Posts Tagged ‘Colossus’

« Older Entries

Two More Carp But It’s A Bit Slow…

November 6, 2011

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed your firework parties last night and everything went well and safely. They don’t seem to have such a celebration in Spain, but then they have enough fiesta’s to keep them happy! I have caught two more carp. The first was caught whilst I was cooking my dinner at 10pm last night and was a mid-double common. I unhooked it in the water’s edge, released him quickly, and returned to my dinner of chicken and potatoes! I actually cooked double portions of everything, as I can then use what I don’t eat the following day saving on gas and preparation. Speaking of gas, my gas fridge is so effective, my frozen chicken breasts I bought with me, are still in fact frozen. My model is made by Dometic and cost about 140 Euros.

The sun shining on Charley - my lucky mascot!

The second carp arrived at 5am this morning. This time an 18lb common was responsible. I recast the rod, topped it up with more spombs of boilies, and returned to my sleeping bag. Interestingly enough, both of these carp came from the rod that was yet to produce, and the second one was obviously after my clipped-up recast in the dark, showing the effectiveness of a night-time marker and a line-clip on your reel.

All of my fish have come at different times so there is no pattern emerging as of yet. I am only into my fourth day and I have another seven nights to go. That number could increase, depending on whether I think another night might benefit me, and if my food rations last that long!

I have no carp pictures to show you today so instead I have taken lots of shots of my bivvy set-up. Basically to show you all how I am functioning during this session. The colossus is a great bivvy, huge in size and space, and the large porch really is a great benefit to have. The inner door can be left open during rain, as it is only the porch entrance that gets wet and that’s no big deal. I am super prepared for this session and the longer it goes on, the more I am enjoying it. I know I am waiting for a big fish to give me the chance I came for. The fish I have caught to date, all five of them, are welcome, but not what I am here for. It wouldn’t surprise me if a mirror carp shows up soon, so watch this space.

I haven’t touched my rods at all and I am leaving them all till about 4pm when they will all be reeled in, checked, and recast, followed up by baiting up effectively. I may slightly decrease the amount of bait I am putting in tonight to see if it actually increases my catch rate.

Did you find Flash yesterday!

I have another ‘spot the dog’ photo today, and slightly harder than yesterday’s one. Did you find Flash in yesterday’s picture? If you scroll over the picture and double-click, it will enlarge to make him easier to find!

Sunday's Spot The Dog Puzzle!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope you like my selection of photos I have taken for you to look at.

Sunday is big-breakfast day!

My huge home for the session - Trakker's Colossus bivvy.

It's bigger than my SUV!

The cooking side of the porch.

The tackle/bait side of the porch.

Plenty of spare clothes and my personal item bivvy table.

Flash sleeps on an old Trakker Armo unhooking mat.

Or anywhere for that matter!

Original Peachskin sleeping bag cover protecting my Peachskin bag underneath. Both old, both well used, but very much loved for warmth and comfort.

The all important chair!

The back of my truck is great for storing wet items, rubbish etc...

This ariel means I can get 3G for my internet, without it I only get Edge which is a slower connection.

A white USB cable for the internet and a 240v power cable for my laptop. Both are fed into my bivvy.

A 12v-240v invertor working off a leisure battery to power/charge my laptop.

Fingers crossed for a couple of lovely carp shots in tomorrow’s posts.

Cheers

Jake & Flash.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Sierra Brava | 4 Comments »

Perfect Weather!!!

November 4, 2011

Good Afternoon.

Now there may well be many people in Spain cursing the fact that the sunny weather seems to have finished, and the cold, damp season has arrived – not me! It is now great fishing weather and although it might not be comfortable conditions, you would be a fool not to get out there! Many people in my village looked at me with shocked eyes! “You are going fishing now!”

Great fishing conditions!

My plan is to do a ten-day session. This will actually be my longest session since July of last year, when I undertook my last session at Pusiano in Italy. I have been meaning to do a long one for sometime, but it is all down to planning and timing. I have the full moon phase occurring whilst I am here, plus the weather is spot on, so my timing could be perfect.

I have had two carp so far. Both commons and both weighed 20.5lbs. I had them both in the daylight hours of this morning; one at 7.30am and the other at 10.30am. A great start to the day you might say.

7.30am - 20.5lbs.

10.30am - 20.5lbs.

I didn’t have a great start to my session yesterday, as after setting up my home, I then got hit by extremely strong winds. They hit my Colossus head on and ripped the overwrap part out of the ground completely. Flash was inside and looked slightly concerned as I held onto the inner shell with all my strength until the freak winds had passed. It looked like a bomb had gone off, and equipment was all over the place. I keep pva in a watertight bucket which got blown across one of the bays, so after securing the bivvy back into the ground, Flash and I took a stroll to recover it!

Ripped off by the force of the winds.

