Good Evening.

Today has been a fairly standard day in the life of the big carp hunter. I say standard because I have now got used to running my day-to-day affairs on my laptop from my bivvy and I suppose my fishing space doubles up as my office from which to work, fish and play. It was while I was ordering some bait and speaking to a few people about different things relating to what I am doing with my life right now, that it suddenly dawned on me how far I have come in 22 months, not only as an angler or a writer but as an advert for my sponsors. I am obviously very grateful for the help I get but also rather thankful I can still do things my own way and they just let me get on with my fishing. Anyway, I had spoken to Trakker about some equipment I am waiting to receive and about an imminent press release relating to me joining their team of consultants. I chatted with Tony Parker about my rods and how well they have been performing for me. I put in my order of bait to Dynamite for the first part of my Italian adventure. And I also spoke to Tom Dove at Korda with regards to some new hook links and a little about the fishing of course! I then answered a few comments on the blog and answered an email or two and finally I had a quick look at a clip of an interview that was conducted at the WCC, earlier this year at Madine, between myself and a young lad for a school project he was undertaking. It is all in a day’s work and I can honestly say I know I am very lucky and I do really love what is essentially now a full-time job for myself and the dogs.

We have come a long way; the dogs and I!

It makes me chuckle a little when I consider I took up carp fishing again in 2007 after a fifteen year break from the sport, because I remember the day I stepped into a Bristol tackle shop, Crazy Carp, and ordered some terminal bits and bobs to get me started again. I had already bought the bulk of my tackle off Ebay (rods, reels, bivvies etc..) and just needed the end tackle and I was then ready to go and do my first session’s carp fishing since 1992. I remember being amazed or blinded by the range of end tackle available and seem to remember that in 1992 the choice really was quite limited and the packaging was very dull!

When I finally got to fish again in Aug 2007, I got all the bits and bobs I had purchased out from a plastic bag and laid them all out before me. There was a bundle of Korda stuff and it all looked rather confusing if I remember correctly. I felt very green coming back to the sport after all these years and I don’t mind admitting that I had to look at several of the instruction leaflets that came with the variety of terminal items, just to work out what each of them was supposed to do! It took a while to get the three rods put together but eventually I got there and the rods were cast out.

My first Cassien morning!

I think when I arrived at Cassien in February of 2008 I still felt well out of my depths. I had caught one carp since returning and that was from Horseshoe lake one November’s morning at around 2am. I was doing a five night session and if I remember correctly the temperatures were very cold and not much had been coming out. I caught my fish on a single pop up, five foot off the bottom! Fishing at Cassien was so exciting. I knew I was clutching at straws but it was so enjoyable because I was fishing at Cassien. That was all that mattered really! I blanked for the first ten nights before moving swims, then things started to change. I caught a 30lb mirror on my second night in the new swim, and then a week later I was holding my second European carp; a 25kg mirror. Things had suddenly got brilliant and all of a sudden I had found the groove again after 16 years. It took a while, but I suddenly felt that I kind of knew what I was supposed to be doing again, and it wasn’t such a struggle after all. Fishing might be like riding a bike; once you have learnt it, it will always be there, but it certainly took a while for the old confidence to reappear and for the wheels to stop wobbling!

The wheels stopped wobbling when I caught this 25kg Cassien mirror.

Cassien was like going back to school. It was the best place to learn and there were plenty of helpful teachers around to lend a hand. Experienced anglers who had been fishing there for several years and young locals who knew the place like the back of their hand. Cassien has it all, the carp, the history, the legends, and that is why it is still so popular today and will be in another 25 year’s time no doubt…I hope it is anyway!

I have a very exciting destination coming up. I will be meeting up with some friends I made at Cassien (there it is again!) and it is of course Italy. I have already made a short trip to Italy and that was after Cassien last year in July. The temperatures were hot and the fishing was certainly affected by the soaring heat. I fished at Varese for about five days, and then moved onto Pusiano. Italy has so much to offer for carp anglers. Big public lakes, big public water carp and great people. Italy is one place I recommend to everyone and the welcome I received from the Italian carp anglers I met is still with me today. Their enthusiasm is boundless and their generosity stretches even further.

