Javier Guerra (Isla de la Juventud, 1969) es egresado de la Escuela Elemental de Arte de la Isla de la Juventud (1984) y de la Escuela Nacional de Arte (1988). Tiene en su haber más de quince exposiciones personales en Cuba, Estados Unidos y España. Ha participado en numerosas exposiciones colectivas en Cuba, Estados Unidos, España, México, Venezuela y otros países. En el año 2000 obtuvo el Primer Premio en el Salón de Arte Erótico que convoca la galería La Acacia. Intervino en obras de carácter social, ambientaciones, murales conmemorativos, diseños y escenografías. Ha sido jurado en diferentes eventos y salones nacionales. Obras suyas aparecen en diferentes publicaciones nacionales y extranjeras. Parte de su creación integra colecciones institucionales y privadas de Cuba y otros países.

Good Afternoon.

Fishing in style at Blue Water Lakes!!

This is all rather luxurious. I am sat writing this post at a big table in the lodge. The rods are out and my receiver box is beside me. The remote control for the Sky TV keeps trying to tempt me to turn it on, but I am going to save it for the evening. I have not missed TV at all since I left the UK. I do like a dvd every so often so you can get really lost in a film, but TV is something I don’t need in my life at the moment. It controls and dictates what you do each day, and so many people run around making sure they don’t miss their favourite programme; slaves to the screen! When I returned to the UK in July for some fishing business and a family visit, the same old programmes were still playing and I have been gone nearly two years. I have the best entertainment all around me, nature, the dogs and my only lifeline to reality; my laptop. That will do me for the next few years with any luck!

It has been a while since I have seen one of these!!

I fished at Blue Water for a couple of days last November. There was a party of six anglers fishing at Gigantica for a week and I was part of that group. Blue Water Lakes provided a couple of nights fishing before we could travel the short distance up the road and start our week’s fishing, which always commences on a Saturday. I caught a small mirror from Blue Water on the first night and nothing on the second night and I was fishing at the shallower end of the lake by the picnic table on the point. Almost a year later and I am here again and this time I have the lake to myself for a few days. I have the use of Blue Water till Thursday and then I shall do a couple of nights on the smaller of the two lakes. The reason for this move is due to some anglers turning up on Thursday and as I am a guest it is only fair that I give them the main lake back!

Very popular with lots of carp anglers from the UK and Holland.

So, I have four days and nights to try and catch a carp or three. I have already put the rods out and have placed them in a variety of depths from 8-13 feet. I have a range of hookbaits on offer, all with a little bit of colour. Two rigs are 360 rigs and the other two are blowback types. It is generally a night-time water but as the weather has turned in the last couple of days and we are now in for a mild week, this will hopefully encourage the carp to have a really good munch. I have ‘plenty’ of bait with me, and I am hoping I may need to use it all. I have started off with a small introduction around each rod and have put in whole and chopped boilies, which I crushed easily with my Krusha. Dynamite boilies are generally soft out of the bag and the Krusha makes light work of them. I am also fishing with the Korda PVA stocking, full of crushed baits.

Crushing with my Krusha

PVA stocking full of Mussel and Oyster attraction.

A selection of hookbaits on offer.

Nick Helleur (smash em’) did an article for Carpworld last year about Blue Water Lakes when he was testing some new bait from Dynamite Baits and this was with the Spicy Tuna & Sweet Chilli boilies. Guess what? That is what I am using alongside the Mussel & Oyster boilies from the fresh fish range. The lake has not been on top form recently but no lakes in the area have been fishing their heads off and this is probably down to the very cold Northerly winds that have been blowing the last couple of weeks. The two lads fishing at Blue Water last week managed about eight carp between them and the previous week about fifteen were caught. Gigantica did produce a carp this morning and it was to Dan the bailiff. He had fish over his spot very early this morning and at 7.30am a run came and a pretty 25lb linear was the end result. At least we saw one carp and it was definitely worth a photo.

At least a carp was caught in the end!

It will be rather strange sleeping in a lodge tonight. My bedchair is set up in the social area and it is only a ten yard dash to my rods. My swim is in front of the lodge! I have opted to drop two rods from the boat at approximately a 100 yard range (inflatable boat…not remote bait boat) and I have cast two rods from the bank.

Two rods dropped from the boat.

And two rods cast from the bank.

My remote controlled bait boat. I control it with my arms and oars!

Even the dogs have a spot of luxury tonight as they are sleeping on the lodge floor on their beds. They will thank me in a few days time when they are back in the bivvy!

"Is there underground heating Dad?"

Carp wise Blue Water Lakes holds a good head of fish to over 50lbs. The fish are apparently now full in weight and some of these fifties could be big upper fifties. There are also a few catfish to over 100lbs but I am hoping the colder temperatures will have put an end to their boilie feeding till the spring. I have come for the carp and fingers crossed, they are what I will get. I am now going to cook some lovely food and get myself comfortable. I don’t want a good night’s sleep, I want to be busy, and I am looking forward to my first night at Blue Water Lakes.

A Blue Water cat!!

And a lovely Blue Water carp!!

Back soon.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

Today has been a fairly standard day in the life of the big carp hunter. I say standard because I have now got used to running my day-to-day affairs on my laptop from my bivvy and I suppose my fishing space doubles up as my office from which to work, fish and play. It was while I was ordering some bait and speaking to a few people about different things relating to what I am doing with my life right now, that it suddenly dawned on me how far I have come in 22 months, not only as an angler or a writer but as an advert for my sponsors. I am obviously very grateful for the help I get but also rather thankful I can still do things my own way and they just let me get on with my fishing. Anyway, I had spoken to Trakker about some equipment I am waiting to receive and about an imminent press release relating to me joining their team of consultants. I chatted with Tony Parker about my rods and how well they have been performing for me. I put in my order of bait to Dynamite for the first part of my Italian adventure. And I also spoke to Tom Dove at Korda with regards to some new hook links and a little about the fishing of course! I then answered a few comments on the blog and answered an email or two and finally I had a quick look at a clip of an interview that was conducted at the WCC, earlier this year at Madine, between myself and a young lad for a school project he was undertaking. It is all in a day’s work and I can honestly say I know I am very lucky and I do really love what is essentially now a full-time job for myself and the dogs.

We have come a long way; the dogs and I!

It makes me chuckle a little when I consider I took up carp fishing again in 2007 after a fifteen year break from the sport, because I remember the day I stepped into a Bristol tackle shop, Crazy Carp, and ordered some terminal bits and bobs to get me started again. I had already bought the bulk of my tackle off Ebay (rods, reels, bivvies etc..) and just needed the end tackle and I was then ready to go and do my first session’s carp fishing since 1992. I remember being amazed or blinded by the range of end tackle available and seem to remember that in 1992 the choice really was quite limited and the packaging was very dull!

When I finally got to fish again in Aug 2007, I got all the bits and bobs I had purchased out from a plastic bag and laid them all out before me. There was a bundle of Korda stuff and it all looked rather confusing if I remember correctly. I felt very green coming back to the sport after all these years and I don’t mind admitting that I had to look at several of the instruction leaflets that came with the variety of terminal items, just to work out what each of them was supposed to do! It took a while to get the three rods put together but eventually I got there and the rods were cast out.

My first Cassien morning!

I think when I arrived at Cassien in February of 2008 I still felt well out of my depths. I had caught one carp since returning and that was from Horseshoe lake one November’s morning at around 2am. I was doing a five night session and if I remember correctly the temperatures were very cold and not much had been coming out. I caught my fish on a single pop up, five foot off the bottom! Fishing at Cassien was so exciting. I knew I was clutching at straws but it was so enjoyable because I was fishing at Cassien. That was all that mattered really! I blanked for the first ten nights before moving swims, then things started to change. I caught a 30lb mirror on my second night in the new swim, and then a week later I was holding my second European carp; a 25kg mirror. Things had suddenly got brilliant and all of a sudden I had found the groove again after 16 years. It took a while, but I suddenly felt that I kind of knew what I was supposed to be doing again, and it wasn’t such a struggle after all. Fishing might be like riding a bike; once you have learnt it, it will always be there, but it certainly took a while for the old confidence to reappear and for the wheels to stop wobbling!

The wheels stopped wobbling when I caught this 25kg Cassien mirror.

Cassien was like going back to school. It was the best place to learn and there were plenty of helpful teachers around to lend a hand. Experienced anglers who had been fishing there for several years and young locals who knew the place like the back of their hand. Cassien has it all, the carp, the history, the legends, and that is why it is still so popular today and will be in another 25 year’s time no doubt…I hope it is anyway!

I have a very exciting destination coming up. I will be meeting up with some friends I made at Cassien (there it is again!) and it is of course Italy. I have already made a short trip to Italy and that was after Cassien last year in July. The temperatures were hot and the fishing was certainly affected by the soaring heat. I fished at Varese for about five days, and then moved onto Pusiano. Italy has so much to offer for carp anglers. Big public lakes, big public water carp and great people. Italy is one place I recommend to everyone and the welcome I received from the Italian carp anglers I met is still with me today. Their enthusiasm is boundless and their generosity stretches even further.

An Italian common weighing in at just over 50lbs.

My plans for Italy will remain under lock and key till I arrive. My first job will be to get myself an internet stick so I can write the blog. I then plan to fish at maybe three to six lakes. It all depends on the carp I guess. One of my priorities is to try and find a lake that produces carp in January. I do not want another repeat performance of this January; 38 blank nights! I may look to the River Po but only time will tell.

I am sure I won’t be alone in Italy as I am confident I will be joined by some of my new Italian friends at some point along the way. I also know that you the reader will be coming with me and it will be a pleasure to be writing the blog on Christmas day, when you are opening your presents, stuffing your faces, or listening to the Queens speech. I will leave it to you to decide which will be the best one to avoid, so you can read the blog on that particular day! The blog has been one of the things I have enjoyed doing immensely over the last ten months. It has made me many new friends and helpful contacts in the carp fishing world and it has really put a smile on my face, allowing myself to write you all an honest account of my day or nights activities whilst I fish. I have a feeling Italy will be an exciting time and I am hoping to gain a strong Italian audience while I am a guest in their wonderful country and I urge all of my current readers to also come and join me and the dogs in Italy through my blog.

Gigantica is where I am right now and the rods are out. The rods have been untouched since yesterday’s midday recast and that is the way I like it. I am confident the rigs and baits are all okay and the night is certainly much warmer this evening; ten degrees in fact and there is certainly an air of expectancy on the lake tonight. With seven anglers on the lake and 21 lines in the water I certainly hope someone is lucky number seven and catches a carp.

I was over the moon when I caught Staples!!

My PB in fact is from this very lake and weighs 29.3kg. I know for one that I was very happy to catch it and the fact it is from a commercial water does not matter one bit to me. In fact over the last few months I have grown considerably and learnt an important lesson and that is about the difference between commercial and pubic waters. There really isn’t a difference. They both are waters that hold carp. The fact one water might be huge and one might be a puddle is the only difference in my eyes and okay, the commercial water may get stocked more frequently. The carp fishing world does seem to have gone a little mad recently with the whole argument about whether fish count from certain waters. Why? Does it really matter. Ask the captor of a carp caught from a commercial water whether he or she thinks it counts and I bet the answer will be yes, because it gave them enjoyment and pleasure when they played that fish and then held it for the photos.

I think some people have forgotten why people go fishing and that is for the sheer pleasure of it. I for one have been guilty of massaging my own ego in the past by saying I have been fishing at a ‘very difficult lake’ and catching a fish from there is a ‘prize of the highest merit’. In my eyes maybe it was, but to many other folk the capture of that particular fish would be no different, than if it was caught from a small day ticket lake that charged five quid a day to fish at. The only reason the anglers concerned are doing this is to put the carp onto pedestals and the anglers onto thrones and I for one certainly won’t make any judgements in the future about the credibility of carp captures, as it just is not necessary. They are just fish at the end of the day and lets not forget that, wherever they are caught from. A fish is a fish!

To end this post: Some anglers only have one week a year to fish so why shouldn’t they go to a lake where they are in with a good chance of catching a few carp. Some anglers may have all the time in the world but still choose to fish at a commercial venue because the fishing is more enjoyable. One vital thing I realised recently was at the river and that was this! I certainly wasn’t enjoying my session at the river the other week towards the end although I tried to put on a brave face! I am however very glad I pulled off in the end. In short, I may not be catching carp at Gigantica at the moment, but I am certainly enjoying myself more! Whats more important in life…..

That is all for tonight.

Back tomorrow!!

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

No carp to report from any angler on the lake…so far! The skies are very clear tonight, the cold winds have disappeared, but there is still a nip in the air. My bivvy heater is causing quite a stir this week and there have been a few enquiries as to where it can be purchased. The temperature is about 3 degrees outside and about 21 degrees in the bivvy. I have had to turn the regulator down as it was getting ridiculous and even the dogs were complaining about the excessive heat. Still at least it keeps condensation off the laptop!

It's time to make some....

Porridge!!

If you get bored of food easily...add things to it to make it taste slightly different each day!

Breakfast is going to be my number one priority for the next four months and a good one at that. I am not talking about a massive cooked breakfast every morning either. The Scottish have always had it spot on with their menu for breakfast and I am talking porridge! Not the kind that is spent behind bars but the type made with oats and milk, and some folk including myself like a wee pinch of salt. It is my new thing this week and perfect for cold winter’s mornings. Oats contain starch which are complex carbohydrates which deliver energy, but slowly, as it takes your body longer to break them down, unlike simple carbs i.e sugars that give you a short burst of energy. I used to teach technology at secondary school and part of that entailed food and nutrition.  

These have had the attractor treatment.

The carp are also getting their daily diet of boilies.Not a massive amount but about 2 kilos each day spread over a fairly wide area. I am delivering these to the spot using my Korda Eazi-stick and I am doing this around lunchtime. I suspect this to be the best time for topping up the swim as you would expect the fish activity to be less in the early afternoon. There is less chance of disturbing a feeding carp for example with boilies landing on top of its head. I mentioned yesterday that I am using the Monster Tiger Nut boilies from Dynamite Baits. Well these are boilies that I actually prepared before I went off to the Orient, especially for my session at Gigantica that I will undertake in about eleven days time. I fortunately have some more to replace the ones I will use this week so I will prepare them before I go off to Blue Water Lakes for my week’s fishing there. To prepare them I put them into 5 litre tubs with some of the Tiger Nut attractor liquid and leave them to re hydrate the liquid. It is important that they get the occasional shake. Not only does this give them more appeal, but it also hardens them slightly making them better for the throwing stick. There is nothing more annoying than baits that break up during flight!

If you like gadgets...get one of these! As used by SWAT treams and the military!

I have a new toy to play with from one of my sponsors; Edgar Brothers Outdoor. It is one of the head torches I have been eagerly awaiting called the Saint Minimus. I have mentioned this before in passing and now I actually have it on my head as I write this post. It is a very good product. Virtually indestructible, easy to use, and it offers 100 lumen of power. The quality of the light is determined by the quality of the led used and Surefire only use the best leds. This is what makes their products the best in the world and far superior to any of their rivals. Check out the full details of the Saint Minimus head torch by clicking the picture below. The other head torch is called the Saint which has longer battery life due to the enlarged battery pack and an extra strap for your head. When I receive this product I will let you know. In the meantime I will be testing the Saint Minimus and seeing if I can break it at all!

