From hooks to books

This is the greatest show; ‘Cause everything you want is right in front of you; And you see the impossible is coming true; This is the greatest show!

Here I am ringside at The Big One in Farnborough, surrounded by angling gear and anglers.

Roach poles and rods reach to the ceiling, the smell of exotic new boilies tempt you and the occasional buzz of an alarm on test has you on edge.

But the overwhelming sense is noise, the chatter of anglers in all shapes and sizes clad in carpy greens and adorned with logos of their favourite brand imparting and gathering information.

Gathering info was my objective for the day – plus not spending too much money!

First up was searching the show room for a new bivvy. As I wondered between manufacturers I located other prime targets; Julian Cundiff on the Nash stand, Adam Penning at Prologic, and Terry Hearn of ESP on the main stage at 3pm.

Having looked at a number of bivvy’s across a wide price range with varying hydrostatic heads and extras or not as the case may be, I settled on the JRC One Man Defender Peak, which has a stack of features plus it would compliment my stealth bedchair and compact barrow also from JRC. Review to follow this summer.

Next up Julian Cundiff. The main reason was to thank him for always replying to tweets and generally being a top bloke. And true to form he was a top bloke, putting me right on rigs and presentations (always a pop-up or wafter). His views on keeping things simple were straightforward and refreshingly lacked the usual heavy product promotion. Amazingly he did not try to sell me ANY Nash gear!! Having said that I think I will try the bait screws Julian uses.

Target two was Adam Penning, and as with Julian, he is one of the few anglers on social media where the conversation is not one way. I wanted a copy of his book and in buying that we had a quick chat and a laugh about some of his tweets and our exchanges. Also l came away with an email address for a possible tutorial in the further – invaluable.

Last but not least, Terry Hearn on the main stage and it was wonderful to hear his talk and, for a moment, share his enthusiasm hunting down and catching a carp.

The carp in question was called ‘The Slippery Old Seal’ and Terry took us in an angling journey that start in 2009 when he first walked the lake.

The lake in question was small had two carp (little and large) and suffered from poor water quality and blanket duck weed during the year.

He first fishing it in 2012 but was not ‘officially’ there and on one session fishing 21 nights in an island without a bite!

He did catch the Small Common in three occasions (first in 2015) but after each capture the spot died. Switching to casters, as in Tunnel Vision, they delicately settle in the weed looking super nature plus hemp (the surface oil stopped the weed closing in), it was a case of waiting for the Common to finish before he could place the hair rigged rubber casters.

This perfectly illustrates his dedication and determination to find a solution to unlock this particular carp puzzle and land the big one – The Slippery Old Seal – and sure enough as apples is apples it was caught in March 2017 at 43lb.

A wonderful carpy tale and told by an individual, who, if he does not make you want to fish nothing will – so go and you will see the impossible coming true!

Tightlines and chorus line!