/]fter the ‘Roast Beefs’ had reigned victorious at our friendly England v France match earlier in the year we had discussed with David Dauchy and Professor Ludo the possibility of travelling over to Francais and having an informal friendly return match. Any excuse to go angling!
The guys had told us about a great venue in the North of France that they thought we would love and arrangements were left fairly loose until October when a date was proposed and details of the venue fully disclosed.
Being an interesting old gravel pit on the side of one of the northern French rivers the information we gleaned about the venue and its inhabitants made the prospect an exciting one and Mr Smarts (aka Martin Lewis) and I were getting more and more excited and exuberant about prospects in the weeks leading up to our trip to fish with the David Judo, Ginger James and Professional Patrice.
We new the rules and tailored the tackle to suit – minimum 0.35mm lines (15Ib 0.38mm Hydro Tuff) – no leaders – and barbless hooks. As the first English anglers to be allowed onto the venue stroke pulling was never going to be an option so everything had to kosher.
After an early exit from the office on Friday afternoon I took the works van home – squeezed my little BIC boat in the back and filled it with all the tackle I would need (and then some I’m sure I wouldn’t but decided to take anyway. Advice from our French friends was red fish meals were the choice of boilies to take, so that was an easy one – Carp Company ‘Ice Reds’ (the classic Caviar and Cranberry to be exact), a bait I have used for several years now and have 100% utter faith in.
Particle baits to go were tiger nuts soaked and cooked in Thaumatin –B, and a tin of good old ‘Scopex Maize’ that I ponced off my long suffering mate Lee! I also prepared a big old bucket of chilly hemp and some delicious groats to act as a carpet feed.
Down to Dover in good time, and by 11pm in the evening we were on French soil and a steady drive found us arrive at the locked gates to the venue at about 2am in early hours of Saturday morning. Sleep is for anglers that aren’t buzzed up on caffeine and despite some heavy drizzle we set about setting up in swims 1 and 2 – our allocated swims for the next few days. They looked good – in the dark – and when a fish crashed out somewhere in the misty darkness (and by ‘eck it was properly dark!) thoughts of setting the alarm and having a couple of hours sleep went out the bivvy window!
The baits were in with drops by about 4am, each set up on a dainty parachute stringer so that the hookbait would have a few 12mm Ice reds tight around the rig and eventually I drifted off to sleep as the light started to lighten.
We new the rules and tailored the tackle to suit – minimum 0.35mm lines (15Ib 0.38mm Hydro Tuff) – no leaders – and barbless hooks. As the first English anglers to be allowed onto the venue stroke pulling was never going to be an option so everything had to kosher.
After an early exit from the office on Friday afternoon I took the works van home – squeezed my little BIC boat in the back and filled it with all the tackle I would need (and then some I’m sure I wouldn’t but decided to take anyway. Advice from our French friends was red fish meals were the choice of boilies to take, so that was an easy one – Carp Company ‘Ice Reds’ (the classic Caviar and Cranberry to be exact), a bait I have used for several years now and have 100% utter faith in.
Particle baits to go were tiger nuts soaked and cooked in Thaumatin –B, and a tin of good old ‘Scopex Maize’ that I ponced off my long suffering mate Lee! I also prepared a big old bucket of chilly hemp and some delicious groats to act as a carpet feed.
Down to Dover in good time, and by 11pm in the evening we were on French soil and a steady drive found us arrive at the locked gates to the venue at about 2am in early hours of Saturday morning. Sleep is for anglers that aren’t buzzed up on caffeine and despite some heavy drizzle we set about setting up in swims 1 and 2 – our allocated swims for the next few days. They looked good – in the dark – and when a fish crashed out somewhere in the misty darkness (and by ‘eck it was properly dark!) thoughts of setting the alarm and having a couple of hours sleep went out the bivvy window!
The baits were in with drops by about 4am, each set up on a dainty parachute stringer so that the hookbait would have a few 12mm Ice reds tight around the rig and eventually I drifted off to sleep as the light started to lighten.
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