The Outcast: Outlaw Pro’s Podcast Episode 3: Les Bowers (original) (raw)

When it comes to angling, Les Bowers has many a story to tell. Whether it be controversy from within the angling industry or Pbs in France, he sits down with host Rob Hughes to tell all and even brings a little gift into the studio! Read on or listen to the podcast on all major streaming platforms or watch The Outcast on the Outlaw Pro YouTube Channel!

The Outcast Is Back With Mr Les Bowers: Fishing, Trolls, Controversy & More!

Rob Hughes: Welcome to The Outcast, the podcast from Outlaw Pro, The Ultimate Angling Experience.

Rob Hughes: Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode three of The Outcast and I’ve got a really interesting guest that’s joining me today. He’s a man that’s been around the scene for a very, very long time. He’s one of anglings colourful characters, I think it’s fair to say. He’s got a story or two, both about fish and life in general. Ladies and gentlemen let’s introduce to you, Mr Les Bowers. Les, lovely to have you.

Les Bowers: Good to see you again, Rob. Good to see ya.

Rob Hughes: So, yeah, we go back quite a while actually don’t, we so been around quite a long time round about the same age ladies and gentlemen, we’re probably well into the late twenties now, I would think. Both of us, aren’t we?

Les Bowers: I’m nearly 21. Actually. It’s my birthday next Thursday.

Les Bowers & Rob Hughes

Rob Hughes: Is it? Happy birthday next Thursday. So, the first thing we always do is we just talk about fishing, where is your fishing at the moment? What you’re doing? How are you doing it? What are you after?

Les Bowers: Right. Um, how do I start? I was supposed to be on another syndicate this year. It all went a bit Pete Tong and so I ended up with nowhere to go. But luckily one of my very good friends offered me a ticket on a very big water near Reading. Yeah. Publicity ban on this one, obviously. On the name. Yeah, yeah. Probably 250 to 300 acres, somewhere around there 250, I’d say there’s only 40 carp in it.

Rob Hughes: Wow.

Les Bowers: But what carp they are.

Rob Hughes: Yes.

Les Bowers: You’re looking at one that came out at 62 last year and there’s a good 50 plus back up fish and there’s probably 15 to 16 forties and one that hasn’t been out for four years.

Les Bowers: That was last at 40……. 49. Everyone’s after that one at the moment. Scarfish

Rob Hughes: For me, that venue is probably the pinnacle or one of the pinnacles. You know, it’s up there as one of the best venues in the whole of the country. I’m lucky enough to know the guy that that’s caught the big fish and I was talking to him before he caught it. I’ve spoken to him a lot since he’s caught it. We talked about the capture. It’s an amazing fish. That fish isn’t it?

Les Bowers: It is it is a stunning, stunning fish. It’s got so much growth room still left. It doesn’t look ugly because of its weight.

Rob Hughes: Yeah. It’s actually proportioned perfectly, and the other thing is, it’s not busy down there do you know what I mean, you have got all of that water. 35 members officially. Yeah

Les Bowers: A lot of them are tench anglers and so yeah.

Rob Hughes: Quite a lot of scope there then.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: So, and you’ve caught one already, haven’t you?

Les Bowers: Yeah. My sixth session in, I’ve been baiting it down there and you have to that water that size if you want to be in with a chance and the first time I had fished the baited area that was on a Wednesday evening I was it’s actually the jubilee weekend because we had that long weekend because of the queen.

I put the rod out and then overnight I was expecting something. If I was going to get take it be in the morning nothing and then quarter past nine totally out of the blue. I was actually watching some stuff on YouTube at the time and it just blipped and one-toned it. I forgot I had put braid on the new reels, went to pick it up and it was just heading towards the end.of the island. I thought I’ve got to stop it before it gets there because if it turns right there, I’m going to lose it. So, I’ve clamped down on the spool and completely forgot about the braid being on.

Rob Hughes: There’s a painful moment coming.

Les Bowers: Yeah, and it just cut straight through my finger.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: Soon let go of it. But I did manage to slow it down and turn it.

Rob Hughes: Awesome.

Les Bowers: And when it went in, I was absolutely over the moon. I knew is a half-decent fish, but I didn’t know what. I just netted it and just put it in the net rest.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: Called a mate up to come and do it. Alan Stag.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: To come and do the photos and he says “Oh do you mind if I have a look?” I goes, yeah. He goes, ” how big do you reckon?” I said, ” about a 30 pound I expect.” He has looked in the net and he goes….. “That’s a forty all day long.” He goes ” look at the width of them shoulders!” When we weighed it, it was just over 40 so.

Rob Hughes: Oh, that’s mega you know what a great result. And like any the weight to a degree is irrelevant. But it’s always nice to have just as a benchmark.

Les Bowers: I didn’t care! It could have been 20lb for all I cared. It was that first fish from that water.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: And it’s a hard water anyway and I didn’t expect, I had even told like Kev Knight at Mainline I said when I went on there, he was the one it said, take the ticket. I said to him, you know, you do know I’m going to be blanking a lot. He goes, “I don’t care.” He goes, “That’s probably where the next British records coming from.”

Well. There’s there’s a couple of things that are whizzing through my mind at the moment. Both, one, is tactics on a big water like that. Two is the importance of pre-bating and three is the British record. So we’ll come back and visit those very, very soon. Let’s, let’s talk about tactics. How do you approach a big venue like that?

Rob Hughes: How, you know, what’s your thought process? That’s a lot of water. Some of it you’re not allowed to fish.

Les Bowers: Yep.

Rob Hughes: You’re allowed to use boats on it at certain times.

Les Bowers: Yep.

Rob Hughes: Not all the time.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: So there’s a lot stacked against you. Have do you actually approach a water like that?

Les Bowers: Well, I’ve been lucky that, like I say, I lived in France. We’re talking about that later, I fished big, big waters before and I, I try to explain this to people when I say, look how you tell them how big a water is that? Oh, how do you even begin there. It’s no different than fishing a one-acre pond because you find the fish first or you pre-bait.

You want to…… It’s no good just setting up anywhere you’ve got it in your head. You can you’re going to fish there no matter what and you haven’t pre-paid or whatever. You’ve got to put the work in, leg work, be that leg work baiting up and it will work.

Rob Hughes: I think pre-baiting is one of the keys on big waters as well, isn’t it. Because the fish will come and look for you though.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: Well, one thing I find with big water fish is that a lot of the time they can be quite mobile. They’ll have areas that they like.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: But they can move particularly on big weather changes as well.

Les Bowers: Oh, they love a good south-westerly. They love it!

Rob Hughes: They’re not conditioned by ummm angler pressure, particularly on there so they can be more or less anywhere. So, although there’s no fish in banks, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the best place to go, does it? No, because they can be anywhere.

Les Bowers: Yeah. Yeah. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t feel confident when I go because there are so few fish. But every time I go I do feel confident but if you don’t feel confident, you’re already losing, if that makes sense.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: So that confidence has got to be there with big, big pits like that and so less fish, they’re not riggy. So you want to be using….. everything has got to be super strong, big hooks.

Rob Hughes: Solid.

Les Bowers: Yeah, it your I mean once want you to hook something you don’t want to be losing it because it could be the fish of a lifetime.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, let’s let’s talk about that fish of a lifetime. There’s a there’s a 60-pounder in there.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: It’s growing as well, isn’t it.

