He pestered me to let him come with me fishing for the odd day or so, I just poodle about for the tench locally. I was getting ready to leave to load up the coach, Rael then realized his rod bag and backpack were missing from his van, some bastard had nicked them.

This really pissed him off now, to be honest I could sense his disbelief, this on top of everything else, moping and moaning, both Carrie and I could do without that for a week, so I suggested we quickly cobble together some gear and he went to France for the week. We had just half an hour before I had to meet the coaches, he had no bait ready, he nicked whatever he could from my gear and went. To be honest he had loads missing and he’d have to borrow gear in France. At least he could fish near the Lodge, no worries and get better hopefully, and who knows perhaps he’ll catch a biggie!!

I’m off over with a group of us on the 21st, we’re on Lake 2, if you want some action this is the one, it’s my favourite now, easy casting at catapult range. Apparently if you can find a bit of smooth silt in your swim, these are the spots that are now seeming to produce. I use 3”-5” hooklengths on the gravel, so I’ll have to find out what length to use on the silt. Just phoned Luke Stevenson who recently had a load of carp from Lake 2. He’s in our new advert with Mick Owen the 2 guys with the big grass carp. Well they fished in gravel and silt, but the better fish came from the silty areas, they used 10” hooklengths and 2ozs leads, as opposed to the usual 3-4oz leads used by most, as they say there’s no rules in carp fishing.