THE VILLEDON
EXPERIENCE
S T E V E
B R I G G S
When Steve waxes lyrical about a new lake which anyone can fish, we should all sit up and take notice. After all, with a catch record as good as his, he certainly knows a good venue when he sees one.
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f you read my feature in last month’s International Carper, you’ll know I believe that the Limoges area of France is a real treasure trove of carp waters which are really coming into their prime. But despite fishing some great waters in that region, there are many others which I’ve yet to have a go at, one of which was Lac de Villedon, a water I’d heard mentioned many times over the years, but little more than that. The reason why little information had come my way is that the lake is Dutch-owned and fished mainly by Dutch anglers, but things changed when Paul Armfield got in touch to tell me about it – and I’ve got to say I soon realised that I had been missing out on something a bit special. At over 100 acres, it is much larger than many of the other lakes I’ve fished down that way, but it was the stamp of fish which really made me sit up and take notice, as it boasts literally stacks of fish over 50lb which go to over 70lb! Rob Hales called me one evening to see if I’d be interested in joining him on a trip there in October – and of course I was. We’d be joined by Neil Snowy, Marcus Brotherton and Dave Treasure at what would hopefully be a good time of year for a bit of action from some of the Villedon beauties. Hopes were dented
Home for the week for Rob and me in the Cabin Swim. ABOVE
slightly when we arrived to find they’d place rigs in some swims, so there are just had their worst week of the year; many options on the style of fishing that don’t get me wrong, there were still some you adopt. Rob and I were in the Cabin nice fish caught, but it wasn’t quite what Swim, not that far from the dam, so it I wanted to hear. To be honest, I’ve been was just a short journey across the lake. hearing the same thing all year wherever We were both very conscious of I’ve fished, but it hasn’t stopped me keeping any disturbance to a minimum. catching, so I was confident enough that Lines, markers and boat traffic can all we’d get some action along the way if we have a detrimental effect on the fish, could get the tactics right. Conditions and so the plan was to bait up just once had very much been against the previous a day from the boat with a fair bit of anglers. Villedon is a lake which bait, and then not venture out on the responds to wind and water again unless they’d had a week of absolutely necessary. “I was confident hot, still weather, but A quick scout around enough that we’d the good news was that the area showed a get some action wind and rain were fairly uniform depth along the way if due over the coming of around 6ft, with we could get the days, and we all hoped a mostly soft, silty tactics right” that it would kick bottom. The hope things into action. was that fish would It is a very good setup at Villedon, but come to the bait because there were a different one to most other waters I’ve no obvious features, but if that didn’t fished. In a way it’s almost a crossover happen then maybe the fish would between a commercial and public venue. give themselves away and give us some Being long and fairly narrow, the lake clues. The best bit of news we had was stretches way off into the distance, and that northwesterly winds were due to to get to the swims, everyone loads a blow right into our area that evening, large boat at the dam wall and sets off so it was quite possible that our best from there. Then you can use the boat chances would come early on in the trip, for baiting, use bait boats, cast and bait and we didn’t want to waste any time. up from the bank, or even wade out to Rob and I both went in with No vem ber 20 14 C a r pwor l d 164
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a mainly boilie approach, mine being Nash MP Mix and also Coconut Crème, with Rob going for Sonubaits Code Red. To complement those we also had buckets of prepared hemp, which the fish love, so as we baited up on the first evening, we were full of hope that something would come of it. The wind arrived as promised and with it came the rain, which I first knew about when it woke me up, hitting me in the face at some time in the night. I don’t like having the door of the bivvy down, but it’s a better option than getting drenched! It looked good out there but the alarms remained quiet through the hours of darkness. Something had to happen – it just looked too good not to, and sure enough, one of Rob’s rods rattled off as it was getting light. Not one of the Villedon monsters at 25lb, but we were off the mark and fish were in the area. Four rods are allowed but we went in with three each to keep the number of lines down. Two of my rods were fished out towards the middle area over the bulk of my bait, and I did see fish showing but they were slightly to the left. I didn’t want to move anything at that stage but the activity was noted for later on. My third rod was fished down to my left about 40m from the bank over less bait, and it was that one which burst into life in the afternoon. I did wonder what I had on the end because it fought for what seemed like ages. My mind started to build up a picture of something huge slowly coming up to the net! The reality, however, was a lovely-looking 38lb 12oz mirror, which was a great way to open my account. Things were looking good, but all was not well with Rob. He’d picked up some sort of virus and was visibly shaking in his chair. He wanted to be by the rods, but a night in the cabin was a far better idea because there was no telling if he’d feel better or worse through the night. He took his sounder box, but we agreed that if he didn’t appear in the event of a run I would take his rod for him. Well, it was an eventful night, with two runs coming to Rob’s rods and me having to land them both, a small common and a chunky mirror of 41lb. Rob slept through the whole lot but felt good enough in the morning to get his rods out again. Luckily I had packed a course of antibiotics in case of emergencies, so I just hoped that they would do the job and get him
