Good Evening.

There have been no more carp caught since the gorgeous thirty pounder yesterday afternoon. I have a funny feeling I am experiencing a repeat performance of the weekend’s vanishing events, and after Monday night’s, and yesterday’s heavy rain, and moody weather, the fish probably exited the bay at some point yesterday. The sun has been shining with enthusiasm today and I am sure the carp will return. The fish clearly seem to be in spawning mode at the moment and I am sure they are being dictated by the delicate changes in water temperature.

From time to time I look at my stats on the website to see how my traffic is doing, and to see exactly where this traffic is coming from. I find this very interesting and occasionally I will click on the links and see what is at the other end – so to speak! I have noticed in the last two days a few visitors arriving from this Italian carp fishing forum www.passionecarpfishing.it and it seems I have upset a few people. I don’t normally pay any attention to forums but this one had to get a mention!

http://ilmercatinosenzaregole.forumup.it/viewtopic.php?t=15542&mforum=ilmercatinosenzaregole

I don’t speak Italian but I have a translator on my PC, and I kind of got the gist of the thread that had been posted about me; and I have to say it made me laugh – a lot! It was about the mouse photo I posted yesterday, and how cruel and unkind I was to do such a thing!!

I am now going to defend my actions. I don’t have to, but I will anyway, as I think I am more than justified in what I do and for the following reasons. Firstly…I am sorry, but mice and rats are vermin. Let’s get this point mentioned straight away! Someone mentioned on the forum that it is okay to kill them when they enter your house. Well I live on the bank most of the time and for very long periods, and when I am fishing my bivvies become my houses, and if mice enter, then they face my traps that I set. In my opinion it is exactly the same thing. I may be at one with nature and you must expect these things to happen, but my bivvies are my personal space and I don’t like my personal space being invaded. Also consider this for one minute whilst you’re reading this sat at your computer in your dwelling. Your lovely house and the manicured ground it stands on; what do you think lived on that sacred ground before it was bulldozed for your luxury accommodation? Mice I expect, and in their hundreds and thousands!

I am a professional angler and I guess you could call me a survival expert. I have very expensive equipment to look after and protect, and if mice start entering on a regular basis, then things slowly get destroyed and before you know it they end up living in bags and luggage. Last time I left Italy in 2008 and headed to Germany, I accidentally took a mouse with me. It was dead when I eventually found it, a month later inside a pocket compartment of a green rucksack! The stowaway got his comeuppance!

I bet half the whingers on the forum have never even undertaken a long carp fishing session in their lives. If you ever do, and you manage to get out from behind your PC’s, and stop cyber carp fishing, you will soon notice the little scurry of feet at night, and droppings and urine on your equipment in the morning, if you don’t prevent or eliminate them in some way. If that is how you want to live when you fish, then that is up to you quite frankly. Personally I would rather kill them if they come in my bivvies, or go near my cooking equipment. They are unhygienic and I don’t want myself or my two kids (Charley and Flash) to pick up any unwanted germs.

I would like to assume or at least hope that all of the moaners on the forum are actually fisherman! How do you fish by the way – with hooks of course. I mean come on! Get a grip will you! Fishing is hardly the most compassionate of sports is it. We trick fish into picking up a bait, we then drag them in, whilst they have a metal hook imbedded in their mouths…and you are whinging about me killing a few mice, because they keep trying to eat my dog’s food for example! Whilst I am on my trip I will continue to kill mice and rats wherever I go, and I take great pride in my job – I am the international vermin slayer. So far I have probably eradicated over 200 mice and about ten ‘small dog’ sized rats!! ! Rats spread diseases such as leptospirosis, and mice, quite frankly, aren’t much better. We aren’t talking about some fluffy pet shop hamster or gerbil which you buy for your child. Mice and rats are vermin and here is a dictionary description of that word:

1.noxious, objectionable, or disgusting animals collectively, esp. those of small size that appear commonly and are difficult to control, as flies, lice, bedbugs, cockroaches, mice, and rats.

The thing that really made me laugh the most, was how negative the whole thread was. There wasn’t one mention of the beautiful carp – you should all be ashamed of yourselves, and if that is the only way you can criticise me, it’s pathetic. Get a life or better still – GO FISHING!

My blog or website is a platform to tell my story, and to inform readers of what I have to go through and put up with, and of course the good bits – like when I catch carp or meet certain characters. Vermin is one of the pitfalls of long stay angling, and if a few more anglers now take mouse traps with them when they go, then that makes me very happy as I am doing my job well. I don’t have to publish certain pictures but then that would not be a realistic view of what I am doing. Life isn’t always a bed of roses and you deal with things, as and when they happen, and how you see fit. I use traps and that’s that – like it or lump it, and if you don’t like it – go and look at someones elses blog, there are plenty more to choose from. I am not in a popularity contest, my goal is to catch carp, I will continue my quest for another three years, and unfortunately that will mean more dead vermin.  Setting a trap in a house, is no different to setting a trap in a bivvy, so stop being such hypocrites.

Whenever I leave a lake, and in particular my swim at the end of my session, I always leave it clean and tidy, I often clear up other peoples rubbish before I begin, I even have my own plastic bin for christ’s sake, which works by not attracting mice to black bin bags left on the floor, and I do respect wildlife and nature. There is a stone building at the back of my swim which has been used as a dumping ground for rubbish. The rubbish has clearly been left by carp anglers, and judging by the Moretti beer case, Italian ones I might add. One thing I have observed when fishing in Italy is how the Romanians seem to get blamed for all the problems at lakes – rubbish, violence etc… I heard on the grapevine that a fight took place a few days ago between some Italian anglers and some Czech anglers over a swim at Pusiano. What’s all that about! It seems none of us are perfect after all!

My friend Pippo arrived today so I could nip to the local Tigros shop to get some supplies for the last few days. I fetched all my rods in before I went and left him in charge of the dogs. On returning I put my stuff away, we opened a couple of beers, as I am getting to the end of the session and I felt like I deserved one, and then I started getting the rods in position again. I had done two and was taking the third one out when  a boat appeared in the distance. It was the local Polenzia and the Guardia. It was an educational visit on all accounts and although I was rumbled for fishing too long (I was caught red-handed at my 550m spot, and they have those snazzy binoculars which read distances!), and for going out in my boat too early to place my rods before it was dusk; they were very pleasant about it and just gave me a fine! You don’t get a warning in Italy – just a fine. It’s no big deal, I can take it on the chin, and as I am coming to the end of my session it just gives me more material to write about. They even asked for my blog details so they could have a read later. Cheers guys – hope you like it!

That’s all for tonight.

Yours truly

Jake and the dogs!

Tags: bivvy, Guardia, jake langley-hobbs, leptospyrosis, Moretti, Pusiano, Tigros

This entry was posted on April 28, 2010 at 9:17 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.