Nash Tackle Off The Hook Podcast - S2 Episode 40 - Dan Hawkes

This week joining Hassan in the studio is RidgeMonkey front man and star of ‘The Great Escape’ series Dan Hawkes.

Dan is not only a well-known high profile carp angler but he is a dynamic sales manager for RidgeMonkey and has been instrumental in the development of the brand in recent years.

Dan shares in a very personal and in depth manner the story of how he came to work in the angling industry. His wife was instrumental in getting Dan his first opportunity in the industry when she applied for a position advertised at ‘Phat Fish Tackle’. After a period of time working in retail with Phat Fish he moved on to a regional sales manager position with Sonik Sports. This was a relatively short lived chapter in Dan’s career and he shares the reasons behind his decision to leave Sonik and head to a new emerging brand at the time this being RidgeMonkey. Dan also gives great advice for people looking to make fishing their career and follow in his footsteps.

Over the last few years Dan has had to balance his day to day Sales Manager job with his appearances on ‘The Great Escape’ fishing across Europe at some of the finest venues holding some huge continental carp.  Dan talks about his friendship with fellow RidgeMonkey angler and former guest on this podcast Dave levy and how he has learnt so much in terms of mind-set and how to single of bigger fish from Dave. Dan recalls epic numbers of big fish he has captured from Parco Del Brenta, Sumbar, Carplantis and Euro Aqua. He has been fortunate to be the first man from the UK to land a 30kg+ fish from Central Europe on his first trip. Finally Dan talks about a fish that literally left him in tears that being a huge 78lber from Zajarki. Concluding this section Dan talks about the banter and goings on of The Great Escape and the madness of the challenges they face in every episode.

Dan is a Kent man through and through and historically he has had great success across a variety of Kent waters. He has captured Chillys Fish from Chillam Mill, The Rasta from Swan and one of the fully scaled mirrors from Tonbridge. He has also had success on Loggies Lake and in more recent times he has smashed The Stour Syndicate catching a huge number of big fish over the past two seasons on there including the incredible Black Mirror which got him on the cover of Total Carp. Dan talks about his development as an angler and how over the years despite fishing only one mid-week overnighter his regular application of bait and use of liquids has accounted for so many mega Kent fish. He demonstrates that there’s always time to go fishing despite a busy family and work life and if you are willing to put in the effort the rewards are there.

Dan is a charismatic man who truly has the gift of the gab. He also has an incredible passion for carp fishing and work ethic that is second to none. All this combined has led him to great success and will continue to do so in the future. Sit back and enjoy an insight into the man himself.