Guided carp & catfish fishing tours, fishing tackle and other services

Well, what can I say, this trip, the lake, the guides, Phil and Paul.....SPOT ON!!!!
The trip started for me at 0100 in Manchester on a cold misty saturday morning. By 0600, my gear was packed into the back of Pauls trailer, the rods safely aboard and off we set to Dover to catch the ferry. All the lads on the trip proved to be like minded and a good laugh, we were on our way to chill out, catch fish and basically enjoy the rewards fishing France can provide.
We arrived at the lake around 1830 (French time), with a beer in hand, we were shown our way around the lake and each of us picked our swim. I opted for swim 11 which I was told hadn\'t been producing, but always used to be a big fish swim.
Now, swim 11 you fish directly out to a willow some 180 yards in front of you, here came my first mistake! Due to the late hour and not getting the bivvy set up until around 2100, the rods weren\'t in until around 2130 (Very Dark), fished up nice and close to the willow.....or so I thought. 
I had one run overnight resulting in a hook pull, then nothing.  So off to bed I went for a good night, undisturbed by my bite alarms.  On waking in the morning, I found to my dismay that I was fishing a willow, but it happened to be the one directly at Pauls feet in peg 12! Not a good start.
With renwewed enthusiasm, I boated out all three rods in an arc from the willow directly in front of me. Now this proved to be the only day of the week when the fish were on the feed in daylight hours. Day one resulted in a nice common just short of 20lbs, followed by my first grass carp at 15lb 8, which I didn\'t manage to photograph as one of my other rods screamed off.....THIRTY NUMBER ONE! A nice 31lb Grass carp falling to pellet on the method.  Well chuffed by this point, however, not long afterwards this was followed by a 27lb grassie.
I could now go on and describe the entire week, but this would take forever.  For the rest of the week, the fish would \"come on\" anytime between 2200 and 0200, but when they did, it was near on impossible to get all three rods in the water at once, I never believed Carp would take on the drop! Many times I would be playing one fish, with the bait boat bobbing around out on the lake, when one of the other baited rods would scream off with a run! I\'ve never come across anything like this in my life!
The end result saw a total of 26 carp on the bank, 16 of these over the twenty pound mark and two thirties, just as many cats and bream visited the net too.
This truly was a week I\'ll never forget and in all honesty, I can\'t wait to get back.
Cheers to Paul, Phil, Paul, Paul, Pete and even No Bend. Hope to see you again some day.
Oh and not forgetting Kelvin, top bloke! (Oh and for those of you who might get a bit frustrated while you\'re away, take along a roll of clingfilm and ask about the angel!!!!).
Thanks again to Paul

hi paul,

 thanks for a great trip mate, good fishing,good food,and very
experienced and informative guides. all in all first class job mate!
pictures look great on the site,

 thanks. carl

The journey  to France was exactly as described easy,on time and relaxed. We were greeted at PB lake by the baliff Kelvin with a bottle of beer and everyone was introduced to each other. We drew for swims and unfortunately ours was the last number.We chose peg 6 as it did not appear to be fished that often,what appeared to be a large featureless expanse of water. 

    We have of cause booked for next year! 

 TRIP WEEK ENDING 22/7/06...

  Myself (phil) and my wife (diane)  spent a week on Lake Escapes PB Lake which for us was the first time fishing in France and all i can say is that this is a guided tour not to be missed. 
 A week before we left to go to france i wasnt to sure on what to expect as my son Mark has fished 2 different venues in france before and only caught 2 fish the first trip, and blanked the second so i was very optermistic about it but me and my wife where still looking forward to it.
 On the day we was picked up by our guide MARK who we must say was brilliant he told us all about the lake, what to expect and how to catch the fish, when we arrived at the lake we was then greeted by the baliff Calvin who was also very friendly and helpful and his cooking was spot on.
  We chose to fish peg 10 and once we where set up and ready to go the guide Mark came to our swim to show us how to use the bait boat and where to put our rigs and it wasnt long before we was into our first fish.
  We caught plenty of fish and we both beat our PBs,  my PB before going to france was 26lb and my biggest fish of the week was 28lb and Dianes PB was only 12lb and she smashed hers by catching a massive 50lb Mirror for which we are told that Diane is the first female angler to catch a 50 from LAKE PB, between us we had loads of 20s and a couple of 30s so we are both very happy with the trip,  so happy are we that when my son Mark mentioned about going back next year we jumped at the chance.
 So we would like to say a big thank you to the guide Mark and baliff Calvin for making it a week and experience to remember as they where very friendly, they even came to our swim and had some beer and socialised with us. THANX

