Coming from a family of anglers, it was only natural that I got the fishing bug from a young age.

My first taste of the sport was in Ireland at 6 months old, sat on my Dad’s knee on his seat box whilst he fished on the Grand Canal.

By the age of 4, I was already a confident little angler and would sit for hours with my whip catching Roach, Crusians and Perch.

As the years went on my love for the sport grew. And at 6 years old I’d be regularly trotting a float down the River at 5am on freezing winter mornings with my Dad. I have vivid memories of it because my parents made me wear a massive life jacket and I could hardly move, which at the time I cursed them for but now I would probably do the same when I have kids haha. I also started entering junior matches on my local park lake through the summer holidays and did really well.

Looking back, it must be approximately 20 years ago when my Dad steered more towards carp fishing. I would beg him for days to take me on a night session with him, I’d fish on my float rod until dark and he would sit for hours behind lifeless carp rods while I smugly tallied the scores shouting over to him “it’s 50-0 now Dad!” He made sure he got his revenge in the evening though and would tell me ghost stories before I went to sleep.

Of course, because Dad was carp fishing, I wanted too as well and for my 11th birthday, I got my very own 2 rod carp set up to replace the green Dragon Carp rod I’d been using for the past year and I haven’t looked back since.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy picking up a feeder or float rod from time to time, but the bulk of my angling is fishing for carp with the unwelcome bream or two along the way.

Fast forward to today, I’ve never lost my love for fishing and it has definitely kept me grounded through the years. Everyday is a school day and I continue to push myself to learn and be a better angler.

These days the tallying between my Dad and me has been replaced with a dispute on who’s the better angler with his cheap come back always being, “who taught you everything you know?”

One of my proudest achievements has been becoming the Captain of the Welsh Ladies Carp Team and taking home the Tri-Nations Trophy and the Clifford Cup earlier this year.

At the beginning of the year I changed jobs and now my career fits around my fishing rather than the other way around, like it was for the past 10 years. Thanks to this, I’m out at least once a week for 24-hours unless there’s an event to go to, such as a wedding. Because much to my denial, I seem to be at that age now where everyone is getting married haha!

Fact File

Name: Charley Bunce
Nickname: Charl or Buncey
Age: 28
Location: North Wales
Favourite rig: Slip D Rig
Interests: Other than the obvious, fishing. I absolutely love cars and often go on track days