0:00
and uh speaking of carp and because we have royalty in the house tonight
0:06
yeah mate yeah exactly uh let's uh not take any more time
0:11
uh our next guest or first guest i guess we could call is a man by the name of ross honey now
0:17
we've had ross on the radio program several times we in fact we've worked with ross live
0:22
both in the uk and in north america uh he um is the owner of angling spirit
0:29
in hampshire england uk he organizes and stages international angling events
0:35
all around europe and is closing in on north america i'm sure he'll have a thing or two to say about that he is the
0:41
founder and owner of the world carp classic tournament which started in 1998
0:48
arguably the largest international maybe global angling event on the planet
0:54
welcome to the program ross how are you buddy well thank you very much it's great to see you guys again it's
0:59
uh it's always a pleasure to to be in your company both uh both on stream here and uh personally as
1:05
as we've been there over the years thank you sir now really quick before angel is is the world carp classic the biggest
1:12
fishing event in the world that you know about ross that'd be a great question it's certainly the longest running uh
1:18
cart fishing event event of its kind in the world i mean i i set up in 1998 and
1:24
we've had over 45 countries participate in the event today and in fact the event we've just run uh
1:31
we had 103 countries um that actually clicked on and uh we're following it so 103 countries
1:38
from around the world the reason i keep saying the biggest because i've looked into it and there's
1:44
no other fishing event that draws so many countries to participate i mean there's
1:49
uh bill fishing events uh that's what i was thinking it's bill fishing you know what i mean but but not even no they're not that big so
1:58
uh and in terms of the scope of the event one only needs to see one one time in
2:05
their life to know if there's anything bigger man oh man it's yeah it's just show it
2:12
where it is because it would be pretty impressive it was bigger the parade alone like that parade alone
2:17
that they have at the world cup it's like it's unreal you know what we did this year is actually really
2:24
cool normally we'd have um the the parade with everybody holding their flags we have like three or four hundred people holding their national
2:30
flags and everything that's always quite a grand very kind of uh exciting moment because everybody's
2:35
very proud of their countries that they're representing but um because of kobe this year we had to think slightly outside
2:41
the box and obviously make sure that social distancing was respected so what we did this year just to be
2:48
different to make sure the flag parade did take place we did it in the cars so all the teams
2:53
were actually in their cars we had anglers on top of the cars they had inflatable boats and
2:59
flags going everywhere so you can imagine like 150 cars going down with all these flags
3:04
it was just amazing honking the horns and toothing and it was really spectacular so
3:10
we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves um in that i want to talk to you about
3:17
leading up to this year's event i mean obviously the rest of the world
3:22
for the most part has gone into get down regarding events especially events where
3:28
you're drawing more than 50 people talk to us about the process what uh
3:33
what how did you navigate through this this crazy period that we're having uh
3:38
before you had the event well to be frank i mean as i said earlier on this is probably one of the
3:43
hardest events we've actually uh staged on so many different levels um because
3:50
in the first instance we're running an event uh in the middle of a nature reserve uh in france um it's in a
3:57
different country to the one we currently live in um at the time when we had uh when the event was uh was
4:04
launched we had just under 30 countries that were due to participate literally ranging from
4:09
uh from canada uh right the way through to australia new zealand south africa
4:15
russia ukraine um you name it literally the whole world was included in this um
4:22
and obviously with with coburn the challenges we ran into there we had to knock that back so all the
4:27
countries were that were due to travel long haul um that they they've their places have
4:33
been secured in the 2021 event so we we effectively had the european countries there but we had 18 countries
4:40
represented with uh with over 300 english competing um
4:46
but we didn't have a a book that said you can do this and you can't do that um
4:52
there was no there were no real guidelines so we had to set about actually establishing
4:58
the the covid guidelines that that we were to apply and to incorporate for the world cup
5:04
classic this year and that that turned out to be a 60-page document with with everything literally
5:10
going from the the the registration process uh when people arrived where the babies were
5:15
