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TIM PAISLEY BEEN THERE, DONE THAT Rod had a fan club in the Czech Republic, headed by Rod’s long-time correspondent Robert, and they were remarkable hosts. Our hosts included the editors of the leading Czech magazine of the time, Sportvini Rybar, although as only Robert had any English conversation with most of our hosts was awkward. They wined and dined us, and put us up at the famous Teplice Spa for the night – a special memory in its own right. Teplice is the oldest spa in Central Europe with an almost two thousand-year-old tradition. Teplice used to be called Little Paris, or the Salon of Europe, and was visited by many eminent individuals, including European royalty, and musicians Ludwig van Beethoven, Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Richard Wagner, Frederick Chopin and Franz Liszt. To that illustrious list they can now add the names of former musical impresario Mally Roberts, rhythm guitar player, songwriter and pub singer, Rod Hutchinson, and the tone-deaf Dylan-adherent Tim Paisley. I see that in the Carpworld piece I referred to Teplice as the Beethoven Sanatorium, although there is no mention of such a title in the internet write-up of Teplice Spa. Our memorable stay at Teplice, which is located in North Bohemia at the foothills of the Ore Mountains and accepts paying guests behind us our hosts took us to the allotted swims on their favourite River Labe. They had reserved their favourite swim for Rod, although their idea of reserving it was to fish it right up to our arrival, which fazed Rod slightly. It was a tight, narrow swim, and turned out to be unproductive during our stay. I suspect it was a favourite because it was comfortable, and an ideal spot for partying, talking of which… At the time my preferred drink was Rickards, a favoured pastis, and as it isn’t easy to come by I’d bought a couple of bottles for future on the ferry out. The future was more imminent than I’d anticipated. Mid evening on the first night of the session Mally was sent up the bank as an emissary. ‘Those bottles of Rickards you’ve got in the car…’ One may have survived the first night, but neither survived the five-night session. Like Jacko, Mally is now on the wagon, but at the time he and Rod took some keeping up with in the bacchanalian stakes. I gave it my best shot. My memories of the fishing are hazy. I was upstream from Rod and Mally, away from the favoured pressure area which finished up with all our hosts bivvied as close to Rod as possible, which I thought probably worked in my favour. The carp were off the feed in the heatwave conditions, but the grass carp weren’t. Late in the session I caught two Czech carp, a low-twenty mirror, and a low–thirty common. The common scared me to death. It was the first time I had fished a braided main line, and late on the final afternoon this common took off upstream at a rate of knots, with me struggling to keep the rod up against the pressure of the fish and the no-stretch of the braid. I was fortunate that the line strength and hookhold were adequate to cope with the first couple of runs of this demented fish. That 31lb common is still my European personal-best river carp, and I’ve only caught bigger river carp from the St. Lawrence. I’ve tracked down my original Carpworld article about the trip, which took place in June 1998, the write-up appearing in Carpworld 95. If it’s not trying your patience I’d like to quote two extracts from the piece, for very different reasons.
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‘We were there because Rod is a hero on a global scale, and he has paid the price for that a thousand times over back down the road. The kids (carp anglers) of today can have no concept of the impact of Hutchy on the carp scene in the seventies and early eighties: the charismatic hero figure on the grand scale. Carp weren’t catchable in those days, but Rod caught them wherever he went. We all knew he was giving up everything just to fish distant waters, travelling in unreliable, clapped-out vehicles, pioneering methods, tactics and baits. We saw that same hero-worship reflected in the attitude of the Czech carpers to Rod, and it came as a sharp reminder of his carpworld status.’ Carpworld,1998.
Lost in translation.. Our hosts included the editors of the leading Czech magazine of the time, Sportvini Rybar, although as only Robert had any English conversation with most of our hosts was awkward.
Name dropping.. Teplice used to be called Little Paris, or the Salon of Europe, and was visited by many eminent individuals, including European royalty, and musicians Ludwig van Beethoven, Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Richard Wagner, Frederick Chopin and Franz Liszt.
Cheers! Our relaxed evening on the balcony during our memorable overnight stay at Teplice
That 31lb common is still my European personal-best river carp, and I’ve only caught bigger river carp from the St. Lawrence
Later in the article I wrote the following about the Czech carp scene at that time, words which may now be considered prescient, but only reflected the obviousness that we were part of a growing global carp scene at that time. In fact the first World Carp Classic took place just three months after our Czech visit, and Czech Jaroslav Tesinsky was a strong supporter of the Classic from the start.
‘The Czechs seem to be carp mad, and there is a carp-fishing explosion about to happen there – if it hasn’t already taken place. There are problems to surmount. Most carp which are caught are killed, although there is already a minority movement pioneered by Robert and his friends to have them returned alive. I suggested that Robert’s group start a national carp organisation along the lines of the Carp Society, and to make one of the conditions of membership that carp