Cant wait to go back in september 07
100% recomended

Diane and Phil

 

Hi All,
just a quick note to say thanks for a great trip. Mark\'s testimonial says it all. I fished with him in Peg 9 and had a brilliant time. I broke my PB on Common, Mirror, and Catfish, and between Mark and myself, we had almost 100 fish from our swim between us. My best Mirror was 31lb, the best Common came in at 16lb, as did the Catfish. My final total for the week was 32 fish, all Carp but one over 20lb, and four at 30lb and over. Everyone in our party beat their PB, including Phil, who left it until the small hours of Saturday morning to do his !
I would recommend this trip to anyone. A return visit is definitely on the cards !


Thanks again,

All the best,

Mike Knight

 

What can i say! I can now see why they call it the PB lake. I arrived at the lake on the 15th July 2006 and I chose to fish peg 9. I didnt fish the saturday night as i was tired from the journey but come sunday morning our guide Mark came to our swims to show us how to use the bait boat as it was our first time, and he also advised us where to put our bait. Within just 20 minutes I had a take which resulted in a 30lb mirror being landed which was just 2lb short of my PB but what a great start.During the rest of sunday, I went on to catch a further 7 fish and one of these was to become my new PB which was a 35lb mirror carp. All the fish that I caught on sunday where all mirrors except 1 catfish (very good first day). Then monday arrived and the first fish came at 1:30am which was a 8lb catfish, I then went on to catch a further 3 catfish, the biggest being 12lb 8oz, and by the end of the day i had caught a total of 7 carp, which 1 of these was a massive 42lb mirror, again beating my PB and also there are only 4 sturgeon in the lake and I caught 1 which weighed 18lb, which is yet another PB. I didnt fish monday night as I was to tired from a busy day. I then resumed fishing on tuesday after breakfast, which resulted in 7 carp, the biggest being a 25lb mirror, 2 catfish, biggest being 13lb 8oz. I then went on to catch an 11lb catfish at 1:20am. That was the start to yet another day of spectacular fishing. I had another 8 fish out through wednesday, the smallest being 10lb catfish and the biggest being 26lb mirror. Thursday proved to be the best day as I caught 13 fish, biggest being 30lb mirror, and the smallest being 10lb mirror. From midnight thusday until early hours friday morning I had caught 3 catfish, biggest being 12lb and a common of 15lb 8oz. Friday was the last full day of the trip and i chose to move swims as peg 2 became available. By this time I had banked 57 fish and lost around 20 fish, but thats fishing. Once set up in peg 2 the guide Mark once again showed me where the fish would be, which resulted in a further 2 fish, the biggest being 15lb. I then decided to pack up as I was very tired and hot but after a nice shower and dinner I realised that packing up was a mistake. So I decided to go round to peg 10 where other members of the party were fishing, set up my bivvy again and resume fishing, which resulted in a further 2 mirror carp, biggest being 25lb and then 1 catfish which weighed in at 12lb. So to sum it up, my biggest mirror was 42lb, my biggest common was 21lb 8oz and my biggest catfish was 17lb 8oz and a lovely 18lb sturgeon. The total weight of the fish I caught was 1008lb 8oz. What a great weeks fishing!
 The lake itself was in my eyes, was every fishermans dream, plenty of room between swims and plenty of fish,  a good looking lake  and the venue was very well maintaned.I would highly recommend a guided tour to Lake Escapes PB lake in France to anyone. Our guide Mark was supperb as nothing was to much trouble for him and after a day with him you would of thought you had known him for a long time.   Calvin who is the lake baliff who cooked our meals is also very highly recommended as he cooked what suited us best.   Paul who is the director of lake escapes was also very helpful as he always kept in contact to keep us informed on how the lake was fishing.  There was a party of 6 of us that went there and this is just my experience on the trip, the other 5 also all caught there PB so over all between us we must of had over 150 fish,  the biggest came to my mum which was a massive 50lb Mirror,  in my eyes this was a week to remember as i have beeen to France 2 times before and have caught nothing so ill rate this venue and Lake Escape 10 out of 10 .

