Good Evening

The rods are all out, I am all set up, the dinner is going on shortly – everything is cushti! The day has gone very smoothly and we left the other lake just after first light. A journey of approximately 70km was covered, and after a quick detour, (so one of the group could pick his petrol engine up from his house), we arrived at the lake just after 11am. I am fishing with two friends incidentally and they are situated about 100 yards further up the bank to my right. The lake we are now fishing at is a huge lake and it has a very good head of carp to just under 30kg, according to known results. It is very popular with anglers from all over Europe and although I am not going to give away the location, it is a super looking water.

I was extremely glad I had loaded all of my equipment back into my van and boat yesterday afternoon/evening and slept in the van, as heavy rain fell last night and Danilo and Christian both had a job on their hands this morning, packing up in the drizzly dark. I did not envy them at all! Christian has fished this lake several times before and caught several nice carp to over 20kg. It was him who suggested we move to this lake after the problems we encountered yesterday. Italy has many rules and regulations and organisations and every region can be very different. It is not as straightforward as just picking a lake and arriving to fish if you are a visitor, as some public lakes can have many obstacles and funny rules to adhere to. I have already decided that France is a more straightforward country in which to fish, but I have to say I still prefer Italy as a whole! It is a case of ‘if you know some Italians it makes life much easier’!

With the aid of Christian’s big, handmade, steel boat, and 5hp engine, we were soon all loaded and ready to go to our swims. Christain and Danilo went to their swim first and I prepared all of my material by the loading area and waited for him to return along with my inflatable. It was only a short distance to travel, but with the dogs and extra equipment that I carry, to write the blog etc… it made life very simple, and after yesterday – just what we all needed. By 2pm I had my two Trakker shelters erected and everything put away – just how I like it, and this left about 4 hours to get my rods set up and in position. There is a river bed about 150 metres from the bank and I am focussing my attentions on this feature for the first night. The lake was quite choppy so it meant critical boat work,  like studying the lakebed intently with the echo sounder, could not be carried out. I will be up early and hopefully able to take advantage of a flat calm surface, and then I can have a really good search around my swim water for any features that look desirable.

There has been a lot of rain in this part of Italy very recently and therefore the lake’s water is a lovely colour. I am using Dynamite Bait’s Mussel and Oyster boilies and I am using pop ups, all tipped with some colour. Tonight is more of a first night experiment and I will be able to give you more information in tomorrow’s post.

That’s all for tonight.

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.