on the mend. My only action that day came late on just as the sun was going down, when a 34lb common picked up the closer bait again. So, the action was spread fairly evenly, which was interesting because Rob is far more into his rig variations than me. He’s a very innovative sort of angler and normally has some new trick up his sleeve, whereas I tend to go down the basic rig route, with the idea that my baiting strategy will catch the fish. But it was all working, so it just shows that there are several ways to catch a carp; it’s just a matter of using the one which gives you the most confidence. The evening chill wasn’t good for Rob and he felt unwell again, and decided to spend another night in the cabin. Thankfully the night passed by quietly, but just at first light I heard one of his alarms again. There was no sign of Rob so I played in what was obviously a decent fish. It was actually a cracking mirror of 46lb 12oz, but no sooner was it in the net than one of my alarms sounded, and I was soon doing battle with a 34lb
ABOVE It felt big from the start and was, in fact, the biggest of the week at 57lb.
A nice 38lb 12oz mirror with which to get off the mark.
BELOW
common. Just I was landing it, Rob appeared behind me, having heard the commotion. Now people out there will have different ideas about landing fish on other people’s rods; of course I wasn’t going to count the fish as my own, having not put the rod out, but between us we had caught a lovely fish, so with two fish in the nets we decided to have a brace shot with them. I’ll leave you to decide on the merits of that one, but what it did show was that the action could come quickly in short bursts, which we had been told could happen before we started. Either way, we were putting some nice fish on the bank. The other guys weren’t faring so well to start with. They were all further up the lake, more in the middle section, and although we were confident they would catch, there’s nothing like getting the first fish in the net. Eventually the text came through, and it was Snowy who’d caught himself a fabulous 51lb mirror, which was cause for celebration because it
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was his birthday that week. It was the perfect result for him and enough to give the guys a boost, well except for Dave Treasure maybe, who was still coming down off the high of his recent trip to Euro Aqua and had yet to receive a bleep. However, we knew a fish would have the desired effect, if and when he got one. It was the middle of the afternoon when, out of the blue, one of my rods literally tore off ! I’d moved my middle rod to where I’d seen the fish showing the day before and it had done the job, only this one felt a bit different. With the rod hooped over the line was steadily ticking off the spool and it showed little sign of stopping. Rob and I looked at each other, knowing that this was what we’d waited for, and our heart rates went up to another level! Marcus pulled up in his boat at that moment, and seeing what was going on, he didn’t hesitate to grab the net and get ready. The fish had other ideas though, and plodded off up the middle of the lake, doing more or less what it wanted. The knees were trembling, but slowly I started to inch the line back towards me. Not much was said; we all knew this one needed to go in the net but there was no way I was going to rush things. Eventually, a big set of shoulders broke surface. Marcus made a determined push with the net and got it first time. At last I could breathe again and the cheer went up. No question that this one was over 50, and it tipped the scales at 57lb, which was good enough for me. A 50 was more than I could hope for on the first trip, and what a cracker it was – fresh out of the showroom without a blemish anywhere. Job done!
BACKGROUND
Time went on, our action slowed, but we kept picking up the odd fish.
IMAGES
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Check out the video online by scanning the QR code below
http://bit.do/villedon
At the start of the week we wanted wind and rain – and we certainly got it! We really copped a proper storm that afternoon, and it was about as carpy as it could get. The only problem was that the wind had turned and was now blowing up the lake away from us. It wasn’t going to help us but it would do the other guys a favour, that’s for sure. Marcus broke his duck with a lovely 47lb mirror, and Dave Treasure made up for lost time with two runs in quick succession, both big mirrors of 46lb and 52lb, which meant we’d all had fish over 45lb in a few days. It was going exactly how we’d been told it would. The fish were following the wind and the action was coming in short bursts. It’s easy to get disheartened when others are catching and your indicators won’t budge, but over the course of a week it seems that everything has a way of evening out, and everyone had smiles on their faces.
