Lac de Saint Cassien and Lago di Bolsena
Cassien and Bolsena. The two most famous waters in the world, two faces of one obsession. A French legend and an Italian volcano joined in a single story.
Lac de Saint Cassien – The First Story
I’ve been fishing for carp on boilies since the early nineties, and over more than three decades I’ve visited an extraordinary number of different waters all across Europe. Rivers and streams, alpine lakes, gravel pits, natural lakes, even brackish ones. If I had to pick the absolute top water ever, I probably couldn’t – because for me Lac de Saint Cassien and Lago di Bolsena share first place. Choosing Cassien is quite understandable; it’s the Mecca of carp fishing, where the history of catching giant boilie carp was written in bold letters. And it was there I caught the fish of my life.
My memories of Cassien are a little hazy, blurred by almost fifteen years of distance. And the fog gets even thicker thanks to an unusual mix of three factors: 1. I caught the fish of my life, 2. it was my birthday, and 3. the nearby supermarket had a discount on 12-year-old Glenfiddich.
Looking back, I owe big thanks to Tomáš Blažek, who made it possible for us to time our trip so we could take over their spot by the western arm.
In the first few days I managed to land two beautiful lysecs, the bigger one weighing 26.5 kg. Both fish gave me the same brutal take – the kind that nearly melts the bearings in your reel – followed by a half-hour ride. The fish kept circling the boat at high speed down in the depths, all while close to a big marker buoy. Pure adrenaline rush.
After those catches I gave up my productive spot to my two friends and fished only with two rods. Both guys hooked into a big fish. My Slovak mate managed to land his, while the other was left with a vivid memory of a knot slipping loose between the main line and the shock leader after a twenty–minute fight.
In the second half of the trip I mainly served as the logistics link to the supermarket 10 km away, where we significantly cut down the stockpile of Glenfiddich. I rode there on a borrowed bike with an absurdly narrow saddle and a giant backpack. My Slovak mate drank like a camel and constantly wanted six to ten big bottles of mineral water hauled back. The combination of a poor, potholed road, the heavy pack, and that razor–thin saddle resulted in an intense, involuntary massage of delicate parts – but even that couldn’t spoil the joy of fishing in a place like this.
As far as I remember, a very successful bait was a snowman rig with a pineapple pop-up, all wrapped in a strongly aromatic, loose liver paste.
We ended our week of fishing with dinner in a restaurant overlooking the lake, closing a truly successful trip to a legendary place we had only envied in the pages of fishing magazines until then. On your journeys you often come across big, beautiful, even mysterious lakes with big carp – but only a few lakes have that extra something, like the charm of a beautiful woman, that lifts the experience to a level you’ve never felt before. That’s exactly what Lac de Saint Cassien is – everything wrapped in one neat package.
Lago di Bolsena – The Second Story
Cassien was a targeted trip for big carp. Lago di Bolsena, on the other hand, falls into the category of a family holiday with a surprise. My tolerant wife, when it comes to choosing holiday destinations, luckily shares my view that any sea has far too few carp for my taste. The downside from a fishing perspective is that your swim is set by where you stay, and you can’t choose it based on the likelihood of catching a big carp.
By chance we found beautiful apartments with a private beach, the grounds completely surrounded by tall thujas, just outside the town of Bolsena with its stunning ancient architecture. A vast stretch of water where you can actually see the curve of the earth, with extremely clear and warm water. Standing neck-deep, you can still see your toes perfectly. Shade temperature was 38 degrees, surface water temperature 31 – not exactly the dream conditions for carp fishing. 🙂 We went to the lake twice, staying in the same place, two families with kids – so this is really a blend of two family holidays with a surprise.
We split up the roles – my friend and I explored the ichthyofauna of Bolsena, while the women and kids toured the many historic landmarks in the area. The first part of the trip went by without a touch, until midweek when I finally managed to tempt a tiny scaly baby of about 70 cm on a pop-up. On Wednesday I decided to combine a family trip to the sea with a visit to a carp tackle shop in the town of Montefiascone. The owner was very talkative and gave us advice on the most productive depths in our area – which turned out to be a crucial piece of information. When we returned, we moved our rods into the recommended depths and waited. Lago di Bolsena, like many Italian lakes, allows fishing with nets and gillnets. Every evening at dusk, boats would arrive and lay gillnets right over our swims, only to pull them back out again before dawn.
Thursday was still without a touch, and Saturday’s departure was getting closer. Then, just before dawn on Friday, things started to happen. A long, unstoppable run catapulted me out of the sleeping bag, and the hooked fish stripped dozens of meters of line before burying itself in weed. With motorboats buzzing above the swim, hauling in nets full of fish, my wife judged it too risky and refused to let me out on the inflatable with just oars. I risked losing the fish and forced it free from the weeds, slowly working it toward the bank. Unfortunately, about 100 meters from shore the carp buried itself again, this time completely stuck. Not wanting to lose it, I ignored my wife’s protests, got into the boat, and rowed out over the fish. With my hand I managed to free it again, and what appeared on the surface was a massive clump of weed – and judging by the movement inside, there was clearly a fish. I couldn’t see the carp itself, so I decided to net the entire clump, hopefully with the fish inside. A jolt in the landing net told me it had worked. Back on shore I began the unboxing from the weeds, with no idea what I had actually caught. As I pulled the green mess apart, an enormous head appeared, with a mouth the size of a man’s fist.
The massive common carp measured 110 cm and weighed in at 23.5 kg. I sent the rig back down to the right depth, with only a few hours of fishing left. At high noon the alarm screamed beautifully, and from the boat I savored a brutal fight as the braided line sliced through clumps of weed where the carp instinctively sought refuge.
Another fish, again 110 centimeters, this time 24.6 kg. The adrenaline was pumping out of my ears. I wrapped up the trip with two more carp between 15 and 17 kg.
The only small blemish came on the last night, when some headlamp–wearing figure tried to steal our fishing gear. He came in at night by boat from the water, but was unlucky – we had already packed everything into the car, and on top of that the kids woke up, unable to sleep from the heat. Thinking it was me walking around the garden with a headlamp, they started shouting at the figure, surprised why “I” was suddenly running back to the boat and frantically rowing off into the dark.
A year passed and we were back in the same spot, this time equipped with motion sensors and the lessons learned from our previous hybrid holiday. This time the rigs went straight into the right depth of 6 to 7 meters. Over the week I caught about 15 carp, 6 of them measuring 110 centimeters! I was starting to suspect they might be producing them somewhere in Italy on a 3D printer at that exact length. In terms of weight though, this time the fish of that size ranged from 18 to 19.4 kg.
Lago di Bolsena captivated me – the combination of a vast expanse of clear water, ancient architecture, and brutally hard–fighting commons that battle madly for every centimeter of line makes for an incredibly tasty cocktail of experience. It’s a water I will one hundred percent return to.
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