Big shout out to Group 9 of the army!!

Speaking of military products the Army were fishing at Gigantica last week. Group 9 to be precise who have a few carp fishing get togethers each year, all over Europe. Marty was top rod last week with two carp and a fantastic common weighing over 50lbs. The carp are putting on the weight well at Gigantica as this was the very same common I caught in July weighing in at 43lbs. It was good to meet you all guys (and gal), and Wishy…Flash thanks you for allowing him to take up the whole of your bed on your last night at Gigantica!

Charley is always on the look out for a stray boilie!

I think there may just be enough time to squeeze in another dvd before it is time for bed. Tomorrow I have to start writing my next installment for International Carper. It seems the months really do fly by and it only seems like yesterday when I wrote this months piece about my enjoyable time at Madine. I wrote that story whilst fishing at the Orient and I now have to decide where to base next month’s story on? I guess it will have to be about my time at the Orient! Speaking of International Carper. If any of you don’t know, it is found at the back of Carpworld magazine and I do believe my ugly mug is on the front cover which is a perfect way to end tonights post.

Marvellous Madine indeed!

Back tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Morning.

I am writing this from my base back near Troyes as yesterday my time at the river had to be finished. My eye had worsened and for my own health reasons I felt it better to pull off and get myself sorted before things got worse. I have also lost about half a stone in weight and I just knew it was time to throw in the towel. I like a challenge but common sense had to prevail over stupidity. That two-week session I have just undertaken has got to be the toughest session I have done to date in my whole 21 month trip. I am not quite sure why really as I have done longer sessions and conditions have been tougher. I just think I got so absorbed in the whole river episode and focused on trying to catch that I forgot to do simple things like eating properly, I wasn’t sleeping well, and the increased workload contributing from the boats and the debris, ensured I was well and truly exhausted. I kept reading my motivational quotes but even those couldn’t drive me on anymore. I had already used my second wind and it was time to call it a day. My river dream will come another time.

Packing up my kit took four hours. The rats had been making a nuisance of themselves again, chewing some tasty items and actually stealing half of my Korda Krusha!! My main concern however, after all the rain, was whether I would actually get my van out. After emptying my boat of the excess water, I hauled it up the muddy bank, put it on my trailer, filled it with bait buckets, and connected it to my vehicle. Driving away in second gear I gingerly drove the half a kilometre through large muddy puddles and churned up tracks and thankfully I made it. I needed to find a chemist for some eye drops first, and that was my first priority. Fortunately my eye was in the early stages of an infection and the drops I was given would probably do the trick. They have starting working and the itchiness has subsided. “Keep taking them for a whole week,” the pharmacist told me. I certainly will!

The fisherman in me had me stopping to look at another stretch of the river further downstream. It was now getting dark, there was no chance of fishing till the morning and it would have meant a night sleeping across the van’s seats.  Another two weeks at this spot was a distinct possibility but I then told myself off for being ridiculous, pulled myself back into my van and drove back to Troyes.

I am really disappointed I had to end my river trip early but it now means I can get myself back to full health and carry on with my fishing routine. I have already had a ‘big’ full english breakfast and my weight will soon return! I now have to decide where to go to fish for a couple of weeks. I am having a good think and a lake sounds just the ticket. I have enough bait left in my supplies to last me another two weeks. I have another load coming from Dynamite Baits in three weeks, prior to me leaving to fish the public waters of Italy for six months. Using this remaining bait supply, sensibly, was my other going concern and chucking it into the river in the hope of catching a 25kg common no longer seemed worthwhile. I may be sponsored for my bait, but I don’t like to waste it and if I can put it to greater use in the next couple of weeks and catch a few carp elsewhere, then that makes much more sense to me.

I will be back in the next 24 hours.

Cheers for now.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

 ”Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” William James

I thought I would begin tonight’s post with a quote regarding effort, as it seems rather apt. I am really enjoying myself now and although last night was completely void of any species of fish; it meant I got a good nights sleep and today I was up early and raring to go (rather than looking at the rods in the morning and wondering what had or hadn’t happened).

Here comes a boat!!

After a quick blast on the laptop, checking emails, facebooking, and chatting to a couple of folk on the phone, it was down to business. The margins have been slightly overlooked since I arrived and now it is their turn to receive some attention. I have had carp on two particular rods so I am using the other two ‘to go a searching’! I did not really fish the margins the last time I fished here because it was not necessary; I caught thirty yards out on the first step down in depth at around 8-9ft. Margins should never be overlooked and I do think now the leaves are all dropping into the water’s edge, this could hold the key to finding some carp looking for extra food items on their usual patrol routes; maybe even a big one!! The other bonus with fishing the edges is the rods can stay put as the lines should not be too affected by the boats passing through. For this reason I am going to use 3 large tigers as hookbait with a fluro corn visual aid as I know they will still be on the hair in days to come, as opposed to my boilies which seem to be going missing from time to time from the nuisance species!! I am sticking with the boilies on my two other rods, particularly on the channel rod, as I have had two carp on this rod now. I have tried putting another rod onto this area but it made no difference to the numbers of carp caught.

An ideal bait for the margins of a river....surely!!

 I have picked two different depths to focus on upstream and downstream, these being six and nine feet. The margins differ greatly on this river and in some areas it is shallow and then drops away, and in others it is six-foot deep at the edge. I have trickled in a very small handful of tigers and am fishing with a small PVA tempter containing crushed tigers, crumbled boilie and some curry powder, just to get the carp’s taste buds salivating!!

Preparing another fine dish in my cooking bivvy!

 The weather has been great all day; rain and more rain. I am loving the weather to be frank and I am hoping that tonight I will get soaked through to the skin on several occasions, and when a nice carp is in the net you don’t seem to notice the rain. Two of my rods are still being cast and I am now using the boat to drop the other two in position. They are both upstream and it is fairly easy to come back downstream in the boat without too much bow in the line.

This is more like it...

One other slight change I have made is to my backlead system. I have noticed with the captive ones, the debris does seem to get caught on the cord of these. When the barges move through and the water and debris is pulled from the edges at an alarming force, the debris gets caught around the cord, which then results in your alarms beeping because of the movement on the line. For this reason I am now using the more traditional type of free backlead and a Korda one of course!

The Czech guys biggest carp at 14kg.

It is now time to sit back and wait. It has been another busy day at the office but it has certainly made the day fly by and as I started tonights blog with a quote, I should really finish with another one.

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Jim Ryan

 Catch you tomorrow.

 Jake and the dogs

Good Morning Carpers!!

I hope you all had a good Friday night out, or if you are/were fishing you had an enjoyable session. I think it is safe to say that the majority of winter sessions in the UK can be fairly inactive on the carp front, but when it all comes right it makes all the waiting and the long dark cold nights worth it. A quick mention to my ‘new’ mate, Stuart Wilson: Good luck in your quest for that elusive common from your new water and see you in Italy!!

My backdrop for the next few days!

The blog was not written yesterday as it was duly time for a day off. I was also extremely tired after the last 48 hours of moving, setting up, etc.. Nothing actually happened on night one in the new swim. I wasn’t disappointed however, and in all honesty I didn’t expect to just move in and start hauling from the off. I had work to do. A couple of large boats passed through early evening and I decided I would have a recast at about 9pm. The rods would have been out for 4 hours and I wanted to check everything was okay. Suddenly the fog descended and all of a sudden my landscape markers had vanished. I sat twiddling my thumbs for an hour, but it was a real pea souper. I went off to bed and within an hour it had started to lift. I took my chance and reeled in the rods. To my utter surprise I only had a bait left on one rig out of four! The other three were completely missing and the hair stops were gone on two of the hairs. I have not encountered crayfish or vicious nuisance species here before, so this was rather baffling. I wondered if it could have been the force from the boats. Surely not! I put on the new rigs I had already tied up and recast them while I had the chance. Funnily enough within five minutes of casting them out the fog dropped once more. Bed was calling. In the morning when I wound in the rods….all the baits were on and still in tact, as per normal, as I would have expected. It was a rather freakish occurence with the missing baits?

Where did my other baits go!?

I had noticed during the first night in the new swim that I had some ‘other’ four-legged company. The type with the long wiry tail and the pointed nose. The species that can spread disease, but aside from that are pretty harmless. I am talking of course about Roland the rat! I remember there were a few here last year, and they seem to have multiplied. My eyesight is good, even in the dark, and I kept seeing dark shapes running around in all directions. I will kill them if I have to, but as long as we have our boundaries then I don’t mind them. These are: stay out of my bivvies and don’t destroy my equipment! Simple really! Yesterday I discovered that a hole had been chewed in my landing net. However on close inspection I do believe I was to blame for the way I had placed it on the ground. The rat must have got stuck in it and chewed himself out. I have now repaired it and it is leant upright against a bush. If another hole appears then the rat gets its, till then, we are at peace!

One repaired net!!

I charged up my echo sounder battery yesterday as it had run low in the other swim further downstream. I can do this by plugging leads off my vehicle straight onto the terminals of my echo battery and then turn on my van for twenty minutes. Bingo! One charged battery albeit a small one! I went for a quick look at where I had cast my rods the previous evening. They were all spot on to be honest and the river topography is as I remember it from last year. This river kind of steps down. It is fairly shallow for the first 3 metres, then drops to 8/9 feet deep. This shelf extends out for about 20 metres then it drops again to about 10/12 feet deep. This is the deeper channel that the boats use and is probably about 80 metres wide. I still find it hard to believe that the huge boats don’t ground themselves, and basically that is the river topography, in this stretch anyway!

Typical river debris.

I spent the day waiting for the night! This is all that seems to happen on this river. All the action comes from 7pm through till the morning. Morning being no later than 7am. The days are spent waiting. In my case the days are spent writing, sleeping, eating, playing with the dogs, and tying rigs and baiting up. I will keep my rods out because you never know and it would be great to catch one in the day, but I can not see it happening. I have spoken to several people who fish this stretch and they all say the same thing. Nights only.

I love the long nights...more sleep!!

I got the rods rebaited and back out last night just after 5pm. It is dark now by about 5.30. I could tell the night was going to be cold. Clear skies and you can see your breath! I sat up for a couple of hours and ate some food. I even watched the rat taking some pellet off the wooden step I have placed near my boat. To gently illuminate the area, I put a small tea tree candle inside a clear plastic bottle neck funnel (a large 5L bottle cut in half with the cap taken off) so the flame does not blow out and gives off some light. This does two things. I can safely get into the boat at night and the rat gets used to the light whilst eating. If we fall out again he will be easier to shoot!

I decided to call it a night early. I was in bed by 8pm and heard a big boat pass through at ten. This one must have been moving as three of the rods beeped a few times. I was comfortable, so I left the rods and returned to the dream I was having…”Now where was I with that bra strap!” At around 4am I had a bleep. The orange light on my ATT receiver lit up. My third rod from the left! It was suddenly running so I got my headtorch on, put on the waders and made my way carefully to the rod. It had stopped now, but I could see the backlead lifting out of the water, so I knew the fish was still on. Was it possibly a very strong chub?

I got into the boat and wound my way out to the fish. Suddenly it pulled a little and my suspicions were confirmed; it was a carp! She proceeded to fight for her life and led me on a right merry old dance. I sat patiently and let her do her best to dart around under the surface. I had already seen she was a common, as she shot up to the surface, fairly early on, to give me a sneak preview, almost as if to say. “If you lose me, this is what you will have lost.”

After a few more minutes I got her into the net. I never had to give line once as I just let my Mamba XT do all the work. The rod was occasionally pulled under the surface, but there was never any doubt that she would escape. The hook was firmly in her bottom lip and the two 20mm boilie snowman set up had done the trick. I got her back to shore and weighed her first; twenty six pounds exactly and they are getting bigger! This fish had amazing scars and I suspect it has been in the clutches of a pike, zander or catfish at some point in its life. I sacked her till first light, and recast the rod. While I was doing that I got the kettle on and recast two of the other rods. I found last year when I sometimes recast the rods at about 3-5am, I often got takes soon after. I had one nice carp to photograph, but two would surely be better!

What could be better on a damp October morning.

A stunning scarred common from the river weighing 26lbs

On inspection inside the sack there were plenty of small crushed shells. Pea and zebra mussels by the looks of things and it does make me wonder about possibly changing to slightly smaller baits on a couple of rods. I know the tigers are working on this stretch as the Czech guys caught a few on them. I am thinking maybe, a tiger, a 15mm boilie and a piece of plastic fluro corn. They are ’small baits’ (to me!!) and used together I think they will fend off the bream, roach and chub. I also think the ever faithful three large tigers will have to come out of the bag. Although I caught my first carp on a large bait offering (a 26mm and a 15mm snowman), I suspect the carp might be scoffing more on the smaller stuff and ignoring the bigger baits. If anything it is good to experiment and can sometimes make all the difference in your catch rate.

What's in your sack?

Be back later with more news for TWP.

Saturday Evening Update.

I have made a few changes to the hookbait situation. As a comparison I am keeping two rods with the 20mm snowman arrangement, using a Dynamite Baits Fluro pop up for some colour and flavour attraction. The other two rods are now sporting the tiger, small boilie and coloured corn offering. These are being fished with a small PVA stick consisting of ground up mussel and oyster boilies, some garlic spray and some bread crumbs. I have no doubt this will attract the smaller species to my hookbait, but this increased activity may induce interest in a passing carp. I know this is already working as I have just returned a bream!

The other two rods with the snowman presentation are being fished with five bait stringers using Korda’s Spread Em’ tape. I have been introducing a small steady flow of freebies to my spots throughout the day, and if the circles on the surface from the small stuff are anything to go by, then I could be in for a busy night by all accounts.

I checked out the ten-day weather forecast for the region and it is looking superb. Cloudy skies, drizzle, rain, and mild temperatures and S/W winds. This is the weather I have been waiting for as it is the perfect weather conditions on the river, in my eyes.

It is dark already and my rat trap is set. I discovered today that he has been nibbling at my cooking oil bottle during the night, which means he is now on the wanted list. It makes the wait in the dark more fun as I am now hunting two species and not just one. Wish me luck and see you in the morning!!

Jake and the dogs.

Sunday Lunch.

It is a grey and overcast day on the river. I can hear trains rumbling by in the distance, the odd siren wailing, an occasional plane in the sky and the hum of the large factory several hundred yards away. Last night was Halloween and I had my own party; just myself and the dogs. No carp came to join us unfortunately, but I am going to blame the weather. It was forecast as cloudy, but I could only see clear skies for most of the evening. Then the eerie mist came down. The nearby church bells echoing in the thick fog and the constant leaves and twigs dropping on my bivvy, did little for my nerves!! I sent the dogs out once or twice to have a bark, to scare off the imaginary axe wielding mad man, but as I have just said; my mind was playing tricks on me and it was just the last remnants of autumn falling from the trees!

