My name is Stewart Jones and I have been fishing for the last 20 years, When I first started fishing at the age of 12 my dad and a few friends would go to the local reservoirs in Brecon and fish for trout it was more of a social thing and what turned me into a Coarse Angler really was a local pond about a 10 minute walk from my house that had recently been dug out and quite a few Coarse species were in there, thats when I first encountered my first carp using a free running lead and 3 pieces of corn on the hook nailed my first carp of 8lb which nearly dragged my 8ft Spinning Rod into the pond!! I then began fishing there quite regular from first light till dusk all through the summer holidays, catching carp upto 10-12lb.

I then progressed onto fishing Caerphilly Castle through my teenage years where I fished mainly on the Pole or Swimfeeder for the Bream and Tench, as I looked on in envy of the carp anglers who had all the Gear with there Optonic alarms and Baitrunners. I then fished a season over the Castle for the big Pike that were present at the time with one of my good mates and between us we had over 40 double figure Pike to 18lb.
I was playing football quite regular during my early years of being a fisherman and at about 16 I wasn’t fishing as much and found myself out socialising more so I spent a few years away from the bank but still managing to go whenever I could, then in 2006 me and a good friend organised a trip to go and fish the River Ebro in Spain for the Carp. We fished the Mecquanenza stretch of the river and Managed quite a few fish between us upto 27lbs the place will live long in my memory but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. As we got off the plane we were met by our guides the one is a well established angler called Mark Law. As we set off
in the Van that they had, we were pulled over by Blue lights flashing us, as our guide went to see what was wrong he was greeted by a Plain Clothes officer who immediately asked us all for our Passports which we produced then he told us that the British were using counterfeit currency and wanted to see our Money, as we handed him our Wallets, Mark the other guide said can I come to the car with you but by that time the officer had already got back into the car and jus drove off!! I felt sick at what had jus happened 5 minutes off the plain and some Spanish Police Officer(or so I thought he produced a badge and a gun in a holster) had robbed us!! Lucky for me my friend who I was with had put his Wallet inside his sleeping bag so I borrowed money off him, after the trip I just
felt even more determined to get into carp fishing and learn a lot more about this fishing Mark had taught me a lot whilst we were out there so I was jus even more determined to carry on my Fishing.