French Fishing

[james]

Hi,

Are any of you going to do any fishing in france over the next year?
I am going to fish the river soane in a little arm were the carp should be because the river is flowing hard.

[scorpio]

I am going to fish the Loire in the loire vally for the 150lb cats and the massive zander, pike and salmon, I may do some Carping as well..... this is in my opinion the best river in France for variety, I saw a 50lb + pike there last year it was like a torpedo. I will write a post about it when the time comes.

Tony

[james]

I was told the loire was a good river for cats and carp. The soane the river i am fishing i have seen pictures of 170lb cats and 50lb. I heard of people catching 60lb carp from the soane. When you get back tell me how it went.

[scorpio]

I won't be going till April, I am lucky as an ex client of mine owns a cottage 600m from the river, what a stroke of luck eh?
Good luck mate and look forward to finding out how you do.

Tony

[kevin]

Hi James

I am going to do some but not in FRANCE .
Im Keeping it Real...
Im Keeping it Hear

Kevin

[scorpio]

Kevin,

There aint a problem fishing in different countries for their native fish, I have fished Austria for Carp, France for whatever and the Ebro as well, what is the main problem is fish from other countries here in the UK mate, there is a major difference.

Tony

[scorpio]

To be honest with you everyone has a choice where they fish and what they fish for, don't you feel exploited? A true British Carp angler will fish for British fish, if you want big French fish go to France and catch them from their own environment, more satisfying don't you think, I bet the passport office is making a mint, I have been led to believe that you need a passport to fish Darenth these days and pay for your escargot flavoured boilies in Euro's.

Tony

[scorpio]

Just about Jim, waiting on my drunk 19 year old to stumble through the door, Happy Christmas & new year to you too mate, sooner be fishing but I suppose we have to have one day off /images/forum/icons/smile.gif

Keeping it British & Real

Tony

[Dan]

thats right tony, if some anglers want to fish for these big french carp then fair enough, as long as its in france and i just hope that one of those big imports is never put forward for a record over here.. anyway have a nice christmas everyone

Dan

[scorpio]

As a so called "pleasure angler" I see your point, all we are trying to do here is to prevent the Carp angling world here in Britain becoming a fiasco where certain venue owners stock illegally imported fish into their waters, or legally and not disclose the fact that these fish are from foreign parts. If I wanted to catch a 60lb carp I would catch it from it's natural environment. Keeping it real is another way of saying keep British carp angling British... as a nation of anglers we are unique, the French kill their fish on capture to eat, 60lb carp included, think about it... Keep British Carp angling British

Tony

[bazza]

apparently, the french actually don't like eating carp over about 10lb. the meat tends to get tougher and the older the fish the more earthy the taste.

the french buy a plot of land at the edge of a lake, build a bbq, get the family down in the summer and catch a fish or two and have a picnic/jolly day out. the biggies go straight back.

that may explain the abundance of big fish waters in france...

[scorpio]

I used to work in France and they will eat literally anything from the part of France I was in... they were most upset when I returned the fish I caught, they took a 22lb common out, put it in a wet sack and took it home and removed the roe from it, broke my heart it did but that is their way of life. The BBQ thing is spot on, we actually has deep fried tiny roach as white bait, strange people.

Tony

[rhornegold]

I also worked in France for three years, it was in the late 80's when the only people fishing for carp were Brits.
It was surprising how many French lads could speak English when I started catching their carp.
I had hand feed many Red & Fallow Deer on the golf course I was building at the time, one week before Christmas along came the hunters and shot half the herd.
Being quite upset about this I enquired at the forestry commision and was told that this is normal.
You have to have the right permit for shooting, as you do for fishing or any other type of blood sport in France.
The anti blood sport lobby would stand very little chance France, dont forget to obtain all the correct documents before you start fishing, as they will take your tackle if you have not.
It can be up to six months before your case is heard and you will have to go back to pay the fine & collect your tackle.
The question of French fish in England is difficult, because most of our stocks of "English Carp" are from the continent originally.
Sure there is a problem with disease but this applies just as much to fish being moved around in this country.
Keeping it real; I dont think so, we are long past that.

Bob Hornegold

[scorpio]

I still think that we should try at least to keep it real, RMC are doing this, we all know that the Carp and some other speicies like Wells catfish are originally imports. I do a lot of trout fishing and the competiton between different waters is very high, they stock oversized fish and advertise the capture.... these fish are captured within hours of being introduced. I personally would not fish a water if I knew that large fish had been reared from another country and "stocked" into a fishery only for profit and not for the interest of the fish and the angler and also the environment for that matter.

Keeping it real is to fish for "British" reared fish not necessarily British bred fish.

