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Etang de Boux
Nine months is a long, long time to wait for our first trip of 2003 to a water in France and whilst we would not ideally choose to fish a southerly water in the heat of the Morvan sun during July, a late booking found our party without much of a choice.
After discussing details of the water with Bridget of Angling Lines Holidays and Simon Horton we decided that our party of 5 would book the water exclusively for a week from 5th July.
There is not a lot of information on the internet about the lake apart from that it’s a circuit water fished by many top anglers and well known names and came to the fore when Tim Paisley and Frank Warwick fished it a fair few years back with some success. Etang de Boux is reputed to hold some 250 plus fish to 55lb plus with some of the carp dating back to a 1960’s period original stocking, perhaps this may be the “Redmire” of France !!!!.
Whilst we had plenty of time from booking in January until our trip, there was much to do organising all the bait from Premier Baits in the form of 50kg of various size rolled boilies, 200kg of particles and pellets from C C Moore to be picked up the week before our departure date. Also we had an added problem of how to put 5 guys into 2 Fronteras fully loaded with tackle bait and beer..........problem solved, obtain a trailer and some roof racks!!!!.
As de Boux is in the Morvan region of France some 7 hours from Calais port we decided that a 7am Sea France ferry on the Friday would be in order, allowing us to fuel up the cars cheaply in cite de Europe along with all the food, wine and beer for the first few days for 5 hungry and thirsty men at the lake.
Loading up the two cars and trailer at 3am on the Friday outside Neils house went relatively without a hitch (apart from trailer running over Cliffs foot that is........visions of a trip to the hospital and a delayed trip came to mind !!!) and a speedy trip to Dover and onwards to Calais. Arriving at 9.30am and on into cite de Europe we loaded up the motors with the delights of French Burgers, Meguez sausages, Brie, Camenbert, Roquefort and the obligitory Bordeaux wines, Champagne (for a PB of course !!!)and a few dozen cases of beer.
The Journey suggested by all was to skirt the outside of Paris and then down via A and N roads to Nevers and on to the lake. The only problem with the trip was on the detour surrounding Paris as the roads were so busy it was like being on the M25 on a very bad day, but at least we had the two way radios to stay in contact as we weaved from one road link to the other and duly managed to stay in contact and without getting lost. Arriving at the lake after a few stops at 7pm having gone through some most beautiful countryside, we were confronted with an absolute wall of ................silence. The lake can be seen from the car park and was mirror flat apart from the occasional “disturbance” from the occasional carp leaping from the water.
As we were a day early, it was planned to get the bedchairs out and sleep in the wooded forest after having a barbecue. Although some of the lads got the bedchairs out, Peter “Whippet” and I dossed down in the car (well Whippet is a nice boy !!!)and managed to catch a few hours in between snoring, whiplash,and the attentions of a few mosquitos.
It turned out the 2 lads that were fishing on the lake (to themselves)and leaving today, had a good result in the cooler weather during their week down at “Summer Point” with fish to 49lb + and a few 30’s. The two lads took us up to the farmhouse (approx 3 minutes drive or 300 yards from summerpoint if you walk) and showed us the facilities (shower, bath, handbasin and large chest freezer). Showering down and having loaded most of our frozen bait into the freezer, we were ready to do the most important thing so far........fish !!!!.
A quick draw for swims and Cliff, Darren and Neil decided to fish the dam wall and Peter and I on the woods bank. The dam wall is approximately 200 yards long and has flat grassy banks making a very comfortable swim choice, however the woods bank has a boggy start to the bank (you will need to boat your gear to the swims)with the rest made up of hard narrow ground just about large enough to take Nash Titans.
Peter chose the much desired Summer point (shallowest water on the lake), myself in between Summer point and Yokos, with Darren at the top of the dam wall, Cliff in the middle over deep water and Neil on the wall closest the car park in Stalkers corner.
Etang de Boux is almost rectangular and between 10-12 acres with depths varying between 2ft and 16ft, with only two banks being fishable (the other banks are out of bounds behind electric fences for cattle farming). The water is quite cloudy, predominantly silt bottomed with only isolated patches of weed, with the exception of most of the margins which have small pads. The lake is extremely rich in natural food, as apart from the high stock of carp, tench, pike in de Boux, mirads of roach, rudd and minature carp can be seen readily cruising in the margins.
Having finally settled into the swims it was really a “recovery day” for most of us and single hook baits were the order of the day. Whippet next door drew first blood with a nice 22.10 Mirror, followed by a very small common after dinner. Nothing for the rest of us mere mortals during the day, and finally the rigs were put out and baiting up in earnest took place for the night ahead. 
