carpaholic125
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Posts posted by carpaholic125
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There is a ban on leads under 3/4 ounce here in ny, although I'm not sure if it just bans the sale of, or the use of, because I know that it's easily gotten around and I have never personally been checked as to the type of weight I'm using. Steelhead and salmon being exponentially more popular in the northeast than carp, bb shot is very highly prized. Tungsten just does not cut it.
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Prefessa, if you look back at my last post you will see a short video I've posted of a simple panko Pva mix breaking. Interesting stuff. I do enjoy Challah French toast.
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Here's a time lapse I did the other day of a Pva stick containing panko crumb, crushed boilie, small amount of creamed corn and some flavoring. I rather like its behavior.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/din83cmrxu1v2dm/pva%20stick%20breakdown%20.mov
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BCLT......wouldn't be a good idea, house alarm system and home owner also owns MANY guns and also has a Concealed Carry license.
Best permit to have;) always have a pistol on me these days, never know if you'll see a 'snake'
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Thank you sir.
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SoCal, I posted than in the thread I posted titled "slow start, photo finish" but that wasn't my favorite picture or even moment of 2012, seeing my girlfriend tie a rig, make bait, cast, set the rod and play a fish and achieve a fish of this magnitude (38+) was something special. As I don't have children I can't imagine your joy but I can say it feels good to watch someone's face light up with joy and achievement.
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Here's mine!
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Here's mine!
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It is a superb fish! One of the most beautiful commons I've seen. Well done to this man!
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Hmm? I thought my comments to you were on topic. Anyway, nice work. You are a credit to the companies (listed in your signature) that you represent. The story will look even better in print.
I'm sorry frank, You're comments were perfect, nothing wrong with them at all! Sorry for that misunderstanding. The story that will be published is less of an overview of the year and more based on the last part of this write-up. Thank you again for the kind words sir!
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I can share the one we used, We went to a local hard cider mill, and pickep up two bottles of cider made with liberty spy apples, sweet, tart, very little dryness, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/4 cup crystalized ginger, few orange slices, and a teaspoon of cloves, let simmer for 15 minutes and serve. You wont regret it.
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It's a well written, cohesive, interesting and professional summary. I would only suggest throwing in a paragraph break here and there. It would enhance your essay's readability greatly. Well done. The documentation alone takes lots of time and you've made a long document a joy to read.--Frank
Well, thats what several glasses of mulled hard cider will do to you
ordinarily It would be composed much better, I have a little practice Lets keep this thread on topic please...I dont want this to turn into a mess like others.
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I do, and I absolutely can not say enough great things about it. Even in my crazy snag fishing it has proved its weight in gold! Very abrasion resistant, perfect amount of stretch, sinks like a stone, great color and is very hard to see in the water. I have tried many but have great faith in this line! I highly reccomend. I use the 20# BS, it doesnt cast the best purely due to the diameter of I believe .031@ 20# but It is great for my style of fishing, If i were fishing mostly open water I would not hesitate to go down to the 15#.
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Thank you everyone for the kind words, sorry it was so long winded, but i warned you!
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Well done, you know, I'm always willing to help out!
I appreciate that
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Thank you everyone for the very kind words! I apologize for the few spelling errors and run on sentences, the mulled cider really hit me
Mario, a very similar story will be in several of the uk's, and Italy's biggest carp mags along with RH's catalogue, and plenty of media coverage on the carppro site and Facebook, and for every carppro issue to follow once everything is in place. They're already very proud. But thank you.