I am having a funny day today. I spoke to my mum on the phone earlier and I think that is partly to blame! I obviously miss my family and friends back home, but I think after 21 months it has finally dawned on me. What am I doing?! I only have three years left of this particular mission, so I am sure by then I will have worked it all out. I know exactly ‘what’ I am doing, but for the first time since I left, I have to ask myself that actual question? I suppose the answer could be, “Jake, you are doing something remarkable, or something very special.” At the moment, for today at least, I am unsure what I am trying to achieve. Is it to fish for five years? Is it to catch an astounding number of fifties by the end, or is to get into the record books for being stubborn and refusing to come home! I am still loving the adventure and today is just one of those ‘odd’ days I guess. It is certainly not to do with the lack of carp action as I have had hard stints before. However, I do think that possibly the scaly creatures may have got under my skin a little at the river, and I think it is time to relax more, ‘eat’ more food myself, rather than throwing everything I have at them, and when it happens, it will happen. I have been working very hard since I arrived and I think it has come to the point when I need to stop thinking about everything too much. I am at the river, the rods are out, sit back and enjoy it and stop going round and round in circles. The carp are sending you crazy and it is time to turn the tables around. I would just like to point out that I haven’t gone mad…..and I hope you understood all of that paragraph!

Bath time!!

Sunday for me is wash day! In the winter I don’t need to worry too much about showering every day, as obviously the body is not sweating too much. I tend to have a solar shower or a pan wash! Today was a pan wash and entails boiling some water and stripping off in the bivvy and giving yourself a good clean. I wound the rods in first! Clean clothes and clean skin is always good for moral, and as I have oodles of lovely Diem and 5.11 clothing in my vehicle, it is easy for me to have a quick change of clothes. One thing I am always looking for when I fish is time savers. Clever ways to save energy and in particular fuel and battery life. As an example when I boiled my pan of water to wash with, I also cooked some eggs (in their shells!) in the same pan. Two of these were for breakfast and the other three will keep for some sandwiches either later today or tomorrow. Two or three jobs done in one go!

Three bream, although I am sure it was down to the PVA stick.

I am going to leave the rods out of the water till later today. An afternoon nap is now the order of each day. The rods are all going back to the simple boilies with stringers; no frills attached. If the carp are here then I know that will be enough to catch them!

And the carp do love these.

Possibly back later(?), although more likely back tomorrow(!).

Cheers for now.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Afternoon.

I decided to write the blog earlier than normal today, so it leaves me more time later to concentrate on fishing. I was very busy last night and was up till about 3am. Several boats passed through during the evening, and I recasted the rods each time and put out the customary bit of bait. The method is certainly working for the bream, as I caught three in the hours of darkness. I don’t mind a bit of bream action as I know the carp can not be far away, so maybe, just maybe, I am stepping closer to what has become a rather elusive river carp!

Charley sporting her body warmer!!

The Czech guys further upstream have had no action for the past two nights, but so far have had about twenty carp to 13kg. They are giving it two, maybe three, more nights, and then I will be upping sticks and moving into the swim. They are happy with their catch, but are wondering where the bigger fish are? They have a few more nights yet, so maybe a couple will turn up on cue.

I met these guys at Lac de Charmes last year.

As you can see from the pictures I have my new compact flash card which I bought this morning. At the modest price of 26 Euros it afforded me the luxury of a 4GB card which will hold loads of pictures. I download mine daily anyway, but it is always nice to know you have the capacity to store more on the card if you are without your laptop.

A good buy and a bargain too!

I have been playing around with some colours of baits, like you do when you are struggling, and it is these experiments that have got me the fish so far, albeit they are bream and chub! Using the Dynamite Baits Fluro pop up range, I have been using slithers and halves to add some colour. I had good success with white last year, but things do change. Tonight I think I will increase the size of the hookbaits, but will still add a little colour to try to induce a take from the right species.

The bream liked this one...

...and this one!!

I have been using a combination of stringers and Korda’s PVA stocking to supplement my hookbaits attraction. I am adding chopped boilies to the bags and two or three boilies to the stringers. I am keeping the freebies scattered loosely with my throwing stick and I think having a wide spread of bait is better than having a concentrated amount in one area on the river. One other thing I will do tonight is to stick a rod back on the first area I baited up with the pellet, corn and tigers; just in case there have been any late night visitors back to that particular spot during the last couple of nights. I suppose on any water when you can fish with three or four rods and the action is slow; it is worth considering using one rod as a searching rod, trying to pick up a fish from a new spot each night until you find a successful area.

I prefer the chicken variety but these are great nuggets too!

Due to the amount of debris on the river I am using my faithful PVA nuggets on the hook when I cast out. I need to be confident that my hook is debris free when it is lying or sitting on the lakebed and not covered by a twig or a big leaf. I was getting rather low on my stocks and am waiting for some to be sent out to me, so in the meantime I popped into Mondial Peche. They did not have any as they don’t seem to have the market for them in France. Fortunately the guy in the shop was off on his lunch break and said he had a bag at home. Hey presto! One hour later and he was back with his stash and I am now sorted for the rest of my trip. Speaking of nuggets, I better get my rods ready to go, and prepare myself for the night ahead.

Be back tomorrow.

Cheers

Jake and the dogs.

Good Morning.

After another night has passed me by without a carp, I have decided to try a new approach. I am going to put this into place over the next few hours and it will involve using the turbulence created by the boats as they pass through my swim. The boat traffic is signficantly less at the weekend, which means I have a chance to try and perfect my method before the regular boat traffic returns on Monday.

What lies beneath?

There is a clear channel in this river that the boats use. It is slightly deeper than the rest of the river and when these huge barges pass through, they obviously must stir up the bottom. I am going to fish with two rods only from now on and will have the other two ready as spares. The plan will be to cast into the channel after a boat has passed through, with a stringer attached to my hookbait. I will also flick out a small handful of boilies with my Eazi-stik. If anything, if I can get the carp to feed competitively, then this will ensure the best chance of quick takes. I am not sure how strong the flow will be in this part of the river, so I might have to play around with my lead sizes a little, to get enough weight to keep everything in place.

If a boat passes through with my rods in position I have no doubt that two very fast runs will develop from the surge of the boat. They create a massive surge of water, that not only pushes the river ahead of them, it actually draws water away from the edges. The plan I will adopt is to reel in the two rods before the new boat arrives (as I can see/hear them in the distance), and then ‘recast’ the two spare rods, I have already made up, back into the channel immediately afterwards. The two other rods are then quickly re-made up and are ready and waiting to go for when the next boat pushes through. This will involve lots of work I guess and will keep me busy and vigilent and I do think it might even be possible to nail a fish in the daytime. The boats do come through at night too, so I will hopefully have very tired eyes in the morning. If the plan starts to work the fact I will only be fishing with two rods at a time will become plainly obvious, as dealing with four rods each time, would become rather tricky, and the time spent making them all back up would waste valuable time.

I am now going to set everything up, make some adjustments and find some good spots in the channel. I will clip up all the rods to the same distance as it then means I won’t get myself in a muddle as to where each rod is going when I need to recast. If anyone reading this has done something similar then please drop me a comment as I would like to know if you found the method successful. I have often had takes on rivers in the past when a boat has gone through, but it is not something I have considered doing on this stretch, as the last time I fished here, the takes all came in the margins away from the boat channel. One thing is for sure, the boats, however large they are, must be seen as an advantage, and carp being the scavengers they are, obviously benefit from them stirring up the riverbed. Everything is worth a shot, as they say, and it is now time to put the plan into operation.

Be back later with some additional pictures.

Click me to subscribe!

To finish this short post…Have you subscribed to my blog yet? I have now ‘finally’ got round to adding an RSS Subscribe button. This will automatically feed a few lines of my latest post to your PC notifying you that I have updated the blog. Simply click on the RSS Feed icon on the right hand side and then click on Subscribe to this feed.

Catch you later.

Jake and the dogs.

Welcome back!!

Since writing the earlier part of TWP I have been incredibly busy getting everything in place. The first thing I changed was my lead release system. I was using the popular inline release method involving pushing the end of the swivel inside the plastic insert inside an inline lead. The tail rubber which slides up and down your leader is then slid down over the stem. If a fish is hooked the lead ejects every time. The problem with this method is the lead can come off on the cast if it is a long chuck. My cast to the boat channel is a fair old chuck, especially with a 26mm boilie and a one or two bait stringer attached. I have now switched to the Korda Hybrid leadclip and I am using this with a traditional swivel type lead. The weight of the lead is about 5 ounces incidentally. I can now give the cast some welly without fear of my lead flying off!

Only two rods in action.

I have moved my rods so they are now sat side by side. With only two rods to work with there is less chance of the lines getting crossed should I hook a carp. It also means getting in and out of the boat to go and play a fish is slightly less complicated. I have made up a few spare rigs and they are ready to go, should I need a replacement. My stringers as I have already mentioned are now just a one or two bait size. My other two rods are leant against a tree with baits on the hair ready to go should I need them.

With two on standby!!

Spare rigs tied and ready.

I have had two beeps already whilst I write this short update. I have regularly introduced a very small amount of bait into the channel with my throwing stick and I am ensuring I do this after every boat passes through. I am focusing on one area and both rods are being fished to this part, spaced about twenty yards apart. Not only is it exciting trying something different, it is a new style I have adopted for myself, and one I hope works.

One or two of these tonight I reckon!

And my bivvy heater is working beautifully!

I will be back at some point over the weekend to report on my progress. Have a good Saturday night folks and have a drink on me!

Cheers for now!

Hello Again!!

There was a lack of boats during the night, but the first one passed through this morning shortly after 8am. I wound the rods in and then recast my ready to go spares. I flicked in approximately 50 boilies and got the kettle on. I recently purchased a new piece of equipment. I bought one for the Turtle at Gigantica too, and I have to say it is making life much easier with the throwing stick these days. It is an apron or boilie bumbag (whatever you want to call it), and it certainly helps and means you no longer have pockets full of boilies that you always seem to find a few days later. I top mine up with a couple of handfuls after each use so it is always ready to go.

The boilie bumbag!! Well worth the purchase!!

I first saw Mr Fairbrass using one and at first thought: “Thats rather posh!” But eventually I realised the benefits and finally got round to buying mine. It holds about 2 kilos of boilies and means there is less bending down and stopping, which means you can throw out baits with more rhythm.

Trust me, it tastes better than it looks!!

A hearty breakfast was certainly the order of the day and after my favourite concoction consisting of bacon lardons, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, eggs and cheese, all cooked together in a frying pan; it was back down to business. Hitting the actual boat channel is proving rather difficult with Mr Braid, so I decided to switch to Miss Mono on all my spools. I did the switch this afternoon and I am using a 10m 30lb shockleader to enable me to give it more stick on the cast.One important thing to ensure you do every cast is to place the shockleader knot at the base of your spool. This just makes the cast smoother as your leader won’t catch on the knot.

Leader knot at the base of the spool.

I would say it is an 80 yard chuck to the channel and with a stringer, a 26mm bait and a 5oz lead, which all adds up to a significant load to haul across the river. Some people may prefer to give it the big one with braid, but I much prefer mono for greater distances. On the river there are certainly advantages with mono too. It tends to gather less debris and sits better in the flow. If boats pass through it acts more like a spring and will not move your lead. Braid on the other hand drags in the flow, debris clings to it, and as there is no stretch, it will certainly move your end tackle should a big barge move through. As an experiment I left my rods out when a boat passed through earlier, and afterwards both lines were snagged behind the boulders, that separate the channel from the rest of the river. It was a simple task of going out in the boat to free them, but this is a typical drawback of braid.

I am now waiting for darkness to fall. I am full of anticipation. I now feel everything is slowly slotting into place and I think I am fishing the river to my best potential now. It almost feels like I am match fishing in a way. I have the two rods made up ready to go. I am constantly working hard every time a boat passes through, and it is certainly making the time pass by quicker! I have adopted a system that I reckon could work quite well. I just need a carp to show for my efforts now and I will then have the proof!

One last thing!!  I now also have a Twitter account. Twitter is a relatively new concept and it enables the account holder to write very short statements or sentences known as Tweets. It is very quick for me to add a Tweet and it is another way for some of you to follow my antics as they unfold. I will still write the blog every day, but Twitter means I can keep you updated as and when certain events happen, in particular when a carp is caught!! If you want to follow me on Twitter click on the My Twitter button and you can be kept up to date by an RSS Feed, you can even keep up to date with My Twitter on your mobile phone, or you can simply read My Twitter comments on the blog as per normal. Most importantly Twitter will notify you when I have posted a new blog!!

Be back tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs!!

Good Evening.

It was cold last night and I was tired, so I had an early night. An acquaintance of ours, a guy called Andy, had popped in for a quick pit stop on the way down south. I could hear Lee and Andy gossiping away for some time, like a couple of old women, and I had a funny picture in my head of a Beryl Cook painting, of the two of them leant against a post holding mugs of tea whiling away the hours. Their dolcit tones soon sent me to sleep and the next thing I knew I was being woken up by the dogs howling. I could see torch lights and heard French voices and knew exactly who it was at that time of night. It was the Guard de Peche; three of them to be precise!

I got the necessary paperwork, while one of them checked my boat, and we suspect they were checking to see if we were fishing at night in our boats. Maybe word had got out about Lee’s many carp and perhaps they only thought it was possible by boat fishing near the dam wall!! I saw them amble down to Lee’s swim and they repeated the same process there. I zipped my door down and lo and behold, I had gained a dog on my bed! Flash had taken his chance and had slipped in while I wasn’t looking and as he looked very comfortable and like he wasn’t budging, I decided he could stay for a while. He makes a good hot water bottle for twenty minutes!

I was just drifting off when I had a beep on my extreme range rod. The amber light on my ATT receiver shone brightly and another beep quickly followed, followed by another and then it was a ripper of a run. I slung on the waders and sprinted down to the rod. It felt great to hear that spool spinning and I leaned into whatever was responsible. Lee appeared and we carefully made our way out in the boat. The weed is so bad now that we both have a single channel about the width of the boat for entry and exit. The other lines had to be observed and then it was pedal to the metal, or at least that’s what we thought! I had taken the propeller down to the boat and screwed it on, but had forgotten to place the pin in the spindle which causes the propeller to spin. I had put it somewhere safe, so as not to lose it and who could blame me! “Oh well Lee,” I said. “You will have to row and row hard, as it’s the long range rod!” I figured he owed me a few kilometres in rowing anyway and it was good to see my fishing buddy sweating for once!

The wind was still blowing northerly and was fairly brisk. We eventually got to the large plateau and now the real work began. The line was snagged to begin with but it soon came free and then the fish was clearly hiding in some weed. I gave it a gentle pull and up she came to the surface. Lee scooped her into the net and that was that; Orient carp number three was mine and very grateful I was too!

