December at Cassien - Part 1 - By Steve Briggs

The Cassien winter session of 2005 had been a real head banger with low water levels, lots of anglers and very little action. A really good trip was well overdue and little did I know but 2006 was about to make up for it in style!!!!

Water Levels
About every four or five years Cassien seems to produce a really good session for me. Several different factors come in to play, perhaps the main one being the water level. Generally the lake doesn’t fish so well if the water level is on the low side and in recent years, particularly in 2005 the level had been lower than ever. This was due prolonged periods of warm, dry weather but also down to the local electricity companies who use the water for generating electricity and that can have an adverse effect on our fishing. The story is now that the local companies are selling electricity to Italy and demand on water is greater than ever. This all resulted in the water levels during the summer of 2006 being at an all time low much to the frustration of the regular anglers.

But heading towards December the news was much better. I bumped in to Stephane, a local French angler, at the Braunfels show in Germany and he told me the news that I wanted to hear – that after several heavy storms the lake was now virtually full! That was music to my ears and all of a sudden I couldn’t wait to get down there. However it wasn’t particularly straight forward this time around. Venture had been building momentum all the time and we were due to be at the Carp Expo show for the 3rd and 4th of December, which gave me the problem of when to actually leave for Cassien? I wanted to be there before those dates but it would be more practical to go afterwards. In the end we chose to go on the 25th of November and booked flights from Nice to Vienna for the duration of the show – which left another problem of what to do with our gear while we were gone? We would have to cross that bridge when we came to it the main thing was that we were on our way!

We loaded ourselves on to the Channel Tunnel train just after midday and Joan and I drove down in one hit, only stopping for fuel and a quick coffee on the way. We arrived at Pierre’s restaurant at around 2.30am. Normally I would be tired by then but I felt wide awake. It was quite mild outside and my first reaction was to walk to the waterside to see how it looked in the moonlight. I could see the water level well down again, in fact it had dropped by around four metres during the week leading up to our arrival – not good. It’s something that happens more these days and really I’d prepared myself for it, so rather than being put off I figured that I had plenty of time in front of me and a lot could happen in that time.

After a few hours sleep, daylight approached and I could see a few anglers about but not that many. A Dutch guy pulled up in his boat, heading for some supplies from his car. He said that the North arm had started to fish well after some heavy rain but the water level hadn’t risen at all. It was the South Arm that I was more interested in though and at least one swim that I fancied was free, so I took no time at all to load some gear in to the boat and secure a decent-looking spot.

Weed beds
Even at four metres down it looked better than it had done the previous year, it was certainly warm enough and beads of sweat were running down my forehead after climbing up the steep bank with all the gear. We weren’t planning to move around much and had brought the big stuff with us. The Cassien 2-Man bivvy from Venture is all about space and comfort and as a session dome/tent it’s easily the biggest and most comfortable I’ve used yet – it’s strong too so whatever the weather had in stall for us I knew we wouldn’t have to worry.

In the afternoon sun it was nice to get out in the boat and have a good look around. The various weed beds around Cassien often play an important role, but they do tend to change depending on conditions. During the summer most of the weed beds had been on dry land so I wasn’t sure just what would be out there? It was soon apparent that there wasn’t all that much weed around and it was probably only just starting to grow again. I dragged a rig along the lake bed in certain areas and sure enough I retrieved short lengths of bright green, fresh weed. I was sure that it would still be enough to hold much of the carps natural food such as crayfish and would be the ideal starting place to place the baits. The weed seemed mainly to be in around 13 feet to 15 feet, which was a reasonable depth for the time of year. Bait for this trip would be a combination of baits from Solar. I hadn’t used the BYT before but had a supply of 22mm’s already air-dried. I great faith in it after seeing Simon Crow’s results in Austria, where he landed several good fish, in particular some nice mirrors. Just in case I also had some of the Club Mix in 18mm, again all well air-dried to keep them fresh for the duration of the trip.

The feeling of sitting back with the first cup of tea once the rods are out is just wonderful. The nice things knowing that there was plenty of time in front of us and not really having to do anything other than enjoy it and try and catch a few. The first few days were actually quite slow and went by without a bite. It wasn’t unexpected really, it often takes a little while to get in tune with things and for the fish to find the food. It certainly didn’t bother me unduly.

One morning a car whizzing along the South Arm road tooting its horn signalled the arrival of our good friend Gary Hillson. Gary is fantastic company and we’ve shared the last few winter sessions together enjoying good meals, even better wines and catching a few along the way so it was great to see him again. He fancied the more mobile approach and planned to fish several different swims if he couldn’t find consistent action. It would be interesting to see how the two methods panned out as we were intending to stay put. The other great thing was that he liked the idea of fishing our swim for a few days while we were in Austria, so that solved the problem of what to do with our gear – perfect! In fact Austria was on us before we knew it and with the water level slowly dropping and no fish as yet for us perhaps it wasn’t a bad time for a little break anyway.

Showtime
The Carp Expo show was brilliant. We were treated so well by Kurt Grabmayer, Jay Jay and everyone else which it made it a real pleasure. From a Venture point of view it was excellent and the interest in all of the range left us amazed at times. I know that we believe in what we are doing but to see the confidence and appreciation from the people coming to our stand was a real breath of fresh air. A really nice touch came when Joan was presented with a lovely picture painted by Jay Jay for her Birthday which was due on the Monday – a lovely thought indeed!

