Summerholidays in south France – from Luka Blazic

Summerholidays in south France
from Luka Blazic

In the last winter my friend Joseph and I, planned a trip to France in the beginning of September. Evereything was under big question mark, but in the end we made it.

Preparations for this trip were a bit hectic, as I was working pretty much all the time, every day. So I had very little time left to prepare the tackle and bait. I rolled a little over 50kg of Carptrack Monster-Liver Boilies with Elite Flavour and Black Pepper Essential Oil and Worm Up Boilies almost without flavour and with liberal amount of Oriental Spice Essential Oil. I also cooked 20kg of tigernut, only few hours before leaving. I still had some work to do on Sunday, but I was packed and almost ready when Joseph came.

Ready to rock and roll!

My favorite combo for V-Pops!

My old and faithfull Enthos have a new companion, the Imperial Baits Multirange, best multi use rod I ever used, it suits all styles of carpfishing!

Car is packed, ready for a long journey ahead of us!

My friend Josef is one of the pioneers of carpfishing in Slovenia. He was happy to join me on this trip, first one of many!

Short min. stops every 3 hours are a must for me, considering I drove all 16 hours myself.

Crazy tourists! Sleeping under stars on side walk, gypsy style.

We weren’t in a hurry, so it took us two hours before my car was fully loaded. It was almost dinner time, by the the time we were finished, so we orderd pizza, before taking off. And slowly we began our 16 hour long journey. We stopped few times on our way for a drink and to freshen up. We also stopped at legendary Lac de st. Cassien for an hour or so, as it’s always nice to see it.

Short stop and breakfast on the legendary St. Casssien

At 13 p.m. we finally arrived at the lake. We were both amazed by it’s beauty, it was something totally different to what we are used to. At first sight it appeared relatively small, because of the several islands, but when we arrived on the other side of the lake, in marina, we realized how big the lake really is.

We finally arrived and quickly started unpacking.

Then the bad weather came, constant wind, with a lot of rain. We knew our chance for fish were very small. It was time to move, but weather was to bad. So we had to stay another two days. On Tuesday morning we packed up our gear an load it on boat. It took us a little over an hour to reach our next position. We fished there only one night, before moving on. On our next and final position, where we would stay till the end of our fishing we were filled with confidence. It’s just that feeling in your guts, when you know you’ll catch. I really did my best, searching good spots and when all of them were marked, it was time to prepare the bait. I cut some boilies in half, prepared tigernuts and mix it all up with whole boilies.

I wish I had iBoat 260 back then, it would save me a lot of trouble.

I added Carptrack Liquid to all that and leave it like that for few hours. Meanwhile I tied new rigs and by evening, everything was ready and in place. I didn’t get much sleep, as I was expecting something to happen. I must say I was a bit dissapointed in the morning, when nothing happened.

Pimping bait next day – IB Carptrack Liquid

And IB Carptrack Powder

Just a little of bait and PVA on each rod, that is my tactic!

Worm Up Amino Dip, my new favorite!

Preparing the endtackle.

Finally fishing. 🙂

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Carptrack Liquid-Powder Paste!
no more words are needed…

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First sunset…

…and the last one on that position.

We stoped at several places arround the lake, as we tried to decide where to start fishing. At the end we opted for big bay area, near the island. We loaded our boats and I fished more closed area of the bay, to sunken bushes and trees and Joseph fished open water. It took us some time, before we found interesting spots. After three days without take, we were both suprised, we should catch something by now. But nothing happened, not even a bream action, so it was time to plan a move.

Ready to move!

I don’t mind driving like this in good weather, but my Allrounmarin is just to small and that was the moment I realized I need an iBoat 260.
Comment Max Nollert: „Hi Luka, I think we might have a talk… :-)“

First walk arround the new place, we discovered a body of a carp and it looked huge.

Camp is ready, time to search for new spots.

Bad weather came, after I lost fish and we stayed in bivy next few days…

Last morning on the second place. With good weather arriving, we were finally able to move.

On our last place, I was fishing in snags. Shock It is my favorite mono line when fishing in snags!

We spend 3-4 hours on boats that day, driving arround, searching for new position. Next day we moved on island. It took us whole day to move. We rowed out our baits on spots 200-450m away, and we were finished by midnight. After hefty dinner it was time to rest. Next day in the middle of the day, I had brutal take on rod, positioned on platou, 400m away. The fish was pulling hard, and it was time to get in the boat. 20-30m from the boat the hook pulled and I was gutted! After 5 days of fishing finally take, and I lost the fish, imagine how I felt.

Preparing myself, like it was my last battle.

Custom marker, for fishing in the weed.

Carptrack Monster-Liver Boilies and V-Pop (soaked in Tangerine Oil Essential Oil) snowman. Combo, that never let me down!

I fished in shallow water, so I needed some protection against crabs.

Lade station – Session Pack

During breakfast, when we were discussing that something was wrong, one of my indicators bleeped bip. And after 15 seconds again bip. Line was tight so something was going on, obviously. It took me another 15 seconds to respond. I grabbed the rod and quickly jumped in boat. After I was on top of the fish, the real fight began. After 10 min I saw glimpse of the fish and realized it was a Big One.

My knees started to shake…
…as I really didn’t want to loose the fish. Another 10 minutes and it was mine. I was over the moon when we weighted the fish, 20.3kg. That fish was such confidence booster, that I was sure I will catch another fish or two in my last 24hr. Unfortunetly, luck was really not on my side and I blanked on my last night on the lake. I could say, with all the bad weather, luck really wasn’t on my side, thruought the whole fishing, with all the bad weather and lost fish, but I’m glad I get most out of the situation, played hard and on the end my effort was rewarded.

Finally success!

The fish I was waiting for!

Last morning on the lake.

…load the car and start our journey back to home.

One last glimpse of the lake. Eventough in terms of catching fish, this was my worst fishing in France so far, but I can say it was by far most enjoyable session in a lifetime. I really hope I will soon find more time. Time to return into the paradise…

Luka Blazic
Team Imperial Fishing Slovenia

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GOOD CARPING – dedicated to all heroes of the autumn!
max nollert & Team