The nocturnal rustlings of the Rats, voles, mice passed me by throughout the night and it was a deep un-disturbed sleep that ended with the most beautiful dawn that has ever greeted my eyes.
Carp were crashing everywhere on the far bank, some large, some huge and not one of them within 100 yards of my baits !!!!..............a change of tactics was in order.
All was not quite on the dam wall and a few fish were out, with Darren taking a PB of 26.10lb and Cliff a 28.6lb and several small carp to Neil. Pictures taken and a some video footage and it was off to the cool of the car park for a breakfast of croissants, French bread, sausages and bacon before some hard work with the echo sounder on the boats to find some features !!!.
 There are two boats on Boux one single man and one double man (plus we took with us a rubber two man as well), the green single boat is the best to use for most purposes, (baiting up, rowing baits and echo sounder work) which Peter and I used extensively and as described later, were absolutely essential to us catching fish from the woods bank.
The fish that I saw crashing in front of me on the woods bank were showing at approximately 120 yards, so it was a row over to the out of bounds bank with the echo sounder to find any features and drop off a permanent marker of two to fish to. The far bank was generally silt with some new weed coming up from the bottom in depths of 5- 8 ft of water and I allotted to put two baits on the same line some 30 yards apart as there were also many fish showing at that range on the echo sounder.
Peter fishing the “bay’s” in the summer point swim was doing a similar operation but at closer range, placing baits against pads and weed where carp were crashing out regularly.
We all picked up fish during the day and evening from our new spots with a few twenties and a 34.8lb to me (at one stage there was two on at the same time) all to rowed out double 18mm pop-ups over trout and hemp pellet at 120 yards.
The fish that were coming out were fighting very hard and on average it was a good 10 minutes of “tug of war” getting them to the net from 120 yard range. Most of the fish had wrists like “wrestlers” with large rudders to match..............we were wondering how hard a lump was going to fight !!!!!.
The lads on the dam wall were also having a few out with three twenties and hoards of single figure commons (axmisters) to their rods. Some of the fish that Cliff was having were in depths of between 12 - 14ft, which was surprising as the daytime temperatures were 35c and normally shallower water would be more productive during these summer temperatures..........the fish were trying to tell us something !!!.
Peter brought along his match pole and fished for many hours after the shoals of Rudd and Roach that inhabit the lake and was having a fish a chuck on sweetcorn, nothing of size but with rudd to 2lb in the water you never know what you what was going to be caught next. He also had a Tench and a Pike during the week and ended up with the most species of fish caught.........just a noddy at heart is our Peter !!!!..
The nights were not very productive on the woods bank swims, with only the odd fish out. This was not the case on the dam wall and we could hear the lads alarms screaming out into the night and hoped that they were getting amongst the bigger fish. The nights were warm and moonlit with only the rustling of the rodents (one night we thought that they were having a party in the boat eating all the surplus pellets!), the croak of frogs,crickets and the crashing of the carp disturbing the silence.
A succession of fish fell to the lads on the dam wall during the night and morning with Darren taking his second PB of the trip with a mirror of 31.4lb and Cliff a couple of low 20’s.
Due to the heat of the Boux sun, we adopted a routine of reeling the rods in and letting the swims rest whilst we went off to the local supermarket at Moulins Engilbert to purchase our bread and daily supplies. The pretty village is about a 5 minute drive from the lake and has a butchers, bakers, bank, pharmacy, doctors and a bar. The Atak supermarket sells just about everything you will need for a trip but not with a lot of choice and as it is the only food shop in the village it is very busy so be prepared to queue for a while. 
At one stage we thought that Cliff was going to need the medical facilities in the village when the bull chased him from the farm all the way down to the lake. We were not sure if it was Cliffs sunburnt body that brought the reaction from the bull or it’s intentions of using him as a scratching post !!!!!.
Brunch and dinner was always a leisurely affair from our return from the village and was always conducted in the shade of the car park.
After our break it was back to the grind of rowing out the baits again and baiting up with Tigers, Hemp/ trout pellets and boilies. After allowing the water to have a break, pick ups happened fairly rapidly and it was not uncommon to have two or three rods going off within the space of 10 minutes. 
A few fish came out during the afternoon with the better fish being a 32lb mirror to Cliff and a 28 .10 to me. I must have caught that fish “on it’s blind side” as it had only one eye........poor thing but at least anyone catching it will easily recognise this fish.
