Commendations

Advanced Carp Fishing

In the spring of 2006 Mark Holmes and Richard Farnan from Advanced Carp Fishing visited Castle Lakes and published the following editorial in their September edition. Please click here to down load and read the article ... (Click Down Load PDF)

CARP CONNECT (GERMANY)

Markus Dittgen and Bernd Schurmann from Carp Connect visited Castle Lakes in September 2006 and published the following editorial in their November edition. Please click here to down load and read the article ... (Click Down Load PDF)

Clive Franklin, (Greys consultant),

Carp Society's Pro-Am Champion 2003, from Somerset, spent a week at Castle Lakes in April 2006 and said "It is one of the best looking waters I have fished in France". He had 69 fish from Lake 2 in 48 hours up to 39lb 12oz, and his fishing partner Simon Schofield had 57 fish in 48 hours from Lake 2, to up to 33lb 4oz. He went on to say that the lakes offered top quality facilities including showers and toilets that are fit for a king, and the warmest of welcomes from the on-site fisheries manager Ron Wailes who is always on hand for help and advice. Castle Lakes is a well run Fishery and well worth a visit. 

Clive returned to Castle Lakes One, in October 2006 and had a very good trip with 13 thirty's to 39lbs 14oz and three were over 39lb, and he also banked 29 twenty's to 29lbs 15oz. Clive told us that he would return next spring to have a go for the bigger fish. He said that the lake and the fish have all done very well over the past year and looks forward to returning next year to get one of the 50's or 60's out. Clive also added that this will be one of the top venues in France in the next few years and could well hold a world record fish in the future...

Best Regards: Clive Franklin

FRANS and JOB

I want to start by saying that you have a great fishery!! When we arrived on Saturday, we had a warm welcome from Ron  Wailes and his wife Jan. The first view of the lake was great! We started fishing right away, and within 5 minutes the first fish was on the bank!! Then it start raining very hard, we caught some more fish and we stopped fishing at 18.00 hours because we had a long drive to Castle Lakes, and needed a good sleep. We started fishing again at 07.00 hours the next morning and soon had our first 15 kilo fish. The whole week we caught lots of fish during daylight hours!! But we didn't catch many fish during the night, so we did get enough sleep! We didn't fish the last night because we had a long drive home!

We caught about 100 fish altogether! We had 5 fish above 15 kilo : 15,5 16 18,5 18,5 18,5 kilo's!!! 25fish between 12,5 and 15 kilo, 40 fish between 10 and 12,5 kilo, 30 fish between 3 and 6 kilo, I hope you like the pictures!!

Regards Frans and Job!!

See you next year september again!!

JOE TURNBULL,

Well what can I say... I could write a book about it.... My friend and I came this year 2006 the last week in April and the first week in May which proved to be perfect timing. We had god knows how many singles up to 19lb around 120 20'lbs up to 29lb and 30, 30lb's + fish up to 39.15lbs and that was EACH!!!!! We were shattered after the first week when it got to a point of us actually not being able to get our rods set up quick enough but sorry to say we lost a few of the bigger monsters that the fifty acre lake holds. The place itself was just breath taking. Both the small and the big lake are most beautiful, and some fantastic sunsets and sunrises are enough to take most by surprise. It was just amazing never had a week like It.!!!! Ron and his Wife were the best hosts and could not do enough for us, Ron quickly proved himself to be a very knowledgeable and competant angler by putting us on the fish in the first place and giving us confidence in what we were doing i.e. double 24mm baits on a size 4!!! Now that's not my usual way of fishing but god did it work!!!! Also...if you don't believe him ask to see his photo album of the fish he's had from Cassien and so forth. Very impressive. 

PS. Thanks for the memories, attach a photo, a pb 36lb 12oz common p.p.s we got through 1500kg of particles,200kg of boilie p.p.p.s

WATCH OUT FOR THE GHOSTS. he he he he he

Hi Bruce,

Just wanted to drop an e-mail to say what a fantastic trip I had to Castle Lakes last week. I was staggered by the work and investment that has gone into the lake and by what has been achieved in such a relatively short time. The potential for these beautiful old lakes and the others you are bringing on is massive and very exciting. Ron and Jan were brilliant hosts and their laid back but totally efficient way of running things really made it a fantastic experience packed with good fish, good food and great advice. I am desperate to get back and will be booking for next year when I can sort a date. Many thanks for you help with the bookings...it really was a perfect experience all round. Talk Soon.

Kev Duff

Ian Holland at Castle Lakes 2007

Following an extremely enjoyable and successful trip in the autumn of 2006 with fish to 40lb+ me and a friend, Chris, were very keen to return for another go in the spring of 2007. As we had experienced previously, the welcome and hospitality from Ron and his wife Janet, was the very best I have encountered anywhere in 20yrs of travelling to French venues. They both make you extremely welcome and cannot do enough to help. Ron's advice is also the best I have encountered being both very genuine and extremely knowledgeable – he will do his utmost to help you catch.The fishing this time around was going to be very different from the previous autumn as the weather pattern was to remain a very static high pressure all week, meaning increasingly warm days with temperatures plummeting at night.

The night time mists in the early part of the week had to be seen to be believed. So with the weather far from a carpy ideal what did the week produce? The fish tended to come on at dusk, feed all night and switch off a couple of hours after dawn - with the odd fish during the day. This pattern remained true all week apart from Thursday when the wind really got up a bit and the better fish fed all day – that day I had over 15 thirty plus fish with 50% of them in the upper thirty class. A truly superb day’s fishing and daytime action was a very welcome change as most nights were absolutely frantic. The wind dropped again that evening and so the night time feeding pattern returned for the remainder of the session. It made for two very tired anglers as the week went on because the day time temperatures made recouping the lost sleep impossible. No complaints though as this is what we all travel to France hoping to experience! So to say that we were both pleased by the week’s results would be an understatement.

The tally of fish between us easily exceeded 150 and in truth could have been over 200 as you start to loose count pretty quickly. The average of 30lb plus fish was about 1 in 4 but with very few singles and most of the fish mid to upper twenties. No forties this time but quite a number only a few ounces away. We had mostly mirrors, with a very nice mix of strains, also a good number of commons sprinkled in - the biggest going 38lb 8oz, scale perfect and again a really beautifully proportioned fish with excellent growth potential. It was clear that a lot of the fish were capable of growing very rapidly and a large proportion of them had the frame to become very big indeed. This is a water to truly watch moving forward, and a real monster a distinct possibility in a few years time. Give it a go you won't be disappointed.It is also worth noting at this point that even if you don't catch, which won't happen, the beauty of the lake and the local wildlife make a visit worthwhile in its' own right. Watching the Honey Buzzards, Ospreys and the heard of wild boar really drive home what the UK has sadly lost in the last 50 years. So with all of this to experience again and to all true anglers fishing being about more than just the fish, both me and Chris will definitely be returning again this autumn for another visit.

Ian Holland.