The rods, once picked up off the ground, were inspected and then rigged up. I soon had them in their respective positions, by which time I was starving! I have bought an enormous amount of food with me for my ten-day trip as it is not possible to leave for supplies, nor do I want to. I am not a lover of tinned/packet food, so I have bought my gas fridge with me to keep my fresh food – fresh! What you take with you on a long session is up to you of course; however, in wet conditions it is essential that you eat well in order to keep energy levels high. I am also back into the gym these days(!) so my food requirement at the moment is more protein than anything else, so chicken, tuna, and eggs will be eaten daily, along with rice, potatoes and bread for some complex carbohydrates for sustained energy. Fruit, vegetables, juice, and cereal bars provide my sugars, and as I am fishing, my treat each morning will be a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich!!!

A gas fridge is essential for a long session if you want to eat fresh food. And the laptop is always with me!

I am giving the carp a good diet too! Vital baits OR-O, and SB-X boilies are being fished on two rods, whilst my third rod is sporting tiger nut baits, along with maize. I prepared all of this in the days leading up to my session, so it is all fresh. In total I have about 60-70 kilos of boilies along with about 30 kilos of particle. A lot you might ask? Not really! The fish have not really been feeding much throughout the hot summer, and I now expect them to get their heads down with eagerness! Plus, there is a huge head of carp in Sierra Brava, so I am expecting to use a lot of bait, especially once they get going!

Unfortunately I am not in perfect health at the moment. I have a bad injury in my right arm from the gym! This means I am fairly restricted in my abilities as my right arm is not up to full strength. It is not until you go fishing that you suddenly realise how much you use your main arm for. I now can’t use a throwing stick, and my casting has to be done very carefully, especially with my spod rod. It is a muscular injury which can take weeks to recover properly, and they can be damaged again, very easily, in this healing period. I have packets of painkillers to help me through, but happily at Sierra Brava, the fish can be caught yards from the bank, so I have restricted all of my rods to a 50 yard range, and so far it seems to be working, along with the painkillers!

I will be back tomorrow with another post.

Cheers

Jake Langley-Hobbs

 

 

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Sierra Brava | 2 Comments »

Churnpool, Funny Hats, & Koi Carp!

August 9, 2010

Good Afternoon.

Last week saw me arrive at Churnpool in the Cotswolds for a three-day stint to combine a catalogue shoot with hopefully, a spot of fishing. Trakker had booked the whole fishery for the event. I arrived through the secure gates on Tuesday morning, to find that Mark Bryant already had his rods out (he wasn’t wasting anytime!) and, who was being kept company by Mark ‘Kodak’ Dean. I hadn’t met either of these good guys before, so it was pleasant to chit-chat whilst we waited for the others to turn up.

Churnpool itself is situated outside the village of Cerney Wick. It is a trout fishery by nature, but is also available for carp fishing at set periods of the year, and it can be booked in advance. All the details for this beautiful lake can be found at www.churnpool.co.uk

As I said in my last post, the lake holds some truly stunning specimens, which are partly made up of the original stock, of which there are about thirty left. This stock is further backed up by two fairly recent introductions of prime carp sourced from Simon Scott’s fishery. You can therefore imagine what these fish look like. The first crew of stockies are now approaching the upper double barrier, and the more recent posse are fast-growing singles. As for the originals – “wow” is all I can say. Here we have a collection of some of the finest looking carp in the Cotswolds. The pictures on the clubhouse wall literally jump out at you, and the lake’s two largest inhabitants are 30+ commons that any self-respecting angler would dearly love to catch.

Playing a carp at Churnpool.

I also mentioned I didn’t have any tackle with me as I wasn’t expecting to do any dangling whilst back in blighty. Cash Farnham kindly bought a spare pair of rods, reels, alarms, and buzz bars with him, and as Matt Quibble was set up next to me, his tackle box was raided and pillaged at every available opportunity. Bait was also missing from my list, so once again, I nabbed what I could!

Everything went smoothly with regards to the photo shoot. Rain did hamper the beginning, but by the time the camera had made it round to my pretty face, the photographer had his eye in, and the sun was even shining. The Colossus caused a stir sitting proudly in my swim, and we all agreed that it truly is a humongous and stylish shelter, which not only gives plenty of room, it also sports some unique and well-thought out features. The group shots were done in the huge porch area where a dozen people could easily sit!

Wednesday evening was spent very wisely. I took on the duty of head-chef and manned the gas-fired bbq. Once everyone was fed sufficiently it was time to get the rods out to see if I could make up for the lack of carp in the first twenty-four hours.

I didn’t have to wait long and a minute after casting out I got off the mark with one of the lakes rare treaures. A 17lb 4oz koi was the netted result, and this is one of three koi that reside in the lake. My capture is apparently the most elusive, so it was a lucky capture indeed.

A Churnpool koi!

My tactics were nothing more than a scaled down version of what I use abroad. A 360 rig combining a seven-inch stiff fluro-carbon hooklink with a size six barbless Kurv and a 15mm pop-up.

The following morning I added one of the young stockies to my tally, and a beautiful linear of five or six pounds was gently cradled in my hand, before I slipped it back into the edge. These stockies are incredibly special and four or five of them were caught during the session. This lake has a very positive future with these fantastic looking carp lurking in its depths.

I now have a few days out on the road. I am off ‘up north’ to see some sponsors and a few contacts, and in no time I will be back in France.

Till then.

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Vacation Blogs | 6 Comments »

« Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 897 other followers