too deep for coots to be all over you all the time
but, yeah, I’d like to find a spot 5, 6, 7’
and I’m sure they’re out there, I’m certain the fish are here.
I’m thinking they’re probably high in the water
so failing being able to reach these features from the bank,
the other thing I’m thinking is zig rig.
A lot of people when they go to France, they think it’s an English tactic
but carp are carp and when the water’s warming from the surface,
I think targeting the upper layers or the shallower water
is where it’s at this time of year.
Darrell is spot on.
Carp are cold blooded so they’re drawn to the warmer water in the shallows
or near the surface on warm, sunny days.
With my swim looking totally dead,
I decided to take the boat in search of fish up in the water
while moving into the shallow bay round the corner.
From the boat it’s easy to spot fish that you would never see from the bank
and if the water’s clear enough, you can see if there are spots nearby
to place a bait on as well.
After touring the entire far end of the lake and looking in all the bays
and under all the snags, I hadn’t seen a single fish.
I did find some awesome-looking plateaus and island drop-offs
so I decided to prebait with a mix of maize and boilies
with a plan to keep an eye on the baited areas over the coming days.
If the carp got on to the bait and started showing,
we could move straight onto them.
Once I was back at base camp, Darrell was straight out in the boat
to bait his long areas ready for an early start tomorrow morning.
Well, Darrell and I have decided
to sacrifice the last couple of hours of daylight
to really interrogate our spots.
Darrell’s found a nice hard area out there yesterday evening
and I wanted to do the same.
I’ve had a good cast round just with the lead on the marker rod,
just feeling the bottom and finding out where the weed is,
finding out where the hard spots are
and at 30 rod lengths straight ahead of me
in a sort of area where fish showed on the first day,
there is a rock hard spot out there and it’s 12 to 13’ deep.
A lot deeper than I thought it would be.
When I felt it down I would have said it was 6 to 8’.
Then all around it, it’s only a foot or two deeper.
There is some weed out there but there’s some clear areas as well
that are nice and smooth.
So I guess that’s just like a muddy bottom
with a little hump of gravel amongst it all.
But the most important thing is what it feels like on the marker rod.
Rather than spending hours out there in the boat looking for stuff,
the depth is as shallow as I can find.
It’s nice and hard, it’s clean.
I put a load of bait out there now,
probably half a bucket of maize, tigers, a few chopped-up boilies.
I put Buttercorn Goo all over it just to give it a bit more scent.
That will sit there overnight.
Obviously we’re back off to the gite overnight
and then we’ll be back in first thing in the morning.
Hopefully we’ll get these swims again.
Everything will be clipped up at 30 rod lengths.
I won’t wait to see fish, I’ll just put the rods out,
commit to that area and then if we see them showing somewhere else,
obviously we’ll move.
But I feel much better now, establishing an area
and having a decent amount of bait out there
and knowing what I’m going to be doing first thing tomorrow morning.
It feels decent but I don’t know if it’s got weed on it as well.
- Does it look left, Darrell? - Yeah, you’ve got that line, I think.
- The left-hand one? - Hang on, hang on.
Just do what you’re doing. You stay there.
It’s caught in some weed.
Come on.
Talk about shaking legs, bruv.
- Big fish, that, isn’t it? - I don’t know.
But it’s suddenly started fighting really weird, like it’s foul hooked.
Bit of air, come on.
Be good to me. Be good to me.
Lead’s gone.
Be good to me.
Come on...
Be good to me, come on.
Underneath him, isn’t it?
There we go.
Come on.
Come on, get in that net.
Get in that net! Get in that net!
Yes! Get in!
Yes!
- 40? - I reckon, yeah, looks like a 40 to me.
Man!
Yeah!
- Come on, don’t keep me waiting. - It’s just over 46.
Yeah, get in!
Monster.
Come on, big fella.
Yeah...
Wicked.
First one from a new lake is always special.
But what a way to start. 46lbs.
All the effort of getting up early, all that effort yesterday,
getting the boat out, putting a load of bait
in a spot that was much further out than where I started,
that was the key to the success.
And this one was taken on a IB pop-up on my favourite spinner rig
and it’s soaked in Wonderberry Goo, really citrusy sort of flavour.
And that was following Darrell’s lead because he got his bite on an IB pop-up.
I thought I’ve got to do the same.
And this is the result. Yes! Get in!
So Dan’s caught one. Am I going to change anything?
I don’t know really.
I’ve not seen any fish. I’ve got no idea of where exactly they are.
They’ve been showing a liking for the swims that we’re in.
I don’t know really.
I don’t know if there is any sort of change of swim options available.
I’ve not seen fish anywhere else to want to react to
so I’ll probably stay put where I am until I see something else.
