I thought it was a little unfair to finish the blog of my long Christmas and January session without a final briefing. I am now sat on a settee, in a flat, not too far from the lake, and it is here I will rest for a few days before heading off to the Carp Italy show. My new friend Marco has very kindly let me and the dogs stay in his spare flat (!) and it is a very kind and much appreciated gesture. I met Marco at Cassien last year when he was fishing with my mate Danilo. Such is the nature and generosity of most carp anglers, through the simple pleasure of fishing we have struck up a good friendship of which I am sure will last for years to come. I said this before in the past about my friend at Cassien, Dick, who would often arrive first thing on a cold spring morning to take pictures of a carp I had caught that morning. I think carp anglers enjoy the fishing even if they aren’t actually participating themselves, and sometimes just being sat by a lake in the presence of another carp angler, can be just as good as the fishing itself.

Everything has a place in my life!

Three bivvies became two...

The packing up went smoothly. I did it in various stages which made it much more manageable. It actually started snowing on Friday evening and although it wasn’t heavy, there was a small layer on the ground and on my bivvies come Saturday morning. Later that day the wind really picked up and by the evening there was a real chop on the lake pushing into the bay area I was fishing in and around. The conditions looked good and apart from the fact it was still very cold, my optimism was raised that night.

Throughout the night all my rods beeped at one stage or another, however,  it was more due to the build up of weed on the braid and eventually the added weight slowly shifted the leads in the strong swell. I have mentioned the advantages of using mono when the lake is rough as it acts as a spring and stops this happening, but then you can’t suddenly change spools once the sudden change in weather appears!

I got busy on Sunday and put everything into their respective bags. I put all of these packed bags into my food storage bivvy and then packed away my large two-man bivvy that I use for sleeping in. The overwraps were then taken off both my other bivvies, which just left two simple bivvies to take down the following morning. One of the slow aspects of packing up can sometimes be the lugging of bags and equipment down to your boat or boats in my case. The journey was only forty yards but it still took about an hour! I then took the bivvies down and cleared up the swim area. Part of the lake had frozen over during the night and typically the night I chose to sleep in a small bivvy without an overwrap, it chose to be one of the coldest nights of the session. Fortunately I had some gas left in  my bottle and my bivvy heater saved the day. Without an overwrap the heat does not stay in the shelter long, but it still made a difference.

I have told Charley I am giving up but she keeps hiding my cigarettes!

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My friend had kindly agreed to come and pick up the dogs before I set sail with my heavily loaded boats? If that sounds confusing I will explain. It is possible to park your vehicle about 400 yards behind the swim I was occupying, but it is not advisable as the area is a bit dodgy and your vehicle would be unsafe. Four hundred yards is a long way to walk with two tonnes of equipment, so it is easier to boat a kilometre across the lake to an area where you can park your vehicle for unloading/loading. I did not have enough room for all of my equipment plus two dogs, so it made sense for Marco to put the dogs in the van first, and then drive round to the loading area so I could meet him with my two boats. It is not possible to park right next to the water so the boats have to be unloaded and the equipment has to be carried fifty yards to the vehicle – again this took an hour! It always amazes me how long things take. You have an idea in your head how long things will take and I now always add two hours onto this estimate. By three pm I was nearly ready to leave the lake; I had started at 8.30am. My final important job involved boating back to my swim to pick up two large bin bags of rubbish and four big leisure batteries. As I am going to my next lake with my inflatable boat for a recce after Carp Italy, I decided not to deflate this craft. I called my friend who popped down to meet me and he gave me the essential lift with my inflatable to put it on top of my other boat on my trailer. The batteries were put in the back of his landrover for recharging and that was that. Goodbye lake one!

My final evening...what a view!

Something special!

It was typical that on my final evening at the lake (Sunday evening) that the sun shone brightly and it was a magnificent sight. The mountains opposite me reflected the sun and it truly was a sight to behold. I felt very insignificant with this unbelievable spectacle in front of me and I felt extremely privileged. My final night in front of my fire was a night mixed with emotions. I had plenty of wood left to burn so it was a furnace more than a fire, and the two pieces of thick cut on the bone beef, that I had saved, tasted magnificent after I char-grilled them. My two salivating dogs both got a piece for their good behaviour and for guarding the swim so well. By the end of the session it was truly their territory, and although they aren’t aggressive, their bark is all they need; boy are they a good deterrent!!!

What would I have done without my fire?

Onwards and Upwards into the Night, My Dreams will continue with Big Carp to Fight!!

Last night I took my first electric hot shower for nearly six weeks. It felt like heaven and I am now not quite sure what felt better, catching my one carp, or taking that shower! I suppose both had equal feelings of happiness and I felt I worked hard for both rewards. I went to a local Italian bar yesterday evening and drank an apéritif before I sat down for dinner with his family. I think I ate one of the best pastas I have ever eaten last night – nothing complicated, just good food and a cross between cannelloni and lasagna. The Italians are really into their apéritif before dinner and Campari is very popular, as is Martini; both together make a very good apéritif, if not a killer drink, and as they say: When in Rome…

I had the pleasure of taking another shower this morning – I have to make the most of it! I then  took my dogs for a walk. Now you might think what is the big deal, but when I am fishing my dogs take care of themselves. They play together and they run around when they want. I have missed watching my dogs run and run free and I took great pleasure in admiring them both, as Charley would occasionally stop, roll on her back and kick her legs in the air, and Flash would have to stop and sniff at everything and occasionally would gallop past me, showing off as he does so well. I think a few days break will do me and the dogs the world of good. They are both flat out as I write this, and apart from some other writing I have little else to do till Friday morning when I leave for the big show.

Today I made a small breakthrough with my camera. I own a Canon EOS 20D and I bought it second-hand. I have never owned the Utility software, which you need to upload pictures straight from the camera onto your PC, because you only get this on a disc when you buy the camera new. It is not possible to download this software because of Canon’s software distribution policy. You can get updates from Canon’s website, but they won’t upload because you don’t have the original Utility software. On this website: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/install_canon_software.html I found a method to override this problem and it actually fools your PC into thinking you already have the utility software installed by copying and pasting some code into your computer’s registery. I would like to add that I am not a computer whizz kid and I managed to follow the simple instructions. Please do not blame me if anything goes wrong with your computer if you try it!  Just follow the instructions if you think you might find this useful. I have always used a card reader in the past but I really wanted to be able to just plug straight from my camera to my laptop and download that way, and now I can. I also downloaded a manual for my camera model so hopefully my pictures may improve slightly with a few new tricks.

Finally, I want to leave you with an Italian tradition and an Italian legend that I have recently been told about. The tradition is something that takes place on the 28th of January. It is traditional in Italy to eat rice and pork sausages on this particular day. One of the powers it is supposed to give you is stronger resistance to mosquito bites in the summer months. It may be too late now but it is always worth a go; my friend swears it works!

The second one is the legend of the Black Crow. This takes place over the last three days of January leading up to the beginning  of the new month. The crow used to be a white bird but it got too close to a chimney and became black from the smoke. This period is supposed to be the coldest part of the year and it may come as no surprise when I mention something incredible. The river that enters the lake I just had the pleasure of fishing at, has actually frozen over. It is the first time in twenty-five years – maybe Italian legends can come true and hopefully at my next Italian lake I may just catch one!

The next blog will be written next week after my recce to my next lake.

Catch you then.

Jake and the dogs.