macfish
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Posts posted by macfish
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Great job, macfish!
I'm glad someone caught some today. I was skunked on the Hooch this AM
Horace
Horace - macfish here. Sorry to hear that luck wasn't with you today. Were you getting a lot of windy, rainy weather down there today from Rita? We had rain over the last two days and then very foggy this morning up until about 10 AM. Very unusual weather for us. After that it got hot, high 80s. Hopefully the fish'll be back apestering you again very soon. By the way, could I send you some Chubby Bubble Gum soda? Jonathan
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Congrats on a good session Mac!
Thanks phillyguy (is it Matt?). I appreciate that. It was a lot of fun. It was really foggy here this morning, visibility down so much that I was driving about 45 - 50. I love fog and it was very foggy on the water so for me that even added more mystery, more sense of wonder to the whole thing. The only thing bad about it was that I got up really early to go to a spot on a 55,000 acre lake where I've caught some of my largest fish and when I got there at 5AM there was at least one car there and probably 10 to 12 teenagers. I didn't hang around to ask what they were up to. Well, I still caught anyway and that's what matters. Tight lines! Jonathan
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Hey guys macfish here. I can't say it's really packbait, more like method mix, but I tried something new today. I used some quick oats, canned sweet corn (I poured the water in the can out) and a small amount of Chubby (small 8.45 oz. soda pop) Bubble Gum flavor. If you want more details go to the Members Only Recipe Section. I used that on a Fox method feeder. I had soaked/boiled field corn that was slightly fermented on a hair as bait. They kept coming after it all morning, whether I had a method feeder on the rod or not. I would say I had my best ever session for carp. It's too bad there wasn't anyone else there to enjoy it. I think I caught six carp. The largest one was only about 6 lbs. and the smallest about 2 to 3 but they were some scrappy fish! I also caught either a 6 lb. channel cat or blue cat on a range cube. I thought at first glance it was a channel but after looking at the photos it's either a nearly unspotted channel or a blue cat which would be my first. It was a long lean 22" fish. That also fought really well. I think the cooler weather has helped the fish move back into normal feeding again so they were pretty active today. Best I've seen all year. Jonathan
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I just saved up and bought a $40 baitcasting reel. I absolutely love it and it casts like a dream. I was just wondering what line would give me the furtherest and smoothest cast and prevent "professional overrun" thanks
macfish here. I fish with both spinning reels and baitcasting reels though mostly the later. I like and use Trilene Big Game on a Abu Garcia USA 50 and a Quantum Iron 120. I also have used Trilene XT but I don't like it as much as Big Game. In my opinion it's very good line and I have never had any problems with it that I haven't created through casting poorly. I also have two heavier reels mostly for catfish - a Quantum Big Iron IR430 (has level wind) and a Shimano CT700S (does not have level wind). I have 50# Johnson Spiderwire on the Big Iron. It's okay line but if I had it to do over I would not have bought it or put it on there. I have had a lot of trouble with air knots, lumpiness on the arbor spool from casting and some backlash problems, lots more than with Big Game. On the Shimano I have McCoy Mean Green 50# braid. I really like this line. It looks a lot like Power Pro which I have seen but have not bought. I like it better than Power Pro although to be fair that's just because of how it looks and feels. It seems like it might be a little better made than the Power Pro. Just my opinion. Jonathan
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Came to my mind, but just wasnt worth it. His "Ill come to the bank" threat did nothing but get me beggin him to come ashore.
It happens, but imagine the bad press for carp anglers up there had I (justly?) hit this guy with a lead....especially after I did let him know my casting prowess (he was only 15 yds from shore trolling..