Les Bowers: Yes.

Rob Hughes: You know, do you think it could do the British record?

Les Bowers: I think it will, whether it be this year or next year. But we do think it’s a male fish, so it doesn’t fluctuate in weight very much. So, it will put on a few pounds but it’s been putting on putting on putting on a few pounds every year. So last year it was out at 62.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: And this year it’s been out at 59 but that was,

Rob Hughes: That was just postponed wasn’t it. So free 3lb for big fish like that’s not a lot. So you know if it if it gets caught back end again that could be

Les Bowers: That could be right up there again.

Rob Hughes: 67/68lb which is knocking on the door of the current record. Let’s, let’s have a chat about that and I’m going to throw this question to everybody that comes and sits in that chair there that understands carp fishing, in particular, you know, let’s talk about British records as well, because we’ve got a current situation where we’ve got obviously Dean Fletcher’s fish, the Wasing fish, which, again, we know very well.

You fish Wasing or fish Wasing. So we’ve got that which is which is the true and current British record. We’ve got a number of fish that have been caught over that weight as well that haven’t been accepted for whatever reason, you know, and various different people have opinions on these things. And we’ve got the Wingham Fish in particular, which is the very, very big one. That’s been caught. To me I personally, I feel the Wingham Fish should be the record.

Les Bowers: I do too, and I wish he had claimed it.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: I can understand why he didn’t, but I wish he had claimed it because it was a true British fish.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: British record weight and it would have put to bed the arguments over a British record in my lifetime.

Rob Hughes: Well, I think ultimately, whatever the subjective opinions of what people think about whether a fish is worth something or not something, there’s one key thing in this, and that’s the number, you know, and a 79lb fish is bigger than a 68lb fish and an 81lb fish is bigger than a 79lb fish.

Les Bowers: Yeah. Yeah.

Rob Hughes: So, if you’re looking purely at numbers, surely it should be the biggest fish and you know, the argument that it’s got dropsy will actually Chis Yates’s fish had dropsy.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: Roddy Porter’s fish had dropsy!

Les Bowers: People are on about oh, it’s a spawn spawn out spawn bound fish be honest, anglers when do they fish for their fish? When they’re at their biggest weights when they are spawn bound, do you know what I mean they, they do fish for them then.

Rob Hughes: Yeah. Well, it’s weird. I have this, you know, I cover all sorts of disciplines as well. I have interesting conversations with predator anglers as well that actually for for carp anglers going out and targeting fish just before they’ve spawned with these fish being really, really heavy with spawn, we almost step back from that a little bit and go, you know what, they should be left be to spawn. Whereas tench anglers, in particular, they’re out like a shot trying to catch tench in the last couple of weeks of May because that’s when they’re at the biggest.

Les Bowers: Yeah yeah.

Rob Hughes: Equally pike anglers as well. You know they all want to go out and fish in February, which is just before spawning time for Pike.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: So they want the big fat females. They don’t want the males, they want the big fat females. Let’s face it, those females, ain’t fat.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: You know, they’re they’re not fat. They’re as big as they are because they’re carrying spawn and yet as soon as they spawn.. oh no no we will leave them alone! Yeah. So as anglers we’re really weird because it almost depends on the type of fish that we’re fishing for as to whether or not it’s right to fish for them.

Les Bowers: Yeah, yeah, I’m the same as you, I remember the old closed season. Yeah. Which was, it was a good thing in a way because I used to be able to get all the odd jobs done that I’d always put off, which now I don’t. But the fish, the close season didn’t really work as quite often had spawn after it opened again. And I think what we’ve got now with a good fishery is when they close the fishery for X amount of time to allow them fish to spawn and recover in their own time rather than having a set date because the fish don’t know that’s the date that they’ve got.

Rob Hughes: No, that’s right. Interestingly, my fish spawned twice this year.

Les Bowers: A fair few places have.

Rob Hughes: And I think it was I think it might have been Viv or Simon Scott that was talking about this and he said it isn’t necessarily the fish spawning twice. What it might be is that the conditions were right for one group of fish to spawn when they spawn the first time and then not right until the second time. So it’s not actually the fish spawn in twice. It might be.

Les Bowers: Two separate groups.

Rob Hughes: Groups, two separate groups of fish spawning at two different times because the conditions weren’t right. Which is actually quite interesting. I’ve never thought about it like that but if you think, you know, if you’ve got, if you’ve got young fish, yeah, they might spawn earlier or later than old fish. So, you know, but anyway either way one spawned just inside the old, closed season and the other one spawn well outside.

In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago, so there’s no way of knowing. So, you’ve got a little something down here haven’t you? Les has bought this a gift, which I think is really, really nice.

Les Bowers: Yeah, well, what it is, it’s been at home. A friend of mine done it for me, and I do like it, but I’m not allowed to put it up at home. So it’s just been like sat by my wardrobe. I thought the wall looks a bit bare in here. And I thought, I would bring that in for you, you can have it for the wall it’s only a little funny bit of memorabilia. It says I was here!

Rob Hughes: Fantastic.

Yeah. I think from from now on and we will possibly retrospectively do this as well. Every guest that comes in is going to have to bring us a present. I quite like the idea of that they bring us the president, so we can have it either on the memorabilia wall, or it can go on the shelves as well so hopefully, you’ll see some meaningful things building up over the course of the year. For those of you listening that can’t see what we’re looking at for start, you need to watch us on YouTube so you can see this is worth looking at. But we have got a caricature of Les looking fairly rugged with stubble there riding a carp.

Which is a very interesting picture he’s got reigns on the top of it. It’s like a bucking bronco, but that’s a really nice piece. So that will look very, very good on our memorabilia wall and yes, you’ve started off a trend. You’ve started off a trend. So I think we’re going to backdate that. I’ll have to see if I can find something and Crowy it does mean that you’re going to have to dig in now and send something down because obviously, we’ve had Crowy on already. So yeah, we will get Crowy in. So anybody coming in on the on The Outcast in the future we need a present. Thank you, Les. That’s really kind of you. We talked earlier about your colourful history. You’ve had quite an interesting life. Tell us a little bit about your background, first and foremost and how did you get into fishing?

Les Bowers: Oh, how I got into fishing. Oh, I was four years old. My mother was having my sister, so I had to go and she got rushed to o hospital and I had to go and stay with my auntie at Newbury, which is quite funny because I actually live quite close to there now, which didn’t at the time. While I was with her she took me to a little tackle shop and I bought a couple of lures and I had a Woolworths rod kit.

Les Bowers: Yep, and my first ever fish was a perch out of the River Kennet.

Rob Hughes: Fantastic.

Les Bowers: But that’s how I actually got into it and then I lived at the time at Portchester near Portsmouth and I used to do sea fishing off the wall and that’s where I used to like catch whatever came along crabs, fish or whatever. But then we moved to where my parents live now, which is out in the sticks near Fareham. It’s like right out in the stick, but I got into fishing there.

