Take Ten – Deano answers ten quick-fire carp questions

North West Carp Forum regular, Deano, takes ten minutes out to answer ten quick-fire carp fishing questions...

1: How old were you when you first started fishing and where were your old haunts?

I first started fishing at the age of seven. My first session was on Longton Park big lake, I caught a roach of about 1lb and was completely bitten with the bug since that day. Early waters were the local canal and park lakes plus a small complex of club waters in Loggerheads.

2: What led you towards targeting carp?

In around 1984 I saw a big mirror being photographed at Hawk Lake, I also caught my first carp around the same time; a little 4lb mirror. From that point on it was inevitable that one day I would catch a big carp - it was just a case of getting on the right waters!

3: If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently?

This one’s easy! I would have pestered my dad to take me to Hawk Lake more often as it was on the day ticket back then! I could have then set about angling for some big carp.

4: If you could only ever fish one venue, past or present, which would it be?

I would have liked to have fished Redmire Pool in the early 80's. Other than that there’s a couple of lakes I have fished that I could happily spend time on; one would have to be Hawk lake in Shropshire.

5: If you could only ever use one bait for carp, what would it be?

HHMMM, this ones tough! It would probably be a good fishmeal boilie or sweet corn.

6: What do you consider to be your best angling achievement to date?

I have had some good times carp fishing since 1994 when I started to target bigger fish. The best achievements would probably be taking 43 fish in 5 months doing around 30 nights from a lake with about 70 fish in. The other would be cracking a small pond that was reputed to be quite difficult. I managed all but one of the big ones in five months doing just short sessions and just one night. All but the biggest one taken off the surface with quite a few repeat captures.

7: What’s the best tackle item you’ve ever bought?

A Shimano Baitrunner reel.

8: What’s the worst tackle item you’ve ever bought?

An ESP catapult it snapped after 5 minutes, lol....they have since redesigned them and they are now pretty good.

9: If you could change one thing about the sport, what would it be?

I would ban bait boats, other than that, nothing. (Sorry Smokey...lol..)

10: If you could fish with any angler for the day, past or present, who would it be?

Would probably be Terry Hearn, closely followed by Rod Hutchinson, as we could then nip off to the pub for a few pints!

Deano
June 2009

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Take Ten – Deano answers ten quick-fire carp questions

Clint Walker