Hot Hauling Holiday Contest At Cretelakes

Billy reports on how he and Jamie caught a stack of big carp during a week-long contest.

- Billy & Jamie

THIS time last year we were delighted to be one of 23 pairs competing in a week-long holiday match at the famous Cretelakes.

In case you’re thinking that this venue must be situated on a Greek island, let me tell you that it’s not. Cretelakes is just over 50 miles north east of Paris, in France.

Having watched plenty of live feeds about the match on Facebook, we were buzzing to be a part of it.

The complex consists of five former gravel pits that were dug in the 1970s and stocked with a variety of species. After fully maturing, it was crafted into a carp fishing holiday complex, boasting stacks of big fish and excellent facilities.

Some of the lakes contain bigger carp than the others, so to make it a fair competition, the organiser, Martin Brown, and the on-site bailiffs mark the pegs on a map. Some of them are double swims, a lot are single swims next to each other, and then there are single swims on different lakes, splitting pairs apart.

Everyone knows the score before the match, and so the decision-making is based on the luck of the draw. One name from each pair gets pulled out of a hat, and then that person pulls out a ball with a peg number on it, which will either be a shared swim or separate swims, in which they must fish for the full duration of the event.

Anglers who know the complex will have a favourite place where they would like to fish, but last year Jamie and I had only seen online videos and read articles on Cretelakes. We weren’t sure which lake would produce the best action. We tackled swims 38 and 39 on Lake 5, which is the biggest one on the complex and holds the most carp. We exhausted ourselves, catching plenty of amazing carp, 51 in all, to a best of nearly 65 lb, for a 2,656 lb 11 oz total. It was enough for second place, winning us a trophy each and some prizemoney.