It was a common carp and a very dark looking fish. There was no chance to re drop the hook bait so we returned to shore. We had got blown a long way and I rowed us back as I felt it was only fair! I got the kettle on to warm us up and went and fetched the carp from the side of the boat. She weighed 30.5lbs and I slipped her into a sack for the night. It was now freezing so Lee returned to his bivvy, and while I was still fueled with adrenaline, I swapped my battery for a fresher one, put the pin into the spindle and decided to go and re drop my hook bait back in position. I knew it wouldn’t be easy and finding the marker would be the hardest part in the dark. After twenty minutes of rowing around I eventually spotted it and dropped my anchor while I got everything sorted. The boat was still moving as the wind was that strong, but I attached another lead onto my Korda Hybrid leadclip and prepared a small amount of bait. Lifting the anchor I rowed myself into position and when I was happy and by using the echo sounder, I dropped my rig, feeling for a thud, and it was then time to return swiftly to shore, after distributing some bait liberally in the area.

Flash yet again had worked his magic and another carp had been caught while he was on the bed! I am now going to let him lie on the bed every night. Some might say it is coincidence, I put it down to his great perception, as I always seem to be awake when the take happens. Flash, you are my lucky mascot!

Needless to say I pushed him off the bed once I had had a cup of tea to warm up and he disappeared sulking to his own bivvy. I soon got warm in my Trakker Big Z Peach Skin sleeping bag and was out for the count. At 4.30am a blue led lit up my bivvy. Another beep had me into my waders and running to the rod in question. The bobbin was down and the line was slack; a tench I suspected? I struck and felt some resistance but not enough to warrant a trip in the boat. One thing I did notice was the cold; it was freezing. I reeled in the red eyed specimen and left him in my landing net, sunk deep in the water, till the morning. It is my first tench since I have arrived and I wanted to weigh him as I was sure it was another personal best species. I am glad to say that was it for the night as the cold was really quite severe.

My first Orient tench!

At first light Lee was on hand to help with the pictures. Lee caught a tench too which weighed 11lb 8oz; what a beauty! My tench weighed 9lb 10oz and we took a couple of shots and returned them to their home. The common looked spectacular and behaved herself admirably. I have worked hard for this one and after the last few days I felt it was truly deserved. Lee shook my hand and then it was time for a hearty breakfast again. One certainly needs it at the Orient to keep you going, as where we are situated it is fairly exposed and the Siberian winds are making life quite nippy!

A 30lb 8oz Orient common carp

Happy...yes I am!

I got on with my writing as the wind was too strong to re drop the tench rod. That would have to wait and by 4pm and after 7032 words my Madine account (fishing and working at the WCC) was complete. It felt good to get it finished and yes they are all written while I am fishing. No office, no central heating or electricity (or secretary!). It is all done in the bivvy!

I had a coffee and then decided to brave the elements and went out and sprinkled a little bait over my spots. I dropped the rod in position and managed to come back in a fairly straight and satisfying line. It is now 8.10pm as I finish tonight’s post. Lee and I are about to have some dinner now and wait to see if tonight brings anymore carp.

See you tomorrow.

Jake and the dogs and not forgetting King Lee!

Good Evening.

It is amazing how long it can take to sort out four rods at the Orient. After some breakfast and a coffee to kick start the brain I rowed out and retrieved my rods. Fortunately my propeller problem will be resolved tomorrow as my good friend, Turtle, is bringing me down a spare one. Thank goodness for friends. Without the propeller it meant it was a slow business getting in my three rods and luckily I managed to retrieve the foul line and rig from the grebe incident. I had a feeling I would find it as I went out in the boat and as I reeled in one of my other rods, the loose line appeared and I secured it inside the inflatable. There is too much foul line in most lakes and it is your responsibility to always try and find your lost line and rig if at all possible. With a boat it is usually a fairly easy process and you just need to drag a grappling hook or a lead and rig along the bottom, in front of where you dropped your rig originally. I had lost about 200m of line and I certainly did not want to leave that for another angler to find or even worse, a carp to take my rig and be trailing that lot around. Alternatively, you lose the fish of a lifetime because your line gets caught up in the loose line when you are playing the fish. I always carry a pair of Korda Razorblades in my boat for any emergencies with foul line and I advise anyone to do the same.

Once my rods were all reeled in and back on dry land, I decided to make a few small changes. I now have braid on three spools and mono on one. This rod is my extreme range rod and if truth be told I would prefer to use braid on this rod too. The problem is I don’t have any spare and my spools are not loaded with enough for that kind of distance. The stretch in mono is obviously the main concern, but if I do get a take as I did last week on this rod, then I can expect a few bleeps and I will have to be extra vigilant. Braid has advantages over mono, but then mono has advantages over braid. Mono can act as a spring when it is very choppy for example and it means your lead won’t get dragged along the bottom. Weed is less likely to get caught in mono and these things have to be taken into consideration. Braid obviously has no stretch and will show takes much faster, but it does tend to catch on weed much easier and drags in strong winds. Which you use is down to personal preference I suppose.

I tied up four new rigs and decided to switch my hook baits to white and yellow Hi-Vis Dynamite Baits pop-ups. The pineapple plus and the spicy shrimp and prawn flavours. I have been using these already, but on double pop-up presentations and after I caught my carp at range on a single pop-up, I have decided to go for the single bright colour option on all the rods. Lee kindly lent me his propeller so I could come back in the boat in a straight line after dropping my rods in position. I rowed out and used the motor on the way back to save on my battery. I decided to use a trick I learnt at the WCC from some dutch guys and this was to take one rod in the boat, and also the end tackle of another rod. Lee held this rod as I rowed out and made sure the line was fairly straight and reasonably tight. When I got to my spot I got him to give me some slack and after having a donk about with my other rod in the boat, I then dropped the other rig by hand and waved to Lee to slowly tighten up the line. With one rod sorted I then rowed over to my other spot and dropped that in position and then came back using the motor. Two rods dropped in one round trip. Job done!

It's a beast!!

Once all the rods were in place and I was returning with the last rod, I heard my ATT receiver beep. I carry two receivers with me and I keep one in my bivvy and I have one in my wader pocket. I noticed I had a drop back on my left hand rod, so I wound down and hit it! I could feel a little kick and presuming it was a tench, I decided to reel it in from range. I took it gently as I knew there is plenty of weed close in, but as my lead had released I soon saw something on the surface. Was it a tench, was it a carp? No, it was a big old bream. Lee had wandered down to see what I had been winding in for five minutes and even he was surprised by the size of it! I have always wanted to catch a double figure bream and I had certainly done that. I weighed it in my carp cradle and was not surprised when the scales read 13.5lbs! A monster but not the biggest in the Orient as Andy Chambers proved the other week. Andy caught a 21lb bream; now that is a slab and a half! If my bream had weighed 3lb then I probably would have been annoyed that it had picked up my bait, but in fact I was chuffed to bits with my dustbin lid!

What a specimen!

After Lee and I had drunk a cup of tea to toast my PB bream I got the rod back out to the spot. I am fishing this rod in a new position and in deeper water; 23ft to be exact. My other rods are in depths of 10, 12 and 21ft. 

Weather wise the wind has picked up this evening and it is now blowing a fairly strong and cold northerly. Some might say this is no good for the fishing but at the Orient you just never know what surprises may turn up. Yesterday was rather hard going, but you will be pleased to know I am writing this post with a smile on my face., I said tomorrow would be a new day and indeed it was.

See you all tomorrow

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

It is hard to believe that another day has passed already. Where does the time go? Since writing yesterday’s post Lee has had three more carp from the hot spot and it seems the carp are staying for longer, than we initially thought they would. On Tuesday the bulk of the action or should I say the three of four runs a day that Lee was getting had dwindled somewhat. But then we joked that it was the Orient and they were exceptional and rare circumstances. However, the action is still coming with some sort of regularity.

A pretty Orient mirror.

Last night at around 9pm Lee had a common of 18lbs. Earlier he had a lovely mirror of 17lbs at 5pm, and he has just returned a common of 22lbs. The smaller fish have returned but there are certainly still some big fish around, as we discovered yesterday (see further down). We are hearing fish at night and they are certainly venturing out into the body of the lake.

I had a strange occurence earlier today. At six thirty this morning I had a single beep on my receiver. It was my rod placed in the line that I had created last week. Nothing else occurred so I sat and had a cup of tea and had another hours sleep. I had intended to move this rod yesterday but the wind had picked up making it impossible. The wind got incredibly strong from about 8pm. Shortly after breakfast I rowed out to retrieve the rod. As I got over the dropped rod and reeled down I noticed it felt very clear and the rig reeled up smoothly. Lo and behold the ring swivel, hook and bait were all missing off the end of my hooklink!? The hooklink had snapped and the internal braid was rather frayed. I am using mono mainline on this rod and if a fish had hooked itself and bolted then surely the stretch in the mono would have acted as a spring. The lead had not released either, so this just adds to the mystery. If it had been a catfish you would have expected more than a single beep. It is one of the mysteries of the Orient that I will never solve!

I don’t have any issues with Korda’s Hybrid Stiff hook link material and after the ballistic run (on braid mainline with no stretch) from the 25kg mirror, which then continued to pull like a mule, it caused me no problems as the fish lay beat in the landing net. I have to put it down to a freakish incident and leave it at that.

Charley is loving the Orient too!

One other incident happened yesterday. Lee went off to fill up the water butts we use and said he was popping down to visit some French mates fishing on the first point at Michelin. He said he would not be gone too long and left me in charge of his rods. Reeling in or retrieving his four rods would have taken as long, as it would for him to go and do what he had to do, so he opted to leave them out. I was just going out in my boat when the inevitable happened; he had a run! This was no ordinary run either but a full blooded screamer of mammoth proportions. I quickly motored into shore and legged it to his rod. It took ages to get out to the fish as the wind was against me, but eventually I started to see weed rising from the depths. Beneath it I could see a large long mirror and it had to be close to another fifty. I have seen a few of these in the last few days at the Orient and plenty on my travels and I know one when I see one! The fish fought like a typical big fish and moved slowly and purposefully and I could tell it was nearly beat. I looked at the landing net and was just about to contemplate picking it up when the hook pulled and that was that. It was gone! As it was not my rod I wasn’t at all bothered by the incident and rowed back to shore. I would have felt for Lee had it happened when he was out in the boat, but as he wasn’t around I would have to break the news when he returned. You could certainly say that was one fish that was not supposed to be caught I guess, and in a funny kind of way I think it was a blessing. I saw a similar situation at Salagou when a big common got off the hook whilst out in the boat. The owner of those rods was at the shops. Leaving your rods is a risky business I guess as you never quite know what you could potentially lose, but if you aren’t there then you never know anyway! I have no problem with looking after someones rods as long as they aren’t left unattended.

Red sky at night...big carp in the morning!

It is night time once again and the excitement builds up at the Orient. I think there is a very good chance that Lee or I may catch an even bigger fish in the next few weeks. We have till the end of October to try and achieve this and the work rate will remain high till the end. This kind of fishing is hard work. There is lots of rowing and sleepless nights, but when you see that monster in the bottom of your landing net, it all suddenly seems forgotten about, and this is what keeps you going. Catch you tomorrow!

Good night.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

Another day has passed at the Orient. I did not sleep that well last night for some reason. Whether it was the thought of catching an Orient carp or I am simply just adjusting to my new bedchair, I am unsure. After sleeping on the same bedchair for the last 20 months and then switching to a new one seems rather strange I guess; it will just take a little time and I am sure with more practice I will get there. My dogs are very happy about the new addition to my sleeping quarters as it means they too have had an upgrade to my previous bed. They are now the proud owners of my old Indulgence bedchair and do they look spoilt? Indeed they do! Their little upgrade however, still does not stop them from jumping on Lee’s bedchair when he isn’t looking and that is exactly where they are right now?

They have an Indulgence bed chair and still they aren't satisfied!

Tonight is a warmer evening. Lee and I are sat up next to our kitchen bivvy that we inserted between our individual swims. Not only does this mean we have a nice social area where we can cook, eat and be merry, but it also looks like there is no room between us and should stop any cheeky anglers setting up there in the middle of the night. Protecting your territory and water can be quite a problem at the Orient, especially if people hear that carp have been caught along your stretch, so doing little tricks like this can help for sure! Lee moved his bivvy forwards thirty paces yesterday so he is closer to the water’s edge, and I will have to do the same in about a weeks time. How far your rods are away from your bivvy is a personal thing I suppose, but I would say 30 yards is about the acceptable limit on this type of water.

Mud Glorious Mud!

As for the Orient mud, it is not really that bad at the moment. There has been no rain for about a month so the ground is fairly firm. Lee’s swim seems worse than mine, but I have the added bonus of old tiles littered about the place from the old Mensil St Pere tile factory that used to be housed on this very bank. As the water level drops further and the weather worsens, which it hopefully will, the mud will no doubt come into play, but for the time being I am enjoying the conditions; it is relatively easy on the foot and my groundsheet is surprisingly mud free. To try to prevent the dogs making matters worse I decided to give them their own bivvy/kennel! I am not sure they like this luxury, but I certainly do! That is not to say once they hear me stir in the morning I can’t see two little faces peering in through my window on my bivvy door.

"Let me in your bivvy dad"!

On the fishing front today I went out to look at the distant feature I came across yesterday. To the actual spot from my rod pod it is 560m. I was unsure about fishing this kind of extreme distance and was also worried whether or not my spools would accomodate this much line. To test the water I took a new spool of Korda Adrena in the 18lb strength and dropped a heavy lead attached to the free end of this new 1000m spool. I them made my way back to my swim and walked another 80m past my bivvy and then cut the line. I had already retrieved the rod I placed at 420m yesterday so I removed the old line from the spool, and put on the loose end of line from the Adrena spool. I then reeled myself out to my new found spot on a very tight line and the test would be to see whether or not I could get all the line on the spool. Fortunately I could! Doing it this way also meant the line went on to my spool wet and any line twist was eliminated. I tied back on my Arma-Cord shock leader complete with rig and dropped it into position and returned to shore. A successful morning’s work!

Korda's high quality main line called Adrena.

As I returned in the boat the wind suddenly picked up a little. This meant waiting a while before any more boat work could be attempted without wasting time. This morning at around 7am I had a few beeps on the rod I placed yesterday in the clear strip in the weed. As I dashed out of my bivvy I noticed a seagull in the water and its feathers on its wing had got caught in my line. At the moment in the morning there are lots of birds in the edges and as the rods are having to be set high to prevent the line catching on the weed, this is one of the pitfalls you have to endure. The seagull was fine after I gently pullled him in towards me and set him free to rejoin the flock somewhere else on the lake, but as this rod is being fished at fairly close range in relation to my other rods, I was concerned the rig may have been moved off its spot. When the wind subsided I went out and redropped it into position with a fresh PVA bag. Not surprisingly everything was fine when I lifted the rig up into the boat, but then it is better to be safe than to be sorry.

