After a 3 ½ hour drive from Calais we arrived in an area of France, just south of Paris, that is surrounded by gravel pits and located next to the River Seine. Already there was a sense of a very promising weeks fishing being in a location quite renowned for some good quality carp. Following the sat nav co-ordinates we pulled up right outside the gate of Island Lake and were greeted with what looked like a well matured lake, being completely enclosed by well developed trees and greenery.

The lake and facilities
Island Lake is about 20 acres in size and has its own unique shape about it, as the name suggests there is a large well situated island, housing an old shooting lodge, providing a main feature to fish towards. There is also a selection of bays, gravel bars and smaller features to locate and fish amongst. There are 14 swims altogether with many of them being doubles and large in size. Each having plenty of water to cover and their own and easy excess to drive round to each swim features to be located. On each swim there is a wooden cabin with plenty of storage room for all your gear and two mattresses should you wish to sleep in it. At present three of them have electric with English plug sockets available and a small fridge. There are plans to extend this to the other cabins in the near future. On site there is two toilet and shower areas one having electric constantly and one being run by a generator. But both areas are well maintained and provide that comfort needed when on the bank for a week.

A week’s session
When we first arrived at the lake we took the usual walk around it to get our bearings and pick that all important swim to set up in. Within ten minutes of being there we had already witnessed a couple of fish crashing towards the middle of the lake. Then quickly decided to set up in peg 10 giving us the opportunity to reach those fish. We chose our features to fish towards and carefully cast our rods out with great expectations. This wasn’t very productive and didn’t achieve any instant results so we sat and watched the water and with all theories and methods being discussed. A couple of hours later when the sun was really beginning to warm everything up we noticed a small group of what looked like 40+lb carp cruising around the bay next to us. Not wanting to spook them off we quickly loaded the bait boat up with some broken up fruity trifle boiles and placed two lines very close to them. We then Watched intently waiting for that take which by amazement came about an hour later.

There was what can only be described as an awesome fight and a 40lb 8oz mirror was in the net. This really put our hopes up for what promised to be an excellent week to come. The following night a 44lb 12oz mirror was landed from the same spot.

Things became very slow going from then on and we soon realised this was no runs water but a lake you had to work very hard at in order to catch. We decided to take the rowing boat out and really get to grips with what was happening. It soon became obvious that the fish didn’t stay in one particular area but seemed to move every couple of days so we decided that our best option was to move with them. We then set up in peg 4 with a bay in front and to the side of us and the island within reach as well. We could cover a lot of water from there really be on top of the fish.

Luckily the water is crystal clear and it is easy to locate ideal clear spots in amongst the weed beds. We marked up some different areas and decided to feed small amounts of bait to them on a fairly regular basis. This helped us land a couple more fish a day apart from each other so we decided to stick with it for the rest of the week being happy with the fish we had caught.

Towards the end of the week we had the most amazing storm come over it felt as though a steam train had just come straight through our peg. There was thunder and lightning all around and all we could do is keep our fingers crossed that the fish switched on due to it. It was like all our hopes came true and during the following 24 hours we landed some amazing fish ranging from 31lb 4oz up to 42lb, even my 2 year old son Rhys got in on the action

The method and bait
Our bait choice for the week was Quest Baits shelf life Liver B8, Fruity Trifle and Special Crab boiles fished over a bed of Maximum Action Pellets. We found this combination worked well and we didn’t have too much trouble with the Poisson Chat or crayfish whilst using them.




The rig set up we used was a 36 inch TF Gear heavy leader with a 3oz Diamond lead, size 2 Drennan Continental hook and Korda 20lb Hybrid coated braid. We tried a couple of different set ups but soon realised that keeping it simple was the best approach.

Summary
Overall we were very pleased with the venue and would go back tomorrow if we had the chance. Perhaps we didn’t do as much research as we could have about the lake before hand and therefore went over with the impression this is a French lake and the fish will be easy to catch. We soon realised that you had to work hard for the fish and be prepared to move with them around the lake trying out a method and having confidence to stick with it, perhaps as you would on an English lake. We can’t argue with the fish we landed they were very well appreciated and maybe next time we could hit into one of the 50+lb fish that are hiding in there somewhere.

All the best

Samantha Collins-Ratcliffe