Holiday Carping at Etang Bertie
By Brian Skoyles
A while ago I wrote a short feature for Club Nutrabaits relating to Etang Bertie, a water owned by Tony and Jean Miller, at the time they were in the process of selling or had sold some of their other more well known French waters such Etang Meunier, Etang Le Mans, Le Fortinieres, but were unsure of whether to keep Etang Bertie. Well the good news is they have decided to keep and develop Etang Bertie in the true Miller style. Many Nutrabaits users will know just how good that can be! As family friends we recently spent a week with Tony and Jean, and I produced a write-up for International Carper.
Bill and I weren’t sure how many Club Nutrabaits members read International Carper, but felt that Etang Bertie might be a great family holiday venue for some Club Nutrabaits members, so below is a copy of that feature...
Dong! The deep and resonant bell of the Brielles Church clock makes it 5-00 a.m. The sky is just starting to lighten above the trees on the far bank. I’m lying on my bed chair, head propped up on one hand looking out of my bivvy door. I’m damp, sweaty, cream crackered, and content. I’ve heard every dong of the bell throughout the night; because the Etang Bertie carp and cats have made sure I stayed awake. This was supposed to be a relaxing night’s holiday carping, but when the Etang Bertie carp go on the feed, relaxing isn’t perhaps the right word!
My carp fishing takes many forms, from very serious campaigns to casual evening social sessions. Over the years I gone through them all, but as I’ve got older, I’m increasingly finding that I like my creature comforts a bit too much, so the idea of a bit of carp fishing combined with comfortable accommodation, good food and good company becomes more and more attractive. This is what I call “Holiday Carping” and over the years I’ve become good friends with the members of the Miller family who I think it is fair to say have become synonymous with providing holiday fishing of the highest quality. In the past they have owned and run waters such as Etang Meunier, Les Fortinieres, Etang Le Mans, Beausoleil and more. So when Jean Miller got in touch and invited the Skoyles’s clan to visit their present project, Etang Bertie, it would have been rude to have refused!
Etang Bertie is a complex of two lakes; the main carp lake is about 4 acres with a small central island, the other a smaller general fishery. I think it’s no understatement to say the carp lake is very well stocked, with a mix of commons and mirrors to low forties. There are also a good number of cats lurking in the lake a few sturgeon, and some big tench. The lake is easy to read and fish. There is very little weed to worry about, no nuisance things like crayfish or poisson chats, and the bottom is a mix of light silt and hard gravel, in essence a perfect family holiday venue, I was really looking forward to the week.
We (being Liz, Karen and myself) opted for the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, a lovely meal on board, and not a long drive to Bertie. The accommodation at Bertie is perfect for our needs. A spacious lounge/dining room, with satellite TV for Karen, three bedrooms, a well equipped kitchen with all mod cons, shower, toilet, and all the other usual utilities, plus a bait freezer. By mid afternoon on the Saturday we were all sorted, bags unpacked, supermarket visited, beer and wine in the fridge, and fishing gear set-up.
I had visited Etang Bertie several years before when Tony and Jean first acquired the complex so tactically I had a good idea of how I would be approaching the week. I had no intention of fishing 24/7 for two reasons.
1) I think that holiday venues like Etang Bertie benifit from periods of rest. The successful holiday venues get a lot of pressure, and I’m sure the fish respond to the lake going quiet for a while.
2) From the family point of view it’s nice to get out, explore the area, try the local cuisine etc. and generally I fish better after a break from the lake.
So taking a 24 hour period, my plan was to bait up my chosen swims late afternoon, leave the lake to settle whilst we had a meal, start fishing mid evening and fish through the night. Wind in when I’d had enough, back to the house for some sleep. Then either have a bit more fishing during the morning before going out for lunch or for the day depending on weather etc. Afternoon a bit of stalking if back on time, then start it all again. The nearby towns of Vitre and Laval both had plenty of options for shopping and eating, and the coast was only an hour and half away if we felt like it. There were barbequing facilities in the open barn which faced the lake so we also stocked up on steaks, burgers etc.