It is almost a full moon. Lee and I are hoping for a change in the weather and combined with the full moon it could hopefully bring on a feeding spell. The Orient is one of those lakes where you could sit for weeks and receive no action. Plenty of factors come into play such as, whether the carp are feeding, whether you have fish in your area, and the weather of course. Location is obviously an inportant factor but on a lake the size of the Orient it would be very difficult to guess where the carp are likely to be, unless they were spawning for example. Time is the biggest factor on this lake and it is a case of waiting patiently for it to slot into place. I don’t think presentation, rigs and bait are the most important factors. If the fish are there, they are feeding and the conditions are spot on, then you stand a very good chance of catching. Lee and I are certainly here to make the most of that if it happens. We both have plenty of Dynamite Bait’s boilies to hold the fish if it does, and we will be working extra hard to ensure we try and get the rewards.

That is all for tonight. I will leave you with another Orient sunset and catch you all tomorrow.

How could anyone grow tired of this!

Good Night!

Jake and the dogs!!

Good Evening.

I am sat in my bivvy eating my dinner. I have just heated up the contents of a jar of Polish food that was given to me by Prezmek and Artur at Madine. As I have no Polish language skills, apart from knowing how to toast drinks in several languages, Polish being one of them, I have no clue as to what it is I am eating. However, it tastes very good so cheers lads!

There are still plenty of flying bugs around at the moment so I am having to write this with my bivvy mossie infill closed to prevent being attacked and dive bombed by millions of them. I know it is the laptop screen that attracts them and not myself, but I am sure I would be the one who eventually gets bitten. The nights are quite chilly now although the days are still very hot. The weather is not exactly helping the carp anglers as it is still and hot in the daytime; we need a change in the weather but not too drastic a change. A little cloud cover and wind would help for sure and a slight drop in temperature. The temperature on my thermometer today read 35 C so I am taking full advantage of the late september sun and maintaining my suntan. If it is raining where you are, I apologise profusely, and when I am sat in the pouring rain and freezing cold in a few months time then you will have your chance to chuckle as you sit in front of your fire in your warm house. That reminds me. I must get a new gas bottle for my bivvy heater/toaster!!

The view from the boat back to my swim.

Today has been another non-stop day of looking for more productive looking areas to fish and getting my rods ready to drop into position from the boat. Once the slight ripple had disappeared this morning I ambled out in my boat and went in search of a clear spot amongst the weed. I mentioned the weed in TWP and I took a picture today to show you how far it comes up to the surface. The depth here was about 13ft incidentally.

Thick green weed!

What it looks like on the echo sounder.

After an hour of gently rowing around I eventually discovered a clear strip about ten metres long by three metres wide; perfect! I marked the boundary with two H-block markers and had a quick feel around on the bottom with a lead attached to my marker rod. The lakebed felt quite soft and sticky, but after fishing Liez last year in similar conditions, I don’t fear fishing in this substance. I made my way back to shore and tied up a new rig and prepared my rod.

I used H-blocks to mark the clear strip in the weed.

What big carp could resist that!

I decided to go with tiger nuts on this particular rod, as I think the area I have found will suit this type of bait. I crushed some boilies to add some extra attraction and then added these to about a kilo of tiger nuts. These are the ones I have left over from Madine.

Korda's Krusha....makes light work of anything!

Once my rod was ready to go, armed with my faithful tiger nut rig; three corked tigers tipped with yellow plastic corn, served up with a size 2 Curv 360 style, I ventured back to my marked up spot. I introduced my free bait first making sure it was spread over the whole clear strip in the weed between my two orange H-blocks. I then put another marker for ‘my’ reference, 15 yards behind where I would finally drop my baited rig. I finally GPS’ed my spot and lowered my rig carefully from the boat. I now slowly backwind my hook baits down, and I made sure I just felt the lead touch the soft clay bottom. Before I did this I slipped on a PVA stocking bag containing crushed tiger nuts which I did with the Krusha. Happy with everything I then returned to shore and got my rod sorted on my pod. Now I just had one rod left to do.

A simple and cheap marker system.

Once I had fuelled myself with a coffee it was back to the boat. On the way out I retrieved the two H-block markers and then I travelled left and went past my furthest mark. This represents my left hand inside rod, and the range of this one is about 300 metres. After I had got to about 350 metres I had a flat bottom and a depth of about 22 feet. As I hit the 500 metre point I started to notice a slight incline and the presence of some weed; this looked interesting. I GPS’ed this feature and noted the depth of about 12 ft at the top of this hump. It was getting late so I decided to drop a marker at the bottom of this feature and made my way back to shore. The distance to the marker from the bank was 420 metres and that would do for tonight. I need to check I have enough line on my spools to hit the top of the new feature I have discovered and tomorrow I shall get all of that sorted. 

Once I had the final rod prepared for tonight’s temporary drop, with a mussel and oyster 20mm pop up combined with a bright purple squid and octopus Hi-vis beauty, again using the 360 rig and held down with a 2BB shot, I rowed back out and dropped it in position. I scattered about a kilo of bait in its general direction and that was that. Another day’s work done and dusted. People think fisherman sit around all day doing nothing; if only! There are simply not enough hours in the day sometimes. 

The Orient skyline.

As I tightened up my line and laid the rod in its rests I admired another sunset. Everynight has been spectacular at the Orient and tonight was no exception. A red and grey sky lay before me and the camera had to capture it. Lee and I are very lucky to be honest and we both said exactly that last night as we sat and admired a blood orange sky in the distant tree line.

I suppose it feels rather funny now I am finally at the Orient. I intended on fishing it this year and at this time of year, but I still can’t quite believe I am sat here. I suppose in some ways that’s probably the reason I have been in no mad rush to get the rods out . The Orient is a rock hard venue. I have five weeks to fish here and I have five weeks to get it right and make it happen. I think spending plenty of time getting good spots marked is time spent well, and although I have a few little tweeks to make here and there, once they are all finalised in a day or so, then they will stay put, and it will then be up to me to keep my areas primed and ready for when the carp eventually pass through. The Orient needs time and fortunately I have plenty of it.

The 5.11 Urban boots I wore at Madine for the WCC.

Finally tonight I would like to show you another product from the 5.11 range of footwear. This boot is called the Advance boot and I have been wearing it since it arrived in the post last week. It is without doubt the most comfortable boot I have ever worn, and that was straight out of the box! When I had my first pair of 5.11 boots sent to me, which I wore throughout the WCC, I was very impressed with them too. However, I commented to Carl Miller who works for Edgar Brothers that I felt they would be rather difficult to put on in a hurry. “No worries” he said. “We do a similar pair with a zip down the side”! The laces incidentally, are so you can achieve your desired comfort level when wearing the boot. The zip on the side means they are incredibly easy to get off and super quick to get back on. If you want a pair of boots for fishing look no further. They are available in a six inch and eight inch height.

The Advance boot from 5.11. Don't they blend in well with the Orient!!

I am now going to make a coffee and sit in my porch and soak up the atmosphere. Be back tomorrow with another update. Bye for now.

Jake and the dogs!!

http://www.blythe.org/korda/

http://artscenecal.com

Korda, whose real name was Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, was born on 14 September 1928 in Havana, Cuba.  He got his first taste of photography when he took his father’s Kodak 35mm and began taking pictures of his girlfriend.  Korda was the son of a railway worker, and took many jobs before beginning as a photographer’s assistant. “My main aim was to meet women”, he once confessed. He did succeed in his aim. His second wife, Natalia (Norka) Menendez, was a well known Cuban fashion model.  He was a photographer for the Cuban newspaper Revolución in 1960 when he produced on March 5, 1960 the iconic image of Che Guevara, that became a worldwide symbol of revolution and rebellion.

He never received any royalties for the image, because Castro did not recognize the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. In 2000, he sued Smirnoff over the use of the image in advertisement. Commenting on the illicit use of his photograph, the artist said, “As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world, but I am categorically against the exploitation of Che’s image for the promotion of products such as alcohol, or for any purpose that denigrates the reputation of Che”.

His out-of-court settlement of US $50,000 was donated to the Cuban healthcare system. He said, “If Che were still alive, he would have done the same”. However, he told a BBC World Service reporter that he did approve of the 1999 Che Jesus adaptation of the image used by the Churches Advertising Network to promote church attendance in the UK.  The truth is that Korda gave the picture for free to Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, an Italian publisher who had published Doctor Zhivago and went on to publish Castro’s diaries. Feltrinelli had the copyright for some time and benefited financially from the picture .

After the revolution, Korda became Fidel Castro’s personal photographer for 10 years, accompanying Castro on trips and in meetings with foreign personalities. During this time he also took pictures of demonstrations, sugar cane harvests and factory scenes.  Other less-known Fidel Castro images by Korda include shots of Castro staring warily at a tiger in a New York zoo, playing golf and fishing with Che Guevara, skiing and hunting in Russia, and with Ernest Hemingway.

Korda’s work also includes pictures of Castro’s rebels riding into Havana after their triumph, and one known as The Quixote of the Lamp Post showing a Cuban wearing a straw hat and sitting on a lamp post against a sea of people during a rally.  From 1968 to 1978 he concentrated on underwater photography until a Japanese exhibition in 1978 stimulated international interest in his work. He appeared briefly in the pre-title sequence of Wim Wenders’ film Buena Vista Social Club in 1999, although he was uncredited.

Korda suffered a fatal heart attack in Paris in 2001 while presenting an exhibition of his work. He is buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana.

KORDA

Good Evening.

Firstly apologies for no post yesterday but the internet at Gigantica is fraught with problems due to a very weak signal. It is incredibly frustrating and you do wonder how on earth we all managed without the internet before. Anyway here is a quick catch up on the last 48 hours. I have also made a big decision regarding the Orient. I want to get started on there as soon as possible so I intend on arriving on Thursday. My only problem at the moment is I am waiting for my cheque book to arrive from my French bank account, that I have set up especially, in order to buy an internet stick. Until this arrives I have no mobile internet stick. It will be here by the end of the week, so I shall hopefully have it in my hands by the weekend. You will not miss anything for the first few days as I will only be setting up, and probably will not start fishing till the weekend anyway. I will write an ongoing blog as soon as I arrive and publish it at the first available opportunity. The Orient, unlike Madine, does not have a free wi-fi service; I asked, so please bide with me for a few days longer and then you can all join me at the Orient as my session begins to unfold.

The sun trying to burn through the morning haze

Yesterday was generally spent sorting through my gear. What I am taking and what I am leaving behind. One concern I have for my equipment that I leave behind is mice. There are lots of them around at the moment and my lock up has a few holes in it in certain places. What I don’t want is to return from the Orient or Italy next year and find everything ruined by the furry little rodents. Yesterday I placed some traps and poison down to try and make a small dent in the population. I got one anyway!

One pallet of Dynamite!

My bait from Dynamite Baits arrived yesterday on a large lorry. 200kg was on a pallet and it contained 50kg of the 26mm boilies in both Spicy Tuna and Sweet Chilli, and the Mussel and Oyster flavours, and the same again in 20mm. Also included are a selection of matching glugs and pop-ups. I have also asked for the whole range of the Hi-Vis/High attractor pop-ups for a little colour and variation. I do think the Mussel and Oyster boilie from the Fresh Fish range will work well on waters such as the Orient and it just depends if the carp are playing ball I guess. One fish would do anyway, anymore and that’s a bonus!

Hamidi in action with the Korda Easi-Stick!

With my gear separated it now just leaves me to pack it all in my van. I am adding some new Trakker items to my load of which I will talk about once I get set up at the Orient. Trakker have something in the pipeline that I am extremely excited about. That is all I can say for now, but I have a feeling the dogs and I will like our massive new home in 2010! The Korda boys have been filming here for the last two weeks. Last week Ian Macmillan broke the record for the most fish caught in a week; 31 by all accounts. Last night two fifties were caught. A 55lb mirror for Mr Fairbrass, and a 53lb mirror for Tom Dove. The fish have suddenly started to pack on the weight and I have a feeling there will be lots of big carp caught at Gigantica over the next few months. I will be returning to do a winter session in November as a guest and will be joined by Martin Ford and company, on the Tim Paisley week exclusive. Last year Tim caught a 57lb mirror on his November trip and funnily enough that fish has been caught twice in the last two weeks, both times the weight has gone up. This was Danny’s fish last night at 55lb and by November this fish should be in the high 50’s for sure. The Giant has not been out for a couple of months now, and this fish should be back in the seventies. Imagine if that one slid over my net in November, after maybe catching one or two at the Orient. Dreams eh!

Today I purchased my ticket for the Orient. As it is late in the year they no longer do month tickets. A year ticket including your boat pass is 97 Euros. A two week ticket costs 60!! I bought a year ticket saving me 23 Euros on buying two fortnight passes. Unfortunately this year ticket does not run on till next year, but this is the price you pay to fish at the top big fish water in Europe. I am nearly all set, I just have a few things to finalise tomorrow, and by Thursday I should be there!

Catch you soon.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

It is dark already as I write today’s post from the bivvy. It has been a day of writing and emails, and the rods remain untouched. They have now been in the water since Sunday evening and I am still confident that one of them will hook a carp at some point in the next 36 hours. That is all the time I have left at Madine, as I have other plans to prepare for, as my fishing journey continues.

I spent plenty of time on Sunday evening out in the boat with each rod. Thirty minutes was spared for each, which meant rowing out to my marks, dropping anchor to keep me steady, then I made sure my rigs were free from weed when I dropped them into their final position. As I knew I would possibly be leaving them out for the duration I wanted to be 100% sure they were spot on, and as an added attraction I threaded a Korda PVA stocking bag (containing chopped Monster Tiger Nut boilies, 8mm pellet, and chopped tigers) onto my hooklink, so I knew there would be a tasty meal right next to my hook bait. I have already mentioned I am fishing in the Boel Baits section area from the WCC. Only two fish were caught in this section, both over 20kg, so although not a lot of fish were caught, they were both an impressive size. To confirm these results, my 24kg mirror adds to this tally of above average carp, and I am sincerely hoping there is one more big fish to come my way. I won’t complain if I don’t catch anymore, I won’t moan either if I catch a 5kg common, but let’s be honest for a moment; everyone likes to catch the big ones! That is what I am here for!

This is precisely why I am leaving my rods be as the longer they stay where they are, the more chance I have of getting a take. Tonight I rowed out to my areas and all I scattered over each wide area, was the remaining pellet I have. I am sure the majority of my bait, especially the big 26mm boilies are still present. If the pellet attracts smaller species, then hopefully a lone large carp will spot the activity and move in for a look around. Andy Chambers always reckons it takes a few days to get the carp onto your bait, and I am a very patient angler; after all I have the time on my hands.

Today I managed to finish my latest story for International Carper. At over 7000 words it is not a short one, and together with 29 pictures for Gary Hood to chose from, there is plenty of material to hopefully put together a good account of my fabulous time at Gigantica. I know some of the blog readers are not fans of the commercial waters, but my series is about my adventures, and my ongoing journey with its twists and turns lead me there. In the end I had an amazing time at the beautiful lake and it was like a long summer holiday for myself and the dogs. Danny Turtle and I became good friends and I caught a huge carp just before I left, so it had a fairy tale ending. Buy Carpworld next month to read my latest episode of ‘No Fixed Abode’.

