World Carp Classic - Offical Global Website
Lake Bolsena 3rd - 9th September 2012

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.