A friend of mine, nobody in my family actually fishes. But a friend of mine, his dad was in the Navy, and I used to go with them to HMS Dryad and go fishing in there and catching all sorts. Then I got to about 14 and I started getting into the match scene and done a little bit of that. And then I got into the carp, and I used to go to these matches and all these guys would be there with their poles and whatever, catching bits and I’ll just be there with one carp rod and I could sit there all day and suddenly overtake and beat all of them with one fish. And it used to upset them like hell! So, I got out of the match scene and I was about 18, I was about 18 when I just went carp only and that’s all I’ve done since. But I’ve been lucky with some of the waters I have fished over the years, and lucky with some of the carp, I’ve caught.

Les Bowers talking to Rob Hughes

Fishing Iconic Waters: Avoiding Crayfish And Big Catches Exclusively On The Outcast

Rob Hughes: Yeah. You’ve fished some really iconic waters, haven’t you. You know, certainly in recent times, over the last ten years, in particular, you know, the likes of Frimley, the likes of Wasing, the likes of where you are now. Yeah, let’s let’s talk about Wasing in particular because it’s a really interesting water and everybody has heard of it, obviously because of The Parrot.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, but not that many people know much about it. Tell me about it.

Les Bowers: Right. Cranwells and Oxlease The specimen waters the only thing that separates them is a causeway. And in winter, when it floods, they can actually swim between the two. But that’s two entirely different lakes. Cranwells is probably 20 acres and it’s got about 200 fish in and the average is 3 to 4 feet deep it’s got deeper areas up to ten foot, ten, 11 feet and right around the edge there’s like a gully, that is six, seven foot.

But on average it’s three or four feet. And then you’ve got Oxlease next door, which averages probably 22 feet and goes down to 40 feet in winter that’s probably 15 acres and it’s probably got about 35 fish or did have at the time 35, about 35 fish in it we worked out.

Rob Hughes: What do you reckon makes them grow so big in there?

Les Bowers: The natural I mean, you’ve got loads of crayfish, there are crayfish and they do try and catch them. Pop them out. But there are crayfish and fish love crayfish. They’re not a… I never found them a problem. There are certain areas that they could be a problem but that’s the same with any water with crayfish, you normally find there are certain areas that the crayfish seem to favour.

Rob Hughes: How do you get round them then? Is it literally just avoiding them?

Les Bowers: Yes and no. If I was fishing an area where I knew the crays were a problem, I’d normally use either plastic or a tiger but I’ve even had tiger’s taken by crays. Yeah. But most of the time I just use boilie and it’s actually Dave Levy that gave me the heads up on this. He said because I was getting plagued by them and they were being a nightmare for me. And he said, Just chop them up in the RidgeMonkey Chopper, all your boilies and that, he said and that just keeps him preoccupied for ages and your hookbait is left out there for a lot longer, which I did and yeah, it worked!

Rob Hughes: Yes, fair play. So a very, very simple one. Nice, nice, easy. You’re not fishing there anymore. You’ve caught quite a few fish over there, but you’re not there anymore.

Les Bowers: Yeah, I was there for probably two and a bit years. I started on Cranwells but I realised Cranwells does get quite busy.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: Even to the extent people queuing behind swims and it wasn’t for me and friend of mine, John Cash, was fishing over on Oxlease and I messaged him, I said, So what’s in Oxlease then? This is before I knew and he says, “You stay over there.” He goes “You’ve got to catch them fish out of there.” I said, ” I tell you now, I’m coming over.” I said, “This is too busy.” And that is how I ended up on Oxlease and I loved it on there. But yeah, I got on well with the bailiff at the time but he left and I lost my ticket for sticking up for him.

Yeah. Basically, yeah. He moved to Swan, they suspended him and then I got the whole syndicate to say what a good bailiff he was. They didn’t like that and then. We had a page where we that we used to use on Facebook for like, if somebody needed a photo or putting pictures up. Or if you broke down or if you lost something. Like I lost my receiver once and somebody found that. Yeah. It was handy.

Rob Hughes: Good communication between members.

Les Bowers: But yeah, they wanted that page gone and I said, well if we use it, we need it. So they got rid of it and I started another page up just for the members, nothing to do with Wasing it was just for members just to use. That was on Saturday and I got a phone call on the Monday, saying that I had lost my ticket over that. I didn’t actually break any rules or anything, but yeah, there was only one fish I really wanted left anyway, so I wasn’t too bothered. I liked it there, I don’t mind admitting it. Yeah, it was Three Scale, that was the one fish I would have liked to have caught.

Rob Hughes: It’s quite nice being in a syndicate, isn’t it, when you’ve, when you’ve got a good group of people that are regularly fishing it, and everybody gets to know each other. Yeah. Equally, it can be bitchy too. Oh, so you know, how do you, how do you find that.

Les Bowers: Yeah. I soon learned there was a little click there of people on there and yeah, they could be a little bit bitchy, but I tried to just keep myself to myself. What I should have done in hindsight is not got involved with that with the swan. I just, I just felt he was being hard done by and that’s why I sort of stuck up for him because is always nice to me when I was down there fishing is always polite and do you know what I mean, I’ll treat people as I find them. Yeah. Maybe I should have just kept quiet and just stuck with my fishing because I only wanted that one fish.

Rob Hughes: Well, you have a you have a bit of a habit of being a man of the people anyway, you do stick up for people if there is wrongs being on. And you know you do quite a bit of charity stuff as well. So you know, we’ll talk about Lucy’s bowl, we talk about a few other bits and bobs. So what drives you? What drives Les Bowers?

Les Bowers: Right. Fishing’s given me so much of my life. I’ve made so many friends over the years that have been friends for 30 odd years or more. It’s just nice to put something back. Help others. I’m very empathic. I can put myself in somebody’s position and see the struggle they may be going through and think, What would I be like in that situation?

How would I like to think somebody would help me if I was that way or had that problem or whatever. So yeah, that’s part of the reason I like to do it. And, and it’s nice to see the difference you can make to somebody’s life, do you know what I mean. At the end of the day, it is only fishing. What we do is only fishing. We’re not changing the world. No matter how big you think you are in the industry, you are only fishing.

Rob Hughes: How big a part of your life is fishing then? Is it all-consuming?

Les Bowers: It can be at times like with running the events, running the auctions. The events are like yearly and they’re like set dates or whatever, but it doesn’t just stay with that day. It’s a whole year of organising auctions, getting prizes. Yeah, it’s a lot more behind the scenes to it than you think there is. And as my wife would say it does take up a lot of time and I’d often be on the phone in the evenings. 2 to 3 hours.

Rob Hughes: Yeah. Yeah.

Les Bowers: And as well as going to work during the day.

Rob Hughes: You’re listening to The Outcast, the podcast from Outlaw Pro, The Ultimate Angling Experience.

Controversy Within The Angling Industry: The Ongoing Marc Westernberg Saga

Rob Hughes: A couple of years ago, you were very heavily involved in a very unsavoury thing that happened in the fishing world where there was a guy, a tour operator that took an awful lot of people’s money.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: As well and I think it’s I think we can probably name him as well because I don’t think there’s any.

Les Bowers: No, there’s not.

Rob Hughes: No hiding at all. There’s no disputing of it. And that was Marc Westernberg. And you were you were quite at the forefront of what was going on there. Just there’ll be people that have been affected by this that would like to know what’s going on, because there’s been a recent resurrection of the story, hasn’t there? Which will be interesting as well. So, you know, firstly, tell us a little bit of history there what happened and secondly, update us.