Tony

[rhornegold]

Tony,
Yes RMC are doing a good job now, this is good for angling and there are others with similar rearing programs.
In the past this was not always the case,take the Green for example,in the 50s I fished it as a LAA & Waverly water, in the 60s/70s it was Halls Agr. 80s Leisure sport, now RMC.
In that time it has been stocked at various times from different places, when the pits were dug fish were introduced, when the relief was put through and the river altered direction again fish were introduced.
The carp in the relief did not just appear,they were stocked long before Ian worked for RMC.
Beleive me, fish were moved around in the Lee Valley without regard to health checks.
Many are the large fish being caught today which could be of continental stock.
I can think of three very large fish kills in a very small area of the Lee valley in the last 6 yrs due to moving so called British stock.
Whether the Carp are reared or bred in this country is not the point, its the illegal movement of fish that transport disease.
Yes if we could wipe out the existing stocks and start again there may be some value in the saying" Keeping It Real "but not as it stands.

Bob Hornegold

[scorpio]

I do see your point and the movement of fish from as far back as the 60's was big business. As for RMC & Leisure Sport, one of the same I think, just a change of name. We don't know 100% where the fish we are catching have come from, the thing I personally dissagree with is the stocking of fish which are not bred in this country for profit with the said culprits claiming these fish are in fact from a british strain. I would sooner catch a wild, never caught, not named fish from the Thames or where ever than dear old Basil.... even if the wild fish is only 10lb's..... I will have more self satifaction with that. I caught a well known Carp from Sutton 2 a few years back and an angler told me this was called whatever.... this dissapointed me that the fish was previously caught..... you can probably tell I am not a Carp angler Bob /images/forum/icons/smile.gif

Tony

[rhornegold]

Tony,
A few years ago I caught some very large carp from a London reservior, also I witnessed a very large mirror of just under 50lbs.
The water cost me £30 per year to fish, it was closed on the pretext of Health & Safety.
It is said one of these large British fish is now swimming around a 20acre lake on the edge of Cambridgeshire.
Is this fish any more acceptable than a fish from say Paris?
Maybe Jim would like to comment on that.

Bob Hornegold

[scorpio]

I know the fish & I know the water, what you have to look at is where the fish originated from, okay so it was stocked into that lake for the benefit of anglers.... if it had stayed in the reservoir, which I think I know where you mean it would have been forgotton forever.... I think that this fish being moved was a benefit to anglers.... a British fish? Who knows... it is a pretty looking fish though.... I have seen massive fish in reservoirs, not only Carp, pike and Perch which are only caught by Trout anglers and killed.... it broke my heart to see a 35lb + pike dead on the bank at Bewl a few years back, now if this fish had been transfered to a lake somewhere it would have brought pleasure to us, as anglers... I think what the point is here is the introduction of fish for publicity and profit no matter where they come from, all are gulity of this RMC included....Business is business as they say.

Tony

[rhornegold]

Tony,
I think we all know the case and proof was difficult,it was all a con the fish were catchable, the only mugs were the anglers on that water who had no writes of appeal.
Even some of my freinds from Elstow are fishing for it.
It's not right for that fish or any other fish to be moved for the sake of profit, be it British or French.
Those fish were stocked as 1to2lb fish for the enjoyment of anybody for the price of a ticket.

Bob Hornegold

[Clem]

just thougt I'd stick my oar in,no Anglo-Saxon is indiginous to Britain either.HNY Steve

[mike]

Top post mate!!

I do understand the concern. However most people on here are adding "keeping it real" on the end of their posts becasue they are jumping on bit of a bandwagon!

Fishing is a personal thing. You set your own aims and it's up to the idvidiual to achieve them - for some its the biggest fish they possibly can, for others it's about fishing famous places for famous fish and catching the very fish that we read about in mags and started us carp fishing in the first place. unlike most sports your competing against yourself. It's about getting what you want out of the sport. For many of us getting away from the wife is motivation enough!!

Now what I enjoy about fishing is the quest for my own little fishing utopia. A water body with a head of carp that no one is all that sure about, that sees very few anglers and is in a nice setting! Now the chances of finding that are a bit poor in the UK, so I go to France. I've fished much of central Brittany and caught some lovely fish - with no one but the Pike fishing locals for company and I love it.

thats the beauty and thats how I enjoy my fishing. We all use rods and lines and bait and stuff! there's no less value in catching a fish from darenth than there is from Yately, or my river in Brittany or anywhere.

I suggest the people who believe some of the rubbish they're posting need to spend more time fishing and less time surfing.

respect to RMC though and excellent Marketing slant.

[Smarts]

Anyway......nice tangent guys,but is anyone going to answer James's question?
He seeks info.about where to fish,bait,what is there etc....for the area mentioned in his mail.

Smarts