What is it like?

This lake must be the most beautiful of all the waters I have ever fished. Set deep in a valley, surrounded by The Alps, it is simply breathtaking. The mountains can be seen in the distance, there is a beach sort of area on one bank where swimmers, bathers and picnickers can be seen during the warmer months, and other more private areas on the other banks.

There are 5 swims around the lake giving huge, huge expanses of water to go at, although the main swim is the one nearest the main house; which boasts shower, toilet and power facilities. This is the area that I targeted.

The lake is very very big, at around 240 acres in size. The bottom is up and down, with large patches of weed, sand and gravel. There is a prominent sand bar of around 7ft running to the right of this swim and is a feature that many of the anglers succeed on.

I personally found that as the 7ft sloped off  to around 20ft, it was definitely more successful. I always find that prominent changes almost act like a road to the carp. I fished the first few days on the shallower spot right on the sand, and even though I caught a couple I was seeing fish showing further. Consequently, I changed my spot to around 400m, and I never looked back.

What Are The Best Tactics?

I found that the biggest leads possible fished on a lead clip was the best tactic. When it’s windy, it gets incredibly windy, and so you must hold bottom. As such, I was using 8oz Grippa leads. Not only was it to combat the wind, it was also to ensure that the leads stayed in position whilst motoring back to shore in the boat. A boat, echo sounder and outboard is therefore a must. The fish do show very long here so you MUST be able to reach them. There’s no need to overcomplicate your rigs, just a simple fluorocarbon bottom bait bait rig is all that’s needed, to a size 4 hook.

Use strong tackle. Some of the sides of the bars are savage so it can pay off to use a very thick mono or braid like I was.

What Bait?

There are LOADS of crayfish present, so boilies, particularly soft boilies, get butchered by these irritating critters. Consequently, I kept my bait to bits and pieces, along with tiger nuts. I fished lots of hemp, boilie crumb and crushed up tigers, with several tigers on the hair. Once my bait was dropped I wanted to leave it in position, confident in knowing that it was fishing, with a bait fully in tact on the hair.

Must Have Tackle To Take

1. Boat and outboard
2. Echo sounder
3. Aquascope
4. Big leads and lots of them
5. Marker poles
6. Tiger nuts
7. LOTS OF LINE