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As I write this potentially long winded and boring topic I'm sitting in some comfortable fleece lined pajama pants, sweat shirt and sipping on a glass or 5 of some mulled hard cider(simmered with spices such as cloves, ginger, and cinnamon) and reflecting on sessions past. I've grown wiser this year, and with knowledge comes the sophistication of enjoying a glass of spirits at the end of a long day. Let's see, where do we begin....March, I have just returned from my trip to east texas, where I had captured a flawless 40+ smallmouth buffalo, a fish that has really made a place in my heart of memories. Now normally, at this time of year in the northeast, my home, Is still mostly frozen and the water muddy from the snow melt, but this year, this year was different. It began very slowly, with the mild(non existent) winter, with no snow melt, the river was very low and clear entering spring which caused the silk weed to gather and flourish in areas that may not usually see any weed growth at all. This posed a difficult challenge as my spring areas were less, nay, non productive. It wasn't until nearly two months later that I had brought a carp to the back of my landing net. I could've traveled north to the Finger lakes, where the spring fishing is easier but my goal was to focus more on my still very virgin home waters of the Susquehanna river. 12 blanks in a row until it happened, a beautiful and flawless typical Susquehanna river common. It only happened in my opinion because of the short but almost torrential wet season that caused a small amount of flooding, causing the silk weed to be wiped away from the otherwise detritus and silty bottomed river. After securing a much needed confidence boost from a few successful sessions I made several day trips to the surrounding finger lakes, utilizing my strongest of skill sets, snag fishing. This is a technique that i have grown very comfortable with and feel extremely confident making even long range casts to within inches of downed trees and stumps. Success was achieved in the shape of four different 30+ commons gracing the mat from two very tough glacial lakes. More confidence percolated as I began to pioneer and widen my local gambit of swims. grooming each one for weeks at a time mapping and learning until I would reach my personal goals. 3 completely new areas, one very deep, a quarry that was shut down for half a century for being dug too close to the river that in that stretched reached well over 30 feet but after sever years of hard, wet springs had eroded the dike so badly it collapsed, forming a deep back eddy off of the main channel with access to both. The second, an island, bottom composed mainly of fine gravel, creating a narrow passage for which the fish to travel. The third, a mud bottomed, very wide stretch of river that simulated lake conditions. All of which had shown great promise, yielding fish to over 30 pounds. In fact I wouldn't move to the next swim until a fish of that magnitude had shown itself.
43+
34+
Now brimming with confidence and the opportunity to represent one of the premier and possibly one of the best bait companies to ever grace the market, Rod Hutchinson baits, along with my Carppro teammate Richard Somerville, the first and only to represent the bait firm on the shores of America. An honor I'll always be proud of. At this point I have zeroed in on the baits and rigs that had my upmost confidence. I can say with certainty that any angler that has been around for more than a season or two has gone through the 'phases' of a carp angler. The beginning, or "experimental" stage, where one sponges every piece of information available but hasn't yet deciphered which work, which don't, and how to use the information and tactics. Then the "intermediate" phase where we begin to buy and sell tackle, trying to find the rods and reels that mesh with our maturing angling styles and techniques. A more educated assessment of rigs and hook baits. Then the “ 3rd year scholar” phase, where we now can find and locate fish, make baits, and rigs to better angle our quarry. And now knows confidently what works and what doesn’t and when. Where once your session is in full swing you almost have a Zen like experience where you feel like you can do no wrong, and you’re “so in-tune’ with things that every move and decision you make is the right one it seems. Sorry for the short Segway. It’s now August, my favorite time of year. Some refer to it as the “dog days of summer” or the “ dead of summer” but to me, it’s THE time of the summer! This time of the year before almost to the day I found myself weighing a personal best fish of 35.04#’s, a recapture of a 33+ from almost a year to the day previous to that! And continuing a streak of great fish. But this year, I had a lull of big fish over a few week span due to continued focus in new areas but still full of confidence. I approached an ‘old friend’ of a swim, known to grant me specimen fish. With almost a completely new outlook and respect for my angling. A new mantra, “no risk, no reward”. I began my assault in similar fashion to years past, baiting a small area just off of the snags to “preoccupy” the smaller fish and give me opportunities to bury my rigs deep into the unforgiving blackness of the snags made up of 2 massive fallen oaks that had been there for as long as I can remember