Good Afternoon.

Today I have begun the slow task of cleaning up my equipment for the imminent finish on Monday. You may think I have ages left and what is the rush? If you could see the pace I am working at, then you would understand that I have started today as there is lots to organise, plenty of stuff to clean and put away, bags to pack, bivvies to break down etc… I don’t want to suddenly be faced with a mountain of work on Monday morning and this way it means the whole process is more manageable and more enjoyable; most importantly it means everything is ready to go for my next session and it means I don’t have to go through everything first. There is method to my madness!

I use a Coleman stove for the majority of my cooking. The fire has provided a great alternative for char grilling meat on countless evenings but the Coleman does the majority. I use normal unleaded petrol fuel and the problem with this is the black residue it leaves on everything, which in turn gets everywhere if it is not cleaned off prior to packing away. A strong green scourer and Jif is the best method and I found the cleaning process quite therapeutic as I watched my pots and pans turn from black to silver. My Trakker three piece cookware set cleans very quickly but my professional stainless cookware takes a bit more rubbing! I am actually looking forward to finishing my current session and as I cleaned my pots and pans, my mind was wandering away to my next venue and I was daydreaming about night-time battles with carp and basking in the Italian spring sunshine during the day, watching the lake come to life.

I had two visitors yesterday afternoon, one of which lives near my next lake of choice. I was warned that it will still be cold and will be hard work – oh well, I am quite used to challenging conditions and hard fishing so it will be nothing new. On the other hand it will soon be spring, the carp will soon get much more active, they will soon be searching for food, and even if it is slow to begin with, I will have ten or so weeks to be there when it happens. I mentioned the other day about carp anglers having different opinions on everything. One angler has told me to fish one part of the lake and yesterday I was told conflicting thoughts. I am going to have a look for myself after Carp Italy with my boat and echo sounder so I will base my opinion on my own sights and look at both areas and a few other options. I am very excited at the prospect of fishing a new lake as you can all probably imagine. The next venue is bigger than this one and can be quite deep in some areas but there are also lots of shallow bays and in the late spring these bays are covered in lilies and are practically unfishable. My plan is to try and set up in an area where the carp often arrive as the water begins to get warmer. Call it a surprise attack if you like – I will be ready and waiting with some bait on the lakebed and some rigs in place.

My zigs have not worked wonders and no takes have come from trying. My friend Chris Appleby commented yesterday on FB that he would rather try and catch a carp by scooping around with his landing net, than use zigs, and to be honest I have to agree with him. I have caught on a zig in the past but I am more of a bottom bait, pop up, floater styled angler and as much as I know that zigs are deadly and I need to adopt them more into fishing, I would rather use them when the water is warmer, the weather is warmer, I am wearing polaroids, and I can actually see carp cruising around under the surface. I think the term for that would be exciting zig fishing. I personally think the carp are sat on the bottom at the moment in a trance like state in hibernation mode. People talk about water columns and differing temperatures and yes these obviously exist particularly during the winter months, but I am not fishing a three acre pool that is eight feet deep. My lake is 1200 acres with depths up to 50ft. I do have a shallow bay to my right which with some sunshine would be an obvious place for carp to come to, but the sun has not really shone in January, certainly not with enough regularity and power to warm the waters by a few degrees. I caught my only carp from this bay at 2am in the morning on a night with minus temperatures!

Yesterday evening as it got dark I had all my rods back in position for their final few days and nights. I have put a double pop up on a 360 rig but have ensured the lead shot to pin it down, is about three inches from the ring swivel to try a pop up that is sitting higher in the water. I have placed this onto the sediment at the base of a hard plateau. The other rods were put in new areas, just incase I have missed anything in the last four weeks. As far as the fishing has gone it has obviously been tough going. The time of year, the cold weather, the water temperatures and lack of carp activity have been to blame and it is another slow January’s carp fishing that I can happily cross of my list. Next January I will be carping in Spain – I can’t wait! I have however enjoyed the whole experience at my first lake and I am very glad I had the opportunity to fish here. One carp is a sad result but as you all know that carp was caught after lots of hard work and through listening during the evenings sat by the fire.

As you can tell from my words this is probably the last blog I will write for this session unless of course I have some very exciting news to tell you. Tomorrow I will start organising all my bags into one bivvy and I will break another one down. My batteries need to go back to Marco to be recharged for my next session and I have to start thinking about Carp Italy. A possible kennel has been found for the dogs, my hotel room is booked and then it all begins again at my next lake.

Thanks for reading part one of my Italian Job.

Cheers

Jake and the dogs