Bammer
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Trip to Valdore FranceWoke up 2am, alarm was set for 3 but hell I was excited, lol, got the lad up and we set off about 4am, made good time to Dover, well the roads were pretty clear all the way. Ferry was rammed, it wasn’t the nicest ferry I ever been on but we didn’t care, had a crappy breakfast and tried to catch 40 winks, screaming babies put paid to that as they seemed to be all over the place. Joe was loving it, big adventure and all that.
Off at Calais and sat nav set, then we find Cite Europe, have some coffee and a bit of a mooch round. Back on the road and about 90 mins later we at local town, Blangy Sur Eglise, op into supermarket and buy some snails / whelks, find the tobacco shop and stock up on smokes. Finally get to the lake and onto the swim around 12pm.
Woo Hoo were here.
Start to set up camp etc and get the rods out, beautiful day and the sun is shining, Joe shoots off on his bike to check the place out. Peg 18 is vacant, 1 angler on 19 and another father and son on 20. Various baits on the rods trying to see what works. Evening comes and it starts to chill.
Had a few beeps during the night but nothing much, up early and the fresh bread arrives, so a large bacon and egg sarnie each.
About 11am the right hand rod starts to beep, slowly at first then takes off at pace, we had made a deal to take it in turns and Joe was up first, he struck and was in, I thought this is gonna be a fun week. After a bit of a struggle net boy (me) saw it was a sturgeon and we landed it, 19lb was the weight, bloody ugly old thing, looked like it had been in the wars a bit and even had a deformed fin (the guy on peg 19 caught it twice more that week).
Well that was that for that day, the weather changed, the rain came and everything went dead.
Monday was quiet too, a couple of beeps but that was all, started to try different baits and different spots to fish. A couple of fella’s turned up to fish peg 18. No one else on the lake were having any luck either, although they were getting runs but with nowt on the end ??? But it did rain most of the day. Had a couple of runs in the evening but they either came off or weren’t on when we struck
Monday night got cold, I mean really cold, down to -2.
Spent most of Tuesday trying to figure out what was going wrong, pulled the rods in and went for brekkie and the lodge, just fancied sitting in a proper chair and warming up a little. Spoke to the other guys on the lake and they were having the same sort of takes. Spoke to a mate on the phone and he suggested longer hairs, in the mean time the guy on 19 pulled in a 31lb common on a pop up. So I made up a 2 inch hair but pinned the hook down, figured that the carp had been fished for so much that they were spooking at the feel of hook. Set Joe up with a rod and homemade float so he mess about. He started to catch perch, a couple around a pound and one at 1.5 lbs, and he also got some nice roach, so at least he was having fun.
NODDY
PERCH
ROACH
Met the guys on swim 15 on lake 2, couple of French guys and they were having less luck than me. That afternoon the sun came out again, for about 30 minutes then the place erupted, howling wind followed by hail and thunder, talk about running for cover. We basically had some grub and watched a dvd in the biv, wasn’t an evening to be sat outside. Woke up at 1am with a screaming run, jumped up like a coiled spring (yeah Right … lol) got to rods and it was still screaming, hit it and nothing … doing me head in now. So cos Joe was up, it wasn’t raining and the sky was clear, we had hot chocolate and looked at the stars. It was bleeding freezing but was nice to sit and talk with him.
About 7am Wednesday got out of the bivvy to answer a call of nature, turned round and noticed left had rod tip had bent round, thought to myself “sure I didn’t set that up like that last night” then the tip started to knock, struck into it and landed a 17lb carp, finally I thought. But then wondered why the alarm didn’t sound .. checked it was on, checked the others …. FROZEN solid, then noticed all the ice on the rods and reels … damm it was cold. All the rain we had had the day before had frozen. Bit of warm water sorted them out and I set about making rigs like the one we caught on. Seemed to work cos we had a lot more runs but still couldn’t get a hookhold. The French fella’s in 15 had a 43lb mirror out, only fish caught that week. The wind changed and started coming from the east … straight into the swim …
The night went by without a beep, well I didn’t hear any. Woke up Thursday to another bitterly cold wind, started to pack some of the gear we wouldn’t need again. The fella came round from peg 19, Simon, for a chat, had a screamer of a run, rod tip bending and everything, hit it and fish on ….. 5 seconds later fish off .. grrrrrr, getting fed up with this. Then the French geezers from 15, David and Frank, the four us stood there for 3 hours chatting about stuff, fishing, tackle. Simon moved to France when he was 11 so he could translate for us. It didn't rain and the sun actually came out, wlthiugh the temperature stayed the same .. COLD
Made arrangements to meet up in the lodge for a steak and we carried on packing.
Frank, David, me, Simon
Went for dinner about 6 and had a decent steak and a laugh and got back to swim to set the traps for the last night. Nothing all night, I was even up at 5 am waiting for the witching hour so I would be ready …. Nothing, got Joe up about 7:30 and we packed up, away from the lake at 9. Hit the hypermarket and Maccy D’s for brekkie then off to the ferry. Huge queue and the sailing time passed, but there must have been problems as it waited, much nicer boat and no where near as full.
Home at last
The trip back to Cambridge from Dover was a nightmare, 45 minutes to do 5 miles up to Dartford, another 20 minute hold up on the M25 and another hold up at the junction with the M11, god the traffic in this country sucks, 2 hour journey turned into 3.5 hours.
All in all, was a good trip, weather sucked, fishing sucked but being with the boy made up for it, he didn’t complain once in all the cold and rain and was a pleasure to be with.
Would I do it again ... Oh Yes
Would I do it again in October .... Oh No
We might go back in May .. a lot warmer then.
did we go to France, or Siberia
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top stuff fella 
make`s you want to do a trip real soon 