Thankfully the pills had worked, and Rob started to feel a lot better, so much so that he got the bacon and sausages out and cooked us breakfast! One of the joys of having a cabin with a fridge and cooker, I suppose – not to mention a roof over our heads when the weather was at its worst. Dinners came via the Villedon kitchen, which saved a lot of time and effort, and besides being delivered hot to the swim, I’ve got to say the quality was something else. Meals at the lake are delivered by speedboat, and seeing it whizzing up the lake every evening took me back to the days at Lake Raduta when food came to us in a similar way – although the food certainly wasn’t similar! Many of us still have nightmares of the Raduta days, with the guy we nicknamed ‘Stoneface’ handing over cold slop in plastic bowls – but at Villedon it was hot food and a friendly greeting to go with it.
We chose to bait heavily from the boat once a day, and then keep the disturbance to a minimum.
ABOVE
RIGHT We went in with mainly a boilie approach, and it seemed to be the right choice.
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We expected our action to slow down – although I later wished I hadn’t! a little, so we cut down the baiting a I think it will be the first of many trips little, which I think helped us. There for all of us to Villedon. Not only was I were obviously still fish around because impressed with everything, but also the I banked a stunning 43lb mirror the size of the lake makes the fishing very next day, and then Rob and I also had interesting. As I said earlier, there are another brace to photograph when we literally stacks of stunning big carp in had matching 36lb mirrors. Of all the the lake. OK, there will be times when swims on the lake, it was the dam wall those fish are in other areas, but when swim to our left which was proving to be they move in they come in numbers, the most consistent. Two young Dutch and being in the right place at the right guys, Erik and Wilco, were sharing four time on there could be very special. One rods between them and catching really statistic summed up what is happening well. We had been told that the dam there. In 2011, Villedon produced its wall would produce more but generally first fish over 25kg; in 2014 there have smaller fish, which was proving to be been over 140 recorded captures of 25kg true because they only had one over fish – they are growing fast! There are 45lb, although they caught a string different booking agents for Villedon, of very nice mirrors but any English and commons. It was anglers interested almost like a different need to contact “I think it will be the lake down there, and Paul Armfield or first of many trips for certainly it seemed like Carmen, whose advert all of us to Villedon” a different group of appears elsewhere in fish entirely to what we the mag. The email were fishing for. But address is: info@ although the action wasn’t hectic, I think armfieldangling.com and the website just about everyone caught fish over is: www.armfieldangling.com 20kg, which is some going for any lake. The Limoges area continues to grow Towards the end of the week it in stature and throw up surprises, and was, in fact, Dave Treasure who just when I thought I was getting to finished strongly, having six takes, know it well down there, along came with his smallest fish being 46lb, and a lake of over 100 acres, which I had his best another stunning 50 at 54lb. somehow missed previously! Carp grow Unfortunately, the wind petered out, very fast these days, and waters can go and although we did see the odd from quite normal to very special in just fish show in front of us, the last 36 a few years. Luckily, in the past I’ve been hours remained fishless for Rob and able to get on some of the great waters me. It gave us the opportunity to get when they are just becoming known, together in the restaurant for one final or just coming into their prime. I’ve celebration on the Friday evening. no doubt that Villedon is just starting The food and wine were something to come into its prime and is heading else, and the final parting cognacs all for great things, and I’m just pleased to somehow seemed to end up in front be a part of it all – the next trip can’t of me, which I felt obliged to drink come around quickly enough! CW
SAMPLE VILLEDON FOR YOURSELF – FOR FREE! How do you fancy a trip to Villedon? We’ve teamed up with Armfield Angling, who run the UK bookings, and there’s a trip on offer to a lucky winner. All you have to do is visit www.armfieldangling. com and sign up for their monthly newsletter, which is full of special offers and catch reports on their venues. As soon as they receive the 100th subscriber, a winner will be drawn by Paul Armfield for a single swim at Villedon. The trip can be taken during 2015 or 2016, subject to availability. The prize is swim only and does not include travel, tackle hire or bait contributions. The winner will be notified by email or telephone, and also announced in Carpworld magazine.
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