Good Afternoon.

The weather today has been beautiful. The bad patch of snow and cold temperatures that arrived last week now seems to have vanished. I have spent my time wisely and have written three articles for three separate magazines meaning I can now go to the next lake with a clear head, for a couple of days at least!

It seems my ‘catching the common’ story has gone down well with a few of you. It is great to have memories and it reinforces what carp fishing is all about for most of us – it’s a passion. My passion for fishing finally caught up with me again in 2007, and it is now taking me on a wild and wonderful journey. My journey now returns to the lake I viewed after Carp Italy. It was frozen over so I had to go and fish some alternative waters. In a way the timing is probably for the best and fingers crossed I will get to the lake at a good time for carp fishing. One valuable lesson that I have learnt along the way is – fishing is all about timing, with a little bit of luck thrown in for good measure.

In preparation for my looming session I have had to make a few alterations to one of my pieces of equipment which is my oars for my inflatable boat. After two years of use they have given up the ghost; the aluminium tubing has snapped. I am now the proud owner of a pair of strong, zinc-bodied oars. They should see me through till the end! Speaking of oars, I have been doing a little rowing this afternoon, as I went with a friend to have a good look at the future reed-lined lake I plan to fish at. Future, meaning, the one I fish after the one I head to this week, which incidentally I plan to fish at for five/six weeks.

I have some bait being stored at the IndyLine office which I must pick up prior to my session. I plan to use the Chocolate Malt and Tiger Nut boilies of which I have about 100kg in 20 and 26mm sizes. I also have about 100kg of fishy boilies left, including Mussel and Oyster, Red Fish and Spicy Tuna. I guess it will be a case of trying different baits on different rods and seeing which works best. I actually found using the M & O and R F together worked well at the last lake, so I will probably continue this combo on one rod, fish the instant Spicy Tuna on rod number two, and use the Choccy Malt boilies on rod number three. You may think it’s strange to take different flavour baits, but 100kg of Choccy Malt won’t be enough for six weeks, but 200kg of mixed will be. When I fish the planned lake in may, I plan to start using the CarpTec range of boilies that Dynamite Baits have launched for the European market. Therefore I want to use up the remaining bait I have before the next delivery arrives. All I have to do is decide which flavour I choose and I will probably go with the Crab and Crayfish and the Mussel and Shellfish variety.

I have plenty left to arrange this week and I plan to arrive at the lake on Thursday. I can’t wait…believe me.

Till then.

Jake and the dogs.