Rob Hughes: Right. What happened originally the year before it all came out, Marc Westernberg messaged me on Facebook and said “Oh, Les could I put you on our team? It’d be fishing like lakes all over the Europe, blah blah blah.” Yeah, sounds good. I spoke to friends about it, and they just said, make sure you don’t put any money in because he’s not trustworthy around a pound note, so I said right okay.

So, I didn’t actually go and actually on any of the trips and it was coming up towards Christmas time and a good friend of mine had booked a trip to Sumba and he was looking forward to it and he booked it through Marc Westernberg. But whilst he did that, he actually joined the Sumba Facebook page for that country.

Les Bowers: So, it’s all foreign. But he went on there and he got chatting to him and they sent him a calendar with the dates for the year of when people could fish and who was on and his week wasn’t on there. So, he’s started panicking. So, I’ve paid him all this money. So, he’s contacted Marc Westernberg and he did get his money back.

It took a while, but he did get his money back. But then he sent me the calendar, a picture of the calendar, and I was like, I know the guys at RidgeMonkey, and they had a couple of weeks booked on for September, but only actually one week was booked. And I phoned the owner of RidgeMonkey.

I spoke to him, and I said look, this is what’s happening, and he said, it better not mess us about blah, blah, blah, and it turned out it did. I spoke to Mainline. I know that they had a trip booked and he had done the same to them. It wasn’t booked. He had taken the money and that’s when I got asked to open up a page on Facebook about this, and we tried to work out how much money he had actually taken when it was double trebled, booked and sometimes quadruple booked for the same weeks.

You think people travelling all the way out and turning up and this did happen turning up out there and it was already booked. Somebody else was already in their spaces. So set this page up. We expected it to be between 120, and 150,000. Well, it shocked me…. It shocked us all what it went to. When I start, we started out in a French lad… a French lady, a Dutch lady, to help me with a spreadsheet of everything on who had had what and where times books and it was coming out with over £400,000.

Rob Hughes: Wow.

Les Bowers: And that’s when the proverbial hit the fan. You can imagine there’s a lot of upset people. He disappeared completely disappeared off of everywhere. Vanished. Nobody knew what was happening.

Rob Hughes: There were lots of people presumably looking for him at that time.

Les Bowers: Oh, yeah. All wanting their money back. But he’d done the disappearing act and then earlier this year, Marc actually can’t keep out the limelight. He likes the limelight. And he turned up on a program on TV in the Netherlands doing his security work and suddenly found out where he was again, and I know that the security firm was actually contacted by a lot of the people that it had been ripped off

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: and I don’t think he’s actually working for them again, anymore. But yeah, just be careful. Don’t ever trust him around a pound note. If he does turn up and try to get back in on the scene.

Rob Hughes: This is all relative public domain stuff anyway.

Les Bowers: Yeah, everyone knows.

Rob Hughes: You know, it’s quite, it’s quite sad. It’s a shame that there’s an unsavoury side to these things. And, you know.

Les Bowers: This is horrible because I don’t know why people are like it. Do you know what I mean, if it could he could have run an honest, genuine business and still make good money. Yeah, but greed gets them all every time.

Fishing At Frimley: Big Fish And Amazing Memories!

Rob Hughes: Not good. Let’s talk about good things. Yeah, let’s talk about Frimley. You spent a bit of time on Frimley as well. Another venue that’s very, very well known. A lot of very big fish in there too.

Les Bowers: Yeah, it’s a stunning, stunning lake. It’s the kind of lake I could retire to as well. It’s just the atmosphere, the venue, the owner, the owner, Mark Fisher. He’s such a nice bloke. A bit eccentric, he won’t mind me saying that, he doesn’t, he does things how he wants. But he’s such a lovely guy. The fishing is just unbelievable. It’s I think now there’s something like 26 fish over 40lb and there are three over 50.

Rob Hughes: This is on pit three?

Les Bowers: This is on pit three. pit four is catching up with it though. And you’ve got pits one and two as well. But it’s the venue itself. It’s…… how can I explain it? If you could design a fishery, that would be it. And he has done it and is absolutely stunning down there. The fishing is it can be hard at times, which is quite weird. But then other times you think, I can’t put a foot wrong.

Rob Hughes: What’s the key to places like that? You know, because quite a lot of good anglers, fish, places like that. How do you stand out amongst a lot of other good anglers?

Les Bowers: What I did was I done a lot of research myself before when I became a member. We’ve done a start doing a lot of research. Fish are creatures of habit and like to visit the same areas at certain times of the year under the same weather conditions. And that’s what I looked at. I went back on lives of previous captures, times a year, whereabouts on the lake it was, and I couldn’t guarantee that I’d catch that fish, but I could put myself with a good chance of catching that fish.

And that’s what I actually did while I was down. And I did do very well doing that and I tried to fish areas that were different to anyone else. There was one certain swim on the stick swim. I did get to know that swim very well, but there was a certain spot that was in so close, and it was an awkward cast to get to it.

You had to stand in the water with your chest waders on to cast to it and it wasn’t very far out, but there was an overhanging tree and you had to get there, it’s just flick it down into it. I ended up with three, four over time, three different 40lb fish from that spot as well as a ridiculous amount of the thirties and then it all cumulated in the capture of Charlie’s Mate one New Year’s Eve.

Les Bowers: It was freezing cold.

Rob Hughes: Oh, that’s a present isn’t it! New Year’s Eve as well. You know, any time to catch a fish, but a winter capture of that is amazing.

Les Bowers: Yeah, it’s freezing cold, ice on the bivvy, landing net frozen. I’d actually invited a friend out, Paul the one out to France, I told you about earlier. I invited him down for a guest because we haven’t fished together for 15 years, we’re fishing and I said to him, look, we’re doubled up in a swim. I let him choose which side because he was my guest. And if anyone he knows double boards down there, the left-hand side is the best side. That’s where he went. I showed him the spots to fish to and I just fished to the right. I kept all of mine close in. I said to him, I said, we’re not going to catch. It is highly unlikely the weather’s against us.

I said, but lets have a good social good catch up when we had a bonfire you’re allowed bonfires down there. Proper pits, we had a fire I got an Indian in. So we had food and we had a good chat and could catch up. About quarter past, half past five and the next morning my rod screams off at 35 yards. I’ve got up and I’m playing it and it did fight really well and Pauls got on the net and as of brought it over the landing net he’s looked inside he goes as a bloody big common.

Les Bowers: I looked inside and I goes and that’s because it’s Charlie’s Mate, the biggest fish in the lake! But yeah, there’s quite this is summit not few people know this about me, but not many. When I catch a fish, I really want, I don’t know what it is. It’s the adrenalin or whatever I throw up and as soon as I’ve seen this fish I start throwing up.

Paul is going You alright, you alright! Yeah, I’m just excited! Do you know what I mean. Yeah. I caught the fish and while we’re waiting for the others to come round because there are a few others on the lake to come and do the photographs Paul’s rod goes off on one of the spots. He has the only true leather carp in Frimley and that was I mean I was so made up for him as well. That fish. But yeah

Rob Hughes: Well you got it nailed on that night didn’t ya blimey! Yeah. That’s bang on!

Les Bowers: Brilliant night and I’ve got some excellent photos of them, them fish.

