[neo]

if your on the 19 acre lake then your in for a great week hopefully.............500 fish in it and 40% of them are over 30lb...... :thumbsup_anim:

buy marks pellets from him and get them in..........fish love them and respond well to big beds of baits........speak to mark about spots when you get there but to be honest i picked mine and went from there with good fishing...... :thumb:

[Suicide Brian]

off here 8th sept cant wait should be good

needs any good info

fishing middle lake :) :) :) :) :) :)

[neo]

Loads fish coming out already at this venue..............definitely worth a visit if you like your lakes proper natural with little human input into swims etc!

[neo]

going back here real soon.................got a date with a big common from the big lake!!

clubhouse is all finished and serving up food and beer on a daily basis.................mega social on the cards with some great friends...........roll on october........... :Tongue:

[neo]

Little update of whats been happening here...........

fly options are now available with tackle to rent along with transport to and from the Uk if you book in groups and dont want to drive down..........they also have got the license to now sell food and beer etc from the lodge............ :thumbsup_anim:

Now the fishing...........the big lake has received around 50 fish so far with some truly stunning dark chesnut / red colour mirrors upto 45lb +...........nothing stocked is under 30lb and more big fish are to follow with the stock finishing around the 300 fish mark........with nearly all of them over 35lb........... :Tongue:

the 19acre lake has been drained and netted with lots of fish removed but the stock now stands at 28x40s along with 170 x 30's and 200 x 20's above 25lb............this year on this lake will be totally unreal and i cant wait to go back one day.......... :LMAO: :LMAO:

[gooner]

neo, on May 27 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

:blink: .........i know it takes time goon........but you will get over your shed episode..... :blink: :blink:

think ill manage buddy,sure sept will be better :blink: still got all my nice piccies of my 40s,50s and 60 to look at when im feeling down :blink:

[neo]

gooner, on May 27 2009, 01:30 PM, said:

good write up and im espiecally impressed by the way you stuck your head on other peoples photos,top editing ya cooooooooooooooooooooooornt :blink: :blink:

:blink: .........i know it takes time goon........but you will get over your shed episode..... :blink: :blink:

[gooner]

good write up and im espiecally impressed by the way you stuck your head on other peoples photos,top editing ya cooooooooooooooooooooooornt :blink: :blink:

[Mode101]

Top write up Wayne :thumbsup_anim:

[neo]

Glad you liked it lads......cracking lake that big one.......... :thumbsup_anim: :thumbsup_anim:

[flatliner]

Superb write up Wayne, looks a nice place and some nice piccies :thumbsup_anim:

This post has been edited by flatliner: 26 May 2009 - 01:28 PM

[Joss]

Cracking write up fella...some great pics to bud... :thumbsup_anim:

[neo]

Hi Mark........ :thumbsup_anim:

Good to see those lumps coming out.......shame i moved....... :thumbsup_anim: :thumbsup_anim: :lol:

[freedom]

Hi all, we are having a really amazing 1st season here at Freedom, nice 1 Wayne for the little write up mate.
Here's a few pics from the lakes.... :thumbsup_anim:

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This post has been edited by freedom: 25 May 2009 - 10:13 PM

[neo]

As the mist started to lift it was obvious it was going to be another scorcher and as i sat there i had 2 rods take off at the same time.........mayhem proceeded but after shouting steve over and a bit off a tussle with two angry carp we managed to land them both at 25lb and 28lb respectively

The day went on and the temps kept rising so decided to go into town and pick up a few bits including some ice lollies and redwine........ :rolleyes:

Back to the lake i managed 1 lollie and 1 bottle of wine only to wake at about 8pm and missing my chance on the big lake.........that will teach me to drink a bottle of red for lunchtime i thought....... :rolleyes:

With a little headache i put the rods out and couldnt wait to get some action..........this however was not the case and i woke friday morning with no more fish to my name......steve on the other hand had managed another 2 fish of 22lb and 21lb along with 2 lost fish to hookpulls........happy was he.........NOT...... :angry2:

That night steve managed another 2 fish one of which went 30 and the other 25........but all went quiet for the remainder of thursday night.......