Tight lines all
  Mark
SEE SOME OF THE TRIPS FISH BY HITTING THIS LINK

 

Myself and my boyfriend Stuart have been fishing with Paul (grothier) on the river ebro in spain. The villa was spot on and the guiding excellent. As for the fishing - it exceeded all our expectations. In three days we caught the following and on the last day with Paul as our guide we just couldn't get all the rods in the water. I did 900lbs of catfish in one day on my own including a 127lb, a 130lb and a 129lb all in hour.

STUART
Total Number of Catfish Caught: 26
Total Weight Caught: 2143 lb
Biggest Fish: 140 lb

HELEN (Henny)
Total Number of Catfish Caught: 18
Total Weight Caught: 1300 lb
Biggest Fish 130lb

We've just got back from our second trip which invloved a bit more carp fishing. I go a PB of a 26.5lb common and Stuart a PB of 29.5lb mirror which are really rare in the Ebro.

Highly reccommeded to anyone. Have a look at our pictures. The best photos are taken by Paul. 

From Hennythefisherwomen

 

Dear TC,

After many years away from carp fishing due to work and family commitments 18 months ago I started kitting myself out again. It took time buying from EBay and local newspapers and sometimes affording new bits and pieces. Thanks to my brother and friend Nik. I eventually after about a year had nearly a full three rod setup. I spent Fridays rushing from work just to get a night session in on local lakes, sometimes bagging a double or two. But my long standing PB of 18lb 12oz still haunting me, I tried advise and tips from TC but couldn’t beat it. Then in July last year some heartless crook decided to burgle my garage taking everything apart from my bivvy ground sheet, I was devastated, it was insured but some of that gear was irreplaceable due to the age of the items. October came and I had finally managed to get a setup again and I got offered a trip to France with Lake Escapes, after all I had read about French carp I thought it was about time I found out for myself. (And a chance of beating my PB even though it would be a French fish). We travelled out to French Heaven Lake Escapes lake near Le Mans in the French Countryside, I was told they called it the PB Lake, Because most that have visited have broken their PB. (this is just what I wanted to hear). I set up for a relaxing evening session on the Sunday and a kind French guy Didier told me where to drop my baits, within the hour my alarms were sounding and landed my first catfish 15lb 10oz, then early hours of the morning smashed my PB with my first French carp a 24lb 4oz mirror. I caught another catfish and a 17lb 6oz common during the morning, Didier kept saying first small fish, then small fish, then large fish and told me to keep dropping the bait in the same place. At about 12.45pm on the Monday I got a screaming run and after about twenty minutes I landed my third French carp weighing in at 43lb 8oz, smashing my PB, a special thanks has to go to Didier and his 12 year old son Robin (Chucky) who netted the monster for me. All in all during a four day trip I bagged over 370lb of carp with one 31lb 9oz , one 43lb 8oz and the rest averaging around mid twenties and can say it was well worth the experience I would recommend it to anyone.

 

Also a well done to all the boys on the trip who all beat their PB and five of which landed fish of thirty plus, especially Sam Gordon who in the early hours of Monday smashed his PB with a mirror weighing in at 42lb 5oz, and Didier who 24 hours after mine, landed a 48lb 9oz mirror. Thanks goes to the Lake Escapes guide who really showed us a good time and what can only be described as unmissable action.

 

Peter,

Norfolk.