and certainly the premier reason the larger fish were there. A challenge I had learned to triumph over to reap the rewards. I had avoided this area the entire season, nearly 10 months of no pressure from a carp angler. My first session in this swim began as I thought it might. Slow, very small indications, fish beginning to show over the bait, small ones as I’d hoped. A precise cast to an opening in the trees canopy, the exact location that had accounted for half a dozen of the larger 30’s the year before, rig composed of a size 4 Nash Fang twister (as big hooks had proven their salt this year with fantastic hook holds), twenty pound Korda N-trap in weed green, a small quarter ounce shot to balance the rig, three ounce brown textured-coated lead, and Korda weed green lead clip. A 20mm RH maple cream boilie trimmed into the shape of a dumbbell and tipped with an extremely buoyant piece of yellow high-density foam, meticulously trimmed into the shape of maize. This may seem extreme or unnecessary to most but it is my religion that any step taken to improve things will help achieve success. Essentially this rig is in blow-back fashion with thin, silicon tubing replacing the sometimes clunky rig ring, and instead of the line aligner or tubing over the eye of the hook the coating of the braid once whipped down the hook is doubled back up the shank giving some rigidity to the rig.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this cast came with the feeling of promise. I just knew it was going to result in a fish I might not forget. The sun began to set, the rods still lay still, I still had nearly an hour before I would need to wind in. Finally a very quick drop of the bobbin, and back up as quickly I was in, into a very big fish. I had hoped since the day I decided to focus purely on the largest of fish that my first 40+ would be from home. If she goes left, she has put a very thick weed mat of Hydrilla and milfoil between us, forward and she is into the thickest of snags, to the right, open water. She thankfully went right after a few seconds of stalemate, ‘kiting’ parallel to the bank, using her weight against me. The mono between the spool and first ring was singing as it stretched, pulsing as she continued to strip line almost effortlessly. After nearly a 15 minute tussle she kisses the cold steel of my net block and what a sight it is, as I caught my breath and stood thigh deep in the water, my nerves were shot. The culmination of 6 months of some of my most dedicated and serious angling had produced one of the most wonderful fish I had ever laid eyes on. I rested her in the keep sack while I wound in the other rods and calmed down. I thoroughly moistened the weigh sling and shook all excess moisture out, and zeroed the Rueben. The result, a 35.07 common, happy days! After a few clicks of the shutter she eagerly swam off. I said out loud, “I’ll be seeing you again”. Now, a week later, very warm, very muggy. Not ideal most would say but working full time and being very busy I have to wisely use my time. It’s been 7 full days since I had been on the bank and still buzzing from the recent capture. I repeated the motions and quickly got the rod back into the same spot with in inches. This time an RH scopex tiger nut with the same trimmed foam and rig was my choice. This time, sprinkling a few tigers over the rig. All of my focus was on that rod, that cast, that rig. Snag fishing isn’t for the faint of heart, its suggested that you should fish tight lines, very tight drag and be very close to the rods, this may not suit everyone. But me, I know the rewards can be spectacular, and more than worth it. Some people are shocked that is use mono, but in my eyes it’s the ONLY way. The stretch that it offers can be absolutely imperative in snag fishing, and its stretch also aids in abrasion resistance where the tension of braid may just slice in two. Imagine trying to cut a limp string with scissors, we all know how hard it is to do, now imagine trying to cut a string under tension, like butter. Most times, when a fish is fortunate to make it into the dense branches you can actually rely on the spring of the mono to maintain tension on the fish while it works itself out. Braid has no stretch so when this happened and the fish swims toward the abrasion point it can easily eject the hook. So mono is something I feel anglers should utilize more. It’s the miracle hours as I call them, that few hours of low sun in the late summer evening, a soft breeze blows into my face as again a very quick drop of the bobbin. The line tightens and again I’m into another very hefty one. It was like Déjà vu as I set into this fish, ‘kiting’ right again, with no fear of snagging now. A battle that seemed to last forever was nearing an end as the fish submitted and slipped over the string, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the flank of this fish. I thought maybe a recapture? But once I slid my hand into the net and tilted her right side up, the width of this fish was something to be in awe over. Could this be her, my long awaited 40? After a bit to recover for both myself and the fish, I packed up and was ready to weigh and photograph this spectacular fish. Even after spending a half hour packing up I was still shaking as much as I was when I lifted the net around her. She weighed nearly 38 pounds, another personal best only a week from the last!
