anglersmail.com 9 JUNE | 37N
OT many fishing shows
get four all-new series on
mainstream television, but
Monster Carp bucks the trend,
and you can catch the latest
one for free, on ITV4.
Presenters Ali Hamidi, Neil
Spooner and Tom Dove worked
relentlessly for much of the
past year, filming and then
finishing off the new series,
and along the way they caught
impressive fish from amazing
locations.
The latest series is purely
on king carp, the species that
you know well here in the UK.
The intrepid Essex-based trio
travelled to four European
countries, including one where
none of them had ever fished
before.
You can see the opening
episode for the first time at
8pm this Thursday, July 11, on
ITV4. They had so much carp
action in Croatia, this opening
episode ended up being a
90-minute special.
Ali, Neil and Tom had visited
Croatia before, but wanted
to explore, so they started by
Monster Carp returns to ITV
SLOVENIA – July 18, 8pm, ITV4
Ali, Tom and Neil had never visited
Slovenia before, and they wanted to
see more than the noted Lake Bled.
After a day on a small river near
Ljubljana, their main adventure
starts on Vogrscek, a large and
snaggy lake close to the Italian
border. It’s home to a legendary
common carp named Toro, a very
rare visitor to the bank.
The lads would have to be
incredibly lucky to catch the
biggest fish in the lake in just a few
days, but given their track record,
anything is possible.
They then travel across the
country, to a large park lake calledfishing a lake by the Adriatic
coast, with action increasing as
the session went on.
Heading back to Zagreb, they
tackled Jezero Ontario, a lakerenowned for very large carp in
huge catches, and also one of
the top carp match waters in
Croatia.
The fishing gets more andmore crazy, with gigantic
carp gracing the bank,
including some of the biggest
and most sought-after
specimens in the lake.They’re back, big
time. ITV4 is the
place to catch
Monster Carp,
starring (left to
right) Tom Dove,
Neil Spooner and
Ali Hamidi.Smartinsko, which produced the
country’s current record, but they
could be chasing a ghost. There are
plenty of other fish to go at, too.ITALY – July 25, 8pm, ITV4
First stop in search of huge Italian
common carp is a beautiful lake in
mountains not far from Bologna,
where there’s a chance of catching
fish to over 50 lb.
Their next venue is a large, wild
lake that has a reputation for being
tricky, but is home to some very big
carp, their target after making some
traditional Italian pizzas. Whoever
impresses the restaurant owner the
most gets first pick of fishing positionon the lake. The fishing at Viverone
proves to be very challenging, and
they only have limited time available
to work out the best way to target the
bigger carp. But will they manage to
suss it out in time before they have to
return home?FRANCE – August 1, 8pm, ITV4
Early pioneering trips to Lac de Saint-
Cassien in the 1980s made it the
world’s most famous carp water.
Deep in the South of France, near
Cannes, it isn’t going to be easy to
bump into one of Cassien’s ‘jewels’, as
night fishing is prohibited, and a lot of
the carp are in a reserve area where
no one can fish.
The trio decide that their best
tactic is to split up, but to share
information, and the mouth of theENGLAND CARP ACES BILLY & JAMIE RETURN NEXT WEEK.
OTHER EPISODES OF MONSTER CARP
reserve proves to be the best target
to intercept fish moving in or out.
It proves tough, but one of them
lands a whacker. It comes from Ellis
Point – a swim named after Kevin
Ellis, who caught an historic 76 lb
Slovenia, and Tom brings monster from there in 1986.
a big ’un to the net.Ali heads out in a boat
on an Italian lake.Mwah – puckering up after
Spoons’ French whacker.SPECIAL TV PREVIEW