With internet access whilst I fish it makes life 0n the bank very comfortable for me. Telephone calls are very expensive and as I mentioned last night, with a good connection I can use Skype. Once I have finished an article, sending it by email is easy from the bankside. Pictures however used to be a slight problem, due to their size. As an example today’s file was 90MB in size and with most email accounts there are restrictions in place for sending large files. Doing a couple at a time would take forever, so after a conversation with Gary at Angling Publications last month, he suggested I try a very useful piece of software called YouSendIt.com This basically can send file sizes up to 100MB at a time, and it is free until you have sent 1GB. It uploads your file to a server, and the recipient is sent an email with a link to download the file. It is very simple and extremely convenient. I used to actually send my pictures on a disc in the post and at 5 Euros a go, it now means I save a whopping 60 Euros a Year!! Every little helps and that will feed me and the dogs for two whole weeks; cheers Gary.

Great for sending big files at once!

I have spoken to several people since the WCC finished, in particular the Ultima boys fishing in Peg 12 in the Indyline section; Koo’s Walters and Bert Tueben. Bert is very kindly sending me some special medicine for my dog Flash, for his skin troubles. When I say skin problems, his problems actually lie within, as Bert thinks he has a low resistance, meaning his tolerance levels are very low. Anyone fishing on the island may have noticed him frequently scratching and chewing his feet, and I am talking about Flash and not Bert incidentally! I spent many hours in various vets having Flash looked at when I was in the UK, and for a couple of years I even gave him a special vaccination, by injection, to try and help him. Unfortunately it made no difference. My sister Sorrel who is a vet at Cambridge University did warn me that Brown and Tan Dobermans often have trouble with their skin, and it seems she was very correct on the subject. It is not only obviously stressful for Flash, but I don’t like to see my dog suffering either, so Bert, I really hope the magic medicine works and I will keep you informed of his progress. Bert incidentally is putting on a large carp show/expo in Holland at Christmas, and if you want more details about this, please click on the banner below.

This blog is already nearly 1100 words long, so I am going to call it a night, as my finger tips can take no more. Thanks for all the comments the last few days. Keep them coming, I do answer them all in time, and these comments are the thing that make me smile the most, as they do keep my moral high. I hope to have you all as company when I fish the Orient very soon. It will be my first session at the great lake, and one of my friends, who shall remain nameless, is convinced I will catch my first 30kg carp from there. He says it is my destiny. We will see!

Catch you soon!

Jake and the dogs!

Late Footnote: Unfortunately I just lost a fish. I had the take at 10.45pm. A single beep, and the rod tip started to bend over slowly but surely. I jumped straight into the boat and went out to the fish which took ages. Once I got to my illuminated marker stick, 400m out, the fish was snagged or had dropped the hook. Things started to move below as I applied some pressure and then my hooklink broke. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. This take was on my twin 20mm pop-up set up, so I am now going to re-rig and get the rod back out. It is going to be a long night I reckon, so I better get the coffee on.

Good Evening.

I write this post as the barbeque slowly cooks tonight’s dinner. Thank you Simon (island Marshall) for leaving me two disposable ones, as they are being used already! The polish guys leave tomorrow, so it is only right we have a farewell supper, and that is one of the things I really enjoy about my lifestyle; I get to meet so many fascinating characters along the way and it makes my trip all the more worthwhile.

Who needs carp!!

This morning at 4am I had a single bleep on my ATT receiver. I waited for a moment and another quickly followed. I was out of the door in a flash and looked at the rod tip which had lost its bend. Something had picked up the bait, and I suspected a bream was probably the culprit. I wound down quickly and soon felt some resistance, so quickly I put on my waders and made my way out in the boat. 400 metres is a long way, so I slowly reeled in, as the boat motor propelled me to my spot. Five minutes later I felt my Arma-Cord leader come through the rings and my rig appeared without the lead. The hook was caught on some line that was obviously lying around underneath the surface. It was probably just as well I hadn’t hooked a carp, or it may have cost me the fish. I don’t like to leave line in the water, so I put my rod in the boat and set about retrieving the foul line. Suddenly a length of braid also appeared and I now had four ends going in different directions; just what you need at 4.15am! The lines were caught up in several weedbeds and I then suspected the braid belonged to the Dutch guys, who if you remember nearly lost their rod when a sail boat took out their line very close to the shore. You may also remember I saved their rod, as the last turn of braid disappeared from the guys spool, before the rod would have surely launched into orbit. The line then broke once they were in the water, and judging by the copious amounts I gathered, I am sure it was his. The monofilament that was also present also seemed to take forever to gather up, and at one point I was anchored to the spot as I tried to ravel it all up. I would have enjoyed it more had a carp been in my landing net, but carp fishing does throw up nasty surprises from time to time, and at least these obstructions have now been removed.

Rods at the ready...

The remaining rods were all reeled in this morning and I then spent a couple of hours checking on my areas and making a few changes. I am now focusing on a very large plateau area and the depth is about 6ft. The plateau itself is hard in places, but there is plenty of weed dotted around and I wanted to ensure I was going to be dropping on fairly clean patches of lake bed. Przemek has an underwater camera and looked at his areas today, and he is positive the majority of the lakebed is covered in a small film of weed, about 10cm thick. He is positive the weed is causing problems with the hook baits and as a result has changed his hookbaits to critically balanced pop-ups. He looked for his free offerings on the camera screen, and they all appeared to be under the weed. I guess if the carp are feeding they should rip this up and it won’t present any problems, but it does reinforce how important presentation can be.

Spools loaded with ACE velocity camo brown 18lb mono...400m is out there!!

After a quick trip to St Michel to top up the dog food supply and to get some provisions, I was back and ready to get the rods back out. I had put in some bait earlier, and having no lines in the water for a few hours may have done my swim some good. The wind has changed direction and is now blowing westerly so it seems we all got our wish. No carp have been caught since I joined the Polish guys and hopefully tonight one of us will have some action, or even better we will all catch a carp! Despite the lack of action we are all having a good time, and Madine is certainly one of those waters, as I am sure a few WCC competitors will agree, that does not give its carp up too easily. I am working hard and fishing at long range in cross winds which is not the easiest of tasks at the best of times, however if I want to catch, then this needs to be done. The two close range rods also joined the long range rods for extra support! After three days without a touch, it seems they are better off on the plateau too. I have kept the tigers on as bait, and Dynamite boilies still remain on the other two rods.

My 65W solar panel is working overtime keeping my boat battery topped up.

Finally tonight more about the 5.11 tactical series of clothing. I wore the 5.11 tactical trousers whilst working at the WCC. These are to be launched onto the carp fishing market very soon, and I really recommend them to anyone looking for extremely good quality trousers. They produce several styles, each one offering different benefits and weights and they are all super comfortable and incredibly hard wearing. I wore the 5.11 tactical Pro pants for most of my week on the island, and the added knee pads make sure this fragile area stays protected and free from trouble. With the amount of kneeling I did, taking photographs and preparing rations etc in the marquee, these trousers really saw me through the week. I mentioned the harsh side to the island, well it is as wild an environment as you can encounter, and with the mixture of thorns and other prickly items you walk through, the material these trousers are made from ensures you get no rips in the trousers and no scratches on your legs.

The 5.11 tactical series trousers

No gimmicks...just quality.

Tomorrow is Saturday and it is that time yet again! I have to write up the next part for ‘No Fixed Abode’ due out next month in International Carper. This part will be about my enjoyable time at Gigantica. Commercial waters are not really my cup of tea, but whilst I was there I slowly fell in love with the place, and in the end, I certainly got my rewards for my persistance. I have loads of material to write about and the hardest part will be breaking it all down into 7000 words with 20 odd pictures for support. I met some great people whilst residing there and made some good friendships along the way. Some of whom I will no doubt see again in the future, and some sadly, more than likely not, but it just goes to show you; in life you really have to make the most of the moment and I think it is safe to say I am certainly doing that!

Have a great weekend and catch you soon.

Jake and the dogs!!

Hello.

Well we finally made it to the stunning lake by Nonsard in North East France. After a few goodbyes I left Gigantica yesterday lunchtime, as planned, and was soon heading east towards my destination. Two hours or one hundred and forty kilometres later, I arrived at Madine 1.

The Chalet des Pecheurs at Madine 1

The port at Madine 1

I remember the place well from last year’s event and I headed straight to the Chalet des Pecheurs to greet Alain, the fishery manager. Once he had returned from his lunch at 3pm and with the formalities over, it was time to get busy. I knew where I wanted to be so I drove round to Madine 3 and looked for a convenient swim for the next three days. When I say convenient I mean one of several things. A three night session for ‘Jake’ is like a short overnighter and there is little point getting all of the equipment out of my van!! I also need to be within the vicinity of a wifi connection; walking distance is sufficient. Finally, I want to be close to Madine 3, as this is where I will be meeting Ross and Andy and the rest of the organisation on Tuesday when they turn up on cue.

I remembered from last year that there are a few swims to the right of the beach area at Madine 3. These have vehicle access and I hoped there would be enough space between the camper vans and tourists to squeeze in. As luck would have it, the swim I remembered was free and surprisingly no holiday makers were rooted to the spot. (As I write this I am literally surrounded by eleven camper vans!) I seem to remember this was one of the Jetfish pegs from last year and is almost opposite Jetfish Island. The swim is situated looking across a large bay, probably a good 60 acres in size, and there is a walkway to the side of the bay that separates Madine and another much smaller lake affectionately known as little Madine. I fished little Madine for a few nights during last year’s competition with Alexi Bygraves, and we both caught a few low twenties which was great fun. The bay itself is weeded quite heavily, but there is a very large channel in the middle of this weed which is clear. The weed itself is a mixture of varieties but a lot of it comes right up to the surface. If truth be told is does look a very carpy area indeed and with the hot sunshine and the steady breeze that was trickling into the bay, it seemed the obvious place to fish. There has been some weed clearance in the past and there is enough of a gap to get a boat in and out of, but the weed is tickling the underneath of the hull in some places! For three nights and three days it would certainly suffice and it was time to get things set up.

The first job as usual is to set up the inflatable boat. Having done this umpteen times I am now a dab hand and at first what seemed like a chore is now something I relish. (I remember putting my boat together at Cassien last Febuary in 2008. How long did that take me?) Five minutes later I was attaching my 12v motor and echo sounder to the back board of the boat. I am not sure if this is the correct terminology for this part of a boat but this is the name I have come up with! Going out to look at features is something I really enjoy, however I am still learning to use my echo sounder. I have owned this one for almost 18 months, but like most things you can learn something new each time you use them. I may pick Andy Chamber’s brains when he is here and get him to give me an hours course, as it is identifying foreign objects on the screen, that I find the greyest area to master.

Two hundred yards in front of my swim is a bank of weed and for the first hundred yards there are a myriad of other incredibly thick weed beds. I decided to concentrate my attentions in the middle channel for the first night. I did not have long enough to look for four separate areas, so I decided I would chance my luck and placed two markers a hundred yards apart and I would then find some clear spots and fish between these markers. The depth was about 8ft where I place my markers and the bay itself is rather shallow. Shallow water does not bother me in the slightest and with all the weed beds present; you can just imagine carp cruising around and in between them, picking at naturals.

Back in my swim I got the rods set up. I decided to go with a weedy green camouflage set up as it seemed the most appropriate. I have a variety of components in my tackle box from both Korda and ACE that suit these situations. On my reels at the moment I have ACE 18lb velocity camo brown mono. This line has a very good camo effect and it blends in with most bottoms! To this I attached a 10 metre length of Korda’s 30lb Arma-Cord abrasion resistance braided leader. I then attached my terminal bits to the end of this leader. I would always advise using a shockleader on these big lakes. The lake bed can have plenty of surprises in store and having 10 metres of confidence between you and the hooked fish can often make the difference. I am not fishing at extreme range and I am not worried about the stretch factor in the mono, and as my line will be lying on the surface for the first hundred yards it means I can confidently tighten up without fear of moving the end tackle along the bottom.

Terminal tackle components suited to fishing weed.

With the rods sorted I was now ready to introduce some bait. I took out some 8mm Monster Tiger Nut pellets, 20mm and 26mm Dynamite boilies to suit and some real tiger nuts. I fed about 5kg of the lot, loosely scattered along the line created between the two markers as I wanted to try and create a large feeding zone. Satisfied with my efforts it was time to have a coffee and then time to drop the rods from the boat. The day was slipping away rapidly and the sun was starting to set as I dropped my first rod. The light was almost gone as I tightened up my final rod and that was it. I was fishing at Madine. I had made it in one piece with two fit dogs accompanying me.

It was a clear sky as the first stars started to , so I opted to sleep under the stars on my bedchair. I do like bivvies but they are so restricting and get so hot in the early morning summer sunshine when you wake in the morning. I will soon be faced with six long dark months from Oct till March and I am trying to make the most of the opportunities when you can sleep al fresco!

My first morning at Madine

Who's a clever boy!!

The time is now 10am and I am on my second cup of coffee. I have been up since 7am watching for signs of fish and all looks quiet on the weedy frontier. I have a few plans today. I will at some point walk to the wifi point to publish this post. My rods need to be reeled in first and I will wait till 11am to do this as I have often had takes up till 11am. I call this my window of opportunity. I would like to leave the rods where they are, but as last night was more of a rush job to get the rods out, it then means I can go and look for some more promising areas for tonight. I noticed some very good clear spots close in, and I never like to overlook the margins.

Sanitising Hand Washes.

Finally if you are coming to the WCC, bring some sanitising hand gel and a rat trap with you! I remember last year when Alexei and I fished little Madine. There were lots of rats running through our swim all night. Last night, Charley (the expert rat chaser) was kept busy running and barking at the cuddly little rodents as they went about their business. Joking aside though, they carry diseases and I carry special hand gel that kills these germs. I would advise you bring some with you to protect yourself, especially at meal times. Water and stunning scenery attracts tourists, campers and anglers, who occasionally leave litter and scraps of food, which in turn attracts rats. You can’t blame the rats can you; a lovely home and free food.

Footnote: Since finishing the weekend post and after having breakfast, I attempted to reel in the rods before walking to the wifi hotspot. The wind has really picked up and is pushing into the bay. It was a very difficult job to retrieve my rods and the line laying on top of the weed caused a few problems. However, with the strong winds it now looks very good conditions indeed! My only concern is if I do get a fish on I will definately have to go out in the boat. This may be a catastrophe for a couple of reasons. Firstly I cannot use the boat motor till I clear the weed which extends about 50 -100 yards out, and if the wind is blowing really hard it may push the boat further down into the bay and I could end up stuck! This could lose me the fish. Secondly with the boat being blown around it might cause a few problems with the other rods getting in the way, I will just have to be extra vigilent and I say there is only one way to find out and give it a try!! I have my concrete anchor in the boat, so once I am near the fish I can drop it and this will stop me moving around and give me more purchase. Big water carping…I have missed it!!

