Good Evening.
The title sounds like I am on holiday! Well to be honest that is what it feels like at the moment and we are both having a good time fishing together. The competition is underway and twenty four hours have passed. There is a very friendly air to the event and many jokes are being fired between each other – friendly banter, competitor talk! Danilo speaks fairly good English and is teaching me a little Italian or that should read ‘poco Italiano!’ Danilo has in fact run out of boilies this evening and I have just given him some to keep him going for the night. Fortunately, he is returning to his home to pick up some supplies tomorrow, so my bait should see me through till the end!
The night went rather badly for both of us. I had an odd run/take, just after midnight and when I went out in the boat there was nothing there. I am used to the lead releasing on the take, but when the lead does not release when fishing at range, you are never quite sure whether a fish is on or not. You just have to check sometimes! I checked and to my dismay there was nothing on the end apart from my rig and lead. I dropped the rig back on the spot and returned to shore. Two hours later Danilo was in. Out in the boat we went and the hook pulled as soon as the fish came to the surface. It was back to the drawing board for both of us! Maybe competition nerves were playing a part?
Two hours later and Danilo’s rod was off again. This time no mistakes were made and a stumpy common was the result. The Italian was on the scoresheet. Around 8am I had my normal run from my hot spot. This spot is regular as clockwork and has produced well. The carp was welcome, if a little on the small side, but they all count and each kilo is priceless for the next seven days. I dropped the rod back on the spot and returned and weighed my first competition carp. The weighing is being done together to ensure no foul play takes place!
Danilo was next away and this time the carp was a little bigger. An 8kg common was recorded and this now put the Italian several kilos ahead. Early days it is though and there was a fine breakfast to cook and prepare. We are taking it in turns to cook and today for breakfast I prepared an English Breakfast Tortilla. It is based on the Spanish classic dish, but my version contains lardons of bacon, potatoes, onions, sausages, emmental cheese and eggs, with half slices of bread on one side. Providing you have a very good non-stick frying pan it is possible to cook whilst fishing but it has to be flipped so the other side can cook properly. The flipping is done with large plates as the whole tortilla is too big to flip. Anyone who watched the River Cottage series may have seen the episode where he cooks a tortilla for the Chideock Cider Circle, and he shows the delicate art of turning over the tortilla using plates and the frying pan! It tasted fantasic by the way and was given the thumbs up from the Italian!
The Tortilla after the flip..the bottom is now on the top!!
A quick look inside!
Today the weather has been very nice indeed. Danilo was sleeping as I cooked breakfast and it was a pleasure to sit and watch the sun trying to break through the morning haze. I have music on my laptop so I was accompanied by some tunes I have recently downloaded. A perfect morning indeed!
After we had eaten, my hot spot rod was off again. A very pretty yellow common was netted, and as we retuned Danilo’s rod was off again. A quick change around was called for and I grabbed a spare landing net. After a quick tussle another nice common was beaten and it was now three carp to the Italian and two to the Brit. The weights though were in the Italian’s favour!
The best carp of the day.
After some thinking, a little strategic change has been made to my rods. I have been fishing with pop ups since I arrived and although they have been working well, I keep catching rather small carp. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind, but now the competition has begun, I need to up the weights slightly. I have now switched to larger bottom baits using the 26mm Mussel and Oyster boilies. I have an inkling that the white pop ups I was complimenting my baits with, were possibly attracting the smaller carp before the bigger ones had a chance to take them. It is just a theory and we will see if the bigger baits make a difference tonight. I have also moved one rod. The very long range rod has been bought back in close and is now on the river bed. I now have three rods placed in a fairly close area and I can now start to apply my bait in an effective manner covering the whole area.
Danilo is now cooking tonight’s pasta dish. I have a glass of red wine on the table and I have a feeling there will be more carp caught in the next twenty four hours!
Just for the record – the official weights are: Danilo has 24kg with 3 carp and I have 9kg with 2 carp. Fortunately there is a long way to go and it is a marathon – not a sprint!!!
Cheers
Jake and the dogs.
