With everything going on it has been hard to put a positive slant on things, but that’s what I did, after a few good weeks of moping that is!
As many of you will have known, 2020 was a massive year for us. Sharon and I, along with huge help from dad, mum and friends have been creating our own little French Redmire at Lac Du Coron. A natural, wild estate style lake brimming with hand picked stunners. After all that work we are certainly getting there, the lake has settled, the fish are incredibly fit and piling on weight and the facilities seem to tick the boxes for our guests; in fact we had 75% returning anglers booked for this year which makes me very proud, the majority of the remaining 25% were booked onto Lac Solace, but I will come onto that!
Of course, it is a never ending job, and that’s why I love it, you can be proud of what you have achieved, but for me you can never stop and pat yourself on the bank, so rest assured Lac Du Coron will get better and better.
Lac Solace:
Much of last year and plenty of this winter was spent with dad and I at Lac Solace, waterproofing, painting, building cabins, cutting trees, installing a bore hole, electricity, swims and of course stocking fish, it was a totally blank canvas, just how I like it, but that does mean it comes with extra work and costs.
All that being said we were excitedly looking forward to the start of the season, not just to see our work come to fruition but in all honestly to start refilling the piggy bank, and then this all happened and after only 4 days of our year we were shut down, none of you guys able to come and even local anglers unable to fill the void. I must be honest, I did loose my mind a bit to start with, I would keep it bottled up like all was fine and well, and then someone would say something or a news story would come on and I'd lose my rag, I was
even
harder to be around than normal!
But as the realisation kicks in that this isn’t going to be resolved anytime soon , and after help from Sharon, mum, family and friends I got my head around how I needed to make what I could out of this situation, we would survive, and 2021 will be our best year yet!
The silver lining:
The biggest plus of all this is that the lake and the fish get a rest, even more nature will take hold of our little rural oasis and the fish will be fed, virtually unmolested for months, that can only be a positive. They are being fed 4 times a week. The banks are maturing even more than they already were and deer are drinking from the margins, it is stunning down at both lakes, and from your point of view means that if you didn’t love our lakes enough already, that come spring 2021 you are going to be blown away, not just by our awesome carp, but the environment too.
One thing that people quickly asked when lockdowns were announced was if I was going to continue with the blogs, documenting my work and my fishing. After a bit of thought on how appropriate that was I cracked on, and the
Corona Diaries
were started, not just about my fishing, but also trying to document the chores, feeding regimes, spots and adventures I was getting up to at the lakes. We are now on Pt 6 which went live today and I must admit to being blown away by the positivity you are all showing. Below I have put all 6 parts in this email so you can take a look, I hope you enjoy them.
