Tackling Cedar Lake
by Paul Cooper and Pat Gillett
Cedar Lake is a 4 acre gravel pit with varying depths from 1m on the western end of the lake to over 3m at the eastern end of the lake. There are steep banks to most of the lake and gentle sloping banks to the private side leading to the front lawn of the private bungalow of the owners, Tommy and George Young.
The lake is set in the valley of the River Seine, an area that is surrounded by other gravel pits, including the Island Lake, which is also owned and run, by Tommy and George. Mick Hall who has been on the French carp scene since the early pioneering days of Cassien, is a resident bailiff on the Island Lake but is also available for advice and help on Cedar Lake.
The lake is stocked with around 200 carp, a quarter of which are made up of Commons and the remainder deep-framed mirrors. The lake is rich in weed growth and contains an abundance of insect life and swan mussels for the fish to feed on and gain weight. The current record is a 43lb Mirror carp, with the expectation of bigger fish for the forthcoming season.
Preparation
I have been fishing the French carp scene for the past 17 years and one of the main problems that I have encountered is preserving frozen boilies and fresh particle bait for either the journey or the duration of the trip. I recently purchased a Rival food vacuum sealer for around £29. This was the answer to my preservation problems for my bait. Having partially dried around 8 kilo’s of frozen Quest Special Crab boilies, they were vacuum packed in 2 kilo bags ready for the trip. Once they had been prepared in this way there was no further need to freeze the baits. I also vacuum packed around 10 kilo’s of prepared hemp in the same way ready for the trip.
The Rival Vacuum food sealer |
The end result |
Fully vacuumed |
20 kilo’s of Quest Baits shelf life Rahja Spice boilies were also added to the bait package plus an additional sack of unprepared hemp and a 20kilo sack of trout pellets. With all this bait I was confident that the forthcoming trip to Cedar Lake should be a productive one for Pat Gillett and myself.
It was the end of April when Pat and myself set off for Cedar Lake from our hometowns of Wolverhampton and Cannock. Our ferry crossing was due to leave Dover around 2.45am on the Saturday morning. Due to some major delays on the clockwise route of the M25 that I have encountered in the past, the anti-clockwise route has been my chosen route for the past 12 months. We arrived at Dover in good time, and in France at around 6am French time.
We navigated to the area of Cedar Lake with the aid of my satellite navigation unit. The trip around the Paris Periphery was no problem with only one-hour drive left the other side of Paris. When we were within ½ mile of the lake we turned to the directions provided by Angling Lines which took us to the gates of the secure complex of the lake.
We arrived around 10am and met the previous weeks angling party on their departure. They informed us they had lost as many fish as they had landed due to the presence of heavy weed. Pat and myself were fully aware of the weed situation that had been reported by previous parties on the Angling Lines web site. We were well prepared for any eventuality and envisaged no problem due to our previous experience of fishing weedy lakes.
Sandra, who is the caretaker of Cedar Lake, met us and gave us a tour of the facilities with the choice of 2 wooden lodges from which to base our fishing campaign. After about an hour of deliberation we decided to set our camps on swims 3 and 4 which gave us the use of the lodge on the eastern side of the lake.
Facilities
Swims 1 and 2 |
Swims 3 and 4 |
The Lodges
There are 2 purpose built wooden lodges at opposite ends of the lake. Each lodge contains 2 single beds with mattresses (bedding is not provided), small table and chairs, a 4 ring gas hob, a microwave, a toaster, ample cupboard space, cutlery and saucepans. There are English electric style plug sockets and a Calor gas heater.
There is no running water at the lodges so each lodge has a 20 litre water container provided, which can be filled at the washrooms. There is a bowl and free standing draining area to wash the dishes etc.
Inside the wooden lodges |
Inside the wooden lodges |
Veranda |
Both wooden lodges have a veranda, which overlooks the lake, with wooden steps that lead down to the lake and fishing platforms. Each fishing platform is large enough to accommodate 2 bivvies, 2 anglers and all their equipment.
