My history of Carp Fishing in France at Etang de Campas
My passion for all things fishing started from the age of 8 and like most kids was taken fishing by my Dad. I found that although normally inpatient I could happily sit by a lake edge all day waiting for a bite and not be too concerned if that bite never materialised.
I would fish for anything that I could catch which on a really bad day included stickle back, minnows and even frogs. As my experience and skills improved I started to have more luck and was catching fish on a more regular basis but was getting bored with catching silver fish and wanted to catch some specimen fish like the ones I used to see in magazines. Pike fishing seemed the quickest and easiest way to catch big fish but this novelty soon wore of and I was soon looking for another way.
Whilst fishing our local lake and watching the majority of anglers blanking I noticed one old guy who was fishing with a target board, ledger bomb and trout pellets, I watched in amazement as he hooked into an almighty fish which seem to take hours to land, when he did I looked in the net to see my imagination said that must be 50lb although more than likely closer to 15lb. I instantly wanted to catch fish like that and proceeded to chew the old boys ear of for a further 2 hours until he decided he had enough and left.
I set about finding out as much as possible about carp fishing and replaced all my equipment for carp rods and reels, my dad brought me a Diawa Optonic for my birthday, and so the love affair began.
I fished for carp for about 10 years more with at the time a fairly good personal best of 21lb. I had heard from other fisherman about the size and amount of carp being caught in France and wanted to go as soon as I could. My first fishing in France trip ended with a blank week for the 3 of us, but I had not lost any enthusiasm and went each year for 3 more years with some good results
