Ray hooked his first carp during a match over 30years ago and has been obsessed with them ever since. Living in the Northeast offered limited access to bigger carp but having joined the Army at 16 he soon had access to bigger fish in the South. Moving around the UK has allowed him to catch 30lb+ Carp from seven different counties. In 1997 he was posted to Germany which provided many opportunities and he started to travel all over the world in pursuit of Carp. He has caught Carp from 11 different countries and enjoyed some memorable pioneering trips in the late 90’s early 00’s. On one of those trips he was lucky enough to catch the largest Carp caught on rod and line from South Africa.
He now has a busy career and three children resulting in him now maximising his time as a short session angler. Overnighters and short day-sessions make up most of his fishing over the last 5 years. He now enjoys fishing for other species and has an impressive list of PB’s for most freshwater species. He has to have 100% confidence in his bait and that’s why he chooses Blakes.