where they had had to get it get the campsite set up and then right way through to
5:21
the opening parade uh the peg draw how that was to be done
5:27
and we did that so again to ensure everybody was in their bubble in their in their group uh anglers for the for
5:34
the for the peg draw they they were actually in their cars so we did that live
5:39
so i had two people on stage um so drawing the peg i'd then read it out
5:46
they would then go and go and place it on the uh on the the chart to to reaffirm that
5:52
and then we go through that process and then ordinarily on the sunday which is when
5:57
we do the peg draw anglers would stay around and then still party on sunday evening
6:03
but what we did this year is we then took anglers directly to their pegs so you can imagine the logistics of
6:09
moving we've got out of the uh and of the 106 pegs we've got that we
6:16
use for the competition uh probably 65 percent of those require anglers to be transported with all their
6:22
equipment to islands um and different places around the lake it's a huge lake that we use
6:28
so the logistics in that all had to be taken into account to make sure the cobid kobid
6:33
rules were fully applied for that so then having of course got the anglers to the pegs
6:39
then the competition starts then the fish start to get caught so even in terms of how the whole
6:46
weighing process of how the fish are weighed uh who touches what
6:52
and then to make sure that anglers had to maintain their masks on at all times um if there were teams of three even if
7:00
with within the bubble that they had for the photograph so it was really really strictly applied
7:07
and then then subsequently the angler that had caught the fish the other two anglers went away and then
7:13
they were able to take the mask off and have the trophy shop with the fish prior to it being released they then had
7:19
to put their mask back on and then then go back uh for sure so it
7:24
really we've really had to take this the nth degree to make sure that you know this is this
7:29
has been properly done at a time where where this event was in
7:35
fact going to be cancelled uh
7:40
actually yeah i mean quite on quite a few occasions and the reason for that being is the easiest thing for me to have done i said guys
7:47
and we're not running it this year we'll run it next year we'll wait for kobe to pass
7:53
but i i personally took the view that the desire was such so overwhelming from the anglers that
8:00
want to compete to be part of this special occasion that um you know it it made me very determined
8:09
that if we had the ability to put it on and we could do it safely then we should do and and to lead again
8:16
and pioneer a way forward so look okay this is how we do this this is how we
8:22
can run an event with covid um still uh still around and and but to
8:27
do it responsibly and safely did they did anybody use it from europe did anybody fly in to
8:34
the area or they all drive is it very easy to have everybody uh in cars to get there um the
8:41
the majority of people drove um there were a couple of people that flew and then hired cars but
8:46
but the majority of people drove um this uh this year
8:52
having been involved in in the things that you do ross they they're they're so
8:58
they're so social i mean the whole thing about carp fishing about the world uh carp
9:05
cup the the whole everything is it just oozes with camaraderie and kinship
9:12
and fellowship and and and i can't even imagine i can't even imagine how you pull this
9:18
thing off by having social distancing i mean that to me is just
9:23
wow even to the extent one of the things we pride ourselves with is we have an
9:28
opening banquet and it is a proper with wonderful food and everything there
9:33
and this year we we did literally everything outside everything was done outside the whole
9:40
process of all this has been been phenomenal we've got written here the first prize
9:46
was where do we see it and it was 150 and a half 162.5 pounds for three fish is that
9:52
correct three fish yeah oh my god like like what is this lake capable of
9:57
producing is that was the biggest fish in that bag or was it a was there another team that had the biggest fish no no no in fact that those
10:04
guys didn't actually catch the biggest fish the biggest fish that was caught was caught from a totally different part of the lake as well and that was 29.3
10:11
kilos which actually by the way i think i've got a calculator here so let me do a quick bit of mathematics so
10:18
29.3 times 2.2 64. yeah 65 pounds oh my
10:25
god that was that was one fish and there are fish there are fish in
10:31
this lake over 70 pounds carp so anybody that thinks that
10:36
catching carp isn't a sport fish i can tell you hang on to one of them and you just hang
10:41
on i tell you you could you could connect a couple of water skis behind it and you're all was that uh are they mostly mirror carp
10:48
there ross or are they commons or both they're like that big a fish is that uh what species is that that that's that
10:54
