Venue Review: Boschetto

This trip has been planned for a few years now, but due to the pandemic, we had to be delayed by a year. But finally, September 2022 and we were about to head off to Italy!

Boschetto has been on the Carp Specialist site for quite few years now, and I have kept looking at it for a while, finally booking the venue for me and 5 other anglers back in 2020, sadly since then 3 anglers have had to drop out, leaving us with 3 anglers and 2 partners, none of us minded, we had more water to each of us after all! We were going to miss the other 3 honest! 

Now my wife and I had fished and travelled to Italy on our own on two previous occasions, and some of our friends wanted to join us, and I thought Boschetto would be the perfect venue for a relaxed fishing social with friends.

The Lake:
At 9 acres in size, Lago Boschetto is not a large water, but nevertheless it is a true Italian gem where you can enjoy nature, privacy and some challenging fishing with varied depths up to 40ft. The venue is well maintained and fully fenced, and is located in a wonderful and quiet location near Strambino and overlooked by Masino Castle (worth a visit) to the east, and the Alps to the north! On arrival Marco & Arianna will greet you, and be more than happy to inform you about the latest catch reports, tips & tricks and hotspots.

Lago Boschetto is perfect for carp anglers who appreciate action, relaxation and tranquillity, but who want a realistic chance of a big fish. The spacious swims, large enough for 2 or 3 bivvies, offer many fishing opportunities, and if you want to sit comfortably close together with 4-6 people, this is also possible. All the swims are laid out in such a way that each has its own fishing zone without interfering with each other. 

The Carp Specialist have deliberately chosen to offer the water only on an exclusive basis, that is to say: you always book Lago Boschetto entirely for yourself, your friends and family, whereby a maximum of 6 anglers are permitted. You can also book the lake perfectly for 3 or 4 anglers, where you have more than enough fishing space and at the same time you can sit comfortably close to each other. Because of the exclusive booking you have no other guests on the property.

The lake also offers many possibilities underwater and because of the depths between 3 - 40 feet, a rowing boat or bait boat with an echo sounder is advised. A boat will also come in handy for playing the fish and also for finding the hotspots, dropping your rigs and feeding the spots. The fish regularly hide behind the existing plateaus, so it can be useful to play the fish from the boat.

The lakebed is interesting and offers many different types and hotspots. Sand plateaus, shallower plateaus, deep margins, silty and gravelly bottoms, and a couple of sandy spots too. Due to these large differences in depth and the mild Italian climate, the lake can be fished all year round, having good form for the larger residents making an appearance during the winter months.

Marco took over the ownership of the lake in 2017, and has spent many hours getting the lake into the great position it is in today.

Facilities:
You will find a sanitary building with two showers, a gents and separate ladies toilets on site. Here you will also find water/sinks (not drinkable), a fridge/freezer for food/drink, a bait freezer, a coffee machine (1 euro coins for each pod), a small oven, free WIFI around the lake, and power charging sockets (Euro only). Two boats are also at your disposal (without outboard/echo), but I would recommend you bring your own boat. There is also a cradle, sling and net onsite, but best again that you bring your own. Your car can remain next to your chosen swim and you have the entire site to yourself during your stay, without any other anglers able to turn up or visit. There are two onsite friendly dogs, Bianca and Fifi, who never leave and provide security for the customers during your stay. There is CCTV at both the gate and in front on the main facility building. The gate is locked and Marco will provide you the code for the week of your stay, so you can leave as you require.

The owner Marco can do your daily shopping or order a pizza delivery etc for you if you wish. It maybe possible if any of your party are going to fly into Turin Airport (40min drive), Marco maybe able to pick up/drop off for a small fee, but this must be arranged in advance, and may not be possible all the time, please contact to arrange, Marco dropped off one of our group to the airport.

On request Arianna will prepare some lovely homemade Italian dinner for you at €15 per person. We had Lasagne & Pork and potatoes served with bread and wine, what more could you ask for!

