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ctcarper

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    Carpers Catchng Chromers

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    Hey, I saw Val and Nigel at Tops groceries Sat night buying Beer or Something. I told them to meet me at School House pool Sun. am. Never saw them, Glad you had fun. Give me a heads up if any want to go out in a drift boat. and NO, I won't be rude to the shore anglers. Unless they are in my spot. he heeee. :)

    Yes - those fellas can consume adult beverages on a large scale, and still get up at "0 dark thirty"!

    Another weekend trip is not out of the realm of possibility...if so we will let you know.

    The drift boat comment was not meant to be a blanket statement - some are quite polite. :D

    Val did go to Schoolhouse on Sunday (and lost a few fish).

    -Mike/CT

    Carpers Catchng Chromers

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    lifter. :)

    Nice as always Mike. Makes me wonder why you haven't made a crappie post in a while... Bad year?

    I'm stoked to be going up to erie with matt next weekend for my first chrome trip in 5 years. I'm most excited that we are going to target burbot at night! :D

    Thanks Louis.

    Missed the crappies this year (my high school senior kept me a bit too busy...)

    I did not realize burbot were a cold water target. How do you fish for them?

    Carpers Catchng Chromers

    in Other Species Stories

    Posted

    Almost a year to the day since our trip last year. After a couple of banner sessions the last couple of years, this time around would certainly prove our meddle...

    Day 1 (Thursday)

    Met 3 of the boys at 5AM to do a littel car poolin'. After loading up with some java we struck north to the Tug Hill region. Stopped for a good breakfast at the famous Roscoe Diner in "Trout Town USA". By the time we made all our othe stops (Gander Mountain, Fat Nancy's, etc), we arrived in Pulaski around noon. We really lucked out on the Salmon River flow conditions. It had been at a tame 335 cfs for many days, but an early week storm had the watershed guys panicked, and as a result the gates were dumping a ridiculous 7,000 cfs for 24 hours the day before we arrived. This would have made the entire river unfishable, and we would have had to resort to fishing the tribs all weekend. But the gods shined down on us, with flows back to a managable 1,500 cfs by the time we arrived. PHEW! After settlling into our place & rigging up we spent the afternoon in the glide section, just above the DSR. I had high expectations, thinking that the recent high water may have brought some freshies into the lower stretches of the river. To our dissapointment that was not the case, none of us hade even a bump from a brown or steelie, but a couple of the guys landed a couple of fallfish on worms & maggots. Up to the house for "beer time"!

    Day 2 (Friday)

    Reports had it there were lots of fish upstream towards Altmar (no surprise there), but with fairly hig flows there would be limited access points for fish. There would be lots of anglers there too (again no surprise!). The plan was to get our butts up there at 0 dark thirty to stake a real estate claim. Temps in the upper 20's to start, getting up to maybe 34 degrees with forcast of lake effect snow (surprised? - NO!). We tucked into a couple of spots and had to work pretty hard to get hooked up. Even with a fish on, the fast water made it hard to chase at all, so quite a few fish were lost. Overall we probably landed 5 or 6 fish, including a nice brown by Val Grimley. Most fish fell to white egg sacks or the infamous bubble gum power worm. After a long cold day we retreated back to base camp for some home made blackfish chowder, mde by one of our more famous CAG alumni (more on that later). It's amazing how much cold water fishing takes out of you, I think I was asleep by 10PM...

    Day 3 (Saturday)

    Back again to the "zoo" for a morning session. Lots of guides on the river, most with little or no repsect for the shore angler (I could expand on that but no need!). Much slower today, far fewer hookups all around. The fish were there though, more than once I thought I had one on, only to come up with a few scales on the hookpoint. Nevertheless we managed a dozen or more hookups, with a half dozen fish or so. A bit colder today but sunny, lots of iced up eyelets... We decided to venture up to South Sandy for the afternoon, where we did quite well last December. We walked a good mile up & down river, with no fish for our efforts. Back to base camp for some ziti, meatballs & sausage (and yes more alcohol!).

    Day 4 (Sunday AM)

    Some of the gang left early in the morning, but us four "die hards" were not done. It was the coldest day yet, with snow squalls. Three of us opted for the Glide section again behind the house, since it was close & easy. Val took a chance and ran up to Altmar again. This time the backyard hole treated us better, we were into fish straight away. I lost a big brown on my second cast, and had another big browm tryin to swallow my float! Then a few real fresh steelies came to the net. One of my buddies (Joe) finally landed a couple of fish after 3 days of painful hook pulls & break offs, so he was pretty happy about that. His elation was short lived, as he fell in while posing for a picture! 26 degrees, wind chill, 35 degree water - not fun! Our other CAGer fished hard all weekend and finally managed his first & only steelie of the trip...

    All in all another great trip, with good eats, drink & company.

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    WCB Boilies + 44 1/2 Hours + success!

    in Pictures, Stories & Video

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    The other fish we had taken were quite cooperative, but this fish had other plans. Before long it kited over into my left rod, and despite my best efforts it was caught good in my line. As I reeled in along with Neil, it was quickly determined that my hook had caught his rig tubing & lead clip, and had pulled it way up the line a good 50 feet. After getting my rig off his line I had to slide his tubing down the line as he continued to reel in. By this time the fish was into the weeds, so it was touch & go for another10 minutes.