So to the fishing….
The first few days went well, with plenty of carp and a couple of small cats coming to the net. My routine was working, and the regular late afternoon baiting up was paying dividends. It was nice and straight forward. I was mixing up a bucket of about 5 kilo of pellets (50/50 Trigga Ice and Sarb), and about 2 kilo of Trigga Ice ATS boilies, a mix of 18mm’s and 14mm’s. I used the boat to bait up, which made it very easy to put a good spread of bait over the open water in front of my swim.
The first two days had been hot and sunny but as I baited up on the third afternoon the sky was heavy with cloud. We had our evening meal as usual, and I got the rods out. There were fish topping and bubbling over the baited area and it wasn’t long before I was in to a fish, soon followed by two more. There was a bit of a social going on with Tony and Jean Miller with us for the odd glass of wine, and everything was going fine until two takes at once. Karen took one, I took the other which produced a blistering run that literally blistered my finger as I tried to slow the spool, this was no carp, this was one of the bigger cats. Some time later, no, a long time later I managed with Karen’s help, after she had landed her carp, to somehow get the big cat into the net. On the scales nearly 85 lbs. Small cats can be annoying when you are carping, but big cats are something else, you cannot but admire their awesome power and I was well pleased.
As darkness came so did the rain, and everyone else beat a retreat to the house, I was left to get on with the fishing. I changed my cat slimed top, sorted my gear out, got the rods recast and settled down on the bed chair but I’d hardly got comfortable, when the Delkim burst into life, I was in again.
The pattern for the night was set, whether it was the change in the weather, or the regular baiting up kicking in, I had a lot of feeding fish in front of me and sleep was not going to be an option.
The steady rain was a pain, but after a while I gave up trying to stay dry. Dashing out of the bivvy regularly, there comes a point when you are so wet it doesn’t matter if you get any wetter. Inside of my bivvy was a mess, but so what, I was having a night to remember, I could dry out and tidy up later.
My fishing diary entry for the night reads…
Late afternoon bait up, and nice barbi. Back on the rods, two carp within minutes of casting out. (24/12m and 21/0c) Then two on at one, Karen on carp, me on cat, followed by everyone on sling, scales and camera… magic (Karen’s carp 18/0m my cat just under 85lbs). Three more carp during the evening social all commons best 22/6. Starting to rain, time for sleeping bag, I’ll settle for a quiet night.
No chance! A couple more runs around midnight then mayhem. In the space of three hours, 2 cats best 36lbs, four carp best 35/12c. Phoned Liz to do pics of bigger cat and bigger common, didn’t look well pleased. Old age kicked in early morning, wet and cream crackered, back to the house for some kip 7-00 a.m. ish… Magic!
The week just flew by, we eat out a couple of times so Karen could have her favourite Moules Frites. We barbi’d a couple of nights, and in between made use of the Meals on Reels service Jean’s daughter in law Linda provides. Linda does a great menu, reasonably priced and I can vouch for the quality and quantity… I’m back on my diet as I write this!
The fishing was fabulous, we ended the week with 90 carp to just under 40 lbs, a mix of doubles, twenties and thirties and 5 cats to just under 85 lbs. If anything at times the fishing was a bit too hectic for this old bloke, but if you want fun holiday fishing it just doesn’t get any better.
These days if you fancy a French fishing holiday you have a wide choice of holiday types, from the hunt for huge personal bests and world records at Rainbow and the like, to pioneering trips for uncaught river carp, or organised trips to well stocked lakes. I think it’s fair to say that the Millers were one of the first owners to recognise and provide top quality family holiday fishing. Waters you can book exclusively, providing a combination of great fishing, clean and pleasant accommodation, a safe well maintained environment, in a nice area. I suspect Etang Bertie will become another of their success stories particularly over the next few years as the fish grow on, and the water, already a lovely water, continues to mature. So if you are looking for some top quality fun fishing, where you don’t have to work too hard, then Etang Bertie could be just what you are looking for, we will certainly be going back.