Scott - macfish here. It's amazing to me how some people seem feel like the world is their own little strawberry plot and anyone else even remotely close is a threat. I often fish at a small dam on a little river here in Missouri. The best fishing is usually as close to the gates as possible, especially if they are slightly open. There's one guy I've seen there a couple of times and each time I've seen him there he's constantly giving everyone the evil eye, very paranoid that they're going to get too close to him. He takes up two to three times the space everbody else does with the three lines that he puts out. I can't imagine he enjoys it but maybe running the screwy power trip is the real entertainment for him. If I had been there with you I think I might have been afraid that the loony might have pulled a weapon and gone ballistic. Unfortunately you never can tell. It's certainly not worth injury or worse. It's a sad state of affairs and there does seem to be less general civility and politeness than when I was a kid. Hopefully we carping, sportfisher types are doing something to make a positive change in that. Jonathan
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Hey Captain/Horace - macfish here. You may not be catching the 10s, 20s or 30s that some other folks do but it seems like you appreciate each ounce of fish more than some of us do and also the whole relaxing ambiance of the situation. In other words you seem to rest and restore your soul through the activity or lack thereof. Every time I see one of your posts I know I'll enjoy it because it comes pretty close to putting me there with you. Thanks for sharing. Jonathan
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Highschool's starting back up this Tuesday ( ggreat), so I wanted to stop by my favourite lake to at least have something to remember the
summer by...I through out loads of chum near the bank...with in minutes there were turtles, geese, bass, sunfish, oh..and CATFISH, SO MANY CATFISH YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE it! I came to carp fish, but ended up being swamped by
Channel cats. I took my best friend, who is also staring highschool with me this year, ( she dosent really fish that much, so its really funny when she tries to bait her hook...with nightcrawlers) I caught a bass, near 15LB., 4 small sunfish, 2
medium bass, oh yeah I almost forgot... and exactly 23 CHANNEL CATS! Even off of CARP BAIT, they were eating everything. Im not really a big fan of catfish..and when half of my catches bit me or stuck their little prickles into my hand, proved
that I hated them. Good day? With the catches yes..with what I caught..no...Last year I caught a 30LB Channel Cat, I got a Sitation for it..and a couple of record
white Perchs', and 2 monster commons in that Lake..ususally the carp are jumping around Spring...I guess its just not their season to take the bait at the lake......but that dosen't stop me from trying
Brit - macfish here. CONGRATULATIONS!!! As Tommy said the bass and the channel cat you caught (30 lber) are both outstanding fish. I've caught bigger flathead catfish but they can get up to and over 100 lbs. A 30 lb. channel catfish to me is about like catching a 40 lb. carp - possible but pretty darn rare. You're a rare breed catching that plus a 15 lb. bass. I can see the sky will be the limit for you!
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macfish here. Sorry, this was a duplicate post and I don't know how to get rid of it.
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macfish here. I've said before I am a recent convert to carping. I've fished for over 40 years but it's only recently that I made the switch from saying/acting as if carp were a trash fish to specifically targeting them and in part that happened because it got really hot and the other fish weren't cooperating when I went fishing. I figured if they're available and I can't catch anything else, why not? So here's my first carp last summer:
Jonathan
P.S. There's a funny looking plant to the right and just a little below the fish's mouth, about six inches away. It looks a little like some kind of a short bright green "tree." That plant is chufa grass, the plant that tiger nuts come from or as we call them here, chufa. It is also called yellow nut-grass. I believe the Latin name is Cyperus esculentus.