Friday morning arrived and i decided as it was the last day i would return to the big lake for a last stab at the residents in there.........but would try a different approach to fish the area i kept getting snagged on.......this meant fishing from that bank and under the rod tips which i did with 2 rods.........the day went on with fish moving in the snags to my left and no action.........that was until at 4pm i had a slow steady take that gradually got faster and faster that i thought my clutch was going to explode.........fish on and battle commenced.........which felt a very good fish indeed........5 mins of it touring the lake it came closer and i dropped the net in the margins.........few more mins passed and it rolled on the surface.......... ............This was a MIrror of huge proportions and would definately smah my PB.......upper 40 definately, possibly 50.............after seeing this my legs went a little and i couldnt think straight other than i must have this fish.........it then decided it wanted to have a powerful run down my righthand margin and as i bent my Torrix into it i felt in total control..........that was until the lead nearly hit me as the hook pulled...........****, ****, ****er.........:angry2: :angry2: ..........That was it........£500 of rod and reel got launched into the tree's above me and anything with 10yrds got the **** kicked out of it..........Gutted was an understatement and as i retrived my rod and reel from the tree above me i decided that was enough and that i would return to the 19 acre lake to try and console myself as the wind was now blowing away from the margins i was fishing and fish were no where to be seen....... :thumbsup_anim:

once back steve had managed another 25lb mirror and was happy as larry..........me on the other hand walked to my swim and still sat there cursing myself about the lost fish.......with us leaving tomorrow i decided to have a bit of a tidy / pack up and fished the rods in the margins only for 1 to go straight away with a mirror of 15lb...... :lol:

Sat morning arrived and no more fish to either of us had appeared during the night.........we hand managed 9 fish each 4 x 30's....12 x 20's......and 2 doubles.....add this too me losing 6 fish and steve losing 5......... its not great....but the snags were brutal and hook pulls annoying......the complex itself had produced over 200 fish with a group of 3 lads taking over 100 fish for a weight of 1100Kg+ and 3 french lads takingh over 65 fish.......all this from the 19 acre lake.

The complex itself is a bit of a rough diamond currently with no permanent pegs, muddy tracks........ but with mark and jean noel running it and the work he has planned i can see it becoming a very very popular destination if you want hectic action and unspoilt surroundings.....faciltys are fine with frideges and freezer, hot showers, toilets, running water and the soon to be finished clubhouse....( french builders are rather slow ).......the big lake will be a real big fish water within 2-3 yrs with another 30-40........ 35lb + fish being put in this winter coming taking the stock to 10 fish per acre........it already has 25 x 40's and 3 x 50's......we managed 6 fish upto wed morning.....the other 2 anglers fishing it with us last week stayed on the lake and finished the week with 3 x 40's to 47 ........10 x 30's and a few 20's after the fish switched back on friday for them......... :lol:

The 19 acre lake holds 5 tonnes of fish and it produced over 1 tonne whislt we were there..........over 200 different 30 are in this water and plenty were caught by the 2 groups.........there average weight came in at 28lb for the total weight caught which is very impressive IMO....... :LMAO:

So thats it about freedom lakes and i cant wait to return for another crack on the big lake this winter hopefully.......top venue, top host's and top fishing..........try it you wont be dissapointed...... :thumb:

This post has been edited by neo: 24 January 2010 - 12:50 PM

[neo]

the wind was still blowing hard into the bank i had managed to get fish from the night before and just like the day before as 6pm approached fish started rolling in the area again.......sod it i thought to myself im fishing all 3 rods in there tonight......

So with 3 rods set-up i waited and it wasnt long before 1 rod was away and i was fighting with an angry lump.........only for it to snag me and shed the hook.......... .......5 mins later and another rod is away........again it found the snag and at that point i thought it was pointless fishing to an area i would get snagged on........so i plonked the rod in the closet margin on the other bank to me where i had seen the common............anyway it was'nt long before this rod was away but being a plonker i had changed rigs to a semi fixed one and then proceeded to put the hanger on the floor like i do for super slack free running rigs.........resulting in no indication of the major drop back i had and only knew about the fish after my rod was being pulled of the rests to my left hand side as the fish tryed to get down the back channel of the island..........2 mins of battle commenced before the hook pulled and i cursed at anything within 5 yrds of myself........3 fish lost in 3 hrs was'nt sitting well with me at all........... :lol: :lol:

