Some more nice mirrors from Mallon in the Champagne, France.
I fished full time on this little lake in March 2004 for 5 weeks and ended up with 9 upper 30's a heap of big Grassies and plenty of twenties, it was a good month.
The lake had only opened for Carp fishing that year, being used as many of the small lakes are in that region, as a winter Duck shoot venue.
The fish were not rig savy in the slightest and came on really well using duck feed as groundbait and a nice bright pop up over the top.
Many of the mirrors still had the little oval flap of skin on the inside of their lips, showing that they were never caught before fish, or at worst very lightly caught. Most of the Malan fish showed this interior oval of skin, which presumably assists in stopping the heavier particles of food being blown back out the Carps mouth as it sucks and blows during feeding. Its rare to find such big fish with this intact, as during hooking due to the line rub or hook penetration this skin usually breaks down. It was a real privalige to catch such fine specimens and know that perhaps I was the first angler to ever bank the fish with Rod and Line.
The grassies, and boy have I been pissed off by the wet sacks of grassies Ive caught in the past, were hard fighting, reel screaming monsters of fish, the takes were like nothing Ive seen before, and the fish fought on the surface, even tailwalking on occasions. I had around 7 grassies over the 30 mark and plenty of 20´s.
The largest Carp I saw from Malan was this fine Mirror of 42lbs caught by Richard a local lad who had fished the water for a while.
