Good Evening!

It has been another non-stop day and apart from coffee breaks, I have been out in the boat, on my feet, preparing bait, tying rigs, etc… The hard work has been done though, and now it is time to enjoy the fishing. I am now relaxing for the first time in many days and it feels great to know that all the effort in getting here has been worth it. The swim itself is a paradise for myself and the dogs. Access is only by boat, there are no footpaths, no noisy roads nearby, and although some people may find it lonely being stuck in a beautiful copse all on your own, I on the other hand am very happy. I will have some visitors over the course of the session, but I will have the chance to do some additional writing in a tranquil setting, in between hopefully catching some fine Italian carp.

After I had enjoyed a coffee and some breakfast I sorted out my inflatable boat. I installed the echo sounder and transponder and put all the other essentials in the boat. I was now ready to go and look for three areas to fish. I should point out now that I am fishing a lake that is very popular with rowers. About 200 yards in front of my swim there are lanes and lanes of buoys for the rowers, to use for training and competitions. This does restrict the distance you can fish, but I do not think it is a disadvantage. This lake is a fairly typical Italian lake in that the lakebed offers little in the way of features. Apart from sloping gently down to the middle of the lake and then sloping gently back up to the opposite margin, there is not much else to find. I am sure there are some plateaus here and there, but where I am fishing it seems pretty uniform. The margins of this lake look superb however. Imagine a lake lined with reeds – this is it! In the summer it is dense with lilies in certain areas and these are obviously good areas for the carp.

With the above taken into consideration I am focussing two rods to my left and right, along each margin so to speak. To my left I found a very good spot that has many tree stumps on the bottom in a depth of 2.5 – 3.5m. These will surely have food sources on and near to them and I am positive this is a good choice. The depth near to the reeds in the edge is about 1m. This depth extends slowly out for about ten metres reaching a depth of about 3m. At this point the lake bed seems to slope down to about 5m over a distance of about 20m. After this point the slope is almost unnoticeable but it does continue and where the buoys begin I have a depth of 7m.

My right hand rod has been placed on a firm patch where new weed growth is evident. This rod is in a depth of 2.5m and is about 10m from the edge. There is quite a difference in the levels here and it goes very shallow onto a sandy area. There is also a small stream that enters the lake in this spot. I can hear it trickling now as I write tonight’s post. I have my very own water feature!

The third rod, my middle rod, has been placed straight out in front. I have placed this rod at the bottom of the slope from 3 – 5m. I managed to find a very small hump about the size of a table. It probably rises a foot or so and it feels fairly firm. On the echo sounder it looks like there is possibly plant life on top of it? It looked quite an interesting spot, and only time will tell. This spot means I now have three rods covering three different depths which I think to begin with is a wise idea.

As I said in a post a few days ago I am using three different flavours of bait. The rods are spaced a very wide distance apart and this is another advantage as I am now covering a wide area with boilies. The swim incidentally is almost a large bay area off the main body of the lake. I will take lots of pictures tomorrow and show you all. I have not had time today because I have been so busy getting everything set up and in position.

I am now going to cook my dinner which tonight is fresh pasta and fresh pesto with shavings of Gran Padano. No wine as I am having an alcohol free session. During this session I am also going to try to kick my smoking habit, once and for all. I have already made a start as I have bought rolling tobacco instead of the normal cigarettes. This means I smoke far less already as I never seem to finish a rolly. I smoke half and throw the other half away. My challenge is to ween myself off the old nicotine before my 39th birthday on the 15th of April. I know I can do it!

Back tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs.

Tags: cigarettes, Gran Padano, jake langley-hobbs, pesto

This entry was posted on March 19, 2010 at 10:43 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.