The biggest Carp and dreams in Europe are here.

Just a few months back I was asking people on this blog if Spain would produce an 80lb plus carp. You can see the results of the pole still here. Since that time actually in the last month 2 unknown common carp have been caught well over the 70lb bracket. It’s no suprise that world class specimen carp Anglers like Andy Chambers are coming to see what there is here in Spain.

Take a look at the photo and think about it, unknown, un-caught fish. One of the key motivators of fishing is that element of the uknown.Fishing, is the most popular recreational sporting pastime in the United Kingdom. More people go fishing each week than play football and over here the scene is exploding!!!

Why?

The reality is that fishing is pure, experience. It’s a pursuit based on contemplation and solitude that involves an appreciation of the elements; it is a game of chance, hope, escapism; especially in Spain. We look out into the clear waters this side into the unknown. Fishing in the abundancy that is here alongside nature, hoping for greatness, but settling for battle flash and splash with the gold and power that lives beneath the surface.

The philosophical nature of fishing is represented in a wealth of literature that often gets overlooked due to titles that read more like practical manuals. King of these is Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing In America, a 1967 novel built on surreal non sequitur stories concerned with an endless search for the perfect fishing spot. Brautigan used fishing as a metaphor for the changing face of America and managed to define the late 60s zeitgeist of a generation of Huck Finn-reared hippies striving for something simpler from life. It sold a staggering two million copies – and a fair few novice rods.

More recently, angling journalist and contributor to The Idler Chris Yates has captured the utopian allure of angling in the equally understated-sounding ‘How to Fish’. Published in paperback sometime ago, the book you might expect contains a near-perfect mix of poetic insight, boyish enthusiasm, typical of Yates, written as I understand direct from a damp English riverbank to you. Fishing creativity..live and direct….

Ernest Hemingway famously reeled in some monstrous whoppers from the Florida Keys. Indeed, sea fishing and the communities built around it have their own place in literature. But sea fishing requires boats, money, organisation and, in Hemingway’s case, the ability to stretch the truth. They say that the written word adds a couple of pounds to any fish …

No, fresh water fishing is simpler and definitely for the layman; it is the haiku of the sporting world and its writings are rich, diverse and passionate. After all, what other outdoor sport can you be on it and have a wee tipple social and smoke whilst being creative?

Spain is similarly teeming with fishing tales, and a future beyond dreams. With no close season and the whole year ahead of us. Are you up for it? I am and I will be writing about it too in my magazine CARPdiem, maybe it’s time you check it out!!

See you bankside.

ARGGH

Andy Mackrel