Latest news! May 2006

What's been happening here at Brittany Mill lakes recently?

Well first we must apologise to all our regular visitors for not giving you news bulletin updates for a while, but we have been run off of our feet with all the work we have had to do! And although we have had it in mind to do the website update most evenings we are too exhausted and just want to sleep. So what have we been doing? Apart from the ongoing dam repairs on mill lake.

A new larger dining area has been built to accommodate more anglers, being timber framed it took a while but the results are great and we are very pleased with the extra capacity it holds.

On lake Lezay we installed a flushing toilet at the lakeside and wooden platforms for the new JRC STI two man bivvies to sit on meaning extra comfort for you especially if we have a little rain during your stay. Many of the snags especially the large dead trees have been removed from the water (we never realised just how huge some of them were until we got them out! One large tree took three days to haul cut and shift!) we are continuing to remove the smaller snags also until there are none left. We had a little problem earlier on in the season with a carpet algae growing on the bed of the lake but it was easily and quickly dealt with by adding a chemical to the water.

Plenty of big carp have been caught over the last four weeks (May 2006) the two biggest last week were a 54.6.lb mirror caught by Jack Taylor of Nazeing and a 51.lb mirror by Andrew Burrows from Cheshire . The previous week Paul Harris of Bristol had a 47.7.lb mirror and a 52.7 lb common, Brett Riley of Hornchurch had 3 x 40lb+ mirrors and Dez Keeley of Essex had Mirrors of 51.8 lb 49lb 48lb 41.lb and 40.7lb. The week before that Stuart Clarke of Ruislip had six 40s to 47lb. This current week has already seen Martin Banks with a 51.lb mirror (His second fifty from Lezay) and the rest of the group a total of eleven 40s and its only Tuesday! Well done lads some first class angling!!

Mervin the sturgeon came out a few weeks back at a new record of 89.lb!

Getting lake Cadouzan ready for fishing kept us busy for a good part of the winter we finished repairing the old sluice (that meant much concreting) so that the water level could rise back up to its original levels. We built fencing and gates and wooden swims, cleared trees and banks and made a woodland walk track all during a very cold (unusual) winter.

Lake Cadouzan has been fishing well, the four anglers on there last week (May 2006) banked over 90 carp between them the majority weighed between 20lb to 37lb with a few larger fish lost in the weedy areas of the lake. None of the lake forties have yet put in an appearance on the bank. The carp are growing well due to the abundance of natural food in this lake. Mini Merv the sturgeon in this lake is around 55 to 60lbs and although he has been seen numerous times he has not yet been caught neither have any of the four mandarin cats, nor any of the grass carp.

Mill lake is full and looking wonderful, the dam repairs are still ongoing and will be finished by the end of the summer. The remaining works to be carried out can be done without draining the lake again so we put in around 150 carp up to 33lb and are busy keeping them well fed for good growth rates through the summer. We will be netting it again at the end of the summer season and removing any smaller carp prior to placing a new stock of big carp for the 2007 season.

We have many bookings already on all three lakes for 2007 and would advise you to book early if you want a particular week for 2007 (that's not a sales pitch to get people to book early it is just the truth) our lakes are becoming increasingly popular and a high percentage of our customers rebook before returning home.

We will add some pictures of the new cadouzan stock and also the 2006 gallery will be showing a selection of this years great catches shortly.

More news soon...

Latest news! 2005

For those that love fishing in France but hate the journey, we have made it quick & simple to Fly here!! New Ryanair Flights for 2006 season.

We are now changing routes (no longer operating Luton to Dinard)

The New Routes are flying to Nantes, this airport is much closer to us and means a quicker transfer time of approx 45 minutes to the lake complex.We collect you in our modern MPVs and transfer you to our carp fishing complex. Two options are offered East Midlands Airport Nottingham or London Stansted The benefits of Flying is very quick travel from the UK to France and as we supply virtually everything you require in your swim you can travel extremely light! All the anglers that have used this service so far have left home in the morning in the UK and have had their rods set up and fishing in France in the afternoon! .