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macfish morel mushrooms hummm good I missed them this year, this spring was funny, but lookout next year. mickey and Jim
Mickey and Jim - it's funny. In the springtime (mid April to early May) not long after it just begins to warm up you can often see cars and trucks parked here and there alongside the roads close to the woods. Usually they're not parked by land they own themselves but they're also not parked as a couple. It's folks out trying to find the elusive and ever so wonderful morel. We've even got some folks here in town that have their own 3 foot tall carved versions of them in their front yard. I take it you too are a fan? macfish
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As you know I lived many yeas in ole MO so I have fished a few of the places. But as for next year if all goes as planned I should be out that way say around the latter part of May. I'll be looking you and Dave Moran in Ill. and a old friend up from "back in the day" .. up if all goes as planned fingers crossed Looking forward to it I have not been to MO since 1999
Dean, I imagine it will be really good to get back this way. If you're coming in May you'll be hitting some of the best fishing times. There would be crappie, walleye (if lucky), flatheads, and of course carp. I don't know if you ever ran into them before but if you were here in April you'd be able (more than likely) to have some morel mushrooms (sponge mushrooms). Folks in the tristate area, most of Missouri, much of Illinois, Indiana?, Ohio? collect and relish them. If you like mushrooms and haven't had them before I bet they'd be right up your alley. Looking forward to seeing you! macfish
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Macfish good going a good fish is a good fish in any ones book. Like the other post get a scale. I also have a tape for length. There are formulas for weight is you don't have a scale [ need a tape ]. I have picked a up a few good catfish while trolling bottom bouncers with nightcralers for walleyes. Hey catching is what is all about
Hope to see you next year
Hey Dean. Thanks for the comment. Yeah, getting the scale is on the todo list but I almost always have my tape with me. When my digital camera is working a picture of a fish with the tape next to it is pretty convincing. Hope your summer is also getting more productive. Hopefully I'll have checked out some good places on the lake before next summer. That's where I got the flathead. macfish
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Mac, the range cubes we get are 3/4 " - 1 " diameter and up to 3" long..
we drill through the diameter in the middle of the cube.. so it's like putting on a stretched out boilie..
It sounds like you are fishing them lenghtwise..
hope that helps
Phil - macfish here. you know I was trying to picture how I put a range cube on and how you guys do it and I was getting so caught up in trying to distinguish between orientations. I almost felt like an engineer was needed to properly describe it. Then I saw Alex's picture. I do indeed go lengthwise but that's also why I cut them down. I think I'll try your was because it's a WHOLE lot less work and I bet it brings the bigguns in. Thanks!
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Hey macfish
Here is a pic of my rig with 3 range cubes you can use one, two ...... whatever you like, as for catching carp on field corn try not to use range cube as a bait
, especially if you use one or two rods, try fishing only with corn till you get confident in it. For flavoring hmmmmmm, I usually flavor only hook bait if that, as corn on its own has a great pulling power. And if you would to flavor 5gal bucket lets say 20lb of corn that’s 40-60ml of flavor (whole bottle), you could use less but what’s a point of highly diluted flavor.Hey Alex - macfish here. Thanks for the photo. You do them across the cube horizontally. I drill mine through the center from top down to bottom (lengthwise) which is why I cut them down. Your way definitely takes less time and gives them more to work with. I'll give that a try. I thought it would be too much bait. With your setup it seems like you'd mainly draw the big ones. A clarification: I was fishing with maize only (2-3 on a hair) but got no bites so I put a range cube on one rod (I had three out). I also tried range cube plus maize. Maybe not a good idea. Guess I need to give each bait it's due respect, get used to it and how it works, etc. Thanks again.
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good one mac
do you still cut down your range cubes or you fish the whole thing ?
Alex - macfish here. Yeah, I still cut them down from about 1/4" to 3/4". Funny you asked that. Just yesterday I went fishing and I was remembering what you had said about putting the whole range cube (or several) on a hair rig and I was trying to imagine that. If they are like mine anywhere from about two up to four inches long do you just drill a hole in them, put the hair through then your bait stop? You must use really long hairs. I tend to use pretty short ones, about an inch or less below the hook, usually try to do them with no knot - just a large loop (like Buckeye Bob's illustration for the No Knot knot). I was trying to imagine what you did. Could you post a picture or an illustration of how you string them doggies up? By the way, yesterday I was using soaked and boiled field corn for the first time as bait and I had absolutely no bites at all on the maize but I did get a fish on range cube. I have caught carp at this place with canned sweet corn. Maybe I need to flavor the maize?