Wednesday morning arrived after no more action during the night and the lake was alive with fish spawning everywhere....daytime temps were now 25c....and that was enough for steve who had still only had the 2 x 30's under his belt from the early hrs of sunday morning........mark said that the 19 acre lake by now had done over 100 fish with 95% of them 20+ so a move was on the cards..........although i wasnt to keen as i seemed to be picking fish up from my little swim i had now created, opened up, chainsawed tree's and named it the " All alone "....... :angry2: :thumbsup_anim:

We had came together though and i moved with steve to the 19 acre lake with a view to coming back each night between 6-9pm to fish the southernly bank which was still being hammered with the water from the strong northernly wind........so back i came and managed to catch a 27lb mirror almost immeadiately......

no more action occured and i returned to the 19 acre lake at 9pm to find steve had managed 2 fish already..........a 27 common and a 26 mirror........happy days..... :rolleyes:

I quickly threw my rods out to some particle i had baited with earlier in the day and dropped one in the margins only for it to go almost instantly resulting in a 26 mirror....... :LMAO:

back out it went and i decided to get my head down for the night.........Only to be woken at 5.30am with a 29lb mirror

thursday morning arrived and what a view i had........no more fish but what a view........ :rolleyes:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/neogeoleo/view.jpg

Coffee made i had a Quick chat with steve and he had managed a 25 mirror during the night but nothing else.

This post has been edited by neo: 24 January 2010 - 12:51 PM

[neo]

After watching steve's two rods go i was a little concerned but if it carried on like this then theoretically my left hand rod would go from the baited area.......and sure enough at 1.45 am it was off and i was into my first freedom fish.......after a bit of a hairy moment with my line grating on something steve managed to slip the net under it........all 37.8lb's of her.......... :thumbsup_anim:

we both commented that 3 x 30's for our first landed fish was great but it also made the 2 losses earlier in the day a little harder for steve to take..... :rolleyes:

More bait put out and i sat back waiting for my right hand rod to go........8hrs later and i was woken by the sunday morning mist and no fish...... :angry2:

Sunday was a blank day but we presumed the fish would return in the evening anyway like the night before so wasnt concerned.........that was until we woke up monday morning with no more takes or even line bites..........the wind by this time was blowing hard into our faces and after a little walk round to a gap in the trees behind the island i could see the wind pushing into the southernly bank.......within 5 mins i had seen 4-5 fish roll along the bank and a huge common only 10yrds out from myself......that was enough for me and i quickly took my no action shallows rod round baited it snowman style and plopped it where i had seen the big common role.......30 mins passed before the rod flew off and i was into my second freedom fish.......only to lose it down the margins after a few mins as i had forgot my net and steve was out baiting his spots..........Gutted i rebaited and put it back but also went and got another rod and placed it along the far bank where i had seen fish role........an hr or so passed before this rod was away.........result a 22lb mirror.....with a head like sandpaper.....concerning but also welcome.......... :rolleyes:

back to the spot the rod went and as night fell it was off again........this time a 29.10 common...... :LMAO:

With my 3 fish under my belt i decided to leave one rod in this swim and put 2 rods back on the bait like steve who had said he was getting quite a few line bites and that fish were moving round the island near the bait.......we watched the fish and noticed that they were getting a little to active for our likings and it looked more like spawning activity......combined with the rough head of the mirror earlier it was apparent the fish were getting ready to spawn........ :lol:

Ok we thought........lets see what happens tonight and make a decision tomorrow.......tuesday morning turned up and no action........the shallows on the other hand were alive with fish cruising around and the island activity was also increasing......this didnt look too good but we decided to stay put for today and tonight and if no more action came then we would move to the 19 acre lake which was fishing its head off..... :lol:

This post has been edited by neo: 20 September 2010 - 04:34 PM

[neo]

I awoke at about 6pm and found the rods the same as i left them......scraper obviously had no action so he and cassie left...... and me and steve proceeded to bait the spot again hoping to pick our first fish up on the friday night.........