Washrooms
There are 2 fully tiled washrooms on the southern side of the lake each containing a shower, wash hand basin and English style toilet with lighting. At the rear of the washrooms is an easily operated petrol generator that heats up the water for the washrooms. The generator needs to be running around an hour prior to using the showers to provide adequate hot water. There is an outside tap at the side of the washroom for filling up the water containers.
Wash and shower room |
Wash and shower room |
Freezer |
New to the venue is a chest freezer, which will accommodate at least 80 kilo’s of boilies in a separate unit at the side of swims 1 and 2.
Locating the fishing area’s
Having selected the eastern lodge Pat decided to fish the right hand side of the swim (swim 4) and myself the left hand side (swim 3).
A view from swim 3 |
Directly in front of the swims there is a visible sandbar, which is just below the water level. It is around 20yards out from the bank, 3 yards wide and around 20 yards in length, which went from left to right of our swim. This made the perfect split to the swim.
The reels on the marker rods were spooled with 25lb-braided line, 3 ounce leads and very buoyant marker floats. Our initial job was to find out clear areas of the lake so that we could provide perfect presentation to the carp.
After a couple of hours of casting around I had a mental plan of the depths, weed beds and its density and type, which did not provide me with any concerns. At both ends of the sandbar were lightly weeded areas and beyond that was a large area with only slight patches of Canadian pondweed. The main concern was the large number of swan mussels present on the lake bottom, which could quite easily cut through the main line. Towards the south side of the lake was a heavy bed of Hornwort, which is a floating aquatic plant with dense whorls of bristly, deciduous dark green leaves borne on delicate stems, long and stringy that reached the surface. At first, these stems are rooted but they break loose during summer and float to the surface. Mixed in with Hornwort was Water Milfoil and Blanket Weed, the type that clogs up the eyes on rods.
These are examples of the type of weed that can be found at the lake.
Between this bed of weed and the bank was a clear area, where the fish could be seen patrolling. My decision was to fish 2 rods in around 7foot of water, in front of the heavily weeded area. Creating my own feeding patch should draw the fish out of the weed, over the coming week. It would be too hazardous to the welfare of the carp to fish into the weed or beyond it. I had found a further weed free zone to the margins on my left, which would provide for a third rod.
Pat had been on a similar mission having found an ideal spot beyond the sandbar to his right, and two to the right hand corner of the lake, were large clear area’s were set amongst some thinner weed. These areas did not seem to suffer with the amount of swan mussels that I had out in front of me.
Tactics
Due to the presence of the swan mussels and the chance of encountering thick weed, I decided to fish shock leaders on all rods made up of 45lb Quicksilver (4 to 5 turns on the reel) to a 3 foot lead core leader with inline 2 or 3 ounce pear shaped leads and long hook links made of a combination of 19lb Saguar fluorocarbon mono and 25lb Mantis with the knotless knot to a size 4 c310 Ashima hook with a medium length hair.
Pat’s end rig |
Quicksilver leader |
4 to 5 turns on the reel |
The shock leader is tied direct to the main line with a shock leader knot that I have been using for a number of years. A loop is formed in the thicker line and passed twice through the loop, pulled together to form a figure of eight. The main line is then passed through the 2 holes made by the figure of eight and a 5-grinner knot is tied. After wetting the line and knots they are pulled tightly together and trimmed tight to the end knot. Below are step-by-step photos of how to formulate this knot.
How to join the Quicksilver to the
main line with the Shock leader knot
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The rod pod was set so that the rod tips were high so as to avoid as much contact of the main line with the lake bottom as possible, with tight lines, and the clutch set as if fishing snags. This meant that I had to be sitting within close vicinity of the rods at all times as I would not get screaming runs. Pat was fishing a similar set up without the shock leader.
I prepared both my chosen fishing areas by spodding out around 5 kilo’s of hemp and 3 kilo’s of trout pellet. The spread of the small particles and pellets, over the open watermark, was sufficient to accommodate 2 well-spaced rods. The idea of this was to remove any remaining weed in my selected area with the assistance of both silver fish and carp that would hunt out the smallest grain of food, consequently uprooting any remaining weed. A couple of kilos of Rahja Spice and Special Crab boilies were also introduced with the bait rocket and catapult. Pat took a similar stance in order to create his own feeding areas. That was it for the day, a few beers and an early night in the lodge.
