This page will be updated as and when I’m able to access the website, we’re in a very rural location and our internet connection isn’t the best, please understand if there are long gaps between updates.
We can answer emails within hours most of the time but gaining access to website is another matter.
Friday 3rd September
Last Sunday within the space of a few hours we had a 49lb common come out followed by another common a shade under 54lbs at 53.12, NEW LAKE RECORD, the whole week has fished quite well and I’ve lost count of the 30’s which have come out. I’ll do a proper write up when I get the catch reports on Saturday. I should point out that the anglers this week have only fished days and 2 nights. The only boilies going in the lake this week have been Baitcraft; I think that speaks for its self.
Saturday 28th August
After a few quiet weeks our anglers this week found the fish, after catching this year’s fry on the first day or so, tactics were changed, bigger hooks, longer hairs and bigger baits were used which completely stopped the fry from taking hook baits, as soon as this was done along came the bigger fish.
They had a total of 32 carp, 2x doubles of 15 and 19lb
16x 20’s up to 29lb
11x 30’s up to 39.10lb
2x 40’s of 43 and 44lb both mirrors
18 were caught on Baitcraft,
8 on Nash Scopex squid,
6 fell to Halibut pellet but 5 of these were below 25lb.
For the first time we asked the anglers to write in a guest book, which from now on will be located in the cabin for all guests to read and leave their own comments.
This week’s anglers wrote the following.
What a week! What a place! Highs all week for everyone! Excited, exhausted, hot, cold, wet, windy, we had the lot. Fantastic fishery with immaculate head of carp. Fished day and night, just not enough hours in the day. All swims produced the goods with some cracking fish between us. Beautiful lake in beautiful surroundings. Thanks to Tasha for all she did for us during our stay and take it from us – listen to Andy’s advice and your catch rate will improve as it did for us.
Awesome Fishing! Many Thanks
Dale, Stuart and Phil.
Well done to you all on your new PB’s.
It was a pleasure having you fish our lake and we truly hope you’ll return, now you have an idea how the lake works you'll have an advantage from day one. We have a couple of groups who return every year sometimes even twice and they always go home with new PB's and new different fish under their belts.
Photo's will be on 2010 gallery soon.
Sunday August 15th
We have just had the worst 3 weeks of the season. I’m very sorry to the anglers involved in this update but we run our business with an honesty policy and when updating this page I have to write what I believe to be the truth.
1st week the anglers added a lot of rock salt to their bait without our knowledge, come Wednesday Tasha and I were really scratching our heads so spent a lot of time with the anglers discussing what might be the problem, nothing came to light until they started preparing their bait, we saw them add a cupful of rock salt to about 1 kg of pellet, obviously I asked what they were doing and it was at this point that I found out that they had been doing this all week. Once we knew this, we suggested they move away from the areas which had seen salt, after doing this they did have a few up to 36lb.
2nd week the wrong bait was used, I cannot stress enough how important bait choice is at Echo pool if our fish don’t like it they won’t touch it, there are so many naturals in the lake that anglers bait is only one of many options.
3rd week, not as bad as the other 2, we saw 9 carp on the bank to 43lb, they used our bait but the lake only saw about 14kg all week, I think it would have been a really good session if more had been used. When we feed the lake we put out 10kg a day and believe me this gets cleared up in minutes.
Hopefully the next 3 weeks will be a lot better. I give my customers as much help as they want, I’m more than happy spending hours talking about tactics etc, I also like to start a relationship via email before they arrive so I can tell them what to expect and give them an idea of what’s working and what’s not. Once here as long as rules aren’t broken I’ll let them do what they feel happy with because at the end of the day you need to be confident in what you’re doing, if I feel there catch could be improved I’ll make suggestions but won’t push my point. Please understand that we are a fishery and to be successful we need people to catch fish, we're NOT going to give you bad advice.
Anyone with any questions please don't hesitate to contact me via email, I love nothing more that talking about my lake and fish.
Sunday 18th July
First I must apologise for not updating this page for over a month, as some of you will know we are located in a very rural part of France which is a great thing when it comes to owning a fishery but not so good when it comes to internet connections, we are able to answer emails straight away but when it comes to updating the web site sometimes it’s not so easy.
We are now supplying Korda terminal tackle on site. We have chosen Korda mainly because of their wide gape hooks and hybrid lead clips; IMHO they’re the best on the market. We are also stocking everything from bait stops to scissors, back leads to bait needles. There will also be a few products from other companies and possibly the odd bit of second hand tackle. Don't forget we also supply Baitcraft fresh/frozen boilies as well as prepared particle and very high quality carp pellet.
Baitcraft is still putting all other baits to shame; we’re still 100% for at least 1 member of each group breaking their PB. It’s been ridiculously hot over the last few weeks which has made the fishing hard, most groups lately have wound in during the day and focused on our stalking pool where it is now possible to catch carp over the 30lb mark. Lines have been going back out in the main lake at about tea time so the traps are ready for the night ahead and most nights will see all anglers catching, the average is still around the 30lb mark and most weeks we see a couple of 40’s most of which are over 45lb. We are now fairly sure we have 3 commons around 50lb the biggest being 52,4lb with the other’s at 49 and 48, we have also seen on the bank 3 unknown, uncaught mirrors all around 45lb, and keep getting reports of a mirror that seems to hang around with one of the large commons which is identifiably in the water because it has a scale missing on its shoulder anyway this mirror is said to dwarf the common, it's been seen by at least 3 different anglers when they have been walking around baiting up, fingers crossed it will in someone's landing net soon!
It’s also a good idea to bring a light weight float rod to pick off some of the truly stunning 1-2lb carp which can be caught from in front of the swims during the day using sweet corn. (These fish are then relocated to 1 of our stock ponds)
Visit our new 2010 fish gallery to see some of catch's so far this year.