Rob Hughes: Let’s talk tactics briefly. You know you like to fish certain types of waters that have got I wouldn’t class them as ultra-low stock although where you are now clearly is but the likes of Wasing, the likes of Frimley these sort of places, they’ve got a few carp in that you can go for but they’re not easy venues.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Tips And Tricks For Fishing Difficult Waters

Rob Hughes: How do you approach that sort of a venue. What are you thinking about? What’s your tactical approach?

Les Bowers: Baiting has always been one of my fortes. I swear by it. If you are allowed and you can bait, bait, the fish will come eventually. It’s like that stick swim that I was telling you about on Frimley that particular spot, that I ended up catching them three forties from. I didn’t have anything off of it for two weeks.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: I actually go asked “Why do you keep going in there and blanking?” I guess I’ll just keep going. I said they will come, and they did.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: And it’s just you’ve got, it’s hard work. Don’t get me wrong it is hard works lakes like this, like where I am now. I’m going down and baiting once, maybe twice a week. But it’s the effort that will bring the rewards.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, yeah. You can condition fish actually I think one of the key things to carp is that you need to understand how they’ve been conditioned.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: Or you need to condition them. So, you know, certain people you walk into a peg and on busy lakes, almost everybody will have looked to the horizon at a reasonable casting distance, whatever that might be. Seen a tree that they like the look of and gone out towards that. They’ve cast a lead out there and found that lo and behold there’s a bit of a spot out there and that’s probably because it’s regularly fished all the time.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: But actually, if you jumped into it and fished there and I do it and the person before you did and the person after me did the fish are so conditioned that one there might be food there because there’d be.

Les Bowers: A chance of being hooked. That’s why I try to find where I’m at now. I can’t say where but one of the spots I’ve been baiting it started off the size probably of three bait buckets. It’s now the size of a bivvy and it is blatant. So, anyone can find it.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, it’s, it’s not birds doing that is it.

Les Bowers: Yeah., no.

Rob Hughes: There is only gonna be carp doing it!

Les Bowers: Yeah. It’s not, it’s probably a bit of everything doing it that’s causing the area but it’s creating an interest in the area.

Rob Hughes: Yeah. Yeah.

Les Bowers: And that’s what, that’s what you want when I bait, I want to bring everything to the table. That is why I use crumb, boilie crumb and things like that. I want to bring everything to the table because it, if you can get other fish, small fish feeding that the carp will then find that what they doing? What they eating and come over and they will push the others out.

Rob Hughes: Well, one of the things that I’ve been looking into quite a lot recently is carp interaction with each other and how carp interact either as a group of fish or as a hierarchy, or alternatively with actions that they do. So, you know, one of the things in particular that that I’ve picked up is carps hearing and how they hear other fish eating bait.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and things like that. If there is activity somewhere, then other carp will come in and have a look. Without any question to see what’s going on. So even if that activity is caused by tench or is caused by other fish, then then the carp are very inquisitive. If they’re in the area, they hear it. They want to come and have a look. So this is sort of sort of known about, but I’m taking it to a slightly different level because they are, I’ve got the ability to be able to see what they’re doing as well as thinking. Is there anything that you think is the next thing?

In, in either bait approach or in tactics, what… Is there something that you’ve ever thought of this so far off the wall?

Les Bowers: I’ve had some it’s quite funny. It’s actually Wasing on Oxlease. I can talk about it now because I’m not fishing there. The first year I thought, I struggled. I didn’t had six fish, but I was unlucky with sizes. I had them up to thirty-seven.

Rob Hughes: Still a good fish.

Les Bowers: Turns out that fish. I didn’t realise it at the time was one of the forties from now. Right. Wire tips. But the following year I spent a lot more time up the trees watching and I learned so, so much. It was over at the time I was using lead core from a leader, but in one of the spots, I actually watched fish come in and their fins and gills flare out. They just stopped dead. And I knew they could see this lead core. Yeah, it did. It didn’t lay. Lead core doesn’t lay exactly how you think it does.

Rob Hughes: Almost nothing lays exactly as you think it should.

Les Bowers: No. Yeah. Actually, it’s actually Kev Knight I actually got speaking to about it and I said, I’ve seen this like a recommended leader to me, which is a fluoro leader. You can’t actually…. well you can but it’s very difficult to buy it over here. It’s actually used for game fishing. Seaguar Blue Label. Yeah. Yeah and I got some, I ordered it from America.

Les Bowers: What difference that stuff made and yet you wouldn’t think it would. Yeah, same rig, same everything, except for the leader has changed. And I watched the fish come in and feed confidently and I was like….. wow, this is unbelievable. There’s actually I was, seen these fish feeding and I had four of the biggest fish in the lake feeding and actually one of them one of them that night, next morning I should say 42lb pretty fish.

I watched them coming in. What had happened, I’d had another area pre-baited. When I turned up somebody was in there, you know, was it is like, I was like, oh bloody hell. So I’m a little bit gutted. I’ve gone walking around the lake and climbing trees and having a look and then I found these fish and I’ve seen them that and I was like…. wow. So I’ve gone and got the car, parked, it as near as I can to that swim nearest to that and thought before I set up I can chuck some bait in.

So, I have walked around and I have waited for them to sort of they’re doing a circuit I actually watched them doing a circuit and it’s about a 20-minute circuit for them to do this circuit and then come back. So, I chucked the bait in, so I’ve gone back, set up everything and it’s hot really hot. Well, I’m on a rush to get the rods out because of the heat, go back round and have a look, see if they’re on the bait from back up the tree.

And all I can say is tails waving, plumes coming up and their proper fish and I only put in half a handful of bait proper feed off. I know I’m going to have a fish but where I was fishing right, to put the rods in the water to be able to get to this area and it was boiling hot and I slept in my chest waders knowing that I was expecting a take.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: And at quarter past four in the morning, that’s when I had the take. It fought like it’s life depended on it. There was a set of snags to the right and I had to bully it away anyway. Just keep walking backwards. Now, if anything was going to give, that was when the leader was going to give. It held brilliantly I managed; I saw the fish because it was summertime.

You can see it’s daylight at that time. And I saw all the scales and it was the one I was after. Out of all the fish in there, don’t get me wrong there’s a lot bigger fish in there, but that was the one I wanted more than any and sit and you’re just praying it goes over that net and managed to get it in and stomachs again.

Throwing up. My next thought was, I need somebody to do a photo. There’s only two of us on, but I don’t want the other guy to know I had just caught and because he was in my baited area so I phoned a mate at his house at that time in the morning and he came out and done the photos for me, sat there. While I was waiting for him

I put the rods back out. I made a couple of cups of coffee while we’re drinking a second cup of coffee. Same rods gone again? But what I’d seen there say the four biggest carp in the lake. I thought I took the waders off now because I’ve sweated in them all night.

Rob Hughes: I should get in there.

Les Bowers: Yeah and I just run in fully clothed and it fought like hell. Had I’d have lost that fish I would have sworn blind it was one of the biggest fish in the lake. As it happens, I landed it and it was a 27lb common.

Crazy, isn’t it? You can. I think you can never that’s not right, you can occasionally tell. Yeah. You know, particularly on big waters. I think if you get if you get a slow bite at long range on a big water, you bend into it and nothing happens then a lot of the time that, that does tend to be a big fish but so many times I’ve been caught out. By you know, a small fish turning out to be significantly bigger and you’re cranking one in like I had a, not a huge fish, but at about a 32 the other day and it didn’t really do an awful lot till it got under the tip.