We started our fishing session around 7 am on the Sunday morning being fully refreshed and ready for the week ahead. Further bait was added to the selected areas and out went the rods.
Only 1 fish came to the rods on the first day with more action the following night for both Pat and myself. As the week progressed the open water fed area that I had created, got better and better, which was the same for Pat with his open water fed area. Accurate marking of the main line on each rod, spodding and catapult work kept the carp returning time after time to the areas to be hooked and landed without any major problems.
Initially I was placing both the lead and hook baits in a pva bag for complete protection against the hook snagging on weed as it entered the water on casting.
PVA bag |
Mesh bag with PVA |
Nugget and inline pear lead |
By Tuesday the lake bottom on baited area was completely free of weed. I was able to cast single hook baits with a pva nugget covering the hook or a meshed bag attached without any problem whatsoever.
My first 30 of the session a 35lb 4oz |
30lb 4oz |
Pat and a 29lb 2oz mirror |
From Wednesday onwards we both spodded and catapulted out boilies to our selected areas, leaving the particles alone as they had already done their job of clearing the remaining weed. Now it was down to Quest baits to do the rest!
Cedar Lake carp certainly responded well to the Rahja Spice, with all our rods now being baited with the 20 mils Rahja and the 15mils used as loose feed.
We could see that a pattern had emerged from observing the movements of the carp. The average temperature during the week was 24 degrees and by midday most of the lakes population of carp were basking just below the surface of the heavily weeded area just off the southern bank. This meant that by 3pm the rods could be drawn in with the swims rested until around 7pm. As the sun started to descend the carp moved clockwise around the lake, initially showing themselves in front of the other lodge, swims 1 and 2, working their way up the northern side of the lake to were Pat’s open water rod was located. This was usually the first rod to go being any time after 9pm. The fish remained over this side of the lake until around 5am when they moved ant-clockwise around the lake to the water to my left, which is when I started to have the action. This lasted until around 11am and then they went through the same routine again of basking in the heavily weeded area until later in the day.
By the end of the week we had managed to bank 40 carp altogether, which included mirrors of 38lb 2oz, 35lb 4oz, 33lb 12oz, 31lb, 30lb 4oz, 30lb 3oz and 27 x 20's most being around the 28lb mark.
28lb 14oz |
29lb 8oz |
33lb 12oz |
In total between Pat and myself, only 3 fish were lost due to sharp objects on the floor of the lake, possibly swan mussels, where a couple of inches of the hook link were cleanly severed. No fish were lost as a result of the weed in the lake. This was certainly due to the fact that we fished safely and were not aiming at catching carp at any expense to the safety of the carp. Another factor for the lack of loss of fish was because direct pressure was applied to the fish to raise them to the surface. Occasionally, due the power of some of the fish, they did make a dive for the thick weed beds. Steady pressure was applied gaining inch by inch on the fish until they hit the clear water. On each occasion the fish were safely brought to the net.
Largest carp of the trip 38lb 2oz |
26lb |
27lb 4oz |
Cedar Lake has the potential to produce huge carp, due to the richness of the natural life present in the lake. There is a weed presence, which encourages the natural cycles of the insect life. The weed situation in the lake is being managed by the owners, in order to ease the pressure of catching the carp for the anglers.
It is apparent that a number of the fish losses are caused by anglers fishing at unsafe distances possibly by use of bait boats or by rowing out the baits beyond the areas over the heavy weed beds. Clear feeding areas can be easily reached with a spod, catapult, or throwing stick, the use of a bait boat pushes the angler to fish beyond the safety area. Surely it is better to reduce the amount of runs and to land the fish that you hook. I’m certainly not anti-bait boat, I own one myself, but in my opinion this lake does not necessitate their use, especially with weed beds that are present. There are large areas that are weed free and other areas with only light weed. It is up to the angler to find, and take advantage of the areas to safely land the fish.
George and Tommy Young are determined to make this water a top class large carp runs water, so it is up to us, the carp anglers, to take care of the carp’s welfare, by not taking extra risks just to get that additional fish on the bank.
Paul Cooper
