Macey's French Adventure - Dean Macey

"I love traveling for my fishing and over the years I've been lucky enough to fish some of the most beautiful venues on the planet. That said, my first ever trip abroad was to France in search of some of giant great carp that live there and so I will always have a soft spot for this type of fishing and whenever the opportunity arises, I will jump at the chance to set my Tempest up for a few days and get the rods out. Such opportunity came a week ago when I took the Sky Sports Tight Lines cameras out to Lac De Premiere, one of the best-run fisheries in France, to do some filming and so the pressure was on to produce the goods. October is by far my favourite time of year to visit France, the leaves are just starting to fall and the fish are in great condition. That said; you do run the risk of being there when the first real cold nights start to arrive and that always knocks the sport back a few notches.

We had timed our three nights of filming just as those first really cold nights kicked in. The week before temperatures had held around the 12-degree mark through the night, but it dropped down to a chilly three degrees for us. Still, the show must go on as they say. I arrived a couple of days earlier to prepare the swim and hopefully get the spots sorted so we could crack on as soon as the crew arrived. My first night was a total blank, which didn't do my confidence any good but I stuck to my guns and on the second full morning, just before the cameras arrived, I managed a double take resulting in a 28lb common and believe it or not, the mirror I had picked out the night before in the bar that I would like to see on the bank. It was a little down in weight at 44lb on the button but still looked mahoosive!

The filming went really well through the hours of
Darkness, with most nights seeing four or five fish caught, but my only regret is that I couldn't buy a bite through the day, which is often the case at this time of year. The fish and the venue had once again done us proud and armed with my trusty Mainline Cell and New Grange I have once again returned home full of beers and already planning my next trip.

All the fish fell to snowmen presentation with a glugged New Grange 18mm bottom bait tipped with a Milky Toffee pop up over a spodded area of chopped, halved and whole Cell and New Grange with a scattering of baits around the swim with the throwing stick.

My terminal tackle consisted of 15 inches of Korda Dark Matter tubing, a simple lead clip fished running, nine inches of 20lb N-Trap Soft, tied to a size-six Wide Gape or size-four Kurv Shank."