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Evan C.

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    South Carolina Introductions

    in SC Meet, Greet & Questions

    Posted

    Hi Chris,

    I am no loner in SC (In TX now), but still have the lakes that have done well for me. Send Todd Davis (see comments above) a message as he is in that area and has the most info in SC carping of anyone I know of.  Lake Hartwell has a lot of fish in it (not very large on average however) but there are alot of parks along the GA/SC line that are really unfished.

    Shoot me a PM and we can chat more.

    Regards,

     

    Evan

     

     

     

    FFF 2018 - Post Written Summaries (Jerome Adventure Tale) of your FFF 2018 Experience here!

    in FFF 2018

    Posted

    Year Number 4 (or watch out for molars)

    This year will mark the 4th year I have waited excitedly for the FFF to start, and the one that I have done the worst at in many ways. There is a lesson here: don’t fish a place that is close and uninteresting simply because it’s close - this will lead to a lack of motivation and a lack luster performance in cold weather and when family makes is difficult. When I was planning on where to fish, I had an idea that if I chose the lake that was closest to me (around Tyler, TX) I’d have more time to fish it and might even get to fish twice (early AM, late evening). I started baiting about a week ahead of time. The mix consisted of a lot of different particles and a couple of handfuls of boilies all boiled together with a bit of flavor. This seemed as good a plan as any and I had caught fish on similar in the past. As time went on the water forecast got worse and worse, but I kept baiting every day before work. The swim I chose was near an old road bed and had a reasonable depth of water. Also, it was somewhat protected from the wind and had less traffic from the people I did not want to deal with (some parks on this lake have a problem with sketchy people).

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    So, the 31st rolled around and even though I had been on the water at first light every morning I had seen very little in the way of signs that carp were in the area. None as a matter of fact. Well I was planning on getting there at mid night and doing it properly but 2 factors can be traced to the reason this did not happen: 1) my youngest child was getting molars and did not sleep at all the night before, 2) I had had no nap. So, getting out at midnight was just not going to happen. I would go in the morning. Or the afternoon. Afternoon sounds good. It was not until about 330pm on the 1st that I managed to break free and get to the lake (this is shameful, and will NOT happen again!!!). The air temp was in the 20s and windy, with no cloud cover and high pressure. Just lovely fishing conditions. My parents were in town and my dad had decided to come along…and sit in the truck like a sensible person.

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    I got my rods out as fast as I could, just setting them on the ground until they were all out and I could jet out the sticks. I got the rods on indicators and went to sit in the truck in front of the heater with my dad. After very little time I got a few beeps, but figured they were catfish as the lake is full of them. A coot ran into my line and gave a good impression of a fish, but nothing much happened to make me think that this would not be the year, I am so sure is coming, where I blank for the FFF. After maybe 50min, a bite of sorts, developed. It was 100% a catfish bite, with the bobbin going up and down and no line being taken. When I picked up the rod and felt the fish I could not tell if it was a small carp or big catfish (there are Channel Catfish that are very large in there). I was fishing out about 130yds (30wraps x 13/3) and once I had the fish about half way in I was relatively sure it was a carp. Soon it was in the net and it was the smallest carp I had caught from the lake, but it was a carp so the blank I was so sure of will have to wait until another year. It turned out to be a little Common of 8lbs 10oz that had surprisingly long barbles and a few odd scales. Thanks to my dad I did not have to set of my tripod for the picture and had the little fish back in the water in no time.

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    Then came recasting. It turns out that braid line freezes very quickly when you expose it to 20-degree weather, and that casting frozen braid 130yds is just about impossible. I ended up having to get the canoe out to replace me baits. The fish had come to a Mulberry Florentine (Rod Hutchinson) tiger nut topped with a VBN 10mm orange pop-up. I was using a little PVA stick of bread, corn, and hemp with VBN flavor and lots of sugar. I stuck it out for another couple of hours but only had catfish after that. My dad seemed ready to go so I packed up and went home and had some excellent chili that my wife had made. I did get to see the first moon rise of the year (a super moon as well) and catching a carp is always fun even if it is small! However, I think next year a lake house rental will be a good idea.

    ‘Till next year!

    Evan Cartabiano     

    FFF 2018 - Register Here!

    in FFF 2018

    Posted

    Your name: Evan Cartabiano

    Your CAG forum name: Evan C.

    Your state or province of residence: Texas

    The state or province of your FFF 2018 fishing venue, if it differs from your residence: Same

    Junior (17 or under as of 1/1/18)?: Nope

     

    Thanks for doing it again Frank! Look forward to it every year. 

    FFF 2017 - Post Written Summaries (Jerome Adventure Tale) of your FFF 2017 Experience here!

    in FFF 2017

    Posted

    Title: Four states, four years, my FFF

    Location: Near Tyler, TX

    By Evan Cartabiano

    I can’t say that when I started participating in the FFF that I would have fished in for four years and never in the same lake…. or even in the same state. Year one was Oklahoma, two was South Carolina, three was North Carolina, and year four, this year, Texas. No I have not been running from the law as some have suggested. I hope that the next few years can be TX as well – moving gets old and I am going to need some time to fully explore the waters here.

