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
