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Well here we go again on another French carp experience, this time to the 40 acre Etang de la Botte situated within the Marne region of France close to Lac du Dur about one and a half hours further on from La Village where I enjoyed some good fishing and a craek (Irish for crack so my my Deborah says) with our Mo in May of this year.
Bridget and David Keep of Anglinglines Holidays recommended the lake to us in July so we started the preparations (again), making the usual calls about swim availability, lake size, what’s been out recently and organising the ferry crossing through Bridget.
 We could not find out a lot about the lake, even on the carp forums on the internet, it seemed that a lot of our countrymen have been out there doing very well and keeping it very much to themselves............or so they thought !!.
Our Mo who went on our last trip to La village, was not allowed out to play by his other half on this new foray and so my good friend Neil Huckle (Yoda) jumped at the chance to go even though it was only 12 days after he arrived back from fishing La Roche ...........this will be his third trip this year !!!!.
Urgent calls were made to our bait suppliers ( Premier baits )to roll 45kg of Aminos boilies in 14mm and 16mm, with a few kilo of hardened bottom and pop-ups for the trip, Haiths supplying the Super Red and organising another 100+ kilo of hemp, mixed pellet and tiger nuts.
Not being one for driving through the early hours of the morning (when any sane person should be curled up asleep and not doing an impression of a bat) we booked the ferry via Angling lines holidays for the Friday afternoon before we were due to fish, so that we would get to the lake around midnight and catch some zzzzzzzzz’s until the lake opened up at 6.30am.
What with work commitments, the time to leave for the trip came around very quickly and the Friday afternoon saw us loading the Frontera around Neil’s house with all the bait, particle, food and the gear for two for a weeks trip. It never ceases to amaze me that we can squeeze so much gear into so little a space and still be able to drive (albeit uncomfortably) for many hours to our destination, although kicking Neil out of the passenger seat, letting him cling to the roof rails on the journey and filling the passenger seat with more particle had great appeal !!!.
The Sea France ferry crossing is always a nice part of the trip as it allows us to unwind from the drive, get some goody’s for the week and have a beer or two before going shopping for the essentials at the hypermarket at cite de Europe in Calais. Although Neil’s been to France twice this year on organised trips he has not really been in contact with the French people nor has been into a hypermarket of this size with its bewildering array of fresh foods and produce..........an indoctrination was in the making. Choosing the Camembert, Roquefort, Blue Brie, Megrez spicy sausages, Croissants, Baguettes, Bordeaux wines and the beer was left to me as I promised faithfully that he would enjoy them if he dared try. We were fortunate that La Botte had its own fridge freezer to accommodate all the fresh food we packed and had high hopes of putting on weight (rather than losing some as occurred on previous trips).
Off down the A26 on the auto route with no traffic to talk of, is an absolute joy for driving and it was some 4 hours later we arrived at the lake entrance at just before midnight having a slight hiccup with the directions and enlisting the help of a kind French family in Bignicourt-sur-Marne (who looked on their maps, went on the internet and finally drove off looking for the lake in their own car for 20 minutes !!!!!!!!!). Anyone who remotely believes that the French people are arrogant and unhelpful please note, if you are courteous and treat them with the respect that they deserve, you will not find more friendlier and helpful people anywhere.
On arrival it was cold and the lake covered in a thick mist so we took a walk around the outer fence (which is locked overnight) and spotted a few bivvies up and one French Carp angler playing a fish we returned to the Frontera to doss down for a few hours until the lake opened.
Lionel Camus the owner duly opened up at 7.00am and showed Neil and myself around the lake, explained the rules and the intricacies of the French toilet , shower facilities and where to put the rubbish out, leaving us to select swims for the week.
The lake is almost square and is approximately 40 acres in size with an elongated island running roughly down the centre (the island can not be fished from) with 20 swims offering plenty of water to fish to. Trees, shrubs and reed beds were planted by Lionel in 1995 and are now well established throughout all banks and particularly so on the north bank (swims 5-11), however some swims are quite open (swims 14-20). The water is quite cloudy throughout with an average depth of 6 foot during May (The average water depth in late September was 3 1/2 foot) with the bottom consisting of large gravel strips (not quite high enough to classify as true bars) with a mixture of clay and sand in between and a deeper channel surrounding the island. 
There are supposedly weed beds on the Eastern side of the lake between swims 11-16 but we could not find them and have been probably eaten by the Grass carp and copyu present by the end of September. The owner Lionel tells us that the water is very rich in natural food such as blood worm, snails, mussels and crayfish so that the fish stocked grow on well to much higher weights. Lionel tells us that the fish stocks are currently 1200 carp with a mixture of commons, mirrors, grass carp, the odd catfish, and a few koi crosses, plus bream, roach and pike present in good numbers.
