Happy New Year
And here’s to realising your carp fishing ambitions in 2016! We hope that we’ll be seeing plenty of new PBs for you here at Ribière whilst making new friends and enjoying your time fishing with us.
Closed Season Work
The team has been working extremely hard over the early part of winter to ensure that the lake and fish are in top condition for the start of the season in March. This has focused on four main areas:
1) Clearing the silt from peg 10 and the inlet whilst planting a large bed of pads. This work is under way and has involved cutting down a number of bankside trees to gain access plus the preparation for disposing of the silt. We aim to spend much of January removing the silt with our diggers. But, as always our progress is dependent on the weather.
2) Power for aeration and Wi-Fi. We have now completed the first part of our plan to add power to the lake. Our first priority has been to run the main trench down to peg 4 and 6 to allow us to use our new aeration during the winter and, if we should need it, in the summer. We are also trying to add Wi-Fi coverage for pegs 4-7. Next year power will be extended to give anglers access for charging boats, phones, etc.
3) Improving the fish stock. I have attached some of the pictures from our selective stocking this winter. We have added just 20 new fish but they averaged 20kg or just over 40lb. These fish have great potential. We are also awaiting some bigger fish over 25Kg (over 50lb).
4) Winter feeding to ensure continued health of the fish stock. This winter we have increased the level of feeding to twice per week with a mix of pellet and boilie going in. With the mild weather the fish have continued to be very active and have been showing all over the lake from peg 1 to peg 9.
Booking Update
As regular customers, many of you will know that you need to book well in advance to secure your favoured time of year and swims. With this in mind, can you please note that 2018 is now fully open to all customers. We are today also opening 2019 just to our regular customers for lake exclusive bookings with weeks being held in April, May, September and October for this purpose. If you want to secure pegs and dates then you need to give us a call or send an email.
2016 Availability – this is currently limited to around 35 pegs but we do have some good pegs available including peg 7 and 4 as well as 5, 6, 8 and 9. We do have some pegs early march also. We have a number of weeks with pegs 8 and 9. Given the work we are doing at this end of the lake – taking a peg out, desilting and planting a large bed of pads – we know that these will not be available for long.
2017 Availability – we are around 50% booked for 2017 and are still holding a number of weeks for lake exclusive use - particularly in November which often produces some of the biggest fish of the year.
2018 Availability – there is good availability and, again, we have a number of weeks reserved for lake exclusive use.
Pricing
Pricing for 2017 and 2018 will be 400 euros per angler and 70 euro for non-anglers. All accommodation prices will remain the same.
Pricing for 2019 will rise to 450 euro per angler and 80 euro for non-anglers. Lake exclusive prices will not rise. The price rise is to reflect the level of investment we are putting into the lake over the next two years. We have already invested over 40.000 euro this year in fish stock, aeration systems, power and Wi-Fi and additional feeding. The benefit of this and next year’s investment will be much bigger fish.
Ambitions for the Future
Our ambitions for Ribiere are to continue to maximise the growth potential of the fish stock and to ensure that our facilities and the fishing environment give anglers a safe, relaxed and tranquil fishing experience in stunning countryside. We want you to be fishing for big carp but also catching - so the balance between older fish and new fish is key.
We have two fish, Alex and Julie, who are still not at their maximum weights. They have more potential. Could we have a 90lb (40kg) fish? In our view, it’s a definite ‘yes’. Julie could do this if she maintains her health and is treated correctly on the bank. Could we have a 100lb (45kg) fish? Well, perhaps this is not just a pipe dream. If the fish are treated well and the amount of bait and quality of bait is right, we have a chance. The fish have the frame and genetic potential to go bigger. The water quality is good and we just need some luck. But we’re mindful that fish of this size in France are few.
In addition to Julie and Alex we have a group of around 20 fish over 60lb (27kg) who have the stature to go over 70lb (32kg) and some even bigger. We believe we have some surprises to come this year.
We also have a large number of 50-59lb (23-27kg) fish, some of which will go 60lb for the first time this year. The stock of fish is relatively young and, with careful management and the correct bait application by anglers, we think we can create something special here.