Of course I was keen to know how things were going back at the lake and I couldn’t believe it when Gary sent a text saying that another storm had arrived and the water had risen by one metre and more than that he’d caught a mirror of 35lb!! I couldn’t wait to get back there now. It was starting to happen and I didn’t want to miss anything. We flew back in on the Monday, a little late after missing a connecting flight but back in to warm sunshine all the same. Of course it was Joan’s Birthday and we had a meal arranged at Gerard’s, care of Gary along with Martin and Rachel Russell. It was a great day with lovely food and a selection of Gary’s favourite American red wines and a special birthday cake surprise as well for Joan. That all meant that fishing was out the window for that night but it didn’t stop Gary helping himself to another Cassien carp of 26lb.

The rods went back out the following morning and it looked really good. The water was still rising and it was more coloured than before, Gary moved further down the South Arm near to the Pylon and by the next morning he had scored with another mirror of just over 30lb. I went down armed with my camera and soon realised it was a fish that I’d caught 18 months earlier at 17lb, so fish from the previous stockings are still growing at a very healthy rate. Gary had only just returned the fish when a text message came through on my phone. We both joked that it would be Joan with a fish as it’s become a running joke now that she catches one every time I leave the rods – and it was from Joan!! “Can you come back I’ve got one in the net!” I raced back in the boat, sad that I’d missed it but pleased that our first fish was on the bank.

Lying in the net was a chunky common of 43lb 8oz that had given Joan a real run-around, but she’d landed it alone from the bank without any real problems. It was great to see another good fish and it was a belated Birthday fish for Joan, but I still had to get off the mark myself! Two days later it would be my Birthday and another meal and celebration, I just hoped to have a fish to celebrate by then. Thankfully at 3.30am on that very day my alarm burst in to life and it was as if they’d never been away. After a good tussle out in the boat I slipped the net under a pretty mirror of 35lb and I was off the mark.

The wine tasted even sweeter that day. This time it was a selection of Italian reds – and boy were they nice! The meal of roast lamb followed by crème broullet was just fab and sitting by the fire I actually forgot what was going on outside. It was chucking it down out there! A great day to be ‘off’ the lake really but I knew it would only improve our chances. Making our way back to the swim in awful conditions and feeling a bit the worse for wear it was tempting not to get the rods out, but I knew that the chances were good so I made the effort all the same. The first run came before I’d even closed my eyes. A 28lb mirror was determined to drag me up the South Arm but I won the day – or night in this case. By morning I’d hadanother three runs, which I had to play from the bank as the wind had increased dramatically. One fish was lost when it found a snag. There was little I could do about that but I did land another fish of 26lb and one of around mid-doubles. The rain had stopped and the skies had cleared but the southerly wind was blowing gale force down the arm and it looked so different to the first week and it looked so much more carpy.

Gary caught a couple more fish from his swim up to mid-30’s but a couple of quiet days made him move down to opposite us. It seemed a good move, it was as if the wind had moved the fish more towards us and judging by the previous couple of days they were on the lookout for food too. There were actually very few other people about, which only made the situation better for us. Less lines in the water definitely makes the fish less wary and they are quite nomadic if they are allowed to be and will cover a great deal of water but at the same time they will also come back to the same areas where they know food can be found.

Big fish time
We were due to meet up in our swim for meal but Gary had another fish to photograph. Not a big one this time so I was soon back at base just in time for the right-hand rod to roar off at just gone midday. The long, slow fight told me that it was a better fish but it was difficult to see it in the murky water. Eventually I saw this big flank covered in large scales and bundled it in to the net first time. It was a real cracker of 48lb 8oz and I called Gary across to see it. No sooner had we photographed and returned the fish than my left rod signalled a take and I was out in the boat again. It was less than an hour after the first run but I could tell it was another good ‘un. The fight was even harder if anything but it ended the same way and I was soon holding up another beauty of 49lb 8oz for the cameras. What a lovely brace of carp to catch in the space of an hour!

We wined and dined on the bank that afternoon and talked about our prospects for more fish. We concluded that it was‘big fish’ time right now and conditions were just right for it – few people around, mild weather and rising water level – the right combination.

I felt very confident that night but nothing happened. I looked out early in the morning as the mist was rising. Joan put the coffee pot on and then I noticed Gary rowing across the lake towards us. “He’s either seen the coffee go on, or he’s had a good fish and his phone’s not working?” I remarked to Joan. Gary arrived with a serious look on his face. “My phone’s packed up but I just had to come across and tell you – I’ve had a 64lb mirror – and I see you’ve got the coffee on!” Wow! What could I say, I shook his hand and we sat down over coffee and he recounted the story of how he’d had a slow take at 4am and gone out only to find that his engine wouldn’t work properly. He played what was obviously a very good fish very gingerly but was still amazed when he saw the size of the head that was coming up to the net.

As he put the fish on the mat we just gasped. It looked huge – it was huge! I didn’t recognise the fish at all and Gary didn’t at first but it proved to be a fish that he’d caught some years earlier at 47lb, a rarely-caught fish and one of the real prizes that Cassien gives up every now and then.

This was starting to be one of those very special sessions. From a slow start it was now building up very well and in the space of a couple of days we’d landed our three biggest fish of the trip so far. I wasn’t expecting to top Gary’s superb mirror, but I was sure that there was plenty more to come. We still had time on our hands and it was just looking better and better!

Read how the rest of the session went in part two...

Steve