one was a mirror um there are common carp in the lake um but they're also leather carp
11:00
and linears as well there's a there's a 65 pound linear in that lake which is a perfect scale
11:06
pattern right the way down the the middle is a perfect linear so there's a huge fridge in there
11:13
you know you talk about sport fish here here in this part of the world um it's predominantly common although we
11:19
do have some mirror but but our fish are insane these these
11:25
wild fish that we have here they're insane you get even a a 10 pounder on the line here
11:32
it rivals just about any sport fishing that we have
11:37
of of speed strength these things jump they spend more time out of the water than they do in the water during
11:43
the fight it's they're insane just a great fishery and that's why you know that's why we've been fighting
11:49
pete and i've been fighting for for years now to get people to recognize the fact that
11:55
yeah yeah maybe the perception was that at one point that this was a a a we'll call it a garbage fish
12:02
because that's kind of the label that it had yeah but that was a long time ago and things have evolved and changed and this
12:09
this fish needs to be elevated to to the level that it deserves because as
12:15
a matter of fact in our in our regulations ross and the fishing regulations just not only is it not a game fish then
12:23
there's no limit if you were to catch them you could catch 100 200 if you wanted kill them if you want to but they also have a bowl fishing season
12:30
for them that's in right what any fishing season we have for carter bow and arrow right like figure that one out like
12:36
that's just you i mean over there in europe you guys would go insane if you saw that
12:42
when you look at the the fish welfare and best practice angling that that we apply as part of the rules you can get
12:48
banned from life if you mistreat the carp over here uh within the competition that we're
12:54
running um yeah we've got the the flotation mats that they sit on i mean you know when you think that even
13:01
over here you know some of these carp are named they've got a proper yeah they've got a name uh they get kissed and everything they get
13:07
put back and they just it's it's different you know it is very different
13:13
i don't think i've ever asked you this um in the number of times that we've worked together and i've interviewed
13:19
you um where did this all start for you was it was it just from the sheer
13:26
love of the sport or did it start as a business like where did this whole
13:33
carp empire come from that's that's a really good question well i mean the the answer to that is
13:40
not not exactly a short one but uh i'll try and try and keep it that way um
13:45
in 1997 the end of 97 98 i've been working for a company which
13:52
is a shipping company called brittany ferries uh with ships going between england and france and over to
13:57
khan and the day landing beaches and stuff over there and i left brittany ferries um to set up
14:04
my own business and the two things i loved to do was play golf and go fishing and i i was involved in the uh in the
14:11
marketing the development side of of brittany ferries and developed a golf program for them so
14:18
when i left i thought well okay what am i going to do i'm going to set up a fishing event and
14:24
a golf event that's what i've got so i looked around i thought well look
14:31
there's uh i i my my i always like to have ideas and not just think about them but to
14:37
actually do them but um so i thought right golf tournament i want to set up the world's largest golf
14:42
tournament of its kind so um so what actually is that so i set up a club tournament called the
14:47
international pairs and in uh in a three year period took it from it
14:53
the original exception inception very much at the same time setting up the world cup classic um and
14:59
i took that from its uh the original idea to having 43 countries participate in it
15:06
with world finals in in scotland the carnoustie glen eagles all the main championship courses and
15:11
over 3 000 golf course 3 000 events a year but my target was to get a million
15:17
to get a million golfers to physically play in that tournament and that took me just over three years
15:22
to achieve so you can imagine going around to these wonderful five-star golf courses some of
15:29
the best golf course in the planet um and i'd set up a fishing event as
15:34
well so people are asking what on earth you setting up a fishing event and um but the first one i set up was
15:41
one by which i wasn't quite sure which way to go in terms of events so i thought right i'll organize
15:48
a general fishing event so i took 140 people to france um i knew the lakes over there anyway
15:55
there's pleasure fishing there's um match fishing you know where they're all there with the match rods and stuff um
16:01
then uh specimen angling and and what a specimen in england
16:08
well it's for big fish like you know they're targeting big fish okay so off i trotted over to france i
16:16