We intended originally to double up in swim 18 (the point) which is a promontory jutting into the lake on the southern bank by 50 yards, allowing easy flicks to the island, which unfortunately was already taken by a French angler. Having looked around the lake we decided to double up in peg 12 for the night as it allowed access to fish the island (70 yards) and large gravel areas into the main part of the lake at approx 40 yards before moving to the point the following day.
The sun beamed down whilst we put up the titans and put the rods on the buzz bars, and all this hard work caused the throat to get quite dry so the first of a few beers were called for, for lubrication of course !!!.
After a while it was decided we better start some fishing and went around the lake to seek one of the 5 rowing boats on the water to put out our pre-cooked particle and boilies out with. The boats are in two sizes, one man or two man, allowing bait to be put out during certain hours of the day accurately and if necessary in quantity (where were they at the Le Vilage when we were spodding for two straight hours a day !!) but cannot be used to place hook baits .
Once baited and having another beer or three, our swim was chosen by all of the French anglers on the water for a visit, popping in to practice their English, discussing the merits of Fox, Kevin Nash, Rod Hutchinson (on bended knee), worshipping my camo Viper TT (even though they could not see it and only found it when they tripped over it !!!) and drinking all our beer.
Funny people the French anglers though they always ask you politely if they can make a spliff in front of you and ask if you mind............knock yourself out I say and with that they got well and truly did, only leaving to the beckoned calls of their girlfriend’s on the far bank ( we did offer to go in their place but this was met with a flat refusal, shame !!!).
My rod was first away on the gravel patch and after a prolonged tussle, was netted by the still vertical Neil. Revealed on the unhooking mat was a good mirror which pitched the scales around to 30.12lb..........what a way to start a session. Pic’s taken, the fish was sent on its way and the rod put back out.
Afternoon passed into night and the lake went flat calm and turned decidedly cold with a clear sky, the fish started crashing out along the island and further into the lake. The lake is utterly dark and totally quite apart from the odd quacking of the six ducks present, the odd frog and the crickets............it’s what French fishing is all about !!!!!!!.
Shooting stars rained down from the heavens and we both made our private wishes...........sometimes wishes do come true, don’t they ?.
It was a little hectic the rest of the night (no sleep again then !!) with a succession of 3 doubles to my rods, followed by a 29.8lb mirror and topped with an even larger one at 34.8lb .
Poor old Neil (well he is nearly ready for the bus pass........whoops did I say that !!) was getting plum tuckered out netting my fish and assumed his normal position (horizontal) and reverted back to his snoring. Still you cant get any sleep if the carp decide to give you a wake up call can you, as his buzzer purred into life and eventually netted his PB common at 32.4lb which was totally pristine and absolutely stunning. First fish out to him and its a thirty !!!.
Having caught at least a good hours sleep (in Neil’s case 6 hours) during the night (which was close to a frost as you are going to get), Lionel arrives at the crack of 7.30 depositing 3 baguettes that we ordered (about 60p each) having picked them up from the local patisserie on his way to open up the lake. Having had a decent breakfast we debated whether to move to “the point” or remain fishing our current swim and decided to give it one more night where we were due to all the activity (from the fish that is....not from the comatose Neil).
An hours cooking of a large bucket of soaked hemp, topped up with trout pellet, sweetcorn and tiger nuts, followed by our boat tour to the spots (I say tour, due to the fact that Neil, my slave can’t row in a straight line), we were all sorted out by 2pm and all the rods out.
The other anglers were all leaving today with the exception of James “Dave” and his girlfriend, our next door neighbours in peg 13 and we had the lake to ourselves. Dave had a pretty 27lb scattered scale mirror in the afternoon but was generally struggling to get runs from fishing to the island making us wonder if the fish were now in the right side of the lake (swims 5-10) as they may well be wary of feeding.
A flurry of 5 doubles came to my rods on the gravel during the afternoon, followed by a low twenty and 4 more before nightfall, leaving Neil scratching his head as to why he was not getting any action to my left. This all changed when Neil had his second thirty of the trip at 30.6lb followed by a small double common.
At 1am on Monday morning the fish that stole the show made the mistake of picking up my pop-up and after a good fight Neil netted the fish first time, which looked like an upper thirty. Neil, complaining about the weight of lifting the fish to the unhooking mat, revealed the lump on the mat and I changed my mind on the weight and said it was over Forty.
The Ruben’s pulled round until 46.8lb was reached and with a shout that could be heard in Vitry I whooped “yeeeehhaaaaaaa” and did my little Irish jig (thats what you get for being married to a Kilkenny cat does for you !!!!) as I had now done my PB mirror.
