Arnold

Field Tester

0

After three years of taking part in the World Carp Classic at Lac de Madine, without even catching a carp, this time we had the good fortune to draw a swim in a section that had fish in front of it - PV TV 15. When we extracted the pot for our order number on stage, 157 of 160, my morale was low, but at the same time I was happy for the other PV TV team, who extracted peg number 3. I never thought that in those last 4 remaining places there would be one that would give us a chance of catching.

The first day we searched in the area in front of us and found some good spots. There were areas of abundant vegetation on the bottom, which rose in some places from 4 meters deep to 7 meters. We looked for places where there was little or no vegetation and found three promising areas with depths of: 5.4 meters, 6.6 meters and 7.2 meters at 160, 180 and 200 meters distance from the shore.

The nightfall and the rain caught us out on the lake. The other teams already had their rods positioned and by now they were enjoying a glass of wine or beer, under the umbrellas. We positioned our rods and started with two types of bait and waited for the miracle. Yes, the MIRACLE!  After 3-years of silence on Madine, it finally came…at six o'clock in the morning. After a strong run our FIRST FISH had come in the form of a beautiful 7kg common. We had so much joy in caching this fish, our first carp in the WCC! That fish came from the spot with 7.2 meters depth and, in fact, it was to be the only place that produced fish for us until the end of the competition.

We started with three types of bait. A critically balanced tiger nut, boilies with a high protein content (usually used in speedy contests in Romania and Hungary) and carbohydrate based boilies - creamy flavor, sweet and light colored. The bait was from our sponsor, SBS Tactical Bait Products, who I would like to say many thanks to on this special occasion.

We tested the newly developed SBS Premium C1 bait, and it brought the trophy into our hands. From 2013 it will be available for everyone!

Two nice commons and three happy anglers

The last bait was the one that brought the trophy into our hands. From the first to the last fish, it was caught with this bait. During the day we used pop ups (zig rig) and during the night we fished on the bottom. I think the fish move a lot in this lake and it takes a lot of energy to keep it moving further and cyclical. So I think that they preferred a food-based on carbohydrates. We were informed by some fishermen from Hungary who visited Bolsena a month earlier, that it is not good to feed with small seeds because of the tench (tinca tinca), so we only took tiger nuts and hard boilies with us.

Let’s discuss a little bit about our equipments and end-tackle. We used Nash Entity 3.60 3.5 lbs rods, which were very good for this kind of fishing, with Daiwa Infinity 5500 reels. For the main line we used braid from PB Products, the 0.26 Gatorbraid 2-Tone. For the last 20 meters we used a very clear monofilament also from PB Products – Shield. The end-tackle was a combination of: Nash 1.50 m Leader Diffusion Camo (very good for this clear water), 300 gr. Lead and Anti Eject no. 4 tied with 20 cm. of Mussel 2-Tone braid both from PB Products. A big thanks to our sponsors!

Good combination for the deep water fighters

PB's products end tackle, providing solutions any-time, anywhere

The sharp end – these hooks did the business for us      

We focused all of the rods around this area and the fish came at the same points each day. There were groups of fish that had a periodic movement on well defined routes. In the morning, between 6:00 - 6:30 o’clock we had 2-3 fish. Then in the afternoon, around 15:00, 3 more carp, and then between 20:00-20:30 o’clock, 3-4 others but during the night, nothing.

Because so many carp were caught around the lake during the first few days, data collection and processing of the catch reports was very slow and this meant that the teams were slow to be informed about the latest results. Other Romanian teams were in leading positions in their sections, which we were pleased to hear, and we continued to do our job as best we could.

A big change in the weather did it for us…On the Thursday night right through Friday, we caught over 150 kg of carp. Strong winds blew into our section and that brought the fish from other areas in front of us. We caught fish outside of the regular hours and, that evening, we caught the biggest fish of the contest, a beautiful Bolsena carp of 22.5 kg.

Shiny happy people

On the Friday morning we were informed that we were in first place overall and that we had quite a significant lead over the other teams. In total 307 kg. Then from the Friday morning until the end on Saturday morning came a 24-hour nightmare. The wind stopped, the sun shone and with it came the heat. We caught fish at the usual times, only instead of two or three fish we had only one, and in the intervals, well known, we had nothing. We were stressed out by the end of the contest as we had only three more carp on the mat and had accumulated 329.9 kg.

Ross arrived in our swim to give the final signal of the competition and then, it was over. That was the moment when, even though we did not dare to think it, I realized that we may have won. Maybe, just maybe? Then, YESSSSSSSS!! Ross congratulated us informally and informed us that we were the winners of the World Carp Classic 2012.

When Ross informed us that we had won, we took a bath!

For me, it was a dream come true!  We had won World Carp Classic! I would like to congratulate all of the participating teams and the section winners, but also spare a thought for those who had no chance to catch a carp. I know very well how it is.

One of the greatest moments we ever had

A dream came true

A great moment at the SBS stand a few weeks ago with Zoltan Kovacs, owner of SBS, and Ross Honey the founder of World Carp Classic

We are delighted to say that in the near future, we will publish an article with a video about our carp fishing experiences where we will share some of our tips and tricks. We will also tell you more about the new SBS products - available from the New Year - that we used during the World Carp Classic at Bolsena.

By: Peter Micula