Good Evening. 

The day has passed by relatively quickly and once again I am sat by the fire. My wood pile is diminishing and I am already picking up scraps when I come across them and I now wish I had not sold my chainsaw that I once owned as it would come in useful. Someone I know locally has one and I think it will have to be borrowed. The law in Italy allows people to cut fallen trees for firewood and all around me, during the day, I can hear people busy hacking away at logs for their fires at home. 

Sat by my fire...waiting for a take!

I have now got into a routine for my days. I don’t get up that early as I like my sleep and although the days are very short at the moment and I should make the most of them, that extra hours kip in the morning in my nice warm sleeping bag always seems the most sensible option. This morning was bitterly cold anyway as the temperatures plummeted at about 10pm last night. I stayed up till about 12.30am sat by the fire hoping for some action and in the end I reluctantly retired to bed. 

I had a good clean up today and boiled some lake water to wash all my pots, pans, and cutlery. I tend to keep on top of everything anyway, but sometimes on very cold mornings it is a nice way to warm the hands. I also gave my three burner Coleman stove a good scrub. I have had this monster cooker since November 2008 and providing it is maintained and looked after it should last me the duration of my trip. I do have a Trakker gas stove but I find buying the canisters in Europe rather difficult and also too expensive. The Coleman is by far the cheapest option and a 5L gerry can of unleaded petrol will last me about three weeks. 

After my winge yesterday about my boilie situation, I shrink tubed some today. I prefer this to mesh, if I have to use one over the other, and I will see how I get on with it. On a readers recommendation I rebolied some boilies last night to see if it hardens them at all. I now have about 20 in an air dry sack and they will stay in there till they resemble bullets. 

I went out today in my boat and had a good donk about with a lead. I redropped my rods with new baits and the shrink tube protection, on areas I liked the feel of, and now they are staying put for the next 72 hours. Fishing with three rods is the rule in Italy, although I do see the odd person fishing with four. Am I using four? I am not saying, although there are only three rods on my pod….!! 

In a moment I am off to move my van and trailer. At the moment it is parked in the camping area which although secure, is costing me 3 Euros a day. My local friend has invited me to park my van at his home a kilometre from here. This means that someone is coming to watch my dogs and equipment whilst I go off and move my van. I then have to learn the walk back to my swim through some woods and along the river!! It means it will save me about 90 Euros a month, which on my budget is a great help. I love it when friends pull together! 

Incidentally, if any of you are wondering how my corned beef fritters tasted, they were actually very nice. I ate them with what I can only describe as small roast potatoes and I made up some mustard mayo as a dip! I was back on the pasta tonight, and it was a simple but large dish, consisting of spaghetti and red pesto with some parmesan cheese. I am now stuffed! 

I am ever hopeful of a carp and as always confident, that tonight could be the night I slip my landing net under the first carp of 2010. 

Hope you all had a good Monday! 

Cheers 

Jake and the dogs.

Tags: boilies, carp, coleman, jake langley-hobbs, trakker

This entry was posted on January 11, 2010 at 8:59 pm and is filed under The Italian Job!. 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.