2005 Lake Lezay now has all the stock of carp out of mill lake after the mid season crisis when the dam fractured, Lake Lezay has fished very well this season and we have made the decision to leave the mill lake carp in there and restock mill lake with new stock as soon as repairs are complete. (expected nov/dec 05)

Latest news July 27, 2005

This video shows some of the carp being stocked into our new lake (Etang Lezay) after our emergency netting from our main lake. The netting took all day and night to complete, we finally finished at 4:30 am in the morning totally exhausted. We weighed only the big carp as we put each one into a water transport tank on the transport vehicle, the count was 75 thirty pound carp (many big thirty's ie 37,38,39lb) and 26 forty pound carp and 2 fifty pound carp (spawned out weights as only finished spawning less than 2 weeks before netting).Also around a hundred or so doubles and twenty's, along with a few big cats and Mervin the sturgeon. We were not able to video all of the carp being placed into Lezay as the camcorder batteries ran out during the night (we were using it all day and much of the night) at the moment around 200 carp are present in the lake. There are an estimated 50 or so carp left in the main lake (Simon Horton counted 21 that went over the nets) which will be netted again shortly and the remaining ones will join their companions in Lezay. Everyone wants to know how it has affected the fishing? Well last week ( wk ending 23 rd July) 78 carp were banked of which 34 were thirty's and 7 were forty's , Mervin the sturgeon was hooked and lost twice and also a couple of cats hooked and lost, all the lads had a great time. We will add their catch reports and a short video clip of their thoughts of the fishery and service here asap. It is our intention to shoot a bit more video later this week to show you in more detail the 5 newly built wooden decked double swims and to show the natural beauty of the lake.

Please keep checking here for more updates we will add them as quickly as we can along with a new page of anglers and their catches.

Thank you, for the huge amount of kind emails of support and well wishing, time has not permitted us to answer them all but we are very touched by all your kind concern.

Structural engineers have had an inspection of the damage to the dam wall and think the major damage is from the roots of a 150 plus year old chestnut tree growing on the side of the dam that has partly died. The roots extend down through the clay core of the dam and as the top of the tree dies the roots do also but they rot away and leave long tubular holes that the water then travels through which worsens as it washes out everything in its path. The tree is in the deepest part of the dam. The main stone clad wall on the water side of the dam is being repaired by reseating the stones with concrete and then covering with a special expanding sealer, the works will be completed before the winter. It is also a good opportunity for us to deepen some of the margin areas of the lake, this work will begin next week. So what began as a sudden nightmare for us all is now actually proving to be beneficial as the end result will mean the main lake will be even better than it was already.

Many thanks to all

Steve and the Brittany Mill Team

2005 Sad news here at Brittany Mill Lakes , we have been in a severe drought condition in our area for quite some time. In the last 12 months we have had only 40 percent of our normal rainfall, because of this the water table has dropped severely and the springs which feed into the stream and then into two of our lakes has now reduced to a trickle. Local people are very surprised at this and cannot remember it happening before in living memory, a nearby quarter acre pond at a picnic area and religious monument (fontaine water spring) a little higher up the valley has completely dried out leaving just a dust bowl. The dam wall of the main lake has developed some serious damage which includes damage to an old draining pipe deep in the base of the dam. The damage is allowing water to filter through the ground and run away further down the valley .The water levels on the lake are now seriously low for the amount of fish we have in the lake and conditions are starting to affect them, so far we have lost 14 carp (including four 40+ pound fish) when the overnight oxygen levels drop to extremly low levels in the current heat wave conditions. Despite our best attempts to stop the water loss we are unable to reverse the situation and the only way effective repairs can be done is to drain the whole lake. This week (last week of June 2005) the lake is being professionally netted and all the fish moved to another of our lakes 5 minutes along the road. Work is already under way in preparing the wooden decked swims to allow all our clients to fish there instead of our main lake. The new lake etang du Lezay is about 12 acres in size and is very picturesque it has full mature tree lined banks ( see video clips and pictures here) and depths ranging from 4.5 metres at the dam end to 1.5 metres the opposite end, the average depth over most of the lake is around 3.5 metres. It was our intention to open this lake in 2 years time but the current circumstance's mean we must open now. This will not affect any anglers who have booked a carp fishing holiday with us for the 2005 season other than the week when the carp are being moved. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. All persons who have booked a carp fishing holiday for 2005 will be contacted by telephone over the next 2 weeks and given full details of the situation. Video clips of the netting and restocking into the new lake will be posted on our video page early next week.

More Carp Pics

21 june 04 Another new lake record for common carp. A 50 lb Common was caught in the early hours this morning by ricky using a Snowman Rig, beating his previous personal best.

2 Feb 04

Our latest news is Brittany mill lakes are under new management and we are currently making many improvements to our holiday resort.

We have also improved much on site including the shower block (now has individual changing cubicles for your privacy). A large patio area has been built in a pleasant garden setting for meals under a gazebo throughout the warm summer evenings. The new cabin shop area is adjacent to the dining area so it’s easy to get what you require before or after meals. We have improved the items that we supply for your use in the swim like the coolbox with ice packs to keep your drinks really cold and the single gas burner for making your hot drinks, checkout the “we supply” page to see a full list of items in your swim.