Jump to content
Carp Anglers Group Forums

ctcarper

CAG Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,469

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by ctcarper

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    I have heard the NY steelhead or wiser and fewer. IT was definitely a new style fo fishing for me, but I really look forward to more salmon/steelheading in the future, definitely in NY.

    post-305-1196695886.jpg

    Matt,

    Nice fish. As I mentioned to Louis, I'd be more than welcome to show you guys the ropes up there some day.

    There are tons of fish there every season, and with the new regs I think it might bring numbers even higher (similar to the early eighties figures). They are definitely tough to get despite the numbers. Finesse fishing at it's finest!

    -Mike

    P.S. I need one of those hats.

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    wow, awesome mike. were you in the dsr or public access? I went up with wg and some other guys for early salmon in september. we fished in shorts :D it was a blast. one guy caught a 14 lb steelie, and there were some nice browns around. I had to bail out on a steelhead trip to erie last weekend. I've never tried the SR when it was cold.. maybe someday.

    Great report :D

    Hi Louis,

    It was public access. I have a problem paying Barklay $25 a day to fish. There is too much good water thoughout the 10 miles up to Altmar to warrant it. I know the entire river pretty well as I have fished it for over 25 years. I did the salmon thing in shorts too, but Im not a big fan of elbow to elbow fishing. Stellheading thins out the crowd a bit. Separates the men from the boys...! :D

    If you ever want to try it let me know.

    -Mike

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    macfish here. Mike, beautiful looking fish! I've never had the chance to go for steelies. What might be an "average" fish, or does that change a lot year-to-year? If you hooked, say an 8lber, how long a fight might it normally give you? Thanks for posting this. Jonathan

    Hi Jonathan,

    An average fish is probably 8-10 lbs or so. I have had fish up to 20 lbs.

    As far as battle duration goes, it is usually @10-15 minutes. It depends lot of things, fish size, current, and even water temps, as fish really fight harder in warmer water. It is challenging since we use 3 to 4 lb leaders as they are very line shy. You need a long limber rod and a reel with a good drag. The hardest part is freezing you a## off while trying to catch them!

    -Mike/CT

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    Day three (Sunday)

    Not quite as cold (back up to 20!). winds no too bad (only gusting to 30...). The day before had wiped me, I got up at 6:30 to look at the temp - 11 degrees!

    I jumped back in bed to get some extra sleep. The other guys seemed to have the same thing in mind as well. After breakfast I wrestled with whether or not to hit the river for a couple of hours before heading out. Joe made my mind up for me as he started suiting up. What the hell. We decided to fish a run close by for convenience. Armed with some of the fresh spawn sacs we had tied previously we ambled down the the river. It started to snow again, and the sleet pellets stung our faces as we waded out to the spot. I tried a white sac for visibility in the water, as they immitate spent salmon eggs drifting down the river. It only took a few casts to get a hookup. Another freshie that decided the downstream direction was favorable. With a bit of work I got her to turn back around. Minutes later Joe was in as well with another strong fish that eventually snapped the light leader (4lb). Undaunted he re-tied & promptly hooked up again, this time with a more favorable result, landing the fish no problem. It was nuts for about an our, we landed 5 and lost 2. These fish we a bit bigger than the previous days, all bright chrome colored. Satisfied we packed up for our 4 hour ride home. Can't wait for next year...

    -Mike/CT

    Silver bulllet!

    post-116-1196651914.jpg

    Fat chrome

    post-116-1196651967.jpg

    Joe with another sleek female

    post-116-1196652092.jpg

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    Day 2 (Saturday)

    As we settled in for a few beers the night before the wind really wound up. Temps plummeted, and it started snowing hard. It actually snowed so hard we had lightning! We got up early & went to a spot we scoped out late the day before, where we watched this guy catch a number of fish. We eased into the spot @7am to find her was already there. We struck up a conversation with him & found out he was in from Philly. He welcomed us to join him on the spot and we obliged.

    Winds scremed up the river with actual temps hovering @15 degrees F. With gusts to 40 MPH you can only imaging the wind chill numbers. A simple task like tying on a hook sometimes took 10 minutes! We wore too many layers going in, and our sweat quickly turned us into popsicles when we cooled off. We only manged 1 steelhead, and just holding it up for a photo was extremely painful! Our neoprene waders froze up when we got out of the water, & we felt like the tin man from the Wizard of Oz (before they found the oil can!).

    BRRRR!

    post-116-1196650122.jpg

    What am I doing here???

    post-116-1196650188.jpg

    I can't feel my fingers...

    post-116-1196650268.jpg

    Cold Steel

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    We made the trip up to Pulaski NY this weekend for our yearly steelhead expedition with the usual suspects.

    And as usual the weather called for dropping temps & high winds, making for challenging conditions at bank side. Typical steelhead weather...

    We had heard the river was full of early run fish, and flows were quite reasonable at 750 CFS. It appeared that last years 1 fish per day limit was already having a positive effect on fish numbers.

    Day 1 (Friday)

    This was the best weather day, as it was a balmy 36 degrees with light wind. When the sun came out it seemed to turn the fish on. Salmon spawn sacs worked, but the winning bait was a 4 inch Berkeley bubble gum colored power worm. I had heard this bait had been slamming them and today was no different. We had over a dozen good hookups. All told we landed 7 steelies & 2 browns. One of the browns was kind enough to donate her eggs, which we promptly cured & tied into spawn sacs for later in the weekend. Not a bad start to the weekend.

    Here's Pat with a "freshie". Dime bright - fresh out of the lake!

    post-116-1196648680.jpg

    Joe with his first ever steelie.

    post-116-1196649009.jpg

    A nice little male.

    post-116-1196649281.jpg

    St Lawrence junior tournament

    in Pictures, Stories & Video

    Posted

    Thanks for the wonderful write up Jerome.

    Even these words and pictures cannot express how great this event is. The people who put this event on are fantastic.

    I do echo the sentiment that we need to beef up CAG participation next year. The organizers really look up to us for support & guidance! So let's rally the "troops" early for next year.

    Waddington is truly the "Carp Capital of the World"! :D

    -Mike/CT

×
×
  • Create New...