An Italian common weighing in at just over 50lbs.

My plans for Italy will remain under lock and key till I arrive. My first job will be to get myself an internet stick so I can write the blog. I then plan to fish at maybe three to six lakes. It all depends on the carp I guess. One of my priorities is to try and find a lake that produces carp in January. I do not want another repeat performance of this January; 38 blank nights! I may look to the River Po but only time will tell.

I am sure I won’t be alone in Italy as I am confident I will be joined by some of my new Italian friends at some point along the way. I also know that you the reader will be coming with me and it will be a pleasure to be writing the blog on Christmas day, when you are opening your presents, stuffing your faces, or listening to the Queens speech. I will leave it to you to decide which will be the best one to avoid, so you can read the blog on that particular day! The blog has been one of the things I have enjoyed doing immensely over the last ten months. It has made me many new friends and helpful contacts in the carp fishing world and it has really put a smile on my face, allowing myself to write you all an honest account of my day or nights activities whilst I fish. I have a feeling Italy will be an exciting time and I am hoping to gain a strong Italian audience while I am a guest in their wonderful country and I urge all of my current readers to also come and join me and the dogs in Italy through my blog.

Gigantica is where I am right now and the rods are out. The rods have been untouched since yesterday’s midday recast and that is the way I like it. I am confident the rigs and baits are all okay and the night is certainly much warmer this evening; ten degrees in fact and there is certainly an air of expectancy on the lake tonight. With seven anglers on the lake and 21 lines in the water I certainly hope someone is lucky number seven and catches a carp.

I was over the moon when I caught Staples!!

My PB in fact is from this very lake and weighs 29.3kg. I know for one that I was very happy to catch it and the fact it is from a commercial water does not matter one bit to me. In fact over the last few months I have grown considerably and learnt an important lesson and that is about the difference between commercial and pubic waters. There really isn’t a difference. They both are waters that hold carp. The fact one water might be huge and one might be a puddle is the only difference in my eyes and okay, the commercial water may get stocked more frequently. The carp fishing world does seem to have gone a little mad recently with the whole argument about whether fish count from certain waters. Why? Does it really matter. Ask the captor of a carp caught from a commercial water whether he or she thinks it counts and I bet the answer will be yes, because it gave them enjoyment and pleasure when they played that fish and then held it for the photos.

I think some people have forgotten why people go fishing and that is for the sheer pleasure of it. I for one have been guilty of massaging my own ego in the past by saying I have been fishing at a ‘very difficult lake’ and catching a fish from there is a ‘prize of the highest merit’. In my eyes maybe it was, but to many other folk the capture of that particular fish would be no different, than if it was caught from a small day ticket lake that charged five quid a day to fish at. The only reason the anglers concerned are doing this is to put the carp onto pedestals and the anglers onto thrones and I for one certainly won’t make any judgements in the future about the credibility of carp captures, as it just is not necessary. They are just fish at the end of the day and lets not forget that, wherever they are caught from. A fish is a fish!

To end this post: Some anglers only have one week a year to fish so why shouldn’t they go to a lake where they are in with a good chance of catching a few carp. Some anglers may have all the time in the world but still choose to fish at a commercial venue because the fishing is more enjoyable. One vital thing I realised recently was at the river and that was this! I certainly wasn’t enjoying my session at the river the other week towards the end although I tried to put on a brave face! I am however very glad I pulled off in the end. In short, I may not be catching carp at Gigantica at the moment, but I am certainly enjoying myself more! Whats more important in life…..

That is all for tonight.

Back tomorrow!!

Jake and the dogs.

Tags: bivvy, carp, cassien, Dynamite Baits, fish, Gigantica, jake langley-hobbs, Korda, Madine, trakker, WCC

This entry was posted on November 12, 2009 at 10:56 pm 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.