remember it like it was yesterday it was blowing again like a huge i was there on my own and i
16:21
had 140 people so i i stood by the fence the gates right you are okay who are you you are a
16:27
pleasure angler right you go over there okay your hotel's there are you are matt tangler match anglers
16:33
over there and anyway all the match hangs we're all lined up and stuff like this man all right you go over
16:38
there that's fine you don't find simple nutrition we'll see in a couple of days so anyway
16:46
hilarious as the wind was playing straight in the match fisherman's faces they might well have been fishing in the
16:52
car park they couldn't even keep them
16:58
hilarious the pleasure anglers moan like flipping hell because their hotel was a bit too far from the
17:04
lake and it was windy it was wet oh dear it was a nightmare
17:09
there were these guys called specimen anglers and um that somebody said oh we heard somebody's caught a caught a fish over
17:16
there oh great exactly i went around to see them and they were they had taken their own tents and stuff
17:21
they didn't require accommodation they fed themselves they were all happy really pleasant people whereas the other
17:28
guys were a little bit if and there weren't everybody happy by my organization
17:34
together and i had a letter from uh from from one of the guys that had been on the uh this fishing trip i'd organized
17:41
and he said look ross it's a really really good event thoroughly enjoyed it and myself and the other
17:47
the other specimen anglers had a really good time we caught a nice cop you know one of us caught a carp you
17:53
know but but when you organize the next event
17:58
mm-hmm about it and i had a phone call as well i thought you know what so i looked
18:04
around carp carp carpenter that's yeah it definitely was a car that's fine what carp events are there
18:11
around looked and there weren't any so i thought you know what i'm i'm going to organize
18:16
a world championship for carp fishing wow in 1998
18:23
i got the map out at home and i looked at the map and looked at look to looked in france well there's a big blue
18:29
bit that's a lake let me let me drive to that lake and see what it's like
18:34
so that's exactly what i did drove to the lake said uh unfortunately i speak french so i said
18:39
them hello my name is ross honey i i wanted to organize a world championship cart fishing event here
18:45
and they looked at me like i had three heads you know like what this is my own about carp fishing event
18:51
yeah i'm gonna get people from all over the world to come here and do this and do that and yeah it's fine so anyway off i went
18:58
back to the uk having having made contact this lake and maintain contact with them
19:03
and set about setting up the walk art classic and um i managed to convince rover
19:10
to to give me a car to give away as a prize which in 1998 there was no other
19:15
competition in the world of cartfield fishing um full stop in in europe anyway
19:21
that that had given a car away as a prize nedley for carp fishing so um so that that's what happened and
19:28
we got in the first year we had 146 anglers compete um and it was it was incredible to see
19:35
the buzz and the emotion and i knew it was something special that we'd found and
19:40
uh so from that i continue to develop that over the years where we are today what a great story
19:46
man it's funny because you can ask any organizer of events like that and
19:51
they're they they all started much like like you did you know it was one of those things hey you know what
19:58
why not do it and next thing you know it just blossoms of course today today
20:03
it's it's the holy grail like if you're into carp fishing and you're not uh fishing the world carp
20:10
classic then you're really not into car fishing and that's what it's become it's it's
20:17
it's unbelievable you think about our little event fishing canada uh carp cup you know what i mean
20:22
you have to win that before you get a chance to go over and fish ross's event ours is the first of its kind here too
20:28
but there are some you know there's some small tournaments around all that stuff but i mean you got to get there you have to
20:34
earn your way to the to the big show for sure and as we know from uh the last event we held that it's not
20:41
easy because it's it goes right down to the wire the last you know five minutes
20:47
ounces even though they're weighing hundreds of pounds of fish it's down to the last ounce right it's i would love to have uh
20:54
one of our canadian teams go over there even if they didn't win i'd like to have our guys
20:59
weigh in three fish for 165 pounds just to see if we can go back to the stories they'd say because that would be incredible to hear
21:05
you know what i mean it'll be so long ross tell us about the winning team uh where are they from and
21:11
uh what sort of experience that they have are they regulars on the tour yeah well the the team this year from uh
21:18
actually won they're from poland um and uh but what was quite remarkable about them