What a day’s weather!
Right...
I’m going to just cast this, get the braid nice and wet.
Tight on the spool. I’ve just gone round the distance sticks.
I don’t need to put the marker float out. Oh, come on! Look at it!
My rods are clipped up at 30 rod lengths so with the swing back of the lead,
the line marker’s moving about 6’ down the rod as the line tightens.
So I’ve just gone 29 and a half with the Spomb.
I’m going to put six to eight out, medium Spombs.
Nice and easy to cast this.
Shake it down into the nose.
Just put a couple out over each rod just to ring the dinner bell.
My Spomb has opened!
The dying seagull, as we call it.
Shake it down into the nose.
There she goes.
Slightly left of where I wanted it.
About 6’ to the left.
But that one doesn’t count. If it’s not on the money, it doesn’t count.
So I will put six more out, try and get two on each rod.
I’ve put a line marker on this rod as well
so I can extend out to maybe 30 rod lengths
so it’s dropping slightly behind where the rigs are landing on the bottom.
Nice to have a bit more of a spread but I won’t do that now.
I’ll just put bait right on top of where I’m fishing.
But if I get another bite later on, I will spread it out a little bit more.
Come on, fade it right.
There you go.
The important thing is to not put too much out.
You’re only trying to inspire them to feed again.
A load of bait went out yesterday
which I daresay they haven’t eaten it all.
So all you’re doing now is just drawing them back in
with the sound of the bait and a bit more smell in the water.
With the spots topped up, it was time to get the rod back out there.
Fortunately the other rigs hadn’t been moved in that first fight
so I didn’t need to redo them.
The rain was absolutely hammering down
and the carp gods were definitely not making it easy for us.
Darrell had spotted a couple of fish in the channel
so he repositioned one of his rods down there
with the other two left on his long baited area.
Well, as you can see, it’s pretty miserable
and things have taken a bit of a turn for the worse.
There’s some other guy on the other side
and initially he went out in his bait boat and went close in
and wasn’t any problem
but he’s just been out 300 yards from the swim in front of Dan somewhere,
put some H blocks down and then he sort of skirted round
and he’s putting rigs out here 150 yards from me.
That is the sort of thing that happens on these public lakes.
People come from all over the show
and unfortunately don’t show much regard for anybody else.
It’s just the way it is.
Luckily he hasn’t come across my lines.
He’s basically took charge of 40% of this bit of water out here.
But, yeah, luckily he hasn’t invaded exactly where we’re fishing
and hopefully his disturbance in the boat if he continues to do that
will keep the fish in front of us.
They’re not showing much, we don’t know what’s happening.
But, yeah, we didn’t need that.
He’s fighting like a demon, this one.
Like a dog on a lead, just lead him in.
I’m underneath both the other lines.
I daren’t lift the rod up.
I don’t want it to come into contact with another line.
It’s shaking its head so much.
Come on...
My legs are proper shaking.
Just unbelievable.
Still not seen it.
It’s a catfish!
Oh, man, if I’d lost that I would have said it was a monster.
Didn’t even know there was any of these in here.
Come here, you, horrible things.
Gotcha.
What a disappointment.
Gutted.
Dan to Darrell, come in, Darrell.
Hello, mate. Are you all right?
Yeah, well, sort of, mate.
Same rod’s roared off again, middle rod.
Well, it didn’t really roar off, it was a really weird bite
and it fought, shaking its head the whole way in.
I had my heart in my mouth the whole time.
When it got close in, it proper led me a merry dance
and it just felt like an absolute monster,
like a big, long, powerful creature.
When it come up, it’s a bloody catfish, isn’t it?
Well, I didn’t even know they were in here, mate.
But that’s not great, is it?
No, mate. We knew the little tiny poisson chat were in here
but not the big ‘uns.
I mean, it was probably 30lbs, at a guess.
I only looked at it in the net and just let it go
but it’s weird how it flips round, isn’t it?
Like yesterday or the day before I wasn’t really feeling it in here
and you’ve had one.
And I know what you mean, that guy with the boat, that’s just a joke.
I reckon he’s got 400 yards between his left-hand rod
and his right-hand rod.
That couldn’t be further away from Elstow style if he tried.
Yeah, mate, he is covering a bit of water.
He isn’t invading the bit where the fish are, luckily,
but it’s just not nice having lines up the back of you
and in all directions.
No, mate, I think that’s just the nature of public lakes over here
and people just not giving a toss how close they go to you
or how many swims they carve up when they put the rods out.
Yes, mate, but we have to make do.
We’re here, we’ve got to do the best we can.
Absolutely, mate.
If we get any more species, then we’ll put a keepnet out
and we’ll try and get on the front cover of Angling Times or something like that.