Poor Neil was struggling on the dam wall, whilst we were getting plenty of pick ups it was all from small commons and mirrors and to top it off he was also suffering from the effects of the sun and not feeling at his best. A move was in order we all said and he moved the next day into Yoko’s having seen the fish showing on the far bank.
Neils move to Yoko’s paid off within an hour of him boating the baits out with a 28.6lb mirror closely followed up with a couple more twenties. The fish were all coming out of an area we nicknamed the “box”, where most of the fish were showing up on the echo sounder and were crashing most in about 10ft of water and did not move for the rest of the week.
 Neil was catching his fish in and on the edge of the channel on a silt area with no other features present at about 60 yards out from Yoko’s.
Yoko’s provides a comfortable double swim area with gradually shelving banks with plenty of protection from the sun from the tree canopy.
At least now Neil had moved on to our bank we had the chance of a bigger social as we were all bivvied up within 120 yards of one another and Pete and I were no longer the Leper colony any more !!!!.
Our good mate Darren fishing on the end of the dam wall, having found a new spot in 3ft of water in the dam wall bay was catching consistently with fish to mid twenties. Trouble is that he had to cast very close to an electric fence on the far bank to get pick-ups and eventually put a bait over it with an over zealous cast after night fall. Cliff being the helpful chap he is volunteered to retrieve the rig and dressed in his finest thigh waders went around to sort out the snagged rod. Yes ......you guessed it, holding onto an electric fence to untangle a rig in the water is not a good idea and with a crack and a flash he got zapped.
Darren managed to add another twenty the same night by claiming a 28lb mirror caught on the “zapped” Cliffs rods whilst he was playing another one !!!
 As the trip progressed, a succession of carp of varying sizes slipped over our nets in the heat of the cloudless Morvan sky’s.
The only thing lacking was a boux lump on the bank !!
The evening socials were excellent in the shade of our base camp in the car park and many fine meals prepared (by me of course) washed down in the quiteness with champaign, Bordeaux reds and the obligitory lager or three. Peter enjoyed a Beouf Bourgignon so much that he drank all the gravy (I forgot to tell him that a bottle and a half of red bordeaux went into the sauce) and quickly retired for the evening and waking up with a raging hangover the next morning !!.
The fights that the boux fish gave you were amazing and it was not uncommon still to be playing a low twenty for 30 minutes after a pick up. The fish were generally in great condition with only spawning blemishes present on their flanks, with most sporting large wrists and huge rudders for tails.
One such fight lasted for 40 minutes when a 170 yard boated out bait was picked up by a fish that absolutely refused to stop. It took metre after metre and my reel was quickly well into the backing, with the fish gaining 5 metres and me only 3 !!!. All things must come to an end and as I was thinking of netting a 40 common, it turned to be a tail hooked 19.12lb mirror much to the amusement of the lads that were gathered around to witness the capture.
The final day approached with a large tally of fish under our belts but with no real whackers out. The bigger fish were not playing and Peter, Neil and I without a PB, and Darren breaking his PB twice it was still a good trip.
Young Peter (Whippet)was being wound up by Neil and I saying he was still a trainee and apprentice carp fisherman and it will happen for him in a trip or two or when he is old enough, when Whippet’s middle rod roared off from a spot he had found on the echo sounder next to a weedbed.
Fish on, the fight was long and protracted...........Neil and I caught sight of the carp’s flank from the top of the bank (Whippet was down in the water) and both looked at each other knowing it was a special fish. Not wishing to worry Peter about what he was attatched to, Neil radioed the others on the dam wall to get over to us PDQ.
Peter still oblivious to it’s size steered the fish into the net (for a second time) and one of de Boux’s stars was captured.
Weighing in at 46.2lb with a frame of a much larger fish the mirror gave Pete his PB by 17lb !!!.
Many photo’s taken and video footage followed and finally a reluctant Peter let the fish go out to it’s watery home (we thought he was going to take it home with him !!).
That fish was one of the last of the trip and what an ending !!!!.
All in all the trip was a good one and was worth travelling the 6 hours from Calais and for seeing Pete and Darrens smiles with their PB fish.
The water was not as kind as it could have been to us but with 163 fish (1 forty, four thirty’s and 35 twenties) between us over the days it was not short of action.
In hindsight the water was too small for 5 anglers and 3-4 may have been much better with less lines going through the lake. Having said that we all would not have missed a chance of a trip to this historical water..............the “Redmire” of France.
Au revoir mon amies.
Paul Ashley
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