World Carp Classic - Offical Global Website
Lake Bolsena 3rd - 9th September 2012
| Leon Hoogendijk article |
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| Written by pam | |||
| Wednesday, 28 January 2009 12:02 | |||
 It was in 2006 when, as co-editor of the French magazine Carpe Scène as well as the biggest fish sponsor, I officially became involved in the World Carp Classic. The place was the legendary Orient and I knew the fishing was going to be hard! I’d already visited the event as a spectator a few years earlier on Lake Madine but this time I was able to experience the mighty event both in the field and behind the scenes. I found out how much work this means for the organisation team and looking at the way everything worked out, I can tell you that Ross and his team did a fantastic job!
In 2007 the event took place again on the Orient and the fishing wasn’t any easier… Organising the WCC on the Orient the previous year hadn’t been easy for Ross and his team but this time everything worked out so smoothly that it was close to perfection! It was a great event and the fact that a French pair won the match helped to make the event very popular in France. As a result we got hundreds of positive reactions from our readers after publishing the full story in our magazine!
Leon Hoogendijk
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But as a journalist writing for the biggest French specialist carp magazine I was even more concerned about the fishing itself and to say I was excited about that is an understatement! Personally I don’t like the usual carp fishing competitions because most of the time there are too many restrictions to call it real carp fishing, however the WCC on the Orient was a different story. A big lake, a small population of big fish and hard fishing conditions, but boats being allowed, helped in a big way in turning the fishing into real hardcore carp fishing and specimen hunting, in other words the way I like fishing for carp! The other nice thing was that most of the competitors were very nice people and good anglers, and amongst them were quite a number of personal friends too. Needless to say from then on I didn’t want to miss a single edition and I told Ross I’d be back the following year!
For the 10th anniversary of the WCC in 2008 the Orient wasn’t available because of the decennial drainage so Ross decided to take it back to Lake Madine, and what a good move that turned out to be! You know the story; you’ve seen all the pictures of those fantastic big fish that were caught in the magazines and on the website. In terms of big fish being caught the WCC 2008 entered into the history books and so a new question rises: can we hope it to be even better this year? The answer is yes. If the conditions are right and the fish are feeding, definitely yes! And to reach that target this year Ross and his team offer more bank space to the competitors with new parts of the lake being fished for the very first time, so we can definitely expect a lot of good surprises! Looking back at the 2008 results and bearing in mind the improved quality of fishing, due to more bank space and new areas being fished this year, the 2009 edition of the World Carp Classic is probably going to be one of the most exiting carp matches ever in history! I’m happy and proud to be there as an official media partner and to be able to offer 6 beautiful big-lake carp rods to the pair of anglers who catch the biggest fish…which could turn out to be a real monster! I wish good luck to all the competitors and may the best ones win the match!
