As a carper who loves rivers and having fished the St. Lawrence river in Canada for 3 years catching hundreds of prime commons to 38lb, I thought it time to seek out the carp in the rivers nearer to home, France in particular. Where to fish was the problem, the last thing I wanted to do was to turn up on the rivers knowing nothing about them, not knowing where to fish, or  where the night zones were and obtaining permits etc.  I searched the internet and found 'Etang de Janine' a lake and guide service run by  Dave Scott a brit moved to France to realize his dream. Dave also advertised river fishing on the small river 'Loir', overhanging tress and pads, looked great. Spoke with Dave on the phone and arranged a trip for three.  In September 2006 we arrived, Dave spent all  day with us, showing us different sections of the 'Loir', 'Cher' and the great 'Loire'. As water levels were low  he advised to fish the 'Loire' at Blois. Dave put us on the spot left us with buckets of mixed seed feed and his own reciepe  huge red boilies (28mm) that he recommended. Casts were to a maximum of 40yards. The next day  Dave lent us his boat and sounder to check out the river bed  and place our loose feed. Although Dave lived 1 hour from the river he was always around for us. During the 4 days and nights I had 8 commons to 22lb, not large by rivers standards but all the same, real 'express trains'  caught on Daves' red special boilies. Most of the fish came in the early hours of the morning, so during the day it gave me time to try some trotting. I had several hundred weight of small carp, bream, roach, chub and barbel, all on corn. In all, for the four days the  three of us had around fifteen carp. I knew that there must be larger fish around, so I used Daves' boat and went out looking. On the far bank in around three feet of water I located a number of carp lying out of the current, These fish had huge backs and were around 15-20 kg in weight, (30lb- 45lb). During our stay Marc had an accident and hurt his ankle, Dave was concened and took Marc to the local hospital to get it checked out, fortunately it was just badly bruised. Accidents happen so don't forget to take your European Health Insurance Card, obtainable from  www.nhs.uk I normally fish lakes in France but fishing the Loire was agreat experience and I hope to return with Dave as my guide. Supermarkets (intermarche) are there for all your food requirements. Dave supplies all the knowledge, bait you will need, and he speaks French. If you ever wanted to fish these great rivers in France, now is the time, it is only a phone call away. Steve Cleere. January 2007