    The challenge of fishing a new state every year is you don’t really have time to get to know any body of water in detail, so it’s always a scramble to find a location to fish. This year it was particularly short notice – about a month. Luckily I work in the fisheries field so can do some scouting while working. A combination of this scouting and the insights of a friend lead me to the lake I decided to fish.

    After a considerable wait the day was finally here, December 31. I got packed, kissed the wife and kids goodbye, and drove the short distance to the venue. I had baited the swim prior and when I arrived I realized that this was not going to work. The water was far deeper close in than I had thought and this meant that I could not cast the distance I needed to reach the bait I had put in via boat a few days prior. Luckily I had another swim in mind that I really had no idea about other than that I had a good map of the bottom and it looked fishy.

    I packed up what little gear I had taken out and headed over to the new swim. On my way I stopped and talked some other carp anglers who were set up in a mid-point swim. They arrived that morning and had still to catch anything with the exception of some catfish. After a nice chat I kept on and got to my swim of choice. I was getting really dark by this time so I tried to hurry to figure out where I wanted my baits. Of course I could not get my map to load on my phone but I remembered that I basically could not cast too far and needed to make it a good 110+yds to get to the area I wanted to fish – a sunken bar where you would think there should not be one.  I clipped up at 121yds (28 wraps; 13ft rod x 28 lengths = 121 yds) which was about as far as I could comfortably fish with a full large spomb.

    My spomb mix was simple, a mix of sweet corn, oats, and oils. I put out about 5 cans of corn and got my rods ready to cast. It was about 7pm. I decided that my chances of catching anything were slim and if I did I would be happy to get the last fish of 2016 so I got my baits into position. My hook baits were super sweet tiger nuts tipped with a grain of plastic corn. A small liquidized bread PVA stick kept everything nice and neat and tangle free.

    I had the misguided idea that I would get some sleep before midnight and recast then. What I did not realize was that this was a very popular place for fireworks – and wow they must have spent a lot of money on them. This racket kept up until way after midnight but did answer a question I had – would a carp bite with this going on? And yes they will as around 9pm I had a drop back and an 8+/-lb carp was in the net. Suffice to say that this fish did not count for the FFF but it gave me confidence that there were fish in the area.

    After that things died down and I only had a couple of catfish until around 6:30am when a got another drop back and hooked into a better fish. After a heavy fight and a long time just out of reach of the net I landed my first fish of 2017 – a nice 24.5lb common. I was really happy to say the least. I got the rod back out and rebaited my others and put out a few more spombs of bait. I then went back to bed as I still had to be awake to play with the family when I got home.

    After getting some sleep I still had not had any action so I recast again. I had cast out a rod to the margin across the cove and this rod was the next to go. While I was fighting this fish a got a proper run on another rod so was fighting two fish at one which is always exciting! These fish turned out to be smaller than the 24 but were both bigger than the first of the session. To my surprise I got them both in the net and safely weighed and returned to the water.

    By this time I was near to having to pack it in, so I got the rods out again and then started to pack up the non-essential kit. I had been lucky in years past to have caught some last minute carp in the FFF but this year nothing like that happened. And it was time to reel in and head home. It was a great time and I had not blanked again (this is always a surprise as I am sure I will every time!). If you are reading this and have not participated in the FFF I highly recommend it as it really starts the New Year off right!  

     

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    FFF 2017 - Register Here!

    in FFF 2017

    Posted

    Your name: Evan Cartabiano
    Your CAG forum name: Evan C.
    Your state or province of residence: TX
    The state or province of your FFF 2017 fishing venue, if it differs from your residence: Same
    Junior (17 or under as of 1/1/17)?: Nope

    South Carolina Introductions

    in SC Meet, Greet & Questions

    Posted

    Hi TK,

    Welcome to the CAG forum! Greenwood is a great lake. I fished Murray a bit and never got a common carp. Lots of big grass carp however! Bow hunting is definitely a problem for so many areas. I am in NC now and it's just as bad. Is your company online or brick and mortar? There are a few other members on here that fish that area and hopefully they will comment as well.

    Cheers,

    Evan

    FFF 2016 - Post Written Summaries of your FFF 2016 Experience Here&#33

    in FFF 2016

    Posted

    Third Year Folly

    Evan Cartabiano

    Littleton, NC

    I spend a lot of time each year deciding where the best place is to fish the FFF. It‘s been different every year for the past 3 years, with each time finding me in a different state. This year, North Carolina is home (and a relatively new home at that). The result was a toss-up of a few waters that I had never fished, or had only fished once or twice. I decided on the unknown, at a spot that I had a tip about, but had never spent any time at – fingers were crossed to say the least!

    Initially I had chosen a different spot, but my wife indicated (just days before the zero hour I might add!) that I would need to be home sometime rather closer to lunch than dinner. This required a rethink of venues to something that was not 2hrs away, so I could get out and bait while more limited in time. The Roanoke Rivers Lakes fit the bill, and I got out on the 30th to put in some cracked corn that I spiked with a can of sweet. On the 31st I again made the trip prior to fishing and was pleased to see a fish roll over my bait.

    2016 01 01 002 016 (1024x683)

    As luck would have it, I managed to contract a cold not long before and this put a bit of a damper on my motivation as sleeping in the cold