12 September, 2025 | Carp | Articles | Catches

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Matt Povey: From Du Der Disappointment to Red-Letter Delight

“Every cloud has a silver lining”, they say. Well after a disappointing last-minute cancellation for a French trip to Lac Du Der for Matt Povey, his silver lining came in the form of a mega few days on his syndicate…

Matt Says…

After some unfortunate and disappointing news regarding my trip to Lac du der in France had been cancelled at last minute, I set my sights on fishing in the UK with the time I’d booked off.

I chose my syndicate as the destination for the whole weekend which has a 72-hour rule on it. I’m pretty green to the lake and have only fished it a few times previously so had little knowledge about the lake.

I settled in a swim that I know sees a lot of fish traffic with an island around 75/80 yards out and fished a big area a few rod lengths short of it as the lakebed levels out to it’s deepest point of 13/14 feet deep.

To try and stop the fish as they were travelling, I went in with 3kg of Complex-T in 15mm and 18mm spread over a big area probably the size of a tennis court and spread 3 rods over the area.

Kick Off

The action didn’t start right away but around 7am Saturday morning I had the first bite. This turned out to be the kick-start to a major session.

By 10am I had managed 4 fish to 26lb. By 12 o’clock I’d wound in as the action had slowed to top my bait bucket up and rest the swim and was fishing again by about 1.30.

Different Gravy

By 4PM I’d managed another 2 fish. These were different gravy from the first flurry: a 33lb 8oz common and one of the ‘A team’ members. A fish called “breeze block” at 39lb 4oz.

The action stopped for the night which is nice to have a proper recharge after the day of madness. Much to my surprise though the Sunday was going to play out almost as a mirror image.

With one landed and 2 lost in the morning spell of action I was on 7 landed for 9 bites. I never like to lose fish, I hate it like everyone. However, I believe it’s part and parcel with fishing and we need to accept sometimes it wasn’t meant to be.

Exhausted, Buzzing!

Another flurry of action like the day previous. Between 2PM and 6PM saw me land another 4 carp to 36lb 8oz. and drop another 2 fish. With my bait exhausted and myself exhausted I fished on until Monday morning with no more action.

15 bites, 11 landed. 8 x 20lb+ fish and 3 x 30lb+ fish. A session that will stay with me for a long time.

The fish weights in order were 23lb mirror, 21lb mirror, 26lb 4oz mirror, 24lb 8oz mirror, 33lb 8oz common, 39lb 4oz mirror, 29lb 14oz mirror, 25lb mirror, 36lb 8oz mirror, 21lb mirror and a 26lb mirror.

Simple, Reliable, Effective

Baits used were 15mm and 18mm complex-T boilies coated in worm liquid.

Rigs were very basic: size 4 Carp Spirit boilie beak points. Knotless knotted to 8inches of 20lb Carp Spirit Reaction braid and 20mm hardened hook baits with 3-bait stringers attached. Really simple.