Les Bowers: Yeah.

Rob Hughes: And it was on a it was on a 13-foot zig on a 12-foot rod, which makes it a little bit trickier to, you know, to try and get it in and it went over the net and I thought, oh yeah, that’s a 20 and actually when you look anything oh blimey, you know, it’s it’s a bit bigger than I thought it was.

Rob Hughes: You’re listening to The Outcast, the podcast from Outlaw Pro, The Ultimate Angling Experience.

Les Bowers: I had a fish over 70 off the surface in France on one of the waters and it just came in through really heavy weed, straight in like a broom it was literally just in the net. But yeah, that was a long story because I didn’t get to photograph it and I didn’t get to weigh it, but I knew is over 70 because three days previous or I had caught a 66 and a half. It was a lot bigger than that. And I put it at, all I said was over 70 is bigger than that one. Yeah. So there was a bank of probably about 25 feet coming down almost vertical. I had to crawl down this bank to get onto a flat piece, that is probably half a meter flat.

And that’s where I cast from, caught this fish it, put it on to my left, took the hook out size ten hook, and then put the rod that side because it is in the way on the right-hand side. As I went to do that, it went flap, flap, straight back in the lake. So I it’s a natural reaction you try and do this is funny is a perfect Hamlet moment the fish is gone in the lake. I’ve jumped in trying to grab it I didn’t realise it was 8ft deep so I’ve gone straight under and took a couple of mouthfuls of lake water.

Les Bowers: Come back up, just climbed out sat on the bank and luckily, I had a, now don’t take the mic…… in France you had to carry all your documents. So, I had a bum bag on its own. I took my cigarettes out, dried my hands and just sat on the bank thinking what the hell’s just happened. Do you know what I mean! It was quite funny!

Rob Hughes: You spend a bit of time in France, you actually lived there for a while as well.

Les Bowers: Yeah, yeah. I’m. I got a little bit of trouble over here and I needed to get away because I would have ended up in more trouble, so I just moved to France. Originally, it was for the fishing. Saying that we are carp anglers. But I ended up getting the job within the first week over there. So, I was working in Paris.

Then I bought well it’s actually Marc Munson of Navitas. He has still got it. So, if you’ve still got it, Mark, I want it back. I bought this detailed map in Michelin map, and I went to visit all these blue areas and where I found big fish to put across. And if I found and fish in the area and caught big fish also put that well I lent it to Mark and now I’ve never got it back but it’s there. I went travelling around this is how come I have found the lakes that I have found. I was fishing the public rivers and the lakes and I done really really well over there. In fact, I got quite well known in France for fishing because going back then that was 21 years ago. They hadn’t really seen much of English methods, and I was destroying it on zigs, floaters, and plastic. I will never forget showing the French guys plastic and they’re like, you’re not going to catch on that and that just the some of the lakes I fished were full of Poisson chat and you know what they are like they are like piranha.

Les Bowers: Yeah, and they destroy any bait within minutes.

Rob Hughes: Yes, yeah. Yeah. They just square it down to a little cube. They don’t pick it up.

Pick it up and pull it against the hook link and basically, a round boilie of 22 ml becomes a small dice in half an hour.

Les Bowers: Yeah in the little bit of plastic wrap that we used to put in it.

Rob Hughes: Doesn’t work it doesn’t work. So, but you fish in some interesting areas as well like but your fish right in the centre of Paris on the river there as well. And it’s France. France is beautiful, but actually, France is dangerous as well in certain places.

Les Bowers: Yeah, the French girl that I was with at the time, her dad when I used to go fishing in the centre of Paris not far from….. you can actually see the Eiffel Tower. It’s actually a very big average-sized fish in the centre of Paris. Yeah, it’s where I had my biggest river fish from which was 56lb

Rob Hughes: Brilliant.

Les Bowers: But there’s I was fish once and he said to me, you do realise people have been murdered, there. But I’d never had no trouble. There’s, I was fishing once and I had a French mate with me, but behind us, about 20, 25 yards to behind us sat on a concrete wall where a load of people with needles jacking up, but they never bothered us do you know what I mean, so we left them alone.

They left us alone. But yeah, on the river, the river is actually quite easy if you again it’s pre-baiting in we used to pre bait for three nights previous before we’d go. So we’d go down there literally with sacks of maze and got prepared and literally just tipping… bucketing it out. Just checking out and then like, chuck a load of boilies over the top and that if you wanted to save on cost, you wouldn’t put out as many boilies as you would the maze. I think at the time, the maze I was buying for six, €6 for a 25-kilo sack.

Rob Hughes: Nothing, for a 25-kilo sack. It’s it’s interesting because I know guys that still fish around Paris and they say the carp fishing is dropping off because of the catfish now and the catfish are getting so big.

Les Bowers: I caught my biggest catfish from the same area. Yeah, it was quite funny, but I French French mates with me again, we were fishing and now I’m a typical English angler. When I catch a nice fish, a big fish, I’ll give it a kiss and put it back. And when my first carp like I say the carp I caught from there they said don’t you dare kiss that fish out of here!

Rob Hughes: Not the same as here.

Les Bowers: Yeah, it’s uh, dirty. But I wasn’t fishing for a catfish I was fishing for carp, and I hooked into what I thought at first off was a big carp. But luckily the bank was clear. There was no trees and I could walk about 150 yards down following it and I actually managed to land it and it was just under 100lb catfish.

My French mates said you got to have your photograph taken with it and I’m like, Nah I don’t, I don’t I’ll be honest. I don’t like catfish, I don’t they are giant slugs with mouths to me. And they stink and they are slimy and.

Rob Hughes: Oh, the slime wrecks your T-shirt doesn’t it really.

Les Bowers: And anyway, they did force me. I ended up throwing the T-shirt away funnily enough and forced me to have a photograph taken with it. I hate them.

Rob Hughes: Big fish, 100lb wild fish. It is a big fish. You know, I’ve I’ve caught catfish. I’ve caught some biggens in Spain, caught a few in England, caught a few in France. They pull back. It’s quite an interesting fight.

Les Bowers: They are hard-fighting fish. No.

Rob Hughes: I think if you’re not if you’re not actually going out and targeting whatever it is that you fishing for, then actually there’s no point catching it.

Les Bowers: It is not the same, yeah!

Rob Hughes: You know, we spoke on the way over about, about big bream and, you know, a big sorry, big tench and a big tench is a lovely fish to catch, but actually if you’re not targeting it.

Les Bowers: Yeah, it’s not quite, quite the same. Don’t get me wrong, I have taken photographs of some of my double-figure Tench, but I was actually fishing for carp.

Rob Hughes: Do you fish for anything else now?

Les Bowers: Not really, I want to beat my PB perch at some point. Which my PB perch isn’t actually that big 2lb 12 which should be doable.

Rob Hughes: 3lb is doable now.

Les Bowers: Yeah. You know if you think in the perch world a three-pounder is eminently doable now, but only five ago a three-pounder was a huge fish. But there’s actually quite a lot of them around. People just didn’t know where they were and it’s because of the boom in perch fishing that there are a lot more, you know, a lot more big perch known about now.

