Mark Wooley

Like most of us, Mark was introduced to fishing from a young age. His Dad used to take Mark and his brother to a local river stretch. They would fish a deep corner, out of the rivers flow which contained a large number of perch. The fish would often feed aggressively on a couple of slow sinking maggots. When lowered from the high bank above you could watch them compete to take the bait. It was exciting sport and a good introduction to angling.

It wasn’t long before Mark and family had moved on from targeting perch on the local river and on to the local runs water to target carp.

Thankfully the fishing wasn’t very difficult and results weren’t hard to come by on short day sessions. Even on our limited tackle and approaches, which was often a waggler set up baited with either sweetcorn or spam.

Mark would often accompany his family for weekend camping breaks away, and it soon became a requirement that any camp-sites visited contained a carp lake. It was here that Mark developed skills such as water-craft and bait application, which he continues to build on to this day.

It was a work colleague and friend who introduced Mark to buzzers and bombs to target carp. Gareth Dawkin’s had a real passion for carp fishing. He passed on his enthusiasm and knowledge to Mark via weekly over night Friday session. They would spend the week discussing tactics and location to build the anticipation for the next trip.

After a year or two Mark and Gareth opted for a new challenge and moved on to a harder more mature water. Much like the ones that Gareth had spent so long reading about in his magazines and other such reading materials.

For the first time both Mark and Gareth had to work for success which was harder to come by, and this was when the bug bit.

Gareth became restricted by time constraints as Mark’s addictive and competitive personality became more and more obsessed with catching carp.

Mark went on to capture his personal best 28lb 04oz common during this time. Manageing a dream session on the mature pits, when bagging 10 fish in one session. Gareth suggested sending the report to NEW beds and bucks Carp-Talk reporter Steve Sharp, who would go on to become a key figure in Marks progression as-well as a good friend. Old School friend Alan Blair saw Marks report and offered Mark his first opportunity within the industry.

The opportunity with Nash fuelled Marks hunger for success and he continued to target carp as well as learning the industry which was rapidly changing, with the introduction and growth of social media.

It was now becoming possible to live and breath carp fishing with a wealth of information available at your finger tips and the industry was growing fast. Alan Blair informed Mark of the need for media publications and this provided the direction for Mark to go on and acquire the skills required to produce videos, articles and even a number of websites.

Mark continued to enjoy his fishing and this saw him out most weeks, and with all the media publications lead to many opportunities within the industry to grow and develop.

Mark continues to enjoy his fishing and is privileged enough to have his articles and videos supported and published within the angling media.

Mark on Catch and release – ‘I’m honoured to have been asked to contribute to the Catch and release project. The guys work hard to develop and grow a quality website, which provides interesting content for either learning or enjoyment for anglers of all abilities. Long may it continue.