    Finally I was able to get th net under the fish & secure it. With sweat pouring down my face I lifted and felt this fishs' heay load. A massive fish that I was sure to be forty. In fact I was starting to think potential 50lbs! We managed the fish into the sling for a weight and were stunneed at the weight of 45lbs, 5oz! This was the largest carp I have ever witnessed in my years of carp fishing, and it topped Neil's PB by 20 lbs!

    It took 44 1/2 hours for the first fish, but the next 12 were unforgetable! Thanks WCB for an awesome bait!

    -Mike/CT

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    WCB Boilies + 44 1/2 Hours + success!

    in Pictures, Stories & Video

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    Finally my left rod sprang to life at @ 4:30 AM. After I managed to extricate myself from my sleeping bag I got to the rod, and wrestled a decent common into the net. A small one I muttered, but was shocked when we weighed it at 30lbs, 2oz! I placed it into a sack for pictures later. Around 90 minutes later my distance rod was off, and this fish felt solid. As Neil slipped the net under it he said it wasn't that big (but I think he was messing with me!), and when he lifted it I knew if was another 30+. Off to the scale, where it spun around to 37lbs, 2oz, my new PB common. Into a second keep sack until later. Both fish took WCB pineapple boilies. By this point Neil was twitching, as he was only playing net boy and had yet even a bump on his rods. Finally his patience was rewarded with a run @ 10 AM. He quickly subdued a chunky 18lb, 8oz fish. He had just switched over to a pineapple boilie as well, as it seemed the fish were onto them. My third fish came in the early afternoon of day #3, and I just missed my 3rd thirty in a row by just 2 oz, as the fish weighed in at 29lbs, 14oz. Shortly after a real fat 23+ fell to another pineapple boilie, it's stomach was so big it looked like it had a basketball inside! It was quiet for most of the rest of the afternoon, as we sat & had tea & contemplated carp angling in general. Cell service was spotty, and @4:30 PM Neil finally managed to get through to his wife. 10 seconds after the initial "hello dear" his left rod sped off. After aquick "I'll call you back" he grabbed the rod and prepared for a battle to remember...

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    WCB Boilies + 44 1/2 Hours + success!

    in Pictures, Stories & Video

    Posted · Edited by ctcarper

    After much planning. good friend Neil Kent & I spent 3 plus days at one of our favorite spots for a hard core session. A tough water for sure (especially this season), as reports have been spotty at best. But knowing biggies do reside was enough motivation for us.

    As Neil was not familiar with finding this spot in the dark on his own, we opted to meet up at a parking area along the main road the next morning. I pulled in at 6am, as it was just beginning to get light, to find Neil sound asleep in his car. He wa so wound up for the trip he left at midnight from his NYC home. I tapped on the glass to get his attention, and when he muttered something incoherrant I told him to get himself together while I take a few casts for walleye. Soon we were off to the swim.

    By 7 AM we had our first load of gear lakeside. The lake was mirror calm. After getting the rest of our gear we did our due diligence, giving the marker float rod a good work out, to see what kind of depths & structure we'd be dealing with. Our thinking was that it might take a while to get the fish in, so we started our strategic baiting campaign. We would fish 2 set distances of @ 75 & 100 yards. Just before we had begun, we happened to see a large fish roll @ 200 yards out, a bit out of range. Hopefully we would pull the fish into range. Neil had this awesome spod mix, heavily weighted with hemp seed, mini tiger nuts, maples, bird seed. It smelled so good it had to work! He diligently spodded many dozen casts out to the 75 yard mark. While this was going on, I spent a good portion of an hour sending 2 kilos of World Classic Baits pineapple bottom baits to the 100 yard mark with my trusty Cobra Stick.

    At around 8 AM our first lines were out, and we organized the swim in the hope that we would eventually get some fish going. Litle did we know how long that would take!

    Weather was bright & sunny with a high pressure system moving in, not the best fishing weather in my opinion. No action (or even a beep) all day long. Being tired from drive up we retired very early, probably @ 9 PM. We both had 20F degree sleeping bags, but the 28 degree pre dawn temp had us both shivering. Fortunately it warmed quickly when the sun arose, but unfortunately still no action or even signs of fish. Looked like this cold front had really put the fish down...! All of day #2 was quiet, aside from a few locals fishing for perch around the corner, at least they were catching! Dinner time came, and afterwords I decided to check a few spots for walleye, to maybe feel a fish at the end of a rod. At dusk I caught 3 real nice fish, one was over 21 inches. I placed them on a stringer & head back to camp (they ultimately made an awesome dinner when I got back!). Most of the night the rods remained silent to our dismay, but we did hear a number of fish jumping at range.

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    Turtles and avoiding them!

    in Beginning Carping

    Posted

    Best bet is go with maize in that situation, sweet corn comes off the hair too easy and turtles will make quick work of it, maize will hold up better but the turtles will still go after it, might try tiger nutts as an option, when I fish ponds with lots of turtles they tend to leave the tiger nutts alone.

    Big snapping turtles love tigers....!

    There is not much a snapping turtle will not take. I've even caught them on fake corn.

    RIP Bud Yancey

    in Beginning Carping

    Posted

    A sad day for sure. One of our true visionaries. I remember the first time I sent him a letter for one of the very early CAG newsletters. He treated this new carper with the respect of a veteran angler. As already said we owe Bud a great debt of gratitude.

    Rest in peace Bud.

    -MD

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