It Never Rains But It Pours

…And The Carp Gods Smile On Me Yet Again!

If you’re thinking I’m going to make some grandiose announcement of some monster fish having been taken… you’d be wrong.  The title of this blog may appear a tad misleading, but I’m referring to probably the biggest capture of my life.  Not a carp, but a veritable treasure trove of carp kit!

I’m posting this on my mobile blogging station, which is a Dell Inspiron Mini 10″ Netbook, purchased for this trip.  Not only to keep in contact with family and fishing mates, and social networks etc, but more so for giving eBay UK a proper mullering, to aquire all the hardware required for the World Carp Classic.  I had anticipated a long and grueling task of bidding, hopefully winning auctions, and then having to drive all over the SE of England to collect the second-hand items of kit I’d won.  But all this has been solved in one foul swoop!

Before I left Oz I had arranged to meet up with some of the guys from the thinkingCarp forum, who were having a match (The Carp Cup), on the Specimen Lake at the Hawkhurst Fish Farm (last Sunday the 18th July).  When reading about my logistical problems of bringing  kit from Oz, one of the TC members, Stuart Griffiths, very kindly offered to loan me a few items.  By accepting his generous offer gave me the opportunity to put faces to names of some of these fellow forum members at the venue too.

My brother Roland (AKA Disaster Caster) drove me over there from our Canterbury base, and we had no dramas in locating them at the lake, (they were the camo clad gnomes with bivvies), well easy to spot! .  After we stood for a while chatted in Stuart’s swim, admiring his impressive spread of kit, he then took us over to his van (the tackle transporter) and began unloading the gear he’d brought for me.

It’s not often that I’m lost for words, but I was gobsmacked when Stuart started handing over all these goodies. To a minimalistic mobile angler like me, this was the equivalent of the carp crown jewels being placed at my feet.  The haul included a pair of 12′ 6″ Daiwa Infinity 3.5lb tc carp rods, two Shimano 10000 XTE Baitrunners, a stainless steel pod fitted with ATT buzzers, a 50″ landing net, Nash digital scales, and a swimming pool sized unhooking mat!!!  Both DC and I were astounded, and our humble thanks to Stuart seemed so insignificant in face of his overwhelming generosity to our cause.

But it didn’t end there, as we bade farewell to the TC lads and headed up to Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells to have lunch with long time fishing buddy Vince Palmer.  We’ve been the best of mates since 1973, and there is no one else who I’ve had so many laughs with at the waterside than him.

Vince had also offered to loan me some kit, and had said we could have a look though his stuff and take what we needed.  After a beautiful lunch with his family we struggled to load up DC’s Picasso with another pile of borrowed gear.  This included two bivvies, two bedchairs, rod holdall, backpack, 3 X Grey’s F1 Mk2 12″ 3.5 tc rods, and 3 X Daiwa Infinity reels, bivvy table and a massive quantity of terminal tackle!  My god, what can you say?

I remarked to DC on the way back to Canterbury “I wonder if I would be treated as kindly if I was involved with a sport other than carp fishing?”  I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that through my undying passion for carping, I have made lifelong friendships, travelled the world, and seen things in nature that the average couch potato would never experience.  Oh… and caught a few lumps too!

I’ll just close off this blog by sincerely thanking Stuart and Vince on behalf of our team, CC Moore AUS, for all this amazing help.  Which has removed a massive millstone of stress from my shoulders early on in the lead up to our historic World Carp Classic entry.  In times like these it’s refreshing to know that there are still some really decent people like Stuart and Vince about… kudos to the both of them.

Lastly, I would also like to thank Platypus Fishing Line in Brisbane Australia for their donation of bulk spools of line, t-shirts and hats etc, that Ben was given on Monday.

Happy hippo hunting

Niblet

Technorati Tags: Hawkhurst Fish Farm, Platypus Fishing Line, Stuart Griffiths, thinkingCarp.com, Vince Palmer