Session Preparation:
For this session, we decided not to prepare or take food and drinks for our entire stay, and just take enough for the first couple of days, as we had to get 3 anglers gear and 2 partners into 2 cars. Also, we were stopping off in Lausanne for a night enroute, so any fresh food would probably go off. So, we headed to the shop for cold drinks, water, along with fresh bread, milk and meats etc. There is a Lidl or Coop only 5 minutes up the road in the town of Strambino and open 8am-8pm 7 days a week. As mentioned on previous reviews I’m a bit OCD, so I like to clean all my tackle, rods, reels, tackle boxes ready for each overseas trip. Usually, I spool up with new line, charge up my leisure batteries, tie a load of rigs up and sharpen the hooks ready. On this trip I stripped off my usual go to leadcore (not permitted) for Korda safezone leaders, wrapped a load of boilies to tackle the crayfish, packed a couple of small jars of peanuts and tigernuts, once again to combat the crays. but I take literally everything, just in case I need to tie something up different during the session. 

Arrival:
We actually set off early on Friday morning, and took a leisurely drive down (7-8hrs from Calais) to Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneve, Switzerland. Sadly, I took a turn for the worse and went to bed early, while the others hit the town for some much-needed food and a bit of sightseeing. Saturday morning, we met up for breakfast in the hotel (Hotel Des Patients), chosen for its secure underground car park. Then we hit the road at 9am, and arrived in the small town of Crotte at midday, taking the scenic route via the Alps and the St Bernard tunnel, Danny (who flew into Turin via Stansted) was sitting outside a bar on the roadside in Crotte, with some very welcome cold beers for us. We obviously pulled up and joined him for a beer, then we set off for the lake, that was only half a mile away from the local bar!

We arrived at the lake a little early (2pm onwards officially), we drove down the gravel road to the lake, to see Marco just finishing off mowing the grass, then he came over and opened the gates for us. We drove through to the facilities and parked up. Marco showed us the facilities, then explained what had been caught recently, and the tactics and baits used. The 3 of us took a walk around the lake, while leaving our partners back at the facilities. We elected to do a draw for swims, but as I had been to Italy before, I didn’t want to come out first or second, and luck was on my side, I drew 3rd haha

Danny came out first, and chose the central area of the lake, fishing from Swim 3, Del chose the eastern side of the lake fishing from swim 1, and I ended up on the western side from swim 4, where all 3 are situated close and on the same side as the facilities.

Marco then left us to it, while we got ourselves setup, and would return at 6pm with Pizza for us all.

Also take note, Marco delivering food triggers your bite alarms to scream away!

Our Session:
Once I was setup and got out in the boat, to survey what I had in front of me, it was shallower in the 3rd of the lake closest to me, averaging 9-10ft in depth, it then shelved down deeply between 20 and 35ft, before rising up on the far margins, there were a couple of gravel seams coming out, one on the left of the swim, and one directly opposite. I started with a rod on the corner of both gravel seams in a depth of around 12ft, in the marginal shelf, before dropping off steeply to over 20ft or more. The 3rd and the final being my middle rod, was cast 12 wraps to a gravel hump of 9ft, dropping to 35ft just past it. I sprinkled a little bait around each from the boat, consisting of Complex T Boilies, Hemp, 6mm pellets, maize, chopped and whole tigers, all soaked in liquid Complex T. 

The first bite came at 6pm to one of Del’s rods, just after Marco turned up with dinner (6pm was going to be a productive time for Del, and a lot of cold dinners too!) This would kick off a manic spell for Del where he had 5 quick bites in a couple of hours, with fish up to 20lbs, only small but his first Italian carp all the same.

My first bite came after dinner around 9pm, but I didn’t connect with the fish, I got the rod back out on the spot, and only 15 minutes later the same rod was away again, where I played the fish for a few minutes before the hook pulled. I finally managed to land my first fish just after midnight from my left-hand rod, only a mid-double common, but it was a relief to see one at the bottom of my net. A few hours later and the same bite alarm was signalling another take, this was a slower more dogged fight, and I was very pleased when I landed our first 30lb+ of the trip, in the shape of a lovely grey mirror. Then Sunday it was Danny’s turn to land a few fish from the middle zone of the lake. That evening the dinner bell at 6pm signalled a flurry of bites to Del’s rod’s once again, and would be a theme for the trip for Del on 6 of the 7 evenings receiving takes once we were all just starting to eat our dinner! Then after Sunday’s dinner I managed another low 30lb+ mirror falling to a double tigernut rig setup, quickly followed by a ghost koi. Del then landed a brace of 30’s at 32 and 34lbs both falling to tigernuts. In the early hours I had to take to the boat, as a good fish was staying deep close to the far margin, with my line grating on the gravelly edge of the deep gulley, it paid off as I landed my largest of the trip, at a weight of 32lbs+ mirror. 

