On my recent holiday to Italy, I managed to

meet up with some Italian carpers.

Since I go there every year, and I

continually see information about Italian

carp anglers and there catches on

Facebook. I contacted some of them to see

if any were near where we visit.

This is how i got in contact with Enrico and

Robin Calcagno, father and son, and

absollutely mad about carping. Robin is

about 16, but has already had in catches

reported in some Italian carp mags.

So they live not too far from my mother in

laws house in Visone where we were

staying, but during most of my visit they

were going to be fishing at a place called

Lago Di Viverone

http://www.globeholidays.net/Europe/It

aly/Piemonte/LagoDiViverone/LagoDiViv

erone_Lago1.htm

So one slightly overcast day I convinced the

boss that we should got for a drive and have

a look, it's approx 90 minutes from Visone.

We arrived at the lake and continued on the

the village of Viverone, hmmm .. this wasn't

going to be eay to find the guys, a call to

Enrico, with my wife translating both ways,

a few wrong turns, a few miles in the wrong

direction ... all along with the lake on our

left ... it is big ...

Finally we meet up with Enrico, we are on

the wrong side of the lake, so a quick visit

to the bar for a cool drink. This was when i

relaised this was no ordinary carp lake,

there was a beach with people swimming

and sunbathing ...

So a quick 10 minutes round the lake,

through another part of Viverone town we

parked our rental and jumped into Enricos 4

x 4 .... he needed it, he shoved it into 4

wheel drive and we inch down this track in

the forest, 4x4 is required, we cross axled,

3 wheeled and bumped and jolted our way

down till we came to a small clearing in the

woods.

Here was the camp .... I lost count how

many tents and bivvies they had set up,

probably about 6 or 7 ... for 3 of them ...

but they were there for 4 weeks .. lol ...

there were sleeping bivvies, food storgae,

equipment storgae etc, a marquee to eat in

with mozzy mesh all around it .. bloody

brilliant, they even had a shower set up.

The friend Patrick arrived shortly after with

a few supplies.

They also so had all the equipment needed

to make thier own boilies on the bank and a

Cross Bow to grab a wild boar if one

happened to stroll by ..

They fished a bay at one end of the lake,

boated the bait out over 150 meters over

the weed to thier chosen spots. They used a

rubber band looped through the swivel

above the hooklength and wrapped this

around a large pebble/stone, this was the

lead, once a fish took the bait the pebble

was lost. Cheaper than losing leads.

Jake, Robin and Joe

Rods were positioned with the tips up high,

this was to avoid the line bites from the

weed.

That is Viverone on the other shore

Most incredible was the size of the boilies

used .. 44mm with a 30mm on top to make

a snowman ... just huge. I asked Enrico why

so big .... he gave me a classic answer in

broken English ... "Big Boilie, Big Carp"

simple as that. Brilliant.

Thats a Big Snowman

They landed 2 carp while we were there, in

fact, the alarm beeped a couple of times

and we dismissed it, but my wife watched

the rod tips bounce and alerted Enrico so

she said it was her carp, so she had to hold

her first ever fish ...

Enrico made us a fresh pasta meal on the

bank complete with salami, vino and

expresso ... awesome.

The next swim was occupied by some

friends Andrea, Gabrielle and Davide, all

keen anglers. In fact Andrea is fishing this

week in the WCC, they are on peg

CCMoores 1, they had a fish but at this time

only one so aren't winning, but they are

winning thier section. Look out for the name

Andrea Bertelli.

They asked us to stay and fish the night,

but once my missus saw the huge rat

running around I knew that was never

gonna happen.

Not only are there a few rats, there's the

scorpions, snakes, wild boar, evil mosquitos

and the biggest baddest wasps and hornets

you never ever want in your bivvy.

They fished for approx 4 weeks and landed

80+ carp. to 40+

here's a few pics of the adventure ...

next year, forget France I'm off to Viverone

...

back, Gabrielle, Robin, Me, Patrick, Jake

front, Enrico, Andrea, Davide, Joe ... and

Kim the dog

We had a great day visitng them, all were

so friendly helpful and keen to discuss

carping.

Next year, just maybe ... hmmmmm