Catch you later.

Jake and the dogs.

Good Evening.

Last night I drove to the vets in Reims to pick up my dog; Flash! He has had it tough the last few days and has undergone major surgery. He now sports a big stitched wound along the length of his privates and he also has a couple of vital elements missing! It was rather amusing as I spoke to the female vet. I enquired whether or not the sterilisation had been carried out, to which she replied “No”! “It did not need to be done as it was just an infection and nothing to do with a hormonal inbalance”. “Okay” I said. Imagine my surprise when I inspected his wounds on returning to Gigantica and noticed he had two things missing; his balls! In actual fact it seems he was castrated after all! The vet who I spoke to did not actually carry out the operation and was obviously misinformed by another vet in the surgery. The main thing is, he is okay and will need a little TLC over the next few days. I passed on all of your wishes and he said to say thanks!

My boy (!?!) is back and doing fine!

On returning to the lake just after 9pm I cast out my rods to my clipped up spots. They all went out fine and I quickly threw out a kilo of boilies just as darkness fell. I did not feel particularly confident as I would have liked more time to get everything spot on, but then sometimes you have to make do. I got my dogs settled on their beds behind me and was soon asleep.

I heard a few runs in the night and was alert and ready for any action that came my way; none did! In the morning Dan called me to take some scales around to his swim to weigh a common he had caught during the night. He has caught this fish before and just wanted to see if it had put on any weight. On getting to his swim, he then realised he actually had scales under his bed. I wondered if it was just a little practical joke; and also maybe he actually wanted me to witness one of ‘his’ carp for once (I have never seen him catch one yet, but he claims to catch plenty!!) The common carp he did catch has big broad shoulders and weighed 32lb. He also caught two others during the night. I took a few shots and the fish was released.

After breakfast I decided to replace the mono on the spools of my big baitrunners. I have one of the new ACE line removers which are very good. You attach the device to a drill and it removes the old line from your spool in seconds. You then just take the cap off the device and your old line slides off. It is that simple. I re-spooled my reels with new line and walked the very short distance back to my swim. I decided that braid might be spooking the fish and wanted to see if mono could get me a bite. I wound in one rod and started to change everything over. I took the braided spool off and put on the newly refilled mono one. I tied all the rig bits back on and then had several practice casts to ensure there was no twist in the line. Everything seemed perfect and I was comfortably hitting 100 yards.

I begin to play what we presumed was a small fish!!

Dan suddenly appeared in my swim. He saw me reeling in the rod I had been practising casting with and thought I had cast over my other line! The rod tip on my middle rod of my set up was banging away and suddenly line started coming off the tightened baitrunner. My sounder box was in my jacket pocket and could not be heard as it was twenty yards away in the lodge where I had breakfast. It seemed that a carp had taking a liking for one of my 26mm Monster Tiger Nut boilies after all! I picked the rod up and sure enough a fish was definitely on and not very happy about it! It suddenly and very powerfully took a lot of line and I flicked my baitrunner on again to let it take what it wanted. I am fishing in open water and there are no snags to worry about. I slowly stopped the fish in its tracks and it then started to kite to my right quite rapidly. Dan wound in the rod I had been casting about with, to get it out of the way and commented it was probably just a small fish I was playing! It was now moving quite quickly near the surface and I figured it was too. The fish then came right into the margins and everything seemed to go solid for a while. I applied a little pressure and it started to move again. The small fish we saw kiting on the surface suddenly grew into something larger and all of a sudden everything got very serious. The size quickly went from 20’s to 30’s, then the fish turned under the surface and 30’s became 40’s. The fish came to the surface momentarily and 40 grew to 50’s. This was one fish I desperately did not want to lose. Dan stood in the water with the net and waited patiently. The fish kept wallowing and twisting its body and head. It suddenly dived deep again and it was time to regain my composure and finish the job. The fish reappeared and now it looked huge. “Tell me when you’re ready” said Dan, holding the net in the water. “Here she comes” I said! I slowly walked back as the fish came towards us on the surface. The head shakes from the fish had stopped and I knew she was going in that net. That is what she did and thank you that man Dan! Once again I have to say the size 2 Korda Kurvs did not let me down. People often look surprised when I mention I use size 2’s. When there are fish this size in the lake I use big hooks. It is that simple for me!

A fitting climax to my time at Gigantica!

The time was 2.15pm when I had the take and as the day was very warm we got everything ready before we attempted to lift the beast out of the water. The Pro-Line mat was laid on the floor, plenty of lake water was poured onto it, the scales were checked and zeroed to the Venture sling, and we prepared ourselves for what lay in store. Dan went to lift the estimated mid fifty from the water and suddenly it became apparent that it was even bigger. I assisted him carrying the bulk to the unhooking mat and it then dawned on me that I might have a new PB. I said all along that I wanted to catch one of the monster carp with the small heads and big shoulders. Well that is exactly what I had just gone and done! What is even sweeter is the fact it is the first week fishing with my new bait from my sponsor; Dynamite Baits. It is now looking like a very good move indeed!

My New Personal Best Carp 29.3kg

I let Dan and Mark weigh the fish and I waited for the figure to be read out. Marks dad, Jim, estimated 65lb and he wasn’t far wrong. The final weight was agreed at 64.5lb or 29.3kg. It is a fish that was caught last September at 65lb and is known as Staples. It looked well spawned out today and I reckon this fish will be well into the seventies come the winter. It slowly started to sink in! A new PB and what a carp! This is probably ‘one’ of the biggest carp in the lake at the moment and I have been fortunate enough to catch it. I have caught a few carp while I have been at Gigantica to date. A couple of 40’s, several 30’s and lots of 20’s. All my fish have been caught from the snags or the edges. Dan was joking with me this morning that I still had not caught a fish from open water. What a way to answer that one!

Nice fish...shame about the legs!!

We took the pictures on land and then in the water. The fish was a real bulk and the weight was not really the problem, the fish kept twitching and moving its tail. Plus with the copious amounts of water we poured onto her to keep her wet, she became quite slippy. This made it very difficult to hold still for pictures. The water shots were much more comfortable, and it is easy to lift the fish up and down and let it rest in the water between shots. Once we had done the deed, the fish swam away strongly and then Dan kindly sideswiped me into the lake and a celebratory dip took place. What a way to finish at Gigantica!

Just look at the girth of Staples!

It was time to let her go!

After one more shot!

I now have to wait a little while till Flash returns to health! He has to see the vet tomorrow for a quick check up, and then the same in a weeks time. He still has his stiches in and it is vital nothing happens to them. I have an article to get on with in the meantime, so my fishing at Gigantica has ended for now. After all, how can I top today! I shall leave this post on for a couple of days and will be back with my weekend post.

Cheers

Jake Langley-Hobbs

Good Afternoon.

You may notice the start of the title of this post: The Weekend Post. One of the changes to the new blog is as follows: Monday to Friday (providing there are no complications with connections) there will be a post every day. At the weekend there will be now just be one post for the whole weekend. This will be posted either on Saturday or Sunday. Obviously if something happens to warrant another post, then another post will appear. I have noticed from looking at the website statistics that my viewing figures usually drop over the weekend. This is due to the fact that most of you are or should be out fishing!! I therefore thought it would be better to have one post only; called The Weekend Post. This is the first “Weekend Post.”  Enjoy!

Last night saw no action in the Tree Line swim. This morning I woke at 6am and willed the rods to move. Normally a coffee or two would be made and I sit next to the rods, but having no coffee making facilities in my swim, meant another two hours sleep seemed the better option.

I was then woken at 8am by the sound of tyres crunching the gravel. I popped my head round the corner of my shelter and saw Dan trundling past in his little truck. Someone had obviously caught a good fish and I really hoped it was Alan. Alan works for Korda and has had a good week catching a forty, a couple of thirties and several twenties. I joked with Alan at dinner the previous evening, that he was hoping the next one would be a fifty. It turns out it was; 57.5lb mirror to be exact and a fish known as Fudgy’s. What a way to finish.

I sat by my rods till 9am and decided to catapult a few baits on top of my hook baits position. Last night I stuck with tigers on one rod, and put a 26mm Monster Tiger Nut boilie on the other rod. Minutes after I sat down on my chair, I saw the tip on this particular rod (I am only fishing with two) knock and then start to bend. I was on the rod in a flash and pulled the fish away from danger before it knew what was going on. The fish then woke up and put the power on. It moved to my right and stayed out as far as it could. Occasionally I gave line and a good battle commenced. It turned out to be the best scrap from all the Tree Line carp I have caught. John Lilley appeared on a bike, so he stopped and offered to net the carp. It was a full ten minutes before the carp was spotted, kiting on the surface to my left. It was trying to get back to the snags so I applied a little pressure and turned the fish back towards me. I was now making progress but stayed patient. I could feel the fish was tiring and it suddenly appeared in front of John who netted the fish first time. Cheers Lil!

I went through the usual drill. I collapsed the net and slid the Venture sling underneath it in the water, before lifting the fish onto the unhooking mat. The hook hold was spot on. The weight was 36.5lb and it is a carp Danny Fairbrass caught last November at 37lb. It is aptly named Chocolate Orange due to the large scale on its left flank. John did the honours with my camera and the fish was returned, strong as an ox! It was a good way to finish my Tree Line session.

A great Tree Line battle!

My first carp for Dynamite Baits.

Saturday is a new week at Gigantica and this week there are ten anglers on the lake. A draw was done for swims and somehow I managed to draw no 1 again! I drew last out of the bag too. I picked a swim known as Alcatraz. I could have stayed in the Tree Line swim, but I do want to catch fish from other swims and also from open water. There is a nice feature in this swim; a plateau about 95 yards out. Fishing in front of the plateau at about 80-85 yards has done quite well recently, so this is probably the plan I will adopt. I do still have a lot of preparation to do for Madine, and fishing in this swim, means I can still get things done whilst I fish. I am now going to fish only with the Monster Tiger Nut boilies; with 20mm and 26mm being the sizes. I will probably fish 26mm bottom baits on two rods and a snowman consisting of a 20mm bottom bait and a pop-up to match on my third rod.

Charley's with her new food sponsor; Adam!

Finally a small thank you to Adam. Adam is Alan’s son and he has befriended Charley this week. I think Charley has secretly been missing Flash (although she won’t admit it). He has been giving her morsels of food every meal time, and plenty of strokes and fuss. Being such a greedy dog, it would not surprise me if she is now missing Adam more than she has missed Flash!!

Back on Monday with more news from Gigantica.

Jake & the dogs.

Good Afternoon.

I finished off yesterday’s post with a tempting footnote….I had caught another five carp from the Tree Line swim. Here are the details of those caught carp!

It was Dan’s 36th birthday on the 15th so he cooked a huge BBQ and a few people came over to help him celebrate the occasion. I wandered back to my swim at around 7.30pm keen to get the rods out. I have a feeling that giving the swim a rest is not a bad thing in the Tree Line. Carp always like to stack up in the area when it is hot, and I am sure the lack of lines in the water for a few hours helps to ease their suspicions! It certainly seemed to do the trick and over the next 12 hours I had five takes. Four from the close range rod and one from the middle rod. All the fish were caught on the plastic corn and tiger combo and although none of the fish were huge, they were all pretty fish. The biggest was a 30lb mirror, very heavily scaled, and a real hard fighter. The other carp were all in the 18-25lb bracket.

Gigantica contains some monster sized carp, but there are also plenty of other carp swimming around, that are some of the prettiest fish that I have come across on my European carpy travels. Many of the fish look like they should be in a well known UK water, going by the name of Frimley!! Fully scaled fish, linears, and other heavily scaled specimens. In fact there are so many of these wonderfully scaled carp in Gigantica, you almost start to take their looks for granted. I have started to wonder just how many waters there are in France that hold such a wide variety of good looking Carp? I think Mr Fairbrass has a goldmine in his hands with this water, and it can only get better with age.

A nice looking linear caught at 8pm.

At 9pm...30lb of awesome looking carp!!!!!

5.30am close range action!

7am and Charley doesn't look too sure about this one!

9am and the fifth carp of the spree!

I think you will agree they are lovely looking fish! I gave the swim till 1.30pm and then sensed that was it for the day. The weather got very hot, very quickly, so I made my way to the lodge. Dan then suggested we have a fishing match for the small stuff, so it was game on! We picked our swims, close to each other, and the tiddler bashing match commenced. We fished for about 2 hours through the searing heat and both caught a fair few roach, rudd and bream. Dan was just out of sight, but within earshot and throughout the two hour competition, I could hear his running commentary of how he was reeling in “another 4lb bream”, and “another 3lb roach”. In fact he was doing this with every 4oz roach he caught to try and fool me into thinking his keepnet was bulging!! In the end when he claimed he was having to backwind because he might have hooked a carp, I had to go and watch. What a wind up merchant!  The carp was in fact a small bream, and his keepnet actually looked quite empty (okay Dan…there was about 20lbs of fish in it). I won the ‘imaginary’ prize of an all expenses paid trip to Barbados, paid for by the loser, and between us we bagged over 60lb of fish between us in just over two hours ’swimfeeder’ fishing. My winning tactic was to use monster sized pieces of maize on a size 16 hook. Simple yet so effective, as the 4 or 5 slab sized bream that I nailed, proved.

By the evening time the weather had cooled a little and it looked like we were in for a storm. I got the rods back out and settled down for the night. I had a funny feeling it wasn’t going to happen last night, but then you never know? A storm is sometimes great for big fish, and I hoped someone would catch one. Also on the lake at the moment is a Dutch couple; Rene and Jacqui, and obviously the ‘Turtle’! Rene caught a lovely 43lb common on his first night and Jacqui lost one, from The Alamo swim, but neither of them have receieved any more action since moving on the wind to a swim called the Alcatraz.

I was sticking to two rods fished with tigers, and one rod on a snowman boilie set up. This was the third night I have fished this rod to the same spot along the tree line, and last night I put about 150 boilies accurately along the overhanging bushes in the water, where the rod is cast too. I fell asleep as the storm built; flashes of lightning lit up the sky and heavy rumbles of thunder echoed in the distance. At 1.30am whilst dreaming, a few bleeps alerted me to a take. It was my rod and the boilie rod too. I srambled off my bedchair in the dark and picked the rod up. I went into autopilot and hooped the rod to my right. The fish felt so strong and it almost wrenched the rod from my grasp. It felt like a bull on the other end, and it was crashing through every plate in the china shop!! The hook quickly pulled as I held on for dear life. It was all over as soon as it had begun. I propped the rod against the bivvy and climbed back into bed. Giving line was not an option, the loss is just par the course of this kind of snag fishing. Surprisingly I was not even disappointed as I knew I did my best and when it goes your way, it goes your way. When it doesn’t what can you do, but try again!

In the morning I wandered up to see how the others had faired. Jacqui caught her first Gigantica carp. A lovely 27.5lb mirror. She was so happy. Jacqui has only just started carp fishing! Dan caught a 42lb mirror, but unfortunately he also lost a ‘very big carp’. He claims it is the biggest fish he has hooked since he has been here…..??!

