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'Allo, 'Allo


UKPoacher
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Well, I picked a fine time to emigrate to France! Locals reckon it was the coldest spell since 1963. Minus 17 when I arrived after a 14 hour 770 mile journey much of which was conducted on motorways with only one lane free from packed snow and ice. It was either sit behind the lorries at 60kph and extend my journey time by hours or go off piste. The Scooby never put a foot wrong. For the next 7 days it never got above minus 7C in the sun, and dropped to minus 20C on the third night. Up to then I'd seen lapwings sitting on broods in the snow and kingfishers in the mill race. I found the lapwing frozen to death on the nest and haven't seen the kingfisher since that night.

 

There was barely a house in the village with running water and I had to fetch mine from a cattle drink for a week and was warming water and cooking stew on a log burner. I had no phone, no internet, no TV and no wife. Just me, the dog and cat. It was bliss! I even made her delay her flight until the weather warmed up. She arrived ten days after me on the first day we reached zero and I haven't ben able to find a thing in the kitchen since.

 

The cottage is in a farmyard situated 1km down a private road with only two other houses occupied and a chateau holiday home owned by a guy from Doncaster who owns the whole 750 acre farm. It is rented by a family from Cornwall who have been there 20 years and farm beef cattle and sheep. The River Vienne is our southern border and I have the run of the place even down to the extensive metal and woodworking workshops on site. Once I get my shooting permit I'll be able to do some pigeon and rabbit shooting virtually from my front door. There are also roe and muntjack deer, boar and coypu in the fields adjoining the cottage. Until then I'll have a crack at the barbel and carp in the river and try a bit of fly-fishing the nearby Charente river for trout.

 

Here's a link to a video I knocked up while La Grande Froid was freezing my brass balls off:-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfycLxVwKo0

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Theees eees naiyt ork, are yoo receeving o-ver?

 

Cracking vid Clive, lots of scope for piscatorial adventures. Looks like the sort of river that has a few Nase. When are you dangling?

 

This in Nighthawk calling London. I will say this only the once.............

 

I've just bought my Carte de Peche which give access to all the rivers and any communial lakes in the south-west of France. I reckon tomorrow afternoon might see me sampling the Vienne. :)

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This in Nighthawk calling London. I will say this only the once.............

 

I've just bought my Carte de Peche which give access to all the rivers and any communial lakes in the south-west of France. I reckon tomorrow afternoon might see me sampling the Vienne. :)

 

 

Good stuff, looking forward to the pics :good:

 

Any freshwater bass in that part of the world Clive?

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Good stuff, looking forward to the pics :good:

 

Any freshwater bass in that part of the world Clive?

 

Yep, most of the communial lakes have a stock of bass, and sunperch too. I'm looking forward to chucking a popper at 'em this summer.

 

Incidentally, many of the dams in Cyprus hold large mouth bass too. If anyone is going to Paphos look over the Evretou Dam - the shallow end, not the dam itself.

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Yep, most of the communial lakes have a stock of bass, and sunperch too. I'm looking forward to chucking a popper at 'em this summer.

 

Incidentally, many of the dams in Cyprus hold large mouth bass too. If anyone is going to Paphos look over the Evretou Dam - the shallow end, not the dam itself.

 

 

Are sun perch pumpkin seeds?

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