10 pretty cool things you should know about Monkey Climber’s Gio Vanhooren x Part II

Hello again!

A few days ago we have been published part #1 of our Q&A with Gio Vanhooren, head honcho from the almighty Monkey Climber Magazin. Well, we both enjoyed the spontaneous idea of doing a freestlye word rap. We started with 5 questions, from there on with 10, so we finally had to to an epic split. Et Voilà, here’s the final part of our not-so-typcial interview.

How do you handle blank sessions?
Gio: I used to cry on Marre’s shoulder, but once he tried to play his infamous fourth finger trick on me!

Is there somewhere, where there is a particular fish you are still after?
Not really. I used to do some target angling back in the late 90s, focusing on a particular fish in a venue, but as you get older, you have less and lesser time so my angling changed a bit into the here and there type of thing. Especially by doing this mag next to our normal jobs, I have had less time to fish, but I have been mastering my short session skills and some people say I have golden bollocks – they must have seen me casting out full monty style – which is why I catch some better fish from time to time as well they say. Nowadays I am not going after particular fish any more, but more like particular venues. Like ‘I wanna catch a good one from Orient’ still goes through my mind. Last year, I wanted a big fish from the big Albert canal in Belgium, which is not close to my home and not easy at all. It took me eight full weekends but in the end I had what I wanted.

Is there anything nobody should know about you, but that you can tell us right now?
Yeah. I fished a paylake once. One night only. Caught a fifty. Fucked off.

If you could bring only one bait on holiday what would it be?
Tigers. As stripes on a tiger never wash away.

Who had the biggest impact in carp angling ever?
I hear my friend Jamie Corbett’s dad a legend… (inside joke) Everyone and everything has its time and place, but where would we be without the pioneers like Hutchy, Hilton, the Hair Rig Crew, etc.

Which of the three wise monkeys are you?
I can keep a secret. But I like to know the details, all of them. All that matters is what’s between the lines!

What was your dream job when you were a child?
Being part of a rock band is all that I can remember, and taking part in the Vietnam war due to watching Tour of Duty way too much. But hell, this thing surely rocks as hell too. Oh yeah, and later on I wanted to become a brewer, but that is kind of hard when you are a teetotaller like myself, isn’t it.

Park or Pit?
Well, we have a pit in Belgium which is known as Gay Lake. Carp Gypsie number one Alex Kobler fished it A LOT, but I didn’t lol #yousureyoudontwannatryalex #justthisonetime

What comes next? How about your future ideas for Monkey Climber?
Yeah, keep fucking shit up! We’ll do the English edit we’ve been talking about for years. This Winter. Promised. As soon as baby Monkey is born in December!

Probably the most important question ever: Do you like cats?
Hghgqdffq… that’s our newly found cat typing. For real! My GF found her this Tuesday along the canal, a mere 7 weeks old. Lemmy, the other one, named after the Motörhead singer, was found on the bank of a local reserve as well. Guess we’re all just stray cats in the end…

We’d like to thank Gio and his family for the wild ride through our bilingual Q&A. Thanks a million to all of you reading us (Blog, Facebook, Instagram), watching us (Vimeo) and visiting us. 2017 will be big, promise!