More in depth reviews from 2009

,Just like to add a big thank you to Iain and Kim for what was a superb week on Rushes. This being my 1st time in france I managed to beat my P.B 3 times  while there with the biggest being 30 1/2lb mirror on the last nite. This being followed with a 27 1/2 lb common which turned out to be the last fish before going home.   What a way to finish a cracking few days fishing.

Definately looking to bring a few mates over next year and look forward to meeting you both again. Also big thank you to Iain for accompanying me to Le Mans A&E to sort out my finger  !! Add to that some great food by Kim and I could not have imagined the week to be any better.

Also thanks to J.P and Makes for the advice.. Makes your texts were an inspiration. 

Thanks to everyone again...

 Barney.

March 2009

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We have just returned from Rushes and what a great week we had!

Before we went I contacted Makes as he has many pics on the forum and many from Rushes, he gave me some great advice on bait and rigs etc. I must admit when Makes told me to try Mega Reds I was sceptical as I normally prefer brand names like Nash, Richworth etc. He was proved right later in the week.

 So I took Nash Scopex squid + robin red and some Richworth Tutti Frutti. The Nash bait worked really well but nothing was interested in the tutti frutti. I bought this home with me! We would have definitely caught a lot more fish , as the weather was rainy , windy  during the first couple of days and then it decided to go all Mediterranean on us , it was very hot Thursday and Friday, no fish coming out during the day, as soon as it cooled down , the fish decided they were hungry. We hardly fished Friday and not on Saturday. Some fish also spawned in the week.

I ran out of the Nash bait so bought some from Iain, 5kg of Mega Red, these worked really well.

Over the week I had 38 fish, which included :

 

2 x 30lbers

20 x 20 lbers

2 x cats , 21 and 14 lb

8 doubles

6 under 10lb

 

I did not break any personal bests on this trip, but I did catch my first two catfish , which are not big by catfish standards but I was still very happy with these. I fished every night for catfish and had the two fish, both on big 20mm pellets, I tried a big bunch of worms and liver but these bought me no fish.

 

My fishing partner Andy came to France with a PB of 8lb! He has never really fished for carp as such, he has fished commercial mixed fisheries by float or method feeder in the past. By the end of the week he had caught quite a few 20’s, a couple of 30’s and a big 47 lb 5 Catfish caught on 2 boilies during the day. He was delighted as you can imagine.

 

We really enjoyed our trip to Rushes , we both took the food package at 100 euros and that was well worth the money , breakfast bought to your bivvy and a really BIG 2 course meal in the evening. The food was excellent. I dont eat meat but this was no problem for Kim.

 Kim and Iain made us feel very welcome from the minute we arrived until we left early Saturday morning.

 

I would thoroughly recommend Rushes its a runs water, with some beautiful fish. Be careful if you are fishing from Blue camp towards the dam wall as it is snaggy, more so, the further to the right you fish.

Take your own bait if you wish but I would definitely use Mega Red as well as it really works.

 

Thank you Kim and Iain for a great week,

 

Jim ( Kestrel )

May 2009

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I said to the other 3 i would do the writeup for the week and stick all the pictures up and they can add there own bits and pieces....

A few people know Me, Gordon, Neil and Martin were fishing there last week.....We done the Dover to Calais ferry crossing and arrived at Rushes around midnight Friday night.....Kindly Kim let us kip in the anglers room and guest room so after a cuppa and some catching up we got our heads down....

 

Saturday morning when we woke up it was raining, cold and the 3 anglers on at the time said it had gone pretty dead since the rain had kicked in and the wind had turned and was pushing into the shallows...We agreed that Martin and Neil could have Blue Camp and me and Gordon would go in Beatties. I agreed to let Gordon have the dam wall, i couldn't be arsed with the argument fo the dam wall, he had, had a nightmare the previous time he was at Rushes and i was just up for a few fish, beer, sun and chilling. Neil started on the dam wall in blue camp with martin going into open water.

 

I went out in the boat on the Saturday and moved the markers to points i wanted them at. I fished one side of them with the other person in blue camp fishing the other side...We chose to take Catcherbaits with us.....good prices, nice guy and the fish in there absoloutely love the stuff. We took 20kg of frosty fruit, 20kg scopex squid and 10kg of big red to mix things up abit. Over the course of the week by Wednesday or Thursday me and gordon were out of bait, a quick chat with Iain and we had another 15kg of scopex and squid going in our side of the lake...the lads on the other side just lasted with there 25kg.

 

The weather for the week was on and off.....bit of rain here and there but alot of sunshine.....i even managed to burn myself. over the week i reckon between my two markers i put about 20 - 25kg of boilie....every fish i had was shitting the stuff out so they were obviously enjoying it and to keep them there i had to keep feeding them.....Since the netting the fishing has changed massively....this water is going to be a massive 30s and 40s water the way there putting weight on and the way they are looking...

 

The fishing was awesome....Neil in Blue camp broke his pb 4 times i think, it started off being 22ish and finished being 28ish so he was over the moon, not fogetting he had a 46lb cat which he's still buzzing about....after having a mare last april in france it was good to see him land alot of fish here. Martin done well, he had 2 30's and none of the 10ish 20's he had were below 25lb.

 

The food and hospitality is awesome, Kims cooking is out of this world everything was spot on. Iains got a lucky charm, every time he came round to our swim our alarms went....nice bloke and can chat for hours with him..

 

I wont go on and on, we all had an awesome week and will all be returning.....i wanted to return this year but there fully booked so i've got something else sorted...It's one of them places you just want to keep going back and back....

 

Biggest mirror for the week was Gordons 36.12 Mirror from the Damwall.

Biggest common and biggest surprise was my common at 33.02, I was out in the boat netting a fish off the dam wall, i unhooked it and released it, as i was coming into our swim my middle rod belted off, i rowed over grabbed the rod and played it from the boat.....It just kept going and going. On the bank when Iain said it was 33.02 i didn't believe him, i weighed it myself to make sure they wern't lying lol.....massive result and best fish i've had from there, it was pristine, Iain was well impressed with that. The commons seem to like me in France, i had the big'un from Etang De Brigueuil and then set a new lake record common here.....pucka 

Biggest cat was neils 46.10, great fish and i'm glad he had it, he could have had no carp, banked that and would have still been over the moon.

 

Mine and Gordons pictures have come out wicked, after seeing how his works and the pictures it's done i know what i'm buying next, after seeing the pictures on my camera and his there is a difference in the quality....the pictures come out great, apart from a rubbish bag which we forgot about in nearly every picture which will get photoshopped out haha.

 

My results (hopefully the other 3 will put theres up):

1x small cat

1 x 11lb cat

6 x carp under 10lb.

Sunday: couple of littleuns and the two cats.

Monday: 17.11 mirror, 11.02 mirror, 20.14 mirror, 23.09 mirror.

Tuesday: 26.01 common, 23.14 mirror, 14.07 common, 25.14 common, 24.02 common, 26.06 mirror.

Wednesday: I had a dead day....just drank beer and sun bathed.

Thursday: 33.02 common, 28.00 mirror.

Friday: 18.10 mirror, 21.04 mirror, 24.15 mirror.

 

4 fish between 10-20lb, 10 fish between 20-30lb and 1 30lb fish......between me and Gordon we reckon we done around 800lb of fish which i thought was pretty good.

 

Thanks to Frank for the deal on the bait.....will need to take more next time, luckily Iain had some in his freezer.....top bait and fish were proper on it.

 

Dale 

April 2009

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