The Stock
The Lac Solace stock has very quickly catapulted the lake into one of the premier small water big fish lakes in France, even we have been surprised just how well these fish are doing!
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In 2018 I stocked the lake with 45 special carp from 3 different suppliers. The three strains I went with offered the characteristics that I thought would gel together to create a very special future for the lake but also fish that would flourish in this environment. I am pleased to say that so far even my expectations have been surpassed.
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To give you an idea of how well they are doing, one of the strains I introduced in 2018 were between 12 and 16lbs, all of those fish are now over 35lbs, with several of them being well over 40, The 30 pounders I put in are all well into the 40's with 3 of them over 50lbs. The 40's I put in are now all over 50lbs, with the long common going over 60lbs in 2024, there are also 4 or 5 fish from that batch between 56-59lbs. Just as importantly to me there are so many absolute stunners in Lac Solace, it is a real box of chocolate with so many shapes, sizes and scale patterns.
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Another exciting thing we have noticed is the Solace homegrowns that are coming through and bolstering the already impressive stock. The most famous of those is known as the Doughnut mirror. During the netting in 2022 I plucked a stunning little 1lbs mirror out of the net, huge shoulders and covered in scales. Fast forward 2 years and that little 1lb mirror is now well over 20lbs, almost unheard of growth.
A Prime Example
This gives you an idea of the growth and quality of the lac Solace carp. I stocked this one at 12lbs in the winter of 2018. I was lucky enough to slip her over the chord myself in March this year (2024) at over 44lbs. She isnt the fastest grower by any stretch, but believe it or not it is about average for growth rates.
The Future is as Exciting as the present!
I described the 'doughnut' mirror in my description above, but they say a picture paints a thousand words.
Remember, there is another mirror and 2 more doughnut commons, will they hit 30 in 2025?