Can we see some green appearing on the trees? Spring in the air and fish on the move, so they are well catchable to the willing and knowledgable.

JUVIGNY

Nothing to report!!!

VRAUX

A superb result for one man on his 3rd visit to the lake, here is his description of events

Vraux, 13th - 20th March 2010.

"Me and my wife Alyson made some enquiries with Chris the owner a few weeks
prior to see if we could get a week on Vraux, with some trepidation on our
part, as March can be a bit iffy at the best of times, but even more so this
year with the coldest winter for some time.

Anyhow, on checking the weather a few days before hand it looked reasonable,
so, in with a chance I thought, although in truth I thought if I managed a
couple of fish out during the week, I would be well pleased, considering it
was still very much Winter fishing.

It was 2 Degrees when we arrived, but there were some signs that fish had
been showing the previous evening, bubbles in decent size patches where fish
had been jumping and left me a message, looked promising!
Rods set up and out by midday, with eyes glued to the lake for any signs of
feeding fish, this was to be the single fact that made the difference to the
week, just watching and waiting for a fish to give itself away with a few
pinpricks of bubbles indicating some feeding activity and putting a bait to it.

Saturday Night and Sunday morning came and went without any signs of fish
activity. Sunday afternoon arrived with temperatures rising and a bit of
sunshine bursting through the bare tree branches, there were some feeding
indications down the far left of the lake past the snags and I got a few
bleeps about 1:45pm. The rod tip just quivering I pulled into a fish, game
on, but only for10 seconds then it was off! Gutted was an understatement!

Later on Monday morning,I spotted another sign of a fish down the centre of
the lake and duly put a bait to it. Just a handful of mixed pellet,
sweetcorn, vitalin and hemp with a single Nash 10mm Barrel pop up.
Alyson, had just left to get a shower and about 4:15pm, the spot produced a
few bleeps which was enough to hit and I was in again at last! The fish
immediately felt like a good un', and as the fish came closer it fought even
harder and having caught several "big fish" in the past I guesstimated the
fish to be a good fit 40! It really showed its huge power in the margins,
what a scrap it gave, one of hardest fighting fish I've caught in 30 years!
After successfully netting the fish and waiting for Alyson to return to do
the weighing and piccies, I stated "I've got a good fish here, probably mid
40's", bringing it to the mat she said "Bloody hell, that's the biggest fish
I've ever seen, that's got to be well over 50!"..........On closer
inspection, I said "yeah I think your right!", It was.......59.4 of a
glorious Mirror, beating my pb by some 6lb, Joy! bloody Joy, it did'nt
matter now if nothing else came my way I was on carp cloud 9!

Things were looking up and the fish decided to get their heads down, the
following day I captured a pristine 35 common, same spot, same tactics.
Things were looking good.......until Tuesday night and a very heavy frost.
All went completely dead for the next few days, after trying various tactics
including maggot and roaming Zigs, nothing! Although the day time
temperatures were up in the teens by now, still no signs.

We decided to leave on the Friday afternoon, as nothing was occurring during
the nights, we thought not much point in staying until Saturday. We planned
to pack up about lunchtime to get the early evening ferry back.
Sitting having a coffee, about Midday, I said Hello, theres a few specks
coming up over there......... Fresh Bait, rod dropped on the spot, you never
know! Then got on with packing up.

About 30 mins later, a couple of bleeps and a last gasp fish produced
another 50! At 50.8 another cracking Mirror.
what a way to finish a trip, Pleased is an understatement, Bloody well
chuffed more like.

Not a week of quantity, but certainly of quality, a hard week, but also a
very enjoyable week again at Vraux!
Thanks Chris for a great week once again from the Small, intimate and
Intriguing Vraux.
Look forward to seeing you again later this year.
Kind Regards,
Jeff and Alyson."

Some brilliant fishing in cold water conditions with the fish showing off their superb winter colours!!!