| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
History
Willow lake is part of my angling dream which was re-kindled in the early 90's when I purchased a 2nd hand carp set up out of the local paper and tried my luck at all my old haunts…I was hooked again! My interest in French angling grew with all the tempting articles in the fishing magazines and I had soon booked a week's holiday in the Limoges region. I had a brilliant weeks fishing and the accommodation was excellent. Whilst there I thought 'We could do this!' On our return I was ready to sell everything and go, - convincing the wife though was a different matter! Eventually we did reach a compromise and decided to buy a French lake with holiday accommodation that we could rent out and let others enjoy. It took us two years to find Willow Lake. It was the last property we saw in a week long search of so called 'lakes' most were ponds! We had almost given up hope of finding one within our budget. Lakes (etangs) are highly sort after in France and sell quickly. With only one day left of our holiday/lake search we had to make an instant decision. In France you are required to put down a deposit once an offer has been accepted, it gets rid of gazumping and makes it difficult for buyer or seller to pull out of the deal. So a day later we returned to Kent proud owners of a derelict barn with its own lake.
Drastic action was needed and we had the whole lake de-silted to its original levels in summer 2002. The result was the removal of 8000 Tonnes of silt.!! Having removed the small carp from the lake the next stage was to start our re-stocking programme. This was carried out on the advice from our local fish farmer in Pouancé and the staff at Mid-Kent Fisheries. The pace of life in France you will either love or hate. It revolves around eating and drinking and making time for enjoyment with friends and family. Working comes well down on their list of priorities and has therefore taken just over a year to renovate the barn /longere. The longere looked somewhat different to what you see today, its last inhabitants having been a herd of cows! The mangers were still in place, in what are now the bedrooms and you walked on well-worn cobblestones- unfortunately un-savable. Although slow, we chose a French builder to retain the 'French charm'and hope that this has been achieved. The building we believe to be 17th century, once part of the farmstead of the local Chateau, which can be seen on the road to Craon. With the upstairs yet to renovate we hope to have many years of catching fish and living the relaxed pace of the French lifestyle. We hope you enjoy our dream too. Hugh Pickett
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
My passion for angling started long ago when boilies were somthing obnoxious you made in your mums kitchen with a tin of cat food and some red food colouring, a bivvy was a brolley-camp that let the water in and bite alarms were something you rigged up using bottle tops, or if you could afford it 'Heron bite alarms' were a must! a double was a good fish , and a twenty was un heard of …..How times have changed.
Carp although fished for pleasure in France also feature on French menus. Because of the abundance of fish most lakes have a damn system allowing the fish to be harvested around November each year. Ours is no exception and it was with nervous anticipation that I first raised the dam to find out what fish were lurking in its dark depths. To be honest we were really disappointed, most fish were under 5lb a sure sign of a recent harvest but worst still over the years the lake had become very silted up, instead of being 10ft deep it was about 4ft.