Etang De Bows
Having retired from professional football after playing at that level for more than 18 years, I suddenly found myself with an abundance of time on my hands and having always been an active person it was obvious that I now needed to find something else to occupy myself with as I moved into this new chapter of my life.
Having always been a keen angler from a very early age, it didn’t take much thinking about before I decided that buying a lake and getting into fishery management would present the perfect challenge for me, but the key was to find the perfect lake, something I knew wouldn’t be easy!
I set about making a number of calls to friends in the fishing industry as well as contacting a few lakes that I had fished during the past few years when I hit the jackpot speaking to Ex JRC owner Jeff Powell who owned a lake known as ‘La Fritterie’. He told me that he was just about to be put on the market, I couldn’t believe my luck, the timing was perfect so wasting no time, I immediately drove out to the lake and had a meeting with Jeff and is wife Lisa and from the moment I walked back onto the lake I knew this was the lake for me!
Situated less than 3 ½ hrs from Calais, it was in the perfect location and at 12 acres, it was a nice size with a good stock of big fish. To cap it all, it already had regular clientele who returned every year so the only work it required was an upgrade of all the facilities.
Having spent most of last winter living at the lake revamping the facilities and improving the swims, I opened the doors at the start of April 2015 and welcomed the first fisherman back to the lake keenly wanted to see their reaction………I wasn’t disappointed as their reaction was fantastic has all the feedback I received since then showing that all the hard work really has been worthwhile.