35+
37+
Then as if the Carp gods had cut me off the weather shifted, the fishing changed. Historically I have never captured a fish locally after the first week or two of October so I wasn’t completely surprised. Nearly a month had passed and looking back at the pictures of the last two great captures had me itching, itching to get back on the bank. Some of you know that I am in the engineering field and work as a mechanical engineer now. The manufacturing industry is a fast paced, usually very stressful environment so at this point I was nearly at suicide watch level with the lack of fishing. After speaking to my girlfriend, she had mentioned she wouldn’t mind taking another trip, to my surprise she was very adamant about it despite the weather forecast of low 40 degree temps. The plan was to fish a relatively unknown water to us for four days and three nights. Maize, tiger nuts and a few kilos of RH boilies would compose the basis of the free offerings and the same successful rig as previously stated. Lacey my girlfriend is very independent and loves to come up with odd combinations of hook baits, She had a very good track record as the last fish she had was over 30 pounds from mid summer. It was nearly 28 hours into the session before our first take, Her rod, a combination of RH 20mm Mulberry bottom bait tipped with a 14mm secret agent white pop up. The result, a terrifyingly massive fish of 38.7 pounds!!!! In one foul swoop she had surpassed my personal best common and didn’t understand what she had just achieved. I exclaimed to her that some anglers spend their lives looking for a fish of that caliber, and some never reach it. Several fish had been captured after her common including another fantastic fish of 32+ pounds of scaley mirror. Also surpassing my personal best mirror! Later that night I would get a slow, deliberate take on one of my rods. The dividends of which was an absolutely stunning mirror of 39+ pounds and shattering my previous personal best mirror of 27+ from over a year before. At that point, two and a half days on I would’ve been happy leaving right then! We had perfect weather up until that point with temps hovering in the mid to high 50’s at day, and mid to low 40’s at night. The third and final night that all changed, with some very high winds and steadily increasing rain. I suddenly had some very short and subtle twitches on the faithful Delkims that turned out to be a very large chub. In complete exhaustion, I never re-casted that rod. And actually had hoped to not have another run while the bad weather persisted. It wasn’t long before my other rod screamed off, a very aggressive take. When I left the bivvy I neglected to put on my rain jacket. A few moments later lacey emerged bringing with her my jacket and I said to her as yard after yard of line was stripped from my reel, “this is the largest fish I have ever hooked” I felt like a broken record because I Have said that 3 times previously this season but with each time it became more true. I carefully assisted Lacey as she climbed down the steep, wet bank while still playing the fish. 12 am, in the near pitch dark, the fish begins to splash on the surface about 15 yards out as my headlamp begins to fade….It was dying…Lacey had left hers in the bivvy and neither of us were in a position to fetch it. We were going to have to net it in the complete darkness, something I’m sure anyone who has done it would agree that it is not an easy task! But after a little patience and persistence the fish is in the net. Lacey came up the bank, I went down, and what I saw scared me…My eyes still adjusting but I could easily make out a very deep, very pale fish. The rain coming down more heavily now and the wind increasing I chose to do something very risky. I brought my very large Avid floating keep sack to my side, I’m up to my waist in water that’s hovering somewhere in the low 50’s and a massive mirror in the net. I slide my hands down her flank and pick her up, Lacey gasps in awe at the size of this fish, even after the 39…..calmly she slipped straight down into the sack where she would stay until morning with absolutely no risk of harm. All rods now wound in, sleep was the only thing on the agenda now. We wake up to a very moist bivvy, and the first thing on my mind was what lay inside the sack. I barely slept despite my exhaustion. The goliath fish weighed an astonishing 40.02 pounds and again topped my personal best. And what might be my very last fish of the year. Sadly this trip and these fish carry some very aggravating memories but Its ok. Its still something I will never forget with some truly incredible specimens. We had done what we set out to do. We both had achieved very high personal goals and proved to ourselves the years spent learning and absorbing was really paying off. I hope that the trend continues in 2013…What lies in store? We’ll see
26+
38+
32+
39+
40+
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Dearest Mike,
My dear friend I'd like to start off by saying that your generosity is something inspiring. This is one of the rare times that proves that Karma really may be real. As owner of a set of these exact reels I can attest to their awesomeness and only show more that your generosity is incredible. Secondly your fish are as incredible. And for a retired angler your'e pretty well versed in specimen hunting
Austin, Brenden, you guys will be getting a set of these beautiful reels!
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That's all your packin ?????
I did say AT LEAST
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:barf: :barf:
Was feeling a little beside myself this evening, think its the cold medicine.
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Ill give you at least six inches....:HAR HAR HAR...I know I know, bad joke.
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As much as winter kills me, I'm actually looking forward to a good hard winter with lots of snow. With the exception of a couple warm days last week the last 3 weeks has been around 30 and I'm still in shorts! Lol
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Very nice fish Lorne all the way from jealous NY
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I agree but what really throws a stick in my spokes are most of the state records in the us were caught with a worm on a hook=\
Lead
in Ontario
Posted
Something I've done much of and works great, obviously less dense to size than lead but as you say, easier on the wallette and environment.