Vantastic Lukas: Slow down

Bycatches upon bycatches

Ideal conditions for this lake near the Pyrenees thought Christian and I as we looked at the lake in the wind and even occasionally saw a fish jumping out of the water far away. The wind made the high temperatures of over 30 degrees somewhat bearable. The constant action by numerous catfish, on the other hand, is less so. Especially at night, when you wanted to be sure that the rigs were perfectly positioned in their spots, it was annoying to be interrupted from your dreams by a creep, as it was usually not possible to drive the rods again due to the strong wind. So in the morning we sometimes only fished with one rod that was still effectively in one spot. The catfish were occasionally joined by a tench or an over-sized roach. At least there was rarely a dull moment during the day.

Christian did it right and prepared two places within casting distance with a little more food. Above all, the fishy boilies also attracted the unwanted catfish to the site, as you could easily see from their round bellies. Nevertheless, we didn't give up hope and tried to fish our way through the bycatch. At least Christian was able to pick out two nice carp from the armada of catfish before he left after almost a week at the lake.

An unpleasant thing that I noticed twice after catching a number of catfish: Carp anglers sometimes simply unhooked their rigs and left them hanging in the fish's mouth. In my opinion, this is absolutely disrespectful behavior towards the creature! Even though I'm not a big fan of this species, I find it absurd to do this just because it's not a "target fish"!!

Endure

When Christian left, I didn't feel like moving on. After the many hours behind the wheel recently, it was good for me to be a little more sedentary again. A nice place where I could park my car and also have fishing rods in the water was all I needed. I drove down really nicely and after Christian left I was able to devote myself fully to my “stuff”. I did things on the computer, did a lot of exercise, cooked myself good food and sometimes set the rods on new, promising spots. A change in the weather was predicted for the coming weekend: strong winds, rain and a drop in temperature of 10 degrees were expected to reach the region on Friday evening.

Thank the weather change

The forecast was right and the rain came on Friday evening and lasted until the next morning. At 2 a.m. in the pouring rain a rod ran far out. I pumped the fish in, I had no other choice. Going bananas in this wind was too dangerous. After a while I had the fish on my bank and for a change I didn't recognize a catfish in the beam of light, it was a carp!! My first after 7 days at this place!! I was happy, but it was no longer possible to cast off again due to the wind. Over the next day, the rain subsided, contrary to expectations. The fishing action increased, unfortunately I couldn't land two fish that had bitten on a rocky outcrop and were simply impossible to land from the bank - so whether they were carp or catfish remained a mystery. I responded to the previous night's carp by putting my other rods at similar depths. The bad weather seemed to draw the fish into deeper areas and I was able to land another nice fish later in the day. Finally, luck was on my side again and I was more than satisfied that I had become successful at the same spot after such a long time. As a rule, holding out and waiting was not my style of fishing. In this case, however, I have to revise myself: Over time I was able to make many interesting observations and gain new insights into the water that I would not have had otherwise. In addition, it was very good for my mind not to have to think about where I was going again today and whether I would find a suitable and quiet place there.

In the coming week, however, it will be time to stock up on food again and look for another place. Maybe I'll take a break from fishing for a few days, maybe I'll go to the mountains - who knows. I'm curious to see whether the end of the holidays here in France will be noticeable in the places I visited.

It remains interesting...