Good Afternoon.

Many of you may have started to believe that I had given up fishing, or indeed, got lost in Spain; on the contrary. It simply gets ridiculously hot in Extremadura, and July and August are the hottest months of the year, with temperatures rising to 40 C. I endured two whole summers of hardcore angling in France and Italy, and after putting myself, and my dogs, through some very uncomfortable sessions, in soaring heat, I decided that I would not put myself through it all over again. If truth be told, I love the warm weather, but I would rather be sat by a swimming pool, or in the shade, or on a beach; and even though I have caught some big carp in hot weather, I really prefer to fish in Autumn, Winter, and the Spring.

It was for the above reasons that I took it upon myself to take a well-earned break for the summer. At the start of the year I was very busy setting up my guiding venture at Sierra Brava – a mammoth task in itself. Sadly, I have only had a handful of clients but they all had good results and over a 100 runs were shared between three separate bookings, resulting in over 70 carp landed, and four personal bests – which proves just how good the fishing is at Sierra Brava.

My yearly calendar will remain the same every year in Spain for clients wishing to book, and for my own personal fishing time. Sierra Brava is closed in April, but that month happens to coincide with my birthday, and Semana Santa (a Spanish fiesta celebrating Easter, for a whole week!), so the closure means I get a little time off to enjoy myself. I won’t take bookings either in July and August, for the reasons I mention above. ‘Vela’ is the name of another popular fiesta in Spain, and this occurs in August, which means I get another chance to let my hair down; when looking after clients on the bank is not a priority! You could say that the fiestas, weather, and my birthday are matched perfectly to my annual fishing calendar!

The fiestas in Spain are something of a tradition, dating back many years. The villages all throw their own fiestas, and they can last from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on the size of the village. They did have Bull Fighting in my village, but I don’t agree with this practice, so I didn’t attend! The community spirit in each village is quite amazing and the fiesta is for everyone, children and grandparents alike. The family unit in Spain does seem to be a very integral part of their lives, and I admire the value they put on the word ‘family’.

Now I have lived in Spain for almost a year, I have got used to their daily schedules. For example, due to the hot weather, the Spanish tend to get up very early for work, and will normally start at 6am or 7am. They finish earlier and go home for lunch, normally at 2 or 3pm.A siesta then follows, and then they appear from their homes for activities such as swimming in the municipal pool, before going home for their cena, or dinner as we call it, at 9-11pm. Then they often sit in the street, or go to bars at around midnight, and their day may finish at 2am, before going to bed, and getting up a few hours later for work. A strange day you may think, but it is all due to the very hot sun. The Spanish are much more intelligent when it comes to sun bathing. Basically they don’t do it, and certainly not like typical Brits abroad, who resemble pink lobsters after day one of their holiday! No – the Spanish sit in the shade because they understand how dangerous the sun can be for the skin.

It is now almost September and I can feel my fishing head beginning to twitch! The other day I went to Sierra Brava with my friend, and Flash, for a swim, and a small dose of sunshine. The water is swimming pool warm, and I even got Flash swimming – a rare feat in itself. The water levels are as they were last year when I arrived in September (down about 4m), and one of my missions over the next month, will be to get round the lake on my motorbike, and photograph all of the swims I take clients to, showing them roughly where the snags, trees, and other hazardous obstacles actually are, and need to take into consideration, when the water levels are high. My fishing is going to start very soon, I am preparing some tiger nuts and I will also be using Vital boilies that I had great success with last year. My break from fishing has done me the world of good to be honest. I didn’t burn myself out, instead I needed to settle into Spanish life, and make Spanish friends, and learn Spanish. I can now communicate to a certain level, and this means my quality of life in Spain can only blossom and grow. One of the things I have observed in Spain, especially In Extremadura, is you can not rely on one business for your income. I intend on setting up a small English school for the children in my village, as there is quite a demand for it. I just need to improve my Spanish a little bit more, and hopefully by Christmas, that will be up and running for a couple of days a week!

Finally, I did my first piece of 2011 official writing yesterday for TOKS. TOKS is an online carp fishing competition and it is free to enter. There are great prizes to win, and unlike a lot of the ‘big’ carp fishing competitions that take place, there really are no strings attached to TOKS. Have a look at the link, enter your details to receive your TOKS badge, and get out there, and take part. The competition does rely on honesty, as ‘you’ enter the true weight of each carp that you put forward. You can put four carp forward in each competition but, if any of the photographs of an entered carp look suspiciously underweight, then it is my job, along with eleven other ‘panel of expert’ anglers, to scrutinize and judge the pictures. We then decide if the carp’s weight is really true, and if it isn’t, then that particular carp is eliminated from the competition.

SIGN UP FOR TOKS NOW…..

I hope you have all caught some nice carp this year, and I will return soon, with some Sierra Brava captures to show you.

Cheers

Jake Langley-Hobbs & Flash