Hello.

I hope you had a good weekend. The contest has begun! There are three countries competing for the Gigantica European cup. It is to be an annual affair and although it is only designed to be a small and intimate competition due to the size of the lake and number of swims, I am sure that all the anglers taking part will look  forward to the event each year. It is a team event and each team has three members. The countries participating are England, Ben-Lux and Germany. The reason there are only three countries is quite simple; at the moment anglers from these countries fish here the most.

I started my day off very early again. I wanted another go at the stalking. I woke at 6am and made my way along the snaggy bank looking for fish. There are probably six spots that are just big enough to manoeuvre in. They are not actual swims, more holes in the bankside! When fishing areas like this, you do need to consider one very important aspect; how will you safely land the fish should you hook one. I go on this principle, if the swim is big enough to strike sideways in, then it’s big enough to land a carp in. You may have to get into the water to net the fish, and be prepared for fireworks should you hook one. Where I am fishing there are low overhanging bushes all along the edge and the hooked carp tend to bolt left or right towards these first. It is hook and hold tactics but with the right kind of rod which is powerful yet forgiving combined with a strong hook, you should be able to draw the fish away.

I scattered some pellet into the edges of each spot and walked up and down the bank several times, stopping at each spot for a minute or so, to try and see one or two shadows moving around under the surface. Today there were definitely less carp around, but I did eventually find a few small ones. They also seemed less reluctant to take the corn bait today, so maybe the word has got round already! I had some heart stopping moments when the carp came ever so close to the yellow pieces of plastic and stopped and quivered by them. I could see the gills moving and the mouth protruding back and forth and its pectoral fins fanning in small circles while it surveyed the situation. Two or three times I was sure it was going to happen, and my hand was poised ready to strike and jump straight into the edge!

Unfortunately, it didn’t but that’s how it goes sometimes. There were a few tench milling around and they were being a pest. A couple of times the carp were just behind them as they all fed on the bottom, and then the tench picked up the corn, and then blew it straight back out of its mouth, spooking the carp in the process. Great team work!

I gave up after a couple of hours and returned to have some breakfast, after realising today it wasn’t going to happen. A bread van delivers fresh bread and pastries and other convenient groceries, every morning to the lake. If you are fishing at Gigantica for the week it is a nice way to start the day off, with a fresh croissant or pain au chocolat. The van arrives every morning in the main car park and it does mean there is no reason to leave the lake all week to buy food.

A guy called Gareth Watkins who runs Angling Lines had arrived to do a short interview with Danny Fairbrass. Angling Lines are the booking agent that handle the bookings for Gigantica and about 30 other lakes. This is simply done to make everything easier for you, the customer, and it should ensure your fishing holiday goes smoothly from booking the ferry, directions to the lake, what you need to know, what you can expect, and how to get the best from your week at the lake.

After breakfast I started to get all my kit from the last few trips unpacked and sorted out. I now need to do some maintenance on one of my boats and it is sometimes really good just to give your equipment a clean from time to time. I guess you could call it an annual service of my mountain of equipment. If it is going to keep me going for five years then it must be looked after. The morning flew by and before long a few people started turning up for the competition.  

First the team from Ben-Lux arrived; Arjen, Bart and Mario. Shortly this arrival was followed by the Germans; Etienne, Jens and Carsten. Next the camera crew turned up led by presenter Ali Hamidi, and finally it was the the English team’s turn; Danny Fairbrass, Tom Dove and Ian ‘Ting Tong’ MacMillan! The greetings were done and it looked like it was going to be a good competition all round.

The rules are very simple. The draw for the swims for each team is done out of a bag. There are however only three numbers, one, two and three. As this is a team competition the team then decides which swims it will fish out of the ones allocated by the draw number. For example the team that picks number two out of the bag has the choice of 5 swims marked up as number two. These are spread fairly around the lake. This does mean there will be one or two team swims not being fished and if one of the team members wants to move swims during the competition this is allowed. Baiting up of the teams free swims is also allowed.  Understand!

The Sky Sports cameras started rolling and the draw took place. It was a tense moment! The Ben-Lux team picked out number two. Tom Dove for England drew next picking number three, which meant the Germans were given the remaining number, number one! Will they still be number one by the end of the week? The competition runs from Sunday evening through till 10am on Saturday morning and the team with the biggest weight of carp, wins. It’s that simple.

It is now early Monday morning and I can tell you some fish have been caught already on the first night. I will be back later today with an update of the result and also a lowdown on the competitors with a little profile of each.

Cheers

Jake Langley-Hobbs & two Doberman dogs!
Team Imperial Fishing-We love to fish!!…..
www.carp-gps.com

 

 

 

Tags: carp, Dutch, England, Germany, Gigantica, Holland, jake langley-hobbs

This entry was posted on June 22, 2009 at 8:26 am and is filed under Gigantica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.