Roger that, mate.
All right, mate. Keep us posted if anything happens.
Roger. Out.
Well, this one definitely feels like a carp.
It’s gone right underneath the other two lines.
Just trying to keep away from the other two lines.
It kited well right.
Funny bite, just a drop back and then it was weeded up.
Come on... Come on, please.
Please, please, please.
Come on, you big ‘un.
Come on. Come on, get in that net.
Get in that net. It’s a monster!
Get in that net!
Yes! Get in!
The other rod’s going.
Yes!
Oh, my God.
Coming in towards me really quick. It might not even be a carp.
Really strange.
Oh, no, it is a carp, definitely.
It’s all kicking off, brother.
It’s all kicking off.
Come on, get in the net.
Get in the net.
What are you doing?
Scoop!
Yes!
- Double trouble, man. - That one is massive.
That is massive, man. It’s huge.
That is big, that is really huge.
That’s the one.
That is the one.
- Your left-hand rod’s going, mate. - All right, I’m coming.
- Hey, mate, it’s away, it’s a screamer. - I’m coming, coming, coming.
It’s all going mental, isn’t it?
Danny, he’s got a couple of absolute monsters, well, one absolute monster,
another good fish, it’s going off for him out there
and it’s looking pretty quiet for me.
But a couple of fish showed behind where I’m already fishing.
And I recast a rod out there.
I’ve got a sort of spinner rig with the bead pushed up in the leadcore.
Didn’t feel particularly clear
but it went down to the bottom with a muffled drop
and I left it because obviously there’s fish in the area
after seeing them show and it’s just absolutely bust off.
I’m just hoping it’s a big one like what Dan’s got
because, I tell you, it is absolutely massive.
This is feeling like a really good fish.
It might be in the weed, it might be that that I can feel but
it feels really difficult to move through the water.
Saying that, I haven’t caught a big one in ages.
It feels good. I can just see some colour down there.
I can’t see it very clearly.
I really can’t tell how big it is.
There it is, look.
I would say it’s a 30-pounder of some description.
Here he is. More than welcome.
Right, come here, mate.
In there you go.
Boom!
He’s nice, I like him. He might even be a 40.
Saying that, I don’t know.
He’s 35, he’s got to be.
Ready?
Got it?
I can’t pull it up.
It’s a gnat’s cock over 70.
It is, it’s like literally just the tiniest bit over 70.
Yeah, baby!
Come on, big fella.
Yeah, look at that!
What a beast.
70lbs!
This is what we came to this lake for.
What a result.
Oh, yeah, man.
They’re the shots.
They are the shots, bruv, aren’t they?
The light is unbelievable.
Yeah.
What a day.
44lbs, this one.
What an amazing lake.
Just blown away
and can’t wait to start fishing again tomorrow.
Again, another one on the Wonderberry and IB pop-up.
That little spinner rig, he was absolutely nailed.
What a double take to have.
Well, I’m just doing Dan’s photos and my rod’s just absolutely bust off again.
Same spot as where I caught the other one just a minute ago.
Obviously a few fish out there after seeing those ones show.
It’s a common.
It’s all good for me.
It’s good for you.
Tonight we will drink Kronenbourg.
The French weak stuff.
Kronenbourg!
I’m having too much fun, Chris.
Boom!
What a day.
Check that out. 53lbs of French mirror carp.
Absolutely buzzing.
It’s come after a reaction. Nothing was happening in my swim.
Dan was catching and I went for a little wander,
saw a couple of fish top and the recast produced this one.
Absolutely buzzing.
It’s amazing how all the fish in the lake started to feed at the same time.
Darrell’s spots were hundreds of metres from mine
and in totally different parts of the lake.
With four bites coming in one mad feeding spell,
we did the photos and got the fish back as soon as humanly possible,
giving us just enough time to get out in the boat and rebait for the next day.
Clearly late afternoon was a great time of day for a bite on this lake
in the late winter or early spring.
And back at the lodge it was time to reflect on a crazy day’s angling.
Well, what an epic start to the session.
Never would have dreamed that I would have got a 70-pounder,
just absolutely off the scale.
With them other couple of 40s as well.
Been plagued by them small fish today but I’m pretty confident
for getting a few more in the next few days.
What do you reckon?
Should do, mate. Bait’s out there. You’ve been catching them.
Yeah, we’ve both been catching, to be fair, haven’t we?
Yeah. I’m hoping they’re going to come back to that spot.
You’ve got a bit of a thing going out there.
The weather’s not been great today. Why not?
Yeah, exactly.
Early start in the morning, mate. I think best we lights out
and crack on tomorrow, yeah?
Yes, mate, lights out.
Darrell? What are you doing?
Nothing, mate. Go to sleep.