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Travelogue Carpiste du Bazoches

This past week we, Leon de Nijs and Percy Meisenbourg, traveled to Bazoches sur Vesles to cash our prize from the Wilhelmina Challenge. This prize was sponsored by Angling Escapes, for which we are very grateful. After a 6-hour journey, with a 1.5-hour delay near Brussels, we arrived at our destination. Upon arrival, the extremely friendly owner/operator Patrice was already waiting for us.

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Unfortunately, we don’t speak French, and Patrice doesn’t speak English, but the translation app on his phone (and his skill with it) ensured that we could still “speak” well with each other. He spoke enthusiastically about the water and the work that has been done in recent years to make it what it is today. In our opinion, a “small” gem. The problem with the weed and crayfish has been tackled enormously, and we have not experienced any hindrance from it at all (info from previous fellow anglers Dave and Franca).

After a bit of reconnaissance, we chose swim 16 which is on the deeper part of the water. Made this choice because of the time of year, and the overview of a large stretch of water. We were the only anglers on site at the start, so had free choice. After exploring with the dinghy and feed boat, we made a choice of spots. We fished 2 rods ( at the start) on a central spot in the middle of the water with a central rod marker. The other four rods we placed left and right at 40-50 meters from the central swim, bringing them closer to shore each time. As it were in a V-shape. The first day/night we had 6 bites on the central swim.

After day 1 we decided to try a little closer, and moved the central spot within “easy” casting distance, because of saving batteries of the boats. This was not a wise choice, because both rods fell silent afterwards. The rod fished to the left of the central spot suddenly began to “run”, and delivered 20 runs in a row. After this, this one fell silent for a while, and it suddenly began to “run” on the right side. Many runs came from here as well. On the right side next to us were Belgian fellow anglers settled down, with about 3 swims in between. After 24 hours they came to get some information, because it was not going well for them and for us it was off the hook. These guys were there for the 3rd time and did not understand what was “wrong”. Possibly something to do with bait choice and patience. With us, the rods with sweet balls ran the hardest. We shared all possible info, with them, hoping they could take advantage of it. They had only booked until Tuesday morning, and didn’t speak to them again either. With us, however, it kept running pretty well.

What we noticed was that it stopped during solid re-case, and then started up again quietly. All rods produced bites in the meantime. The leftmost rod (lace rod) produced a fat rat during the night. After returning to the boat, the next rat struck again, shooting into the branches and resulting in line breakage. So this rod was placed a little more to the middle, away from the shore, to prevent more misery. By the way, this rod also began to “run” again. What we also noticed was the strength and condition of the pangolins in relation to their weight.

We caught a few fish from 5-7 kg, quite a few from 8-12 kg, and several fish from 13-14 kg. The topper was 15.1 kg from this session. In total, we landed a whopping 145 fish. Extremely satisfied and tired, we turned in our rods at 01:30 on the last night. This because of the predicted bad weather, and the total fatigue, (of two 56 year old “old dudes) so we could still catch some night’s sleep. All in all, we look back on a fantastic week at Bazoches, with great catches and fishing fun.

Finally, a tip for fishing colleagues, be sure to bring enough batteries and possibly an inverter so you don’t break down on those.

As a tip to the owner, I would advise tackling the toilets (like at Castle Lake).

Unfortunately, we did not see Patrice after Wednesday as he was busy with more important matters. We started the return trip on Friday morning at 10:30 and because of traffic jam at Antwerp we arrived home around 16:30. The outward and return trip we stayed away from the toll roads, which is really recommended, because of the beautiful and nice surroundings.

Once again our heartfelt thanks for a fantastic week on this beautiful water, which is sure to yield some serious fish in the near future. The growth is in fact good and bodes well.

Kind regards,

Leon and Percy

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I am proud of myself, but especially of the people around me. And of my loyal regular customers! Because I could never have reached where I am now on my own. And even after so many years, I still do my work with pleasure! I wish everyone the trip of a lifetime! And above all, to enjoy being by the water!

Travelogue Carpiste du Bazoches

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