21:23
is they caught two fish in the first night within five minutes of each other
21:28
um and but the size of those fish were huge um so they they took a lead on day one
21:35
and they then caught the rules that we've got and we count the three biggest fish so even if you catch 20 fish it's only
21:42
the combined weight of the three biggest ones that count so they then caught the third fish which then took them right up to the top of
21:48
the leaderboard but given the rules of this competition i introduced uh just over seven years ago
21:54
where it is the three biggest fish that count what then happened was the other teams were catching catching
21:59
catching closely and within 24 hours to go there was another team that caught
22:05
exactly exactly the same weight the same gram it was exactly the same
22:12
way so so for the last 24 hours of the competition this year they had exactly the same weight so the
22:20
team in the lead were like they were to see the nerves they had it was just
22:25
sensational so right at the end of the event so of course uh i traditionally i will
22:32
go up and i will finish the event from the the unofficial winners peg
22:37
richard polls so that's uh that's where they were so i went up to unofficially announced
22:43
and they got excited they jumped in the water and all the good and grace oh great but
22:48
literally the rule that we've got is if a fish is hooked um up until uh before the end of the
22:55
event they have 20 minutes to land it so from eight o'clock in the morning which is when we finish the event until
23:02
20 past eight if anybody's hooked to fish they have those 20 minutes to land it
23:08
after i've just done all this great excitement congratulations guys
23:13
ross there are four fish that are that have been called within five to ten
23:18
minutes to go so they are they're in the process of landing them so please
23:24
make sure the guys know it they are they're the unofficial winners anybody get this get this an absolute
23:32
climax the whole thing the first report of the first fish that came in was 28.3 kilos the second biggest fish
23:41
in the entire competition just over 60 pounds now that one fish depending on who had caught it could
23:48
have meant somebody completely different had won the event somebody completely different and um
23:56
i'd never been so relieved that the person that caught that one it was their first fish
24:05
just brilliant really really really good great way to finish though that is pretty awesome on the 19th of
24:11
october and the the tv highlights will be released um so you'll be able to see that and uh
24:17
everybody's gonna have a look at that but you'll see the drama and you see how big these fish are yeah and the excitement you'll see the
24:24
parade and and what then happened just to cap this thing off in 22 years of running the
24:29
event we had 40 to 50 mile an hour winds blow at the end of the event bear in mind we
24:36
had to get nearly a hundred people back to back to shore with these rubber boats inflatable boats
24:41
piled high wow my navigation field we've already pushed the limit
24:50
we had the delayed prize giving have to say but um that probably added to the whole thing
24:57
right i mean that could just magic 40 40 kilometer winds and and yeah
25:04
i i think it would kind of add to the whole the whole ending i think yeah yeah yeah great yeah and then i was freezing
25:26
that was not to change uh speeds here but but i i wanted to ask
25:32
you i know that uh prior to the pandemic prior to cancellations of a pile of different
25:39
events in the fishing industry um you had been working on this thing called predator fishing
25:45
yeah in the u.s especially if i understand correctly um has this this uh kobit 19
25:53
pushed all of that back like what what has it done to that yeah folks what it is yeah what it is
25:59
is um again um linking the knowledge i've got a golf um the the biggest thing there is in
26:06
golf is the ryder cup where usa and north america take on europe and the rest of the world
26:12
and um in 2014 um i set out set my mind up to to create the the
26:19
angling equivalent of that by which you know a legitimate usa team and north american team took on
26:25
the uh europe and the rest of the world team in in a head-to-head event so initially i created the european
26:32
structure which is now firmly in place and we did the launch event um in
26:38
america uh just our fry cars um and the event itself is called the angling supercar
26:44
so that's that's the event but of course the location we were we used and we were due to use for this
26:52
year i was in florida uh at a big lake town in kissimmee
26:59
and that is right in the middle of where you know it's it's horrendous at the moment for um
27:06
so unfortunately and not only did we not run the the first full-blown uh hanging super
27:12
cup event and it's uh in its full um full state uh we had to postpone it
27:19
and 2021 is looking exactly the same there's no point in us trying to you
27:26
