Lee Bowyer Interview

PM: What have you done to the place since taking over?

LB: Jeff hadn’t been well and wasn’t able to maintain the place to the standard he wanted, so it’s been non-stop since November really. Basically, I’ve gutted the building on site and turned it into a really nice anglers’ lodge with a new bar, shower, TV room and lots of new facilities. It’s somewhere I’ve built with anglers in mind.

I’ve also put in a little stock pond as well, which will probably get used as a quarantine area, so when I need to introduce fish, I won’t have to put them straight in and risk any disease getting passed on.

PM: On the subject of stock, what are your plans for introducing more fish?

LB: To be honest, there is a really good stock of fish in here already. I fished in the evenings between the middle of November and the middle of December, while flitting between home and the lake, and had 20 fish in that time, including the biggest fish in the lake at 72lb and another at 63lb. The head of forties in the lake is unbelievable; of the 20 fish I had, 13 or 14 were forties and only three were smaller than 40lb. So, at the moment, I don’t think I need to do anything on the stock front.

PM: What sort of venue do you hope it will become?

LB: In my eyes, it’s a holiday, which was what it always used to be for me when I went fishing in France. Obviously I want everyone to catch, but I’m trying to create a nice environment where people can come and have a relaxing break and hopefully catch a few big fish along the way.

PM: Tell us about the name change to Etang de Bows.

LB: It had been called La Fritterie for a long while, even before Jeff bought it, but it wasn’t a fishing complex back then; it was a chip shop, which was where the name came from. To me, that doesn’t make any sense, so I’ve made it more personal. Hopefully that’ll last forever and I can pass it on to my son further down the line.

PM: Do you have any plans to buy any more lakes? Can we expect a ‘Bows Leisure’ in the future?

LB: There is another lake I’m looking at elsewhere in France, so I’m waiting to see if that becomes available. If successful, I may try to do something a little bit different with that one and turn it into a big-fish water.

PM: How can anglers book a trip to Etang de Bows?