Rob Hughes: Yeah. But yeah. Well, the Thames isn’t far from you, is it.

Les Bowers: No.

Rob Hughes: Ah mate, there are millions of them in the Thames. It’s absolutely stuffed with them!

Les Bowers: I know someone who’s got a boat on there at the moment as well.

Rob Hughes: There you go.

Les Bowers: But we’re just about to sell the boat.

Stories From Fishing In France: Pranks, Amazing Fish & So Much More!

Rob Hughes: Yeah. Tell him to hang onto it until winter. Mind you there will still be three pounders there now because there’s a lot of decent perch in there. So yeah it’s all good. So any other interesting stories from France then? Because you know, you spent a while over there. There must be a few.

Les Bowers: Oh yeah. I’ve some hilarious stories. A friend of mine when I just moved there, a friend of mine, Pete Burgess, you know who you are. He wanted to come over and fish and go to the public lakes. Now the public water that I was fishing at the time. 360 acres officially no night fishing, but I become friends with the garde-pêche and security guys.

When they used to come around and see me, I’d make them cups of coffee or give me a few bits of end tackle because some of them were fishermen themselves. And I got on well go on well with them and I said to them one night, one night I said, well one day I said I’d love to be able to fish a night on here. And he goes well you can. He said, all we ask you, do not put a bivvy up in the day because other people will, people will know that you’re here for the night. So, I was like, brilliant! So, I used to, at the time I had the Armadillo, and I used to leave it flat down.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: And then at night just put it up.

Les Bowers: Yeah, anyway Pete wanted to come over. I’ve arranged for him to come over. He says, oh can I can bring a couple of mates? I says, yeah no problem. I’ve arranged it with the garde-pêche and security guys that a couple of mates are coming over as well. Meet them and take them to the lake. Now I am fishing in one big bay at this lake there is me and Pete one side and there is Alan and Keith the other side we should do alright I thought. We’re going to have some fish that very first night got dark.

Les Bowers: One of my French mates pops round and we’re having a chat and a giggle and I said, Hey, pop round to the others on the other side, potential garde-pêche. He goes, yeah, okay. So, he’s gone trotting around me and Pete are sat there giggling and suddenly this Les and it is Keith. I go, yeah! He goes, there’s a French bloke here. I goes, Yeah. It’s France. He sort of laughed.

He said he’s garde-pêche! I said alright I’m coming, so I have run round the bay, left Pete with the rods. Gets round there. Now my French mate speaks English as well but he’s speaking to me in French. So I say to him, he says, they are absolutely shitting themselves. You could see they are and he goes, we will keep this going for a bit longer. I go. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And the other two Keith and Alan are saying what’s he saying? What’s he saying because obviously, he is speaking to me in French.

I goes, keep quiet I’m trying to sort out. I say whatever you do, do not tell him around the other side, just say that I was it gone to the toilet when you shouted for me and he says, yeah all right. So, he asked for their passports. Now they have ran into their bivvies and rummaged around in their bags and got their passports out. Now he is shining the torch at their passports and then their faces passport, then their faces. And they’re stood there, like regimental soldiers. I’m killing Inside, but I’m keeping a straight face and Alan realizes he’s got a baseball cap on.

But obviously, in the passport he hasn’t, so he’s whipped it off and held it down by his side. Well, I’m just dying inside, and I’ve said to my mate, I goes, right now pretend to get on the phone and you’re calling back up because you’re taking their fishing gear, and that’s what he did. And they go, oh god what’s happening! I said mate I said, he’s taking your gear.

Les Bowers: I said back-up it just up there. There just coming down. No, no, they are panicking like hell! And then the French guy in perfect English goes, do you think we’ve wound them up enough now. They looked at him, looked at me and they called us all the names under the sun. But I’d scared them. They’re supposed to be there for the week. I’d scared them that much. They wouldn’t stay another night and I had to take them to a luckily I’ve got a French mate who has got commercial likes over there.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: I had to take them to a commercial fishery because I scared them that much.

Rob Hughes: Bless them! There’s some wonderful fish in over in France isn’t there. You know, the public likes in particular.

Les Bowers: This so much! Everyone thinks that France has been done and been discovered. There’s still so much over there that I know of even now that hasn’t been fished and there’s still a lot to be discovered over there.

Rob Hughes: Are you going back?

Les Bowers: Haven’t been for three years, but I’m hoping to change that next year. I want to get back over. I want to get back on the public. I love them the rivers…..

Rob Hughes: There is something special about the public lakes and rivers.

Les Bowers: Yeah. Well that 360-acre lake, I was the first English guy to ever fish it.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, yeah. Whereabouts? Whereabouts were you in France?

Les Bowers: Paris

Rob Hughes: Oh, right. Okay.

Fishing For Carp Using Unusual Methods

Les Bowers: Yeah, I was actually based in Paris. I can’t name that lake because it’s still under the radar. There is carp I know for a fact, there is carp over 80 coming out now. To give you an idea I’ve caught this is how I become everyone’s said they don’t take off the surface. Yeah, I was standing there one morning.

I’ve done an overnight and I see this French guy walk down with a big paper sack of old bread, stale bread. He is the the Boulanger, baker. from in the local village feeding the ducks, chucking it out and I’m sat there and I’m watching and the darks are going mad. Loads of them, hundreds of them and all of a sudden I see these big pair of lips come up and I’m like, they will take a surface bait.

That will do! So, I’ve come back I’ve gone to work and come back that evening with my float again. Believe it or not, you can’t actually buy floater fishing gear in France. I come back with it. And when I come back, there are these two French guys actually out on the pontoon fishing four rods up, all facing skywards and hadn’t had anything. I met them on the bank at the far end of the pontoon I turn up with two baguettes wetting the baguette, firing it out in a catapult.

So, I get the distance. Yeah. And the Possion Chat was coming up like Piranha, just attacking the bread. The guys on the pontoon are seeing me do this, and they’re laughing. Obviously, they’re taking the P. I just kept going and I was only there about 20 minutes and eventually, I’ve seen this big pair of lips come up from the bottom. Take one of the bits of bread so I have just grabbed the rod only had a one-rod landing net and an unhooking mat, that is all I had with me.

Rob Hughes: Yeah.

Les Bowers: First cast, cast out past it where I’d seen the fish come up, pulled it back gently and it just comes straight up and took it first cast. I’m playing this fish and it is fighting. It is a weedy lake as well.

Les Bowers: It’s fighting like hell! The two guys on the pontoon are looking round and they came walking down the pontoon… you caught carp?

Oui, like that and I landed it and that was one just over 44. But in three evenings after that, I landed well, the 70 although I didn’t get to photograph it, but I think it is um a ridiculous amount of fish over 45 I had off the surface, just by doing that.

Rob Hughes: Conditioning that comes back to what it was before. If that guy had been down there with the bread, it would be very difficult. But, you know, I think carp, they’re just opportunists aren’t they if there’s a food source, they’ll soon sus it out. Yeah, whatever that might be. And yeah, I just I don’t know whether it’s the French don’t feed ducks as much or we don’t, or the French don’t fish for them because it’s very rare that you see many surface fish.

Les Bowers: No, I know, I know.

Rob Hughes: But that’s because he’s not done.

Les Bowers: Yeah. They’re not really. But I mean, public lakes, if he was anywhere where they feed ducks. Yes, it is always worth having a go.