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Friends - macfish here. This past Sunday morning (Aug. 21st) I went fishing and caught my second best fish. Unfortunately it wasn't a carp but it was still a BLAST! I caught a flathead catfish that was 40" long. Since I didn't have a scale with me I'd guess it was around 30 lb., maybe a little bigger. I was using a piece of range cube hair-rigged on a Gamakatsu G-Stringer hook, size 8. I picked up four of those hooks somewhere for $.25 because they couldn't sell them. VERY strong hooks but I thought maybe they would be too small. If they can hook and hold 30# of catfish they can surely hook and hold a lot of other large fish. Strange thing: it was actually hooked on the left side just down below the mouth at the very corner. A flathead that big has a mouth about 6 - 8" across. It could easily hold both of my hands side by side. I forgot to mention that I was using a Quantum baitcasting reel (Iron 120) on a Shimano Bullwhip casting rod (love that rod!) with Berkley Trilene XT 8# test! By the way, it was released. After a great fight there's nothing greater to me than to see that fish swimming away to give life to new ones or to give someone else a real thrill. Hopefully the next time I report anything larger than 10# it'll be a carp. One thing: I wish I'd had a good working scale and my camera with me. People look kind of funny at me when I say what I did but have no pictures.
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Neil - macfish here. I think perhaps the main thing that got me so interested was the quality of information on the site. When I say that I do not actually mean the forum. I came to the CAG site for over a year, I think, and I read all of the articles on the site without even knowing that there was a forum or that I could get on it. I liked what I found so much that I printed out the articles and put them in a binder. I think I read and reread the articles for awhile until I understood the information and then finally tried fishing for carp. Everything I read pretty much connected and made sense. Carp fishing is not really as hard as it looked to be at first. Since I joined CAG and the forum (July 1, 2005) I have had no regrets at all. I have been to three or four Euro carping sites and several American ones and the quality of information and sense of fellowship at CAG is the best I've found. I find a lot of kindred spirits here. Sometimes I get into something a little over my head on the forum and though it would be easy to tell me off folks seem to have been pretty understanding and tolerant of the newbie.
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Clemson, did you catch them on the bottom, under a bobber...? I have made some funny looking rigs from pictures on the net and spent a lot of money on funny baits with no luck. Do you know anyone who still fishes for them? I would love to figure out how to catch them in my local rivers.
Carpenter 07 - macfish here. We have lots of them (Bighead carp and also silver carp) in NE Missouri and probably throughout much of the state as a result of them escaping from the ponds they were being held in during the flood of 1993. I am familiar with them from the Salt River which is about ten minutes from me. I caught one each of the silver (on a tutti frutti popup on a hair rig) and the bighead was foulhooked on a range cube on a hair rig. I don't know if anything like that would work for you or even me if I tried them again. They both fought like crazy. I don't have a working scale but I'm guessing they were in the 12 - 15 lb. range. They do multiple fast tremendously strong runs. I have been completely spooled by them and also been broken off before on 15 lb. Big Game. I can't even imagine what that 90 lber was like. Without a boat a person on the bank would have to be using very strong oceanfishing gear. It's hard for me to believe that bassfishing gear could tame a large one. It would take a very savy fisherman/woman to accomplish that.
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Little update
I went back again today after work for a couple of hours and it seems this area is untapped as i was successful again in my quest for carp.
A 12lber and a 14lber i am not sure how big the carp get in here but as long as i am catching i am happy.
They were both beautiful looking fish, lean and strong.
I will be sure to bring my digital camera when i go back again at the weekend.
UKcarpstalker - CONGRATULATIONS!!! You've done a great job in making the carp fishing transition from the UK to here. I am a US fisherman who has only in the last year begun carping. I spent a lot of time hunting other fish like catfish, bass, sunfish, crappie, etc. and most of the places I've been fishing there were carp, sometimes LARGE carp. Unfortunately my nose was too far up in the air to give the carp a go. Well, last year after getting rather frustrated with not getting any fish I broke down and started trying for the carp which I had seen jumping out of the water. It took a few tries (honest translation: blanks) but I began catching a few and now given my druthers I would prefer to be carp fishing though I'll fish for almost anything. macfish
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I am so glad I tried the tips learned from the forum--it puts fish on the bank
was even cooler is everytime somebody would stop to see what all that wierd gear was--WE WOULD HAVE A DOUBLE
--the people would get pumped up and help net--I need to get more NACAs just to hand out there this spot just gets better and better as we learn more how to fish it
poor Jim ( jim are you still bleeding?)
