At Sweet Chestnut Lake we like to fulfil customer's expectations. On this occasion, I am pleased to report that we sent one 15 year old angler home after a week, a very happy carper indeed.

Father and son, Ian and David from Heathfield, East Sussex arrived at our lake for their first foray abroad. They both hoped to better their PB's and perhaps catch a catfish for the first time.

Well, they needn't have worried, after 7 days and nights fishing David broke his PB 6 times and incredibly landed a lake record carp of 46lb 8oz and a lake record catfish of 52lb 1oz. He also banked mirrors of 39lb and 38lb, and backed this up with further 30's, 20's and doubles.

Ian's largest specimen was a 34lb 2oz catfish, but I'm sure he could have improved on this had he not had problems with his hooklength parting on running fish

The bulk of the catch came in the second part of the week, when a change in hookbait to a Steamer Baits Livit MF Boilie ( Liver and Fishmeal) really got the big carp and catfish on the feed.

Successful tactics involved presenting the hookbait on a line-aligned semi-fixed rig, just short of the far margins over large beds of particles, pellets and freebie boilies

David now holds both our big fish records, following a display of dedicated effort and attention to detail. Nice one Dave! He declined our offer of champagne to celebrate his success, instead opting for chocolate, lemonade and boilies as his prizes.

Oh, the Kingfisher has returned to the lake and is now spending much of his time speeding around like a blue arrow - peeping away!



angling holidays at Sweet Chestnut Lake - carp fishing lake in france