I have two nights left to try to get the fish I am after, that’s  two more nights of tense carping. I will leave you with the two knots I promised to show you and see you all tomorrow.

Hybrid Stiff.

To tie a loop in your Hybrid Stiff hooklink

This knot is incredibly simple. Just tie two overhand knots and gently pull tight, preferably over the steam from a kettle, or underwater to keep maximum knot strength.

Tie one overhand knot around a cylinder shaped tool.

Tie a second overhand knot on top of the first.

Wet it and gently pull tight.

Trim the tag end.

Slip on a tail end rubber.

Slide over the knot, and then over your kwik-link to prevent tangles.

Tying to a ring swivel.

This is the other simple knot, that Co showed me for tying the Hybrid Stiff to a ring swivel. It works on grip and tension on the actual hook link material. It is very important to lay the tag end to the side when you gently pull it all tight.

Pass tag end through once.

And now a second time, creating a small loop.

Take the tag end round the hooklink material and then back through the small loop like so.

Pull it tight gently, keeping the tag end held to the side.

Trim the end!

Tied and ready for use with my 360 rig.

As with all knots, practise first! Only use them once you are confident you are tying them correctly and they look right. If in doubt, cut it off and start again.

And finally, if you missed yesterday’s post check out http://thebigcarphunter.com/2009/07/16/the-tree-line-swim-has-not-disappointed/ for some more lovely looking Gigantica carp, including a 43lb common.

Cheers.

Jake & the dogs.

Good Afternoon.

Firstly sorry for the delayed post. It is just as well I am going home next week, and buying a new laptop. Yesterday I had issues with my proxy settings, so the day was spent trying different places to get a connection and it proved unsuccessful. It was very frustrating. Anyway here it is and better late than never!

After a quick check on the weather forecast yesterday afternoon and judging by the warmth in the air, it looked like the predicted blue skies and sunshine was definitely on its way. The wind had eased and I had also spotted a few carp in the tree line area. I said I might stay for one more night in the Big Southerly swim, but it was make or break decision time. I have said before that packing up is not really a major hassle, so in less than an hour I was trundling round to the Tree Line swim in my van, and was unloading the gear. I could already feel the tension building up as I got my rods ready. I do believe this maybe my favourite swim that I have fished at, anywhere in my travels to date. That might sound an odd statement considering some of the beautiful, windswept and expansive waters, surrounded by stunning mountain backdrops, but it is the sheer excitement of fishing this kind of swim. The action is explosive, it comes without any warning, you have to hold on for dear life, and once you get the fish clear from the snaggy area, you pretty much can breathe a sigh of relief as you know you’re nearly home and dry. Was the building tension an anti-climax or did the first night back in the Tree Line swim deliver the action I was craving so much?

My first task was to get all my rods rigged up and ready. Since my previous encounter last week, with a couple of very powerful leviathans that broke my hook link before I even had a chance to pick up the rod, off its rest; I had been mulling over a way to fight back. Last week I said I was upping my hook link to the 50lb Arma-Cord, but over the last few days and nights whilst sitting around thinking about the ones that got away, I came up with a plan. I have been fishing a braid main line, tied to an Arma-Cord shock leader. Pretty heavy stuff, but this fishing demands bully boy tactics. It is only the ‘really’ close range rod that I have suffered the two breaks on, and I really don’t like losing fish, especially when they get left with a hook in their mouths. I needed to come up with a better method of safely extracting the carp from its den. I realised the problem lay in the braid and choice of shock leader. There is absolutely no give in either and combined with my powerful Mamba XT rods, I guess something had to give, and it was the weakest link. I needed to allow the fish a little legroom and myself the chance to pick up the rod before anything broke. A tough mono shock leader was obviously the answer. This would give me a little stretch but not too much. The range I am fishing is probably only 30 yards, so it seemed the easiest option to fish a leader all the way through, and this is exactly what I have done. You might say that surely the fish stands no chance against this approach, but believe me, the power I have witnessed leaves me in no doubt that this is the safest way to fish for these creatures at such close range. The only reason people generally use low diameter lines, subtle hook links and small hooks are because they are worried about presentation on pressured waters. When you are fishing in snag territory, the fish is probably more relaxed because it is in an environment it feels safe in. I think these fish are much more likely to fall foul of a tempting hook bait as a result.  

One other thing I have really looked into is my choice of knots; not only for my hook link but also to join my main line or shockleader to my Safe Zone leaders. I am taking this type of fishing very seriously and I was looking for knots that would give me almost 100% strength. Fortunately, yesterday, a guy called Co from Belgium popped into Gigantica to see Danny T and also to fish for a few days. Co is very well known on the International carp show circuit and does the Korda stands. He is a ‘real’ knot expert! You are never too young or old to learn something new and you would be a fool not to take help when it is offered on a plate. I asked Co for some advice on knots and he showed me three knots to use. One was to tie your loop and the one was to tie on a ring swivel. I practised these new knots myself and once I was sure I was tying them correctly, I was then absolutely confident I was using the right product with the right kind of knot. Two of these knots I was shown by Co are specifically for use with the Korda Hybrid Stiff. I have total faith in this product, but the only ‘real’ problem I have noticed with it, is people tie unsuitable knots for its use. I guess I was falling slightly into that category. I was under the impression that a figure of eight knot was okay for my loop knot; apparently not it seems!! In fact Co explained that a very simple overhand knot tied twice is actually the strongest knot for loops with Hybrid Stiff. I know Dan T uses small crimps with this product and Korda are in fact about to launch some crimps to add to their range of terminal tackle. I suppose in some ways your knots don’t always get the true test, especially when fishing at long range as no real pressure is put on them. Close range snag fishing for monster sized carp is the real test and I can vouch for that 100%! In tomorrow’s post I shall show you in detail, with photographs, the knots Co tied up for me.

I was all set then. I had my new line of attack for the close range rod, my new ‘Co’ knots and a strong shock leader fished all the way through. It was time to cast out and see if it all worked. I did a couple of test casts, gradually getting closer to the spots I was aiming for and then clipped up and marked my lines with a black permanent pen. Satisfied with everything I got them finally into position and then got busy sorting out the rest of my camp. I put the bivvy up, and started to assemble my mossie net. I use a real net and tie it to the open door of my bivvy with a suitable material. This time I chose some braid! The reason I like to use a real net, is I find it easier to get out of, should I have a take. There is no door to unzip and I can rip it down quickly if it is a real, emergency take, situation. The time was now 8.30pm; I was just tying the last section of netting and actually thinking “How nice it would be, if I got a take right now!” The unthinkable happened and I did! I was on the rod so quickly and the fish was trying to dive deep into the snags. I applied side strain by holding the rod as far to my right as possible. I felt the fish kick a few times; it suddenly crashed in the overhanging bushes, and then glided away from the danger area on the surface. It was a lovely sight and my plan had worked so far. The take was savage but the extra spring in the shock leader had prevented any breakages.

A fish known as 'Wouldn't Say No'!!

A nice start to the night!

The fish put up a good display of strength and stayed on the top throughout the whole fight. I could see it was a lovely scaly mirror and a decent sized fish to start off the proceedings. It is always a relief to get a fish so soon in the session, and I let out a little “yea hah” as she surrendered to the net. 32lb 4oz was the weight; I did some quick self takes and slipped her back. It was now starting to get dark, so I recast the rod back into the opening in the bushes, and got some dinner on. After all the moving, setting up and knot lessons, I was exhausted and hungry! After eating I had to get my head down. I could not keep my eyes peeled on the rod tips any longer so at about 11pm that’s just what I did.

Now when I fished this swim before I had no positive takes at night. I had a couple of twitches but nothing substantial. I had drifted off to sleep which was difficult as I did not want to close my tired eyes. At 12.30 am I heard a couple of bleeps. I looked and saw the bobbin tight to the rod and the tip was wrenching towards the tree line. I literally jumped off the bed, through the mossie net and managed to grab the rod. It was the close range one again! I grabbled with the fish in the dark, and this one came free fairly easily. I could feel it kiting to my right in the dark, and listened for my other alarms to see if it had cleared my other lines. It did! You can’t use backleads here, as you will have too much slack line for the fish to charge off with. I moved to my right to a spot five yards away from the swim. It is a flat area ideal for playing and landing a fish, and it means you can draw the fish away from your other rods so the battle at close quarters can be done more easily. This fish was a dogged character and I guessed it was a smaller specimen. A common of about 18lbs lay in the net. I very carefully unhooked the exhausted fighter in the shallow water in the net and let him go free. Two out of two, my plan was working well.

My tiger set up using the 360 rig with a size 2 Korda Kurve!

I recast the rod back into the clearing in the bushes. Using my mark on the line I clipped up, put a PVA nugget on the hook, and punched the cast low and hard. The cast to his spot is actually quite tricky. There is a tree in the edge, and a couple of skinny branches hang in the way. The cast has to be done very accurately and very low. There is no way to cast other than over the small spindly branch. The line then has to be flicked off this branch once the rig has landed on its spot. It is something I have practised and I normally get it right within two casts. This cast went in the hole first time of asking. I admired the splash in the dark with my head torch. I was well happy with the end result. I placed the rod in the rests carefully, tightening up, but not too much. If you over tighten you pull the lead off the gravelly ledge. You can feel the lead dropping down inch by inch, so the trick is to tighten till you feel the slightest bit of resistance and then leave it be! I am also clipping up to give me an extra half second of time if a take comes and the bobbins are set at the top of their travel.

I sat and watched the rods for a while in the dark. The time was approaching 1.25am. It was time to hit the bag again, but before I made it off my chair, a few bleeps had me reaching for my middle rod. The rod slammed round and dropped back, but on picking the rod up I could feel a weight on the end and it was going in the other direction fast! I stood solid to the spot and heaved the rod sideways. I felt the carp budge and move forward, and the side strain took effect. It then turned and slowly came towards me. I looked at my other lines in the water and watched as the fish kited towards one of them. It was under the line of my third rod so I leant down and passed the rod underneath it and then walked to my landing spot, carefully lifting the rod and line clear of the rushes to my right. The carp plodded around slowly and after five minutes I saw a pale shape under the surface. It tried to dive down, so I turned my rod to one side and prevented it having any more line. It slowly surfaced and flopped around on the top as I inched it towards the outstretched net. In she went! 33lbs was the weight of carp number three and a stunning looking fish too. As I unhooked it I also noticed it was trailing another line and the small silver hook was caught in its neck. I unhooked the odd looking rig and I have to say that I have never seen blue braided hook link material before!!

Long, lean, hard fighting machine.

What a mess and trailing from the fish!

By the time I had done some self takes and got everything done and dusted the time was 4am. I was exhausted and I fell on my bed. Not surprisingly I soon fell asleep, but in what seemed like seconds was woken by a single bleep. I rolled over and looked at the blue latching led on my ATT. It went out and I rolled back over. A minute later it beeped again. I repeated the process! Another minute passed and then a few bleeps signalled the take. The rod tip was starting to pull round hard and I leapt off the bed and grabbed the rod as it reached its full curve. The fish came away from the tree line quite easily. I presumed it must be a smaller fish and watched it as it kited on the top. My lead release system is working really well, and in this kind of fishing it is so essential to your success. The price of a lead is a small price to pay for a landed fish, or worse than that, a lost carp that is trailing a 5oz lead around!?

A good reliable lead release method.

I played the fish watching the sun rise. It was a lovely feeling although the tiredness slightly ruined the occasion!! Through bleary eyes I watched as a common carp turned over on the surface. I estimated thirties as I netted her. I then looked again! Width, depth and length equal more than thirty pounds! This was definitely a forty for sure! I carried the fish from the water in the net, which I had first put inside the retaining sling for safety. It makes carrying the fish more comfortable as you can use the handles on the sling. I gently placed her on the unhooking mat and admired my catch. What a gorgeous common. I have been lucky with common carp and this is no 11 over the 40lb mark, since I started my trip last February. My biggest being 50lb 8oz caught in Italy. I now just need one more 40+ carp to break my fifty 40’s barrier. Come on number 50!!

Common carp don't get much better than this!

My new tactic is working.

I weighed the golden scaled lump and 43lbs was recorded. 19.5kg in European weights, but the fact it did not make 20kg mattered not. It was a great looking fish. I slipped her into the retention sling and put her in the water. I wanted some assistance with the photos, and knew someone would be up very soon. Dan Turtle is always on call if you catch a 40+ at Gigantica and can be summoned at any time during the night. As it was first light I decided to capitalise on the run of action and got the rod back out. I catapulted a few pouches of tigers to my near spots and settled down into my chair and got the kettle on. I decided to give it till 7am and then I would go and get a picture taker for my common.

I don’t know whether it’s greed or the hunter in me, but I wanted another carp and a bigger one. I was thinking it would be great if I got a fifty now and I had to go and get Dan to photograph both. Imagine a 43lb’er in the retention sling and a big fifty in the landing net. What a perfect start to the day. Suddenly, the recast close range rod absolutely smashed round in a tight curve. The rod tip was pulling tighter and tighter by the nanosecond as I reached for the handle. I stood up with the rod in one movement and jumped to my side. The fish felt very heavy and pulled me back towards the tree line. This was an extremely powerful carp! I held on for dear life as it pulled harder and harder. I felt something knock and had that awful feeling something was going to give, and one of us was going to end up the loser! Unfortunately it was me! The line went slack and I reeled back in my defeated line. To my surprise my Safe Zone leader had cut on something. My knots had obviously done their job and my shock leader material stood the test of all tests. There was obviously something sharp under the surface and the Safe Zone leader could take no more! I suppose you could say that was one battle you could call a fair loss and four out of five carp isn’t anything to grumble about.

Did I lose the fifty I had been thinking about; possibly, possibly not? The 43 I caught came in quite easily, compared to the two smaller thirties. It was quite conceivable that it was a long torpedo mirror with a huge rudder, but also it could have been a big fat mirror that I hope to catch at some point this week. I have a few days left to achieve my Gigantica dream and bank a 50+ carp. Ideally one of the mirror strains with the small head and large shoulders. Keep reading to see if I achieve my mission!!

NB I am going to start videoing my remaining time in the Tree Line swim, in the daytime, to hopefully capture a savage carp take, live on film. It really has to be done, and I am sure it will make for enjoyable and explosive viewing should it happen. If I manage to successfully get one, I will post it on the blog in due course. I will also go and film the big Gigantica carp in their snaggy quarters at some point this week. When you see these, I guarantee you will be reaching for the Angling Lines telephone number or website address to book a place to fish here in the future. If you’re very lucky you may pull out number one in the peg draw and get a chance to fish in the Tree Line swim. If you do though be afraid, be very afraid, as it can be nail biting stuff and you probably won’t get a wink of sleep all week!

Footnote: As this post is delayed I shall just let you know…I have caught another 5 carp from the Tree Line swim since writing this post yesterday…you will have to come back tomorrow to find out what exactly!!

Catch you tomorrow.

Jake & the dogs.