Sunday 6th June
Echo Pool is turning into exactly the type of fishery we have been trying to create, the fish are getting really clued up and a lot harder to catch, up until now it’s been a very easy water to get good results on no matter the ability or more importantly the attitude of the angler, as owners we were really not happy with this, now however the only way of catching our fish is by really thinking about what you’re doing, studying the lake and understanding the behaviour of the carp. It is now very gratifying for us to see people working really hard and being rewarded with some truly stunning carp which they have earned the right to catch.
Last week’s anglers used our Baitcraft T1 boilies pellet and particle, they had 11 carp with the best being 2 x 40’s with the biggest being 47lb,3oz. Well done Simon and Chris.
This week is already off to a good start with an anglers new PB coming out with hours of arriving, 36lb 4oz mirror, we're confident he’ll have broken this again by the end of the week................. They did 44lb, well done Matt and Mike.
Tuesday 1st June
Fish spawned for a second time at the beginning of last week. (We still allow the lake to be fished just not anywhere near where the fish are doing their thing) Although fishing was hard our Baitcraft T1 did the business yet again with all members smashing their previous PB's with Carp upto 45lb 8oz (a missing mirror) welldone Brian, Steve and Ben.
So far at least one member of every group has beaten their PB infact to our knowledge only 2 anglers have left without doing so, NO-ONE HAS BLANKED.
Fishing is getting alot harder as the carp become alot wiser to our tactics, however patience, water craft and good presentation are being rewarded with some stunning fish and regular visitors to the bank are now being replaced by fish not seen since last draindown.
Saturday 15th may 2010
We are off to a flying start this season, most if not all of our fish have already spawned, even during the spawning week we saw 23 fish on the bank including several 30's upto 37lb using our Baitcraft boilies, the following week was a bit slow considering the fish were on the feed after exhausting themselves! In previous seasons we have seen upto 80 fish on the bank this time of the year, my personal opinion is that it was down to the bait being used (anyone who booked before we started with Baitcraft could still bring which ever freezer bait they wanted). I say it was a slow week but we still saw 25 fish with the best being 48lb,15oz. Last week was really hard work and again Baitcraft wasn't used but I also think that the fish are getting alot wiser and more attention to detail, watercraft and bait presentation is going to be needed, we saw 16 fish to 3 anglers only 5 of which were over 30lbs, one of the anglers only had one fish and that was on his last day, it was well worth the wait though as it was a 49lb,8oz common, we now know that we have at least 2 commons around/over 50lbs. Its about time we started seeing our bigger mirrors and we can't wait to see how they have done after the winter, we have seen several very spawned out late 30's which we know to be early 40's but none of the elusive bigger ones, the angler who caught the 49 says that he saw an even bigger/longer common only a couple of hours before he landed this one!
Saturday 17th April 2010
We have now made our decision on which bait we will be supplying, and the winner is........... Baitcraft.
During the test it fished extremely well it is also probably one of the best baits on the market when it come to supplying a complete food source for the fish.
From this moment on we are only going to allow Baitcraft and may be a couple of other quality freezer baits to be used on the lake, this way we can be almost 100% sure that our fish aren’t eating anything which could be bad for them and Mark (owner of Baitcraft) can use us as an example on how well his bait performs not just at catching them but also at growing them on.
If anyone has any comments or questions about this please email using details on the “Contact us” page.
Sunday 11th April 2010
New Lake record came out on Thursday 52lb 4oz common
Tuesday 9th March 2010
Sorry to all of you that have been checking this page and seeing that nothing has been put on here since December, this web site was built in the UK and because we are out in France we cannot access it without a awful lot of agro and it's also been really hectic here as you can imagine. (hopefully soon we'll have full access to the site,that is once our web site designer gets his ass in gear)(only joking mate, thanks for everything)
Anyway the lake is back up to its maximum level and we got everything done that we wanted, including the removal of the island. A cable has been run to the other side of the lake so hopefully once connected to the generator there will be power in the swims, the moine is now safe to be fished to and all dangerous snags have been removed. However there is still a hell of alot of work to do around the lake before you all arrive this year and on top of that we have got to find time to test the baits that we are planning on stocking. We are testing several baits from top companies and are planning on stocking at least 3 of these, we are also planning on having a small tackle shop on site supplying all the terminal tackle that your likely to need.
Will update you with catch reports and which baits were used as and when it happens. As soon as we know which baits we are stocking we will let you know, everyone who has booked will also receive an email.
Tuesday 1st December 2009
Over the last few days we have been lowering the lake to about halfway, we are now starting our winter projects and maintenance, so a very busy time for us over the next couple of months.
Projects include. Removing island, hopefully supplying electricity and wifi to the swims, making the moine safe to be fished too, turning into more of a feature and probably a fishing platform, we need to make repairs to the overflow system and holding tanks and then its just a case of clearing any snags which have fallen into the lake, cutting back the reeds and lillys.
We'll update you further as and when we find time.
Week starting 3rd Oct 2009
We had 3 anglers on this week, the weather was a bit up and down but this certainly didn't effect the fishing, most of the fish fell to either Premier baits Matrix or Trigga ice and the most sucessful presentation was the snowman.
Between them they had 64 carp to 44lbs 14oz and one small tench,
The most sucessful swim this week was number 4 which fishes to the deeper parts of the lake the following list of weights are to the nearest lb
29 4 30 21 45 27 35 15 31 35 6 20 20 17 35 30 26 19 27 20 25 26 20 19
All fish under 20lbs were removed and relocated to the stalking pool which we include in the price.
Below is the 44lbs 14oz common, best fish of the week