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/neogeoleo/snags003.jpg

This was not to be and we awoke saturday morning fishless and scratching are heads...... :lol:

We could see fish to our left moving between open water and the island in front of us but it was 150yrds out and a little to far for steve to reach so we decided to leave the baited rods and move are 2 roaming rods to the other right hand swim and fish the shallows where we had also seen fish moving....... :lol:

I took a walk round to the shallows, jumped up a tree and peered down to be greeted by massive fish and plenty of them moving up and around the snags in about 2ft of water.......after seeing these fish i chucked about 20 baits out and ran back to the swim thinking this is going to be like taking candy from a baby......... :rolleyes: :thumbsup_anim:

Quick chat with steve and we chucked 2 rods out to the area.........after about 30 mins steve's rod ripped off and battle commenced.....now bearing in mind this lake was stocked with over 80% of 30's we couldnt wait to get it back and on the mat.........this was not the case as the fish found a snag and after getting the boat to try and free it we came back to shore with sod all.......... :angry2:

Steve rebaited and chucked it back..........30 mins later its off again.........and 5 mins later its snagged and lost again........ :LMAO: ..........2 fish lost in an hr with a probability they were 30+ was too much for steve to bear so he chucked on my waders and went out to find the snag........which he did along with about 30 others and spent the whole afternoon with mark removing them.........

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/neogeoleo/snags001.jpg

As night came round we sat and chatted to mark and as predicted the wind started to change to a northerly and blowing back across our baited area......mark said it looked good for a bite and he wasnt wrong as steve's left hand rod to the baited area roared off at midnight.....10 mins later and a 33-8 mirror was on the mat......photo's done and rod back out mark wandered of into the night saying we would have some more........5 mins after he left steve's right hand rod to the baited area took off......another fight was on and after 10-15 mins a 34-8 graced the net.....Result....... :rolleyes:

[neo]

Did a trip here in april 2009.........

Back in Sept / Oct i saw an advert for freedom lakes which was advertising a brand new lake opening on there complex with an average weight of 30lb +.....28 acres with a stock of 235 fish....tryed a bit of searching on the venue and couldnt really find much other than it had a 19 acre lake currently open that was a 20 / 30's water but fairly prolific with 500 fish giving you 25+ fish per acre.

I contacted the Co Owner Mark beldom and had a good chat with him regarding the lakes......after a few chats over the phone it was decided that me and steve would fish the big lake with a view to sampling the 19 acre lake if we struggled........ :LMAO:

So dates were finalised and that finally came round last weekend when steve arrived at my door to collect me. with the mountain of tackle and bait loaded into his car and a quick check of the french strike action at calais we started the journey to Freedom lakes.

i wont bore you with the journey but we had a little game on the way counting the cars on the opposite side of the road........in 300 miles we saw 8 cars......dont you just love the french motorways...... :rolleyes:

after 6 hrs driving we finally drove down a long track to find ourselves at the southern end of the 19acre lake......first thing that got my attention was the fish crashing as we drove around the lake to the clubhouse to find mark and his partner jean noel with 2 french angler's who had just caught fish of 16kg and 17kg......this was part of there 35 fish haul from 72hrs fishing.......with this in mind me and steve felt fairly confident we would be catching fish this week if the big lake proved to be a little bit hard with only 8-9 fish per acre.

After turning down jean's coffee and croissant's we made are way to the big lake......and were greeted with a beauty of a lake, unspoilt with no permanent swims and some grasssy banks.

After a brief look we opted for the island which has 5 swims on it and controls a lot of water........setting up was done and we decided to fish 4 rods to a big baited area in 5ft of water and our roaming rods were the other 2 trying to find / pick up fish. all sorted we sat back and relaxed.........that was until i bumped into 125kg of cassie and scraper.....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/neogeoleo/freedom.jpg

After this meeting and half a packet of custard creams.....( sorry Mark ).....I had aquired two new friends...... :lol: .......by now i had been up for 36+ hrs and needed to sleep so left my pal to look after the rods whilst i had a much needed sleep......... :thumbsup_anim:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/neogeoleo/scraper.jpg

This post has been edited by neo: 14 May 2009 - 07:58 AM