 Pictures taken the big old lump remained placid whilst I was holding her for the photo session and with my arms sagging, I reluctantly slid her back to her home. What a result for so short a time into a session and demanded that Neil open a beer in celebration. We stayed up most of the night even though it was a cold one, listening to the lumps crashing further down the lake and knowing it was the right decision to do the extra night in swim 12.
Neil had a couple of strange pick ups during the night, pulling out of one which left him part way up a tree on our margin and the other one swam on to the bank in front of us. “You’ve been ratted” I shouted, low and behold the Copyu with a boilie attached decides to nonchalantly wash itself before speeding off into the trees with Neil's hook link in tow !!!. A tug of war developed to which we lost, with Neil getting the full brunt of any rat jokes I could think of !.
The next day was very quiet with only 2 fish out, both to Neil's rods at 24.15lb and a double mirror and much later yet another rat which took him into its under water burrow (a fight we again lost !!, but the rat was heard to be singing the theme tune from that famous film “The Great Escape” at the time). Just to show that I could catch one too, I swung in a small one on my rod which after being cut free hobbled off into the darkness.
The swim had died on us for some reason, even the two guys from Belgium (Le Brussels Sprouts) who had turned up were also quiet. We decided that a move was in order into the area where the fish were heard lumping at night in front of swims 6 and 7 on the north bank. Markering up we found 4-5 foot of water, several gravel strips running in front of both swims with clay in between.
Moving the gear round in the morning after the requisite cooking of the hemp, showers were in order again (in case you are wondering Neil likes to shower alone, or so he says !!!). The shower is quite strong but the water smells a bit, as does the water from the tap located within the French toilet (funny place to put a tap isn’t it). We would recommend that you use bottled water for cooking and having a brew as the water taints everything and be careful when you are flushing the French toilet when you are inside as your boots will get a good wash as well.
We brought fresh food for 3 days with us putting the supplies in the large fridge, but by now they were all gone and a run down to the Super U at Vitry le Francois was required for a top up of food and beer.
The move to the new swims paid off within 1 hour of putting out the bait as Neil had a 34.8, which whilst having its photo taken was joined by a 34.12 on my rods..........good decision or what !!.
Plenty of fish followed during the day and night with Neil taking 5 more carp of 22.0lb, 20.4lb and 2 doubles, and myself 8 fish, 26.4lb, 22.2lb and 6 doubles..........No rats for the rat catchers today then !!.
Neil was boating out his Super Red ground bait and pellet to his distant spot with the bait boat to make a tight feeding area which paid off the next day with another thirty at 30.8 followed by two more doubles.
Mind you Neil had a right result on that rod when he had a run from a fish, shouted to me he had one on and to come and net it. Net it I did, and duly the old chap had captured a fine snottie.........mmm lucky chap !!!!.
I even made him take a photo of him holding it..........cruel I am. 
The swim had gone quiet for me during the day with only two fish out, a 22.6lb fully scaled mirror (but what a pretty fish) which stripped 40 yards off my reel on its first run, and another almost fully scaled double.
I had a problem at night when I lost 3 fish with hook pulls when the fish kited through my other lines, could not raise Neal to help out (even though he was only twenty yards away !!)and when I went round to find out if he was still alive all that could be heard was the grinding of his choppers and his snoring drowning me out (snoring that would drown out a football crowd as well !!!). It was agreed that he would leave his mobile on at night from now on so that I could ring him if needed (thats the height of laziness for you !!!).
The lumps that were crashing in front of us disappeared on the last full day with hardly a fish showing, the Brussels Sprouts were struggling with only 10 fish to 25lb for the week, but a French angler who moved on to the point had had a forty on Thursday night.........so there was a happy chappy .
We had a few more fish, with Neil landing 6, 25.0lb, 22.0lb and 4 doubles and myself 4 carp to 25.8lb until it was time to pack the gear back into the car for the journey back.
We both had a great trip to La Botte, had a good few fish, topped by some decent thirties and the “Big Mumma”, great food, fine wine and a terrific host in Lionel Camus who cannot d o enough for you if you are prepared to try and speak some French.
Our thanks also go out to Bridget and David Keep of Angling Lines Holidays for their professional service in organising the fishing at La Botte and the ferry crossing for us and also to the French and Belgium anglers on the lake who drank us dry and gave us a good laugh.
As Swarzenegger says “ i’ll be back ” , no doubt mob handed with the lads from “Ginger” next year to see if we can winkle some more pristine carp from this great water.
Au revoir.
PAUL ASHLEY
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