The following day, Danny landed a lovely dark common just shy of 39lbs, then I followed this up with another double figure ghost koi.

There was a pattern emerging with Danny having day bites, and Del evening bites, while mine were a bit more random, but a large percentage during the hours of darkness. On Wednesday and Thursday I only managed a single bite, with commons of 28lbs and 31lbs, the fish were now predominately in the shallower water on the eastern side of the lake, showing and fizzing with regularity, the water in front of me was getting clearer and clearer, by Thursday I could see down to 14ft, as I could only see to 9ft when I first arrived, the fish had moved out from in front of me, the snags that had been holding a few fish on the opposite bank, slightly to my left was now just snags again with no fish. Danny continued to catch the odd fish in the middle zone, but it was Del who was having it off, and utilising a baitboat to get his rigs back out after every bite very quickly, and would quite often get another bite with 15 minutes. Del manged well over 30 fish, with the biggest being one of the old original Italian mirrors of 41lbs+. I was over the moon for him, that was the aim of the trip, to have a great social with friends, and hope my friends would catch a few good fish, of which they both did. Even Del’s partner Diann caught a 28lb mirror, and my partner Caroline caught two mirrors of 27 and 34lbs, what more could you ask for from a trip. We ended up with over 60 fish landed from around 70 bites, including 5 koi, 11 carp over 30lbs and 1 over 40lbs, with no nuisance fish or grass carp for that matter. I used around 15-20kgs of bait, similar for Danny, Del used over 40kgs of bait for his fish. I couldn’t recommend a better lake for a fishing social amongst friend’s than Boschetto.

Ratings

The Swims:
The lake can only be reserved exclusively for a maximum of 6 anglers. This means that you have the entire lake for yourselves and you can fish wherever you wish. The water has a lot of depth variances and offers many hotspots like sandy plateaus, interesting shallower zones and deeper gulleys of up to 40 feet (good winter areas). The banks are also interesting, because of the overhanging trees and shrubs, the fish often come in close to the margins. The warm Italian climate ensures that you can enjoy fishing all year round. 

Conclusion (9 out of 10)

Well-spaced out and spotlessly clean swims with everything you could require. The track gets you around 80% of the lake, but more important to all the swims. The water level was quite low during our stay, we have had a very hot and dry summer everywhere. A couple of swims require repairing for low water level periods, otherwise they are of a good size and condition, gravelly/grass areas, where most can accommodate a couple of bivvies or large double bivvy, you might want to bring a rubber mallet for the gravelly swims.

Facilities:
This venue has nearly all the facilities you could wish for, really clean and spacious toilets and showers. A couple of sinks with hot and cold water to clean your utensils, shave and so on. They have a chest freezer where you can store your bait. A separate fridge/freezer for food and drinks. There is power and wifi available in the lodge, we picked up the wifi around the whole lake. The entrance is secured by a gate with a combo lock and CCTV, and the lake is fenced all the way round. There are also two guard dogs permanently living onsite, they are quite friendly really, especially after feeding them (ahem!). 

Conclusion (10 out of 10)

For me 10 out of 10, some may like to have power, water, wifi in the swim, and to be honest 4 of the swims are very close to the onsite facilities anyway, only a couple of swims are on the opposite side of the lake, but are only a couple of minute’s walk, with the lake being 9 acres in size.

Services: (9 out of 10)
You can purchase Boilies and pellets onsite, and a limited range of end tackle, such as pva, leads etc.

Marco used to own a tackle shop, so can source pretty much anything offsite if required.

You can only use commercial particles such as Dynamite, Nash, CC Moore etc

There are various shops and garages within 5 minutes at Strambino.

There are various recycling bins at the lodge, one for plastic, glass, carboard/paper, food and even used batteries! They will take the rubbish away from the site for you.

You can order in advance evening meals at €15 per person.

Here is a list of some of the other items you can purchase onsite:

Ice Cream (3 Types) €1.50

Beer (Ichnusa) €2.50

Bottle Water/Coffee Pod €1

Bottle Cola/Fanta €1,50

Pellets 25kg €50

Boilies 5kg €35

Safety Clips €5

Anti-Tangle tubing €3

Leads €2 

There are 2 boats onsite (without outboard/echo), but Carp Specialist recommend that you bring an inflatable boat with an outboard and echo sounder and I concur with this sentiment.

