Angling Articles

Hey there, and welcome back to Angling Articles!

This week’s issue is a good one — our very own Joe takes us along on his fishing trip to Italy, a proper adventure we’re calling The Italian Job. From stunning lakes to some seriously strong Italian carp, Joe’s got stories (and photos!) that’ll make you want to pack your rods and hit the road.

And because it’s that time of year… our Halloween Sale is live! Grab your favourite Summit Tackle gear at some scary-good prices while you can.

So, get comfy, pour yourself a brew, and dive into another issue full of fishing tales, top tackle, and the unbeatable spirit of the Summit Tackle crew.

The Italian Job!

This was a trip me and my brother had in the pipeline for over two years, it came as a suggestion from him as he had told me all about the success he had from previous trips, with carp well over the 30kg mark I had to get amongst the action!

We arrived at the airport in good time, packing super light including all the terminal tackle for the week, pods, alarms, hookbaits, scales, slings etc. We had to be strategic with the gear as we could only bank on 20kg each. Sometimes it feels your taking that for a 48-hour session!

Having touched down in Italy we was greeted by the glorious sunshine and my brother’s good friend, we started talking all things carp and what we could expect for the week ahead

Once we got to the lake I was overwhelmed by the place, a proper carp haven! We had a swim with mountains as the backdrop so was everything you could wish for to plot up for a week; we quickly unpacked and got out in the boat provided and began scanning the lakebed for any signs of ‘carpy spots’.

There was plenty of good features, huge sunken trees and even an old barge boat which was crazy to think how it ended up in there. Was crazy to think of these snags as if we was back home, they would of been cleaned out, but it added a sense of wild to the place. Made us even more confident the carp would be visiting us soon enough…

The first night saw little action, I had my first bite of the trip which was a lovely clean 30lb common around 4-5am which gave me confidence for the week ahead as this came from a rod out in open water where we had seen them showing like crazy throughout the previous afternoon.

Into the next day we had more time on our hands to really scope the lake this time, making sure we had the rigs 100% on the money, which we had and knew it was only a matter of time before they started producing, my 2nd bite was a fantastic mirror, clean as you like and with amazing scale patterns, not one of the biggest in the water but really good looking and full of character.

After we had a few bites each we had a dry spell of around 36 hours, which made us think we need to reset and clear our heads as the doubt was starting to sink in...

Having gone to the local supermarket and re-stocked our supplies for the next few days we came back and re-done the rods, going into the evening we were confident this had done us the world of good as they start to show around an hour or so after the big reset.
This was now when it all came good…as my brother landed a fantastic mirror, slate grey in colour and touching 49lb but what followed was mind blowing, I had a bite that felt heavy, solid pulls on the rod tip I knew it was something special, as I got it closer in my brother said ‘ yeah it’s a Gooden!’ not just any Gooden but went to a new PB of 42lbs. I was over the moon as this was what we had come for, I never like to be too greedy in my angling, the 40lb mark was a goal.

Within resetting the rod, no more than half an hour had passed when I had another bite, I couldn’t believe my luck, to surpass the 40lb mark and straight into this magnificent 53lb mirror I was completely speechless by this point! But this what’s so mad about fishing, you never know when it can produce for you, as we was triple checking each rig was presented right it paid off, I always remember the great Des Taylor on one of his videos fishing the river Severn for barbell saying ‘ close enough is not good enough’ and its always stuck with me since, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t rushing or just a Flook that I was presented. I wanted to give myself the best possibly chance I could.

For the next few days, we had a flurry of amazing carp, with my brother bagging a beautiful dark mirror, very different in size and shape. It was brilliant to experience the pure quality of carp this lake produced. 

To top off the trip we decided to go over dinner with the local lads to celebrate the week we had, and for sure, I will be back again to see if we can manage the magnificent 60lb mark!

Don't forget to follow @summittackle across social media platforms, as well as, Joe @jpurbanblanx to keep up with all his angling adventures!

Shop Joe's Euro Pod https://www.summittackle.com/products/the-euro-pod-kit-s-s

Shop Joe's 4 rod buzz bars https://www.summittackle.com/products/fixed-colosseum-4-buzz-bar-ss