Vantastic Lukas: Spell of the Jungle (2)

Under the spell of the jungle

I slowly drove my loaded boat and focused gaze through the polar glasses along the flooded banks into an area of ​​water that I had set as a meeting point with Christoph. Since Christoph was still busy at the slip, I had enough time to look for fish in the sheltered bays. I drifted through the jungle, standing silently on the inner tube of my boat. Absolute silence - only the natural ambient noises and the chirping of birds captivated me and allowed me to completely merge with the moment. For about an hour I wound my way from bush to bush through the undergrowth in the boat. I could only see a small flake. As with my location round 4 days ago, when I arrived at the lake, I thought: The fish can be anywhere and are not at all dependent on us anglers scattering their food somewhere in unprotected areas.

Now we're really fishing again!!

Christoph and I decided on a small headland from which we had the opportunity to fish a small bay protected from the wind and interesting areas in front of our feet. After laying the rods, we cooked a delicious dinner while having good conversations. Christoph was also one of those rare people with whom I was on the same wavelength. As a result, we had a lot to exchange and philosophize about.

The first night was quiet and in the morning we immediately made plans for the coming days: We wanted to look for the fish. For me it meant finally fishing properly again. Since I've been working on my laptop a lot lately, fishing has often slipped into the background. After Christoph and I enjoyed the sunny day in our jungle camp, did some sport and just unwinded, Christoph was able to catch his first fish in the evening. After the Schuppi was photographed, we let him swim again and we lay down on the loungers motivated. We wanted to change places the following day as long as we didn't get any further action that night.

Spot change

As planned, we packed our things in the morning after a coffee. Since we both had designed our equipment to be similarly minimalist and mobile, we quickly found ourselves on the water with the loaded boats. The windless, sunny day was an excellent location and so we drove along the shore of half the lake. The result: lots of small bream, NOT a single carp!! Somewhat disillusioned, we decided again to go to “my lonely island”, which I had lived in before Christoph came to me. This time we went to a headland where we had all sorts of opportunities to spread our rods over a wide area. We were in good spirits, after all I had had two actions in this area three days ago... When my deep rod fired like crazy at a depth of five meters that evening, we were amazed at the quick action. Even during the fierce fight in which the fish pulled me over 500 meters across the lake, I already suspected that I had hooked a catfish again. I fought with the monster for about half an hour until the 1.50 m long catfish finally surrendered.

Change in weather – optimal conditions or blank weather?!

The next day we had a drastic change in the weather and we were curious to see how this would affect the biting behavior. The air pressure should plummet and a cold rain front should move over southern France in the coming days. We asked ourselves whether such a rapid change would really encourage the fish to eat?! In any case, we weren't exactly happy and we sat under my umbrella in 10 degrees and constant rain. Christoph was a bit shocked by the “spring weather” in southern France, I was already used to it and luckily we both had enough warm clothes with us to ride out this dilemma. The dreary day passed without any action on our eight rods and gave us hope for the next few days. I convinced myself that the fish needed time to cope with these conditions. Christoph was probably hoping that my positive words were true... (somehow you have to make light of such adverse situations)

We spent three days cooped up in the few dry square meters. The water temperature fell from 17.5 to 15 degrees. Such a drop in temperature at this time of year couldn't be a good thing, no matter what the "air pressure gurus" claim.

The discontent is growing

After the weather had stabilized somewhat on the fourth day, we wanted to change locations again. I insisted on looking at the deeper area of ​​water that had previously been ignored - Christoph followed me skeptically. A short time later, when I was able to convince myself that trying to fish here was possible, but not the best choice, we drove back across the windy large body of the lake and, after deliberating back and forth and growing uncertain, headed for a bay place, which certainly had to be a good choice in the spring. Since we had been free to choose a spot on this large lake for about two days, this part of the lake was also unfished and we decided to try it there for one night. We were annoyed and lacking energy from the weather and the moving. Meanwhile, my boat batteries were completely used up and the lack of sun prevented me from charging with the solar panel. For the first time on my tour, I reached the limits of my energy reserves and was more dependent on the sun's energy than ever before. Another unsuccessful and rainy night followed. We definitely didn't lack sleep during this time...

Finally solar energy again!!!

The weather became a little more positive the next day and the sun kept fighting through the clouds. The fish seemed a little livelier again and so on the second night I got a bite on my rod at this spot, which was dangerously close to a flooded area at 200 meters. Relieved to have finally caught a carp again, we photographed the fish and lay down again. Despite the action, we wanted to change the spot again the next day because one fish in two days didn't convince us to continue fishing this spot. We also lacked options to lay our rods efficiently.
In the morning we moved to the windward tip of the now very well-known island. The rods were positioned relatively quickly and we had a proper French-style lunch: baguette with regional cheese and a good bottle of rosé.

We went into the first night full of hope. After all, two spots near the bank that Christoph had been feeding with white boilies for two days were repeatedly eaten empty...there wasn't a better indicator, actually...
With the toothbrush in my mouth, I was just getting ready for bed when my rod reported in front of a bush on the other bank: Contact recording - catfish! Damned! Somehow I had it with this type of fish this year.

A wonderfully sunny day followed when I was finally able to fully charge the empty batteries again. There was still no sign of carp. Neither during our explorations deep into the undergrowth nor when we listened in the evening in the silence of the night could we hear any clear evidence that suggested carp. Very frustrating and somehow the tension increased that we could tell and an outsider could probably have noticed it straight away. Christoph's boilies continued to disappear without a trace without any action on his rod, the most sophisticated rig didn't help, it was driving me crazy! After the third night on our island, which we had grown to love again, we spontaneously decided to change lakes in the morning while having coffee so that we could possibly end Christoph's last two days with a carp and spend my birthday in a place with better weather conditions. The weather for the next three days looked frustrating: heavy rainfall, wind and falling temperatures were again expected across the entire region. We definitely didn't want to be at the mercy of this weather on the island.

Sea change

I quickly decided to go back to the water that I now knew very well and that had given me some good fish in the recent past, my “PB water”. The first thing we did with polar glasses was walk along the bank in order to spot any fish in the water area. It didn't take long until we saw the first good fish under a fallen tree. Before the bad weather front reached us in the night, we still had enough time to put our rigs down in promising places. At dawn I got a bite that I completely resolutely dismissed as a catfish. Carelessly, I rowed towards the fish with a completely loose line to get it out of reach of my other lines...that would be even if a catfish shaved all my lines away... I rowed over the fish to make contact with the lines at a safe distance to record. I didn't look bad when I saw the outline of a carp in the headlamp light. So you are wrong and I drilled the torpedo-shaped fish with a little more concentration. While I was still putting the rod down again, the rain started and lasted the entire day and put a damper on our mood again. We “celebrated” my birthday under the umbrella before Christoph had to travel home the next morning. In the afternoon I received my next visit from my friend Bruno from home. I wanted to fish with him for three weeks in various waters, some of which were unknown to me.

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Best regards,
Daniel & Alex