The Stock:
The variation in the carp stock on Lago Boschetto is really good. They estimate the stock to be about 400-450 common and mirror carp, the biggest fish (a large common carp) was last caught in December 2021 at (31kgs) 68lb. There are about 150 carp between 30 and 40lb in the lake, and 12 different 20kg (44lb+) carp, three of which have been caught over 55lb. The average weight is around 25lb. In addition to common and mirror carp, there are approx. 100 (of the 450) that are Koi, that the Italians love to catch above nearly anything else, no matter the size. There are a number of grass carp (Amur) also going to 26kgs. Marco stocked 65 mirror carp of between 6-12kgs (13lbs-26lbs), we caught several of these to 34lbs during our stay, I would expect these to start breaking the 40lb barrier in the next two year’s. It is probably around 60% commons, 40% mirrors. 

Also there are no sturgeon or catfish in the lake, no nuisance fish at all, just black bass that patrol the margins of the lake.

Accessibility (10 out of 10)
Getting to the lake was very simple for me, it takes just over 10 hours from Calais – 640 miles via motorways for the majority of the route, until you hit the border of Switzerland/Italy. You then have two options at this point, take the faster Mont Blanc tunnel route (France to Italy) with tunnel fees of around €60 (£53) for a 7 day return ticket, or you can take the more scenic Top Gear/Grand Tour type route via Switzerland and the St Bernard tunnel with tunnel fees of around €44 (£39) for a 30 day return ticket, and you will also require a Swiss vignette for the motorways costing around €42 (£37) per calendar year, which we have done on all of our trips so far, also note the French tolls will be around €55 euros each way and €13 in Italy. Once you arrive in the small town of Crotte, just outside of the town of Strambino, Turin (where you will find the nearest supermarkets), there you will see a road sign for the lake, and you have to drive for another half mile down a gravel road to the lakes gated entrance.

There is a gravel track around the majority the lake, so swims 1 to 6 are accessible all year round, 7 & 8 are ok in the summer dry months, but you will need to take care in the wetter months. 

Conclusion (9.5 out of 10)

I think as a holiday or social venue for anglers travelling from the UK, I believe the lake offers a difference to the typical venues in France we would tend to frequent. The size of 9 acres and the swim layout was just ideal for us, the varied lake depths and type of bottom, averaging 10-15ft and going down to 40ft in the deepest area, and you can see the shallower spots from a boat, it has a good stock size of 400-450 carp for a 9 acre lake. I managed 9 fish, 4 of them over the 30lb mark. I believe our combined total of 60+ fish was fairly typical, or maybe just above average. If you choose the correct swims and time of year, you could have in excess of 25 fish to each person in a week, 90+ in a week is the lake record. I felt it would be hard to blank on such a lake, and everyone visiting should expect to catch a few fish each. The number of fish in excess of 20kgs (44lbs) is currently 12, the largest a common of 31kgs (68lbs) and the largest mirror is 22kgs (49lbs). The majority of fish are in the 18-30lbs (8-13kgs) weight, and are dark, scaley and surprisingly at first for us very hard fighting, just what we all like. There are also some grass carp to 26kgs (58lbs), we did not catch any grass carp (Amur) during our trip. I feel to attract people to the venue there is very little Marco & Adrianna can do more, potentially replace the two boats onsite would be good, repair a couple of the swims for the low water periods, and in time the new stock (all mirrors) Marco has introduced will be breaking the 40lb (18kgs+) very soon, they are growing quickly from their original stocked weights. 

We all really liked the lake a lot, the drive down is probably the biggest challenge for many, but I really think it is worth the effort, so that’s why I’m going to give it a 9.5 out of 10 review. I will be looking forward to returning in a few years’ time, hopefully the young stock fish would have put on a few more pounds by then, I’m sure they will have.

I would like to take the opportunity to give a grazie mille to Marco & Arianna at Lago Boschetto, on their fantastic managing of the venue and wonderful food, and to The Carp Specialist UK team for inviting me to perform the review. Best I not forget Bianca & Fifi, the security team onsite! Until my next review…

Also make note that Marco will be opening a new venue, that can be booked through Carp Specialist during 2023, so keep an eye out for that jewel!