I never said that Marais-Poitevin was near to Marennes. It is however an angling destination par excellence for many species including carassin which the French Fisheries Departments in their wisdom list as being carrasius carrasius. I gave three destinations where I know that Coral Maestro could find carassins.Olly wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 1:01 pm Let's not go down the mixed heritage route of "crucian carp" again! Somewhere I saw pictures of Swedish crucians which looked deeper than the French version and rather like UKs.
The French ones I have caught from the Sevre Niotaise in the Marais Poitevin National Park area are identical to the bottom picture above from MP. I caught a shed-full under the rudd previously mentioned from the same swim but fishing deeper. There are several areas of night fishing between Marans and Niort both in Vendee, 85, on the north bank and Charente Maritime, 17, on the south bank. (There are restrictions regarding baits than can be used at night.) Apart from the Sevre Niortaise there is the Vendee river, flowing though Fontenay Le Comte, the two join above Marans. Another river, L'Autise, both old and new join them. Most of the larger river sections are navigable.
By the way La Lindron is next to Marennes and not near the Marais Poitevin in fact it is on the Canal de la Saudre a la Charente. The canal joins the two rivers - a shortcut avoiding the sea!
If you do your research you will find that the Canal de la Saudre a la Charente was nothing to do with avoiding the sea. It was built for two purposes; to link two trading towns for goods from the port of La Rochelle and also as a means to drain the land and reclaim it for farming. Most of that area was drained similarly to the East Anglian regions. It was commenced on the order of Napoleon with the intention of eventually linking La Rochelle to Marans and onto Niort.
Constructing the canals however proved problematic and by the time that they had solved the construction issues ships had become too big for the canal locks and latterly the railways took away some of their trade. It was abandoned at Marans and never made it to Niort. You will find many examples of short canals like this, often they simply short cut loops in the old river beds to facilitate better drainage much like the Gt. Ouse Relief Channel.
One of the factors of these drains is that they are saline up to certain points where tidal barriers are in place. In Marans this is a huge construction on the newer channel near to the smaller channel that goes into the town port. To the seaward side of the tidal barriers there are no restrictions on fishing. No requirement for a Carte de Peche or regulations about baits and night fishing. Once you get to the inland side of these barriers you are bound by the regulations and need a CdP. Also, in summer the seaward side of the barriers become increasingly saline unless there are summer storms inland to flush fresh water through. Despite this you can still catch carassins, bream, roach, zander, pike and catfish in the salty water along with mullet and bass. These saline zones are the only public waters where you can legally use live or dead baits at night for catfish or zander.
