Christian Olde Wolbers

Belgian-born Christian Olde Wolbers is best known for his work with a few legendary music groups, but he grew up carp angling at a very early age in Belgium and Holland.

He moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties and toured the world playing sold out shows ever since. Always being in front of massive crowd made him search back for the inner peace on the bank and being away from it all.

“I hooked my first small carp match pole fishing with my grandfather on the creeks of a Dutch park water in 1980 at the age of eight. The fight was so furious that I was hoping the next bite would be a carp again. Shortly after I began learning about tactics and armed myself with two rods and few cans of sweetcorn, and since then the passion for this particular species grew into a lifetime adventure.                                                                              

Back in Belgium I began exploring my local lakes around the area where I grew up, and noticed a few carp anglers that weren’t exactly welcoming new anglers with open arms. The carp fishing mentality was very secretive and anglers wouldn’t even bait or cast out if there were any bystanders. One angler in particular was very advanced as far as tactics and bait, but he was very intimidating to approach so I respectfully watched him from a distance many times. One day I saw him with a bend in his rod, so I walked over from the other side of the lake and asked if I could be of any assistance. He stared me right in the eyes for a second before asking me to get his net and place it next to his feet. I watched him land the biggest carp I’d ever seen at the time, and ever since then I became more friendly with him and he took me sort of under his wing a bit. He was the master of home-made boillies, and in around 1983 he taught me how to make them for myself and that opened a whole different world in carp fishing.

In 1993 I decided to take a vacation trip from Belgium to Los Angeles and ended up in a metal band called Fear Factory, touring the globe making albums and playing gigs. That put fishing on the back burner for a while, but often as I would travel from city to city playing shows, I’d pass lakes and rivers and always find myself thinking “I wonder if there are some chunks swimming in there”, so the passion for angling was still roaming deep in my soul.

About four years ago, with a little more time at my disposal, I armed myself with new kit and hit some of the Southern Californian Park Lakes and Reservoirs, just adventuring really, and not knowing what to expect.

It was on a mild Christmas day, after many blanks and countless hours on the bank I was able to land a beautiful 38lb common from a park lake. That capture further fueled my desire to explore carp angling in California and the USA more, as the potential of these waters is huge, and hopefully I’ll be able to show other anglers how much fun can be had from targeting this magnificent species.”