know i like to take on a challenge um you know and i'm not one to to to
27:31
turn away from uh trying to make things happen but um this is just it's too much and uh so yeah so i mean i
27:39
think the earliest we could do that would be 20 22. hmm
27:44
well not possible that's a good thing obviously right safety first yeah absolutely um
27:52
any concerns about uh about the event that you just held uh was are you testing are
27:59
any competitors testing uh for covid afterwards post event or or is that just sort of done now it's
28:05
behind us and we move on no not at all one of the precautions that we took
28:11
um not only did we have one of the the world's leading coveted doctors on 24-hour standby
28:16
and we had the hospital in verdun which is right near where the the event took place um they were they
28:22
were ready uh to receive people we had temperature testing of everybody throughout the
28:28
event and we sent um the uh three different media um that have been there beginning the
28:34
event and going around and seeing different people filming um as they had been we sent them to the
28:40
hospital and to get tested and that was done on the friday uh friday afternoon um prior to the
28:47
event finishing on saturday morning and they all came back tested negative so so there were there was that level of
28:54
detail that we put into to this and and uh and making sure that if anybody
29:01
um up to another two or three more days um was it became unwell that that we should
29:08
be notified immediately and all the proportions are in place thereafter good for you any advice to any uh
29:16
would-be promoters of events uh any advice that you can give them moving forward as we wait or
29:23
wade through this this dark uh
29:29
history well i think the thing is uh to run events and uh run fishing
29:35
events is definitely doable um without a shadow of a doubt but you need to make sure all the
29:42
different things are strictly applied um and do everything outdoors we didn't do anything indoors we had
29:49
phenomenal sports halls that we normally decorate up and facilities we didn't do any of that at all so by by
29:56
making sure the events are run and all the registration the whole processes are
30:02
done outside and that's certainly a big step forward and to make sure people do comply and zero
30:09
tolerance if people don't comply not only are they liable to mess it up for themselves and their families
30:16
but for everybody else there so that zero tolerance is required good stuff
30:22
well done to be congratulated my friend uh al all the previous events were
30:27
outstanding but to actually pull one off during these times man hats off to you
30:32
a great job and uh only one guy i know could have done it and that's uh ross
30:38
honey so uh good work my friend uh i look forward to uh
30:43
at some point anyway it's gotta happen we gotta be able to get together again certainly like to think that we uh we're
30:49
not done breaking bread oh absolutely enough and i'll tell you what i really want to get something
30:55
really good going on going on in canada so uh so i'm this has held us back a little bit but
31:02
it hasn't certainly certainly hasn't stopped us so uh far from it we're uh we are very excited about actually uh
31:09
coming across to canada and doing something special over there with you guys yes for those of you who might not know
31:16
um we're working with ross to see if we can't get some regulations
31:21
regulations changed in regards to the number of rods that are being used for carp fishing and and and you know every
31:29
time we take about three or four steps forward there's a couple back it's been going on for about five six
31:35
years now but anyways we will uh endeavor to uh keep up the good fight my
31:41
friend and uh we'll keep you notified looking forward to that day happening and looking forward to seeing more of this
31:46
great uh carp fishing taking place in uh in europe uh ross tell uh folks where they can get
31:52
more information if they want to watch some of the stuff if they can get more information on your association
31:58
well if they go to the worldcardclassic.com website so worldcardclassic.com
32:03
um and our indeed hanging spirit either those will take you through to uh
32:08
uh to where you can find out more so facebook instagram youtube all those channels
32:14
there and there's loads of information and you know what you can google it google world cup
32:22
all right go warm up we'll talk to you soon okay you take care keep safe guys and uh
32:27
looking forward to seeing you as soon as possible all right guys take care bye for now
32:32
bye bye uh ross honey uh he is the owner uh promoter founder of the world carp
32:39
classic tournament which as i've said before is the biggest deal on the planet i mean it smells like
32:46
nothing right from to us to the canadian supposedly that's carp fishing whoa wait till it comes out or even look at
32:51
the old events wait do you see it on t on your uh computer screen or your ipad or something it's unreal