Sat back in a bay of an island at our summer house as a kid, eating sandwiches and drinking grandmas home made strawberry juice, no worries whatsoever. I can recall the immense joy among us kids when mom or dad pulled out the home manufactured angling rod, with some lobworms in a glass jar. We would sit and stare at the float endlessly, hoping for a roach or perch to fancy our baited hook.

That exact memory comes back to me ever so often, either when out targeting another big or seldom carp, trying out another non pressured stretch of water on the river pikefishing or maybe on another mission into the snowy woods looking for big winter perch.

That very memory is above all what ignites the spark inside me, and keeps my fishing interest flaming again and again. Obviously together with all the fond memories made a long the way. But those small roach and perch soon set me on the path to keep on searching for that next thrilling encounter. Not necessarily record fish but always some targets that kept the flame burning strong enough. That's mostly how I like to go on with my fishing, setting up projects or challenges for myself and the fishing buddies, trying to make some sort of plan and stick to it to find out what it brings or if we can break the code.

Mainly I am considering myself a carp angler since the late teenage years, as soon as I started out nothing else could come close. It suits me very well in my ordinary life and it fills all my criteria for how I like fishing to be, it has so many dimensions other than catching the fish. It also brought me to meet some of the best friends I have ever met, brothers for life.

The carp fishing in Scandinavia, Sweden where I grew up and in Norway where I am located nowadays is extremely marginal in terms of waters. Carp is considered something strange and alien among the ordinary people (and the authorities) and so there are just a tiny amount of waters that actually hold any carp. And the ones that do are typically sparsely stocked, runs waters hardly exist. I really enjoy fishing in this environment with all its obvious challenges, of course the winters are harsh with ice on the lakes for 5-6 months but that is part of the game. I tend to make the most of it now a days and even do a fair bit of ice fishing for predators while waiting for spring. The cold winter actually adds to the sheer joy, when the spring arrives and you can finally pack away the ice fishing gear and head out on open water again.