Rob Hughes: Absolutely particles in the edge just after dark as well. That’s it was a good one, isn’t it.

Les Bowers: Where it is a public lake I will never forget. One of the fish I caught was over 50. I can’t remember how big there’s a group having a barbecue and they watched me catch this fish it is Chinese having a barbecue and they’ve come over and watched me catch this fish and they said you come and put it on the barbecue. No, kissed it and put it back… Their faces were a picture!

Rob Hughes: Absolutely. Well, I know people have got in fights before now over, you know, going back a few years when because remember France used to have a no-kill policy for ages and ages and ages trying to promote the fact that carp should be put back in again because it’s only been, I suppose, 10/15 years that they’ve been sort of to this level. Before that, they used to kill an awful lot of fish.

Les Bowers: Well, when I first moved there, this is quite a funny story. There’s a… I will tell you the name and the place, Etienne, just outside of Paris. There’s a big 80-acre lake, but it’s right in the middle of a town, right in the middle. Now when I have driven past it, I’d seen carp anglers fishing, bivvys up, rods out.

Les Bowers: So I thought, oh I want to become a member and this is before I could speak French. So I got the French girl to have a chat with some of the guys that are fishing to get me the details and I became a member cost me I think €100 for the year I went down and fished it only fished it the once went down and fished it and all I was catching was I think the biggest fish was 14lb.

I got chatting to one of the other guys and they were saying that oh yeah they had a big fish kill here a couple of years ago and they’ve only just restocked it, so all the fish are small. So I was like, that’s put me off of that, but while I’m fishing, this other guy to my right has come over to show me a fish in a carrier bag, dead, that he’s taking it home and I was like I what! I had only just moved to the country and was like….. what!

Rob Hughes: What’s going on? Yeah, I remember um….. oh it is going back a few years, me, Crow and Briggsy went to Hungary on a rumour and we’d heard we got some Austrian mates and Hungarian mate that said, Oh yeah, we believe there’s a big fish in this this lake. It’s an old dead arm of the Danube and we think it might do a fish that that could be close to 80lb.

It’s already produced a 30 kilo plus fish so we are like, right, fine fair enough. So we’ve bearing in mind this is Hungary and we didn’t really know that much about it. We’ve driven all the way there, and didn’t know where to get permits from. I’ve just heard about this lake, got there and we found the fishing guard because there’s always a fishing guard with a hut.

Can we fish here? Because we didn’t even know if we could fish, can we fish here. Yes. Thinking fantastic. That’s a result. Like we found it. Now that we’ve got there we can fish there and then we said is there, is there many carp in here. Oh yes, many carp.

Les Bowers: So yes, this is getting even better and we said you know any big carp? Holding our hands out.

Rob Hughes: Any big carp and he said oh yeah, very big carp! Very big. 30 kilos. Yes, yes, 30 kilos. And then suddenly I’m just thinking back to my old French days where every single French lake had got a 20-kilo carp in it. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah 20 kilos, of course. So. So have you got a photograph of anything? Yes. Yes, I have photo. 30-kilo photo. So can we see it?

Yes. So we are thinking blimey, this is good. Anyway, we think of this photograph is going to turn up and you know he’s going to be a 20-pounder or something like that. Anyway, he’s got this photograph out and it’s clearly 60 plus.

Les Bowers: Yeah. Yes.

Rob Hughes: And we think about this is just heaven. It’s a lake nobody knows about it that’s got 60lb fish. We said are there a lot of fish like this thinking we’re really pushing it. He’s like, yes, yes. Many, many fish. Many fish. How big? This big, this big and he has pulled his hands really close together. It’s like this big three kilo, five kilos, many, many, many fish.

It’s like, what do you mean, many fish? Well, yesterday we put 5000 in for the same reason.

You know, the locals give a knock them on the head. So we finally find the Holy Grail. That’s an unknown venue that’s got 70 pounders in and nobody knows only to find that the previous week it’s been stocked with 5000 three kilo fish.

Les Bowers: Yeah, I had paid £100. €100 to join that club, I fished it once I found out what was in there and that’s how come I became fishing on the public lakes because you could buy the whole ticket for a year for less than that at the time.

Rob Hughes: Absolutely, you know. It’s amazing, isn’t it? You know, if you if you’ve got to be careful of the rules and you’ve got to be a little bit careful where you go. But if you abide by the rules and if you go, you know, just be nice, be friendly.

Les Bowers: That’s the thing. If you try!

Rob Hughes: Make an effort to speak French as well, I found was the key for me. That was definitely for me when I was over there living, when I was learning the language took me probably nine months to be able to speak it fluently. Yeah. That I could speak on the phone without actually seeing the person in front of me. Yeah, yeah. But where I used to go where I was working, I, they go to the cafe every lunchtime.

Les Bowers: Yeah. And the lady behind the bar, cafe wanted to learn to speak English. And I wanted to learn to speak French. Perfect. So I used to speak to her in French and she’d speak to me in English and we’d correct each other. Yeah. And you don’t realise that over time we actually learn. Absolutely. And that goes a long way with the French

Les Bowers: In particular I think the French doesn’t it? You think about if somebody come over here. Yeah. And just come up to you and just start speaking in a foreign language, what would you think?

Rob Hughes: You wouldn’t be happy, especially when you turn around and go, these stupid English don’t speak French. Yeah, you know. Well, you’re in England and the amount of Englishmen that go over there speak and so many times an Englishman would speak to a Frenchman and if they don’t understand, they will speak a little bit like they’re from an ancient time. Like something from Hello, Hello.

Les Bowers: Oh, a funny one with that, I’ve got a funny one. Nigel Harris used to be in Rigmarole.

Rob Hughes: Rigmarole, yeah.

Les Bowers: But I’ll never forget we were paying at the tolls. We were on our way to Monessen doing the shows, doing the tolls and yeah, he wanted the receipt and he goes ticket eh and doesn’t just ask for it in English, but we’ve got the accent with the French. I said You know what?

Rob Hughes: But to be fair, Italian is really easy because all you need to do is use an English word and stick a vowel on the end of it. An I an E or an O and it’s fine. Scorchio I mean, it’s perfect.

Les Bowers: Yeah and if you’re in Russia, Croatia, just put ski on. the end.

Rob Hughes: Yeah, that’s it. Actually. I know a little a little bit of respect goes a long, long way.

Les Bowers: It does.

Rob Hughes: We’re more or less out of time. It’s always a pleasure sitting down and having a chat with you. It’s lovely to have a catch-up as well. It’s been too long. Yeah, you know, and I think there’s a little lesson there, folks. I’m going to say this down the barrel of the camera. Catch up with your mates a little bit more because it’s lovely just to sit down. We’ve shared many a beer overseas and had had some nice little chats and laughs sharing.

Les Bowers: Events as well yeah.

Rob Hughes: Absolutely. So, yeah. Thank you ever so much for coming in. Folks you’ve been listening to The Outcast. Don’t forget, follow us on social media. Give us a click, a like, a share. Do all the normal gubbins and tune in for the next one, because we will, of course, be back.

Thanks for listening to The Outcast, the podcast from Outlaw Pro, The Ultimate Angling Experience. Remember to follow us on social media for updates and information on future guests. See you next time.

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