CT CAGI - Up Close and Personal, Vinnie, Domm and Me Options

[Ermghoti]

Things looked pretty bleak for a while, during the high of the Great License Crisis of '06, but Vinnie's phone work found us a handy Walmart with out-of-state 3 days, and we were on our way.

Stop one, Friday night-Saturday morning, was the Housatonic. I can't comment, as I opted to sleep instead of fish (I was up since 4am, it was well after midnight by the time we were bankside). This was one of a very few wise decisions I made this weekend.

Saturday morning, we made our way to the venue, and arrived early enough to lend a little help pegging. Egads, reports of a climb to get to the pegs were in no way exaggerated! Fortunately, temperatures were roughly 17,000 degrees cooler than last year. This was hardly surprising, due to the nearly constant rain.

From the top of the hill, the view appeared thusly to the Coolpix:



I keed. Actually, there was a hauntingly beautiful fog/mist hanging over the mountains, extremely picturesque, but I did not have my camera on top until things dried out a bit. This one was snapped a bit later, and by coincidence gives a hint at the topography.



Anyway, at 9:00 am sharp, the pegs were drawn. Local experts unanimously agreed the peg to pick was #1. Said peg was drawn first, by Jerome "Haliburton" Moisand, for none other than Jerome himself. Determined to put this treacherous act behind us, we ascended Mt. Dragonne to populate our pegs. By happy coincidence, Vinnie and Sarah landed adjacent to Domm and myself. Massholes unite!

I came to the shrewd conclusion that I could reach my peg faster by climbing the near-verticle slope, rather than negotiating the more graded asphalt road that approached the pegged area. After being resucitated, I cleared the peak of the cliff, just in time to see a large swirl in the water directly in front of what turned out to be my peg, barely more than a rod's length from shore! Bait was thrown, H-hour arrived, and the first casts were in.

Vinnie broke the seal on the venue with this 17-7.



Vinnie soon added a pristine 20-2, the largest we had heard of so far, although we had been hearing disturbingly regular accounts of Jerome collecting mid to high teen specimins.



The fishing in our section was a slow pick, most anglers fishless, with Domm dropping one that he deemed to have been heavy. Vinnie made his way slowly to three, then four fish, all quality specimins, keeping him in contention for Big Four, if not Total Weight, depending on what happened around peg #1.

At 3:35, Domm shook off the dreaded skunk, with this fish, which I, as I did the entire day, ridiculously underestimated upon first sighting in the water as "solid fish, maybe 14 or so." As it grew closer, I began offering Domm sage tidbits of advice, like "don't fork this one up!" As it slid into my net, it's dimensions became unavoidably obvious, even to me.





I had earlier deemed Vinnie's 20 to be about 11lbs. Experts rank this day's underestimations to be on par with that of Goering's assessment of the RAF.

Unfortunately, this was to be Domm's last fish of the CAGI, losing another a a couple hours later. The fish were all taken on the edges of a narrow but extremely dense band of weeds just off shore. The weeds can be seen in this shot of what had gradually turned into an idyllic New England summer day.



Four o'clock came and went, and despite having sorted through four separate flavors of premium boilies, newly aquired in hot flavors, I began to fear a repeat performance of last years zero total weight CAGI. I switched over to maize, which had accounted for all but one of the captures within earshot, and which I almost invariably have in the water at all times, but not today. At 4:20 (Domm o'clock), my left alarm screamed off, and I coaxed my first CAGI carp since 2004 to the net, a short cast and a fast hookset pulling the fish away from the weedline befoe it could bury itself. At 10lbs 15 oz, it may have been CT's smallest of the day, but with the CAGI half over, I had at least gotten on the board.



At roughly six, I set a personal best, with a 15-13 fully scaled mirror, one of the most gorgeous fish I have seen.



Another alarm sounded on my pod, and I wrestled a healthily struggling carp to net. Glimpsing it in the water, I guessed it would be about the same size as my first. I was only off by, oh, half. After the precarious process of guiding the fish through the tungsten-dense weeds, this one made it to the Rueben Heatons at seven o'clock.




Almost as soon as I was back in the water, I had another run, marked at 7:15 on my card. A quality teen was weighed, but not photographed, as it was not as remarkable as the ticking tournement clock. Amazingly, I had a hit before I could put the rod down on the subsequent cast. Initially, I thought I had caught the weed bed, but the intitial twitch turned to a series, and what turned out to be my last was weighed at 7:26. Two teens and a... bigger one weighed in twenty six minutes! I was also particularly proud that I had lost no fish, on a day in which several anglers lost more than they landed. Patience and Power Pro made the difference.

Nine o'clock came with the fog...



... and the sunset.



The results have now been widely reported, Domm's fish taking the big fish award, I captured the big four, and Jerome took total weight.

The next morning, Domm fulfilled the second of his initial goals, by landing the ugliest mirror in the world!



An excellent and memorable trip, marred only by Vinnie's pulling up ill Saturday night, and me turning an ankle in an idiotic attempt to descend the precipice with all my gear.

[kelticarper]

Great pictures and great write up,..well done. And a big well done to every one that attended and especially to the organisers Mike D and Jerome !!

All the best..Val G.

[miguel126]

WTG Guys
big congrats to you all

[Ol Captain]

Simply Beautiful.

[kg1870]

Great story and that mirror is very ugly. I have never seen one like that before.

[Sarah]

Thanks for spending a great day with me You guys caught some pretty cool carp. Eric, you were ON FIRE during that one hour of carp fishing. I liked the Domm o'clock comment It was a pretty interesting day...

Let's do it again soon!

[Justin]

Congrats to everyone.

[Ermghoti]

I overloaded my hosting account, so I threw some more money at 'em, and the pics are back. Enjoy!

Dittos on the "hats off" to Dragonne and Moisand!

[Matt]

Nice fish guys. Looks like Domm caught the mirror of "crooked-back Mountain".

[Big Buffalo]

come on... that mirra isn't "ugly" he's just unique... lovely fish guys!

[ctcarper]

I know someone in Texas that would kiss that ugly mirror...

-MD/CT

[carphuntersinc.]

Just wanted to say that the CT. CAGI was great due to all the efforts of Mike D. and Jerome I myself blanked OH Well !!!!!! But I went to enjoy myself and did just that and once again to AF BoB the McChicken and fries hit the spot. For awhile it was looking like the NEYC but settled down and this time I did,t wind up in the hospital!!! Great going to all that banked some fish it was abit hard going and skill won out and Dom,s 32 was great ( Dom I was just venting he'll know what I mean) I do that from time to time when I'm alone Ha Ha Had a good day hope to see all soon Ed W.

[Ermghoti]

Nice fish guys.  Looks like Domm caught the mirror of "crooked-back Mountain".

LOL.

Nice fish guys.  Looks like Domm caught the mirror of "crooked-back Mountain".

Double LOL!

...and once again to AF BoB the McChicken and fries hit the spot.

Dammit! I knew I forgot something/one!

I will kick my own butt once I get out of work for not mentioning AF Bob, Mrs. Bob, and the Mini-Bobs' life-saving efforts!

[badchade]

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN UGLY CARP!!
but if there was, that one would be pretty close.

Chad

[redcoat]

Great stuff Eric.

Sorry I had to miss the trip.

Iain.

BTW. One minor point. I have copyright on the monikers Jerome "Haliburton" Moisand and Jerome "Friend-of-the-Quail" Moisand. Used bills in brown paper bag to the usual address.