Good Evening.

The weather today has been pretty bad by all accounts. Am I in England or Italy? If someone blindfolded me and drove me through the night to this venue, when they took the blindfold off, I would swear I was at an English lake set in the English countryside! I am not complaining though; despite the heavy rain it is a beautiful setting. My dogs do not like rain and they have been sleeping at the back of my bivvy all day, only leaving for their dinner and a quick toilet break. I can’t blame them really, although Flash did follow me to my climbing tree when the rain eased a little, so I could see if the fish were in the vicinity – he is such a daddy’s boy!

My brown shadow follows me everywhere!

I have caught a carp! Only a small one, but it is a step in the right direction. I woke this morning at 6am and could see that it was getting light; the rain was still tipping it down and it started last night at about 10pm. I felt pretty dreadful last night as I went to bed with a blocked up nose and a stuffy head. I heard what sounded like a rat outside, eating some leftover food on a plate. Normally I would get up and set a trap or try to shoot it, but last night I decided to let the creature have a free meal as I felt under the weather. Tonight he might not be so lucky!

As I lay in my sleeping bag this morning I knew the chance of stalking was out of the window – I would get truly soaked and the visibility would be appalling.  Another hour or so in bed seemed the wiser decision and I must have drifted off as I was suddenly woken by a couple of quick beeps from my left hand rod’s alarm. I peered from my bed and could see the rod tip yanking round towards the fish. This was certainly worth getting wet for, so I clambered into my boots and ran to the rod, which by now had just started to let rip. There was little resistance when I leaned into the fish and it started to come towards me. Nicholas popped his head out of his doorway and could see I was in, so he got into his waterproofs, grabbed my jacket from my chair in my bivvy, and dressed me while I held onto the rod – isn’t it nice to have good friends! The fish suddenly became stuck so I jumped into my boat and went out to meet it. The backlead travelled down the line and disappeared under the surface and in a matter of seconds I was over the fish or the snag? Suddenly the line sprang free and the line zipped quickly towards the carp. It had been pulling hard as I went out in the boat and I was unsure of its size but suddenly I knew he was a baby as he bombed around quickly, changing direction on a sixpence. A very pretty common popped up to the top and after one more spirited bout of strength, I slipped him into the waiting net. I can honestly say this is the smallest carp I have caught in the last two years, but what a good-looking common, almost wild, and for myself it is a new carp from a new water, so the size really does not matter.It shows these fish are catchable and also that they are now feeding, and as I have two more nights left I reckon I might get some more action before I leave.

Nailed!

Back on dry/wet land I fetched my Armo unhooking mat and then laid the carp down so I could inspect it properly. It looked like it had never been caught before as its mouth was in amazing condition. My bright 20mm pop up was almost as large as its gob and my size 4 Kurv was firmly embedded in the middle of its bottom lip. Nicholas took a quick photo in the rain and I slipped him back into his crystal clear home; he was gone in a flash! After observing the chub and tench yesterday mouthing the baits I had introduced from the tree, I think the introduction of more bait over my spots last night did the trick, as I am sure the nuisance species will have cleared me out completely the previous evening. I only put about ten boilies around each rod on the first night as I was unsure about the lakes inhabitants, but after seeing some of them at first hand yesterday, and watching how they were behaving, I felt it was worth putting in a little more on the second night to ensure there was some left for the carp to find.

A little corker!!

Eventually the rain eased for a few brief moments this afternoon so I was able to go out and redrop the rods into position. I have three rods all dropped onto small clear spots. I handlined them down from the boat and made sure the lead was hidden by moving the line slightly. I could see each pop up sitting nicely and I then dropped boilies from the boat, watching as they glided down to the bottom. Peering through the gin clear water I could not have been happier with my work and I don’t think I could present my hookbaits any better if I tried!

Nicholas left at 11am and headed back to Milan. He left his rods till the last-minute and although he failed to catch, he did manage to land an old Rapala lure on his final rod, which got caught up on his rig as he reeled in. I reminded him that he caught a 25.5kg common last Saturday; he left smiling!

I've caught a rapala lure on a white pop up!

One new change I have made to my blog at someone’s request today is to enable you all to look at my pictures in more detail from today’s post. If you scroll over a picture you can then click on it and it will enlarge. To go back to the blog hit the back button at the top of the tool bar. Alternatively, you can right-click the picture and choose to open and enlarge it in a new window, this will keep my blog page open in the existing tab.

I have also made a sudden change to my river Po plans, and the river Po will now have to wait till later in the year. Due to the heavy rain the water levels will no doubt be high and the Po is not somewhere you want to be fishing when the flow is increased. Whole trees can travel down the river along with other debris and the fishing can be a wash out – quite literally. I am now off to a lake about 350km from here and I will be joining my mate Danilo for two weeks fishing. The carp in this lake go to 32kg+ so there could be the chance of a whacker. Apparently it is extremely weedy, but as my friend Nicholas has fished it and has had some success, he has armed me with some friendly advice about how to approach it. I can’t wait!

It is now dark and the rain is still here. The dogs are still asleep and I need to make some food. One nice thing I am already noticing is the days are already getting longer. Long days and short nights – bring them on I say!

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.