took a couple of headers takin pics or we would have more!!
and as a note even in our hot weather it was 58 degrees there this morning ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
missoucarpee - macfish here. Congratulations on you and Jim's successful survey/adventure (and first 20 lber)! At least somebody in the state is having a good time/catching fish. Bet it makes up for your trip out east and then some? I certainly understand the cooling off thing. We had rain last on the 4th of July until just last week. I think it was Monday or Tuesday. Pretty much rained all day long slowly and not real heavy but VERY NICE. It did cool things down. We went from high nineties/low 100s to about 75. WOW! It was too late to help most of the corn but I'm sure it helped the soybeans at least a little. I'm guessing most of our local guys will only get 15-40% of a "normal" year harvest of corn. You keep sending out reports like this and I might just have to head out your way.
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Macfish here again. I just looked at my post on the site and saw that there was an attachment on it. And I did look preview the post before posting it. Maybe it just didn't show the attachment? Well, as you can probably tell it has nothing to do with carp, fishing, etc. I don't have the picture on the silver carp on this computer. Our USB ports seem to have been somehow screwed up or perhaps the system software, anyway I haven't been able to download anything to it from the digital camera. I could download it to our eMac and then try to e-amil it to myself on our Dell which is what I'm on now, I suppose. I love technology but sometimes it's just too complicated!
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Macfish here a few days after the topic. I have caught one bighead carp and one silver carp. I caught them at a small dam called the reregulation dam controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers below Mark Twain Lake on the Salt River in Ralls County, Missouri. They were both about 28" long, maybe 12-15 pounds and they were fantastic fighters, the toughest fish I have ever caught. I do have to say, however, that I have not caught a common carp that large but I have caught two flatheads bigger than that (one 25 lbs/one 35-40 lbs.) and the silver and bighead were definitely tougher. Like the guy said they run and run and run. I have had them up close enough to net only to have them take of down the river again. The silver I foul hooked through its pectoral fin. I still can't believe it was tough enough to hold, did not tear at all and held through about five or six strong runs. I've got nice pictures of the silver including one of the hair rig/hook with a piece of range cube (cattle food) bait on it stuck in the pectoral fin. If I get a chance I'll see if I can get it posted. The bighead carp I caught on a Mainline tutti frutti popup, the first and only "carp" I've caught on a popup though I also caught a nice buffalo at the same place on a tutti frutti popup. As I understand it as far as the Missouri Department of Conservation is concerned there is no limit on these fish, length, quantity, etc., and they really don't want them released back into the water. Evidently they got into the Mississippi, Missouri and other rivers in 1993 when the ponds they were in were flooded. They may pose a serious threat to other native Missouri fish like the paddlefish because they compete for the same food.
Hair Ye! Hair Ye!
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Hey Horace - macfish here. You didn't really say anything about the hair rig after you introduced it. Did you have trouble using it? A few suggestions from my use of it. If you're using mono/fluorocarbon as your hooklink a regular bait needle will probably work fine. I find if my hooklink is braid that can get a bit difficult at times because the needle has a tendency to catch on the fibers of the braid and tear them or catch and get difficult to get off of the hair. Then I'll often go to an embroidery needle. Someone else here mentioned a particular size and it was a lot larger than the ones I use. I don't remember the numbers but the tip is sized and I use 1.5 mm and 1.25 mm. That's really small so it does a very good job of getting through the braid hair without tearing it or getting caught. The only thing about the embroidery needle is that they are so large they could split a boilie if they're too hard. You might need to put a hole in the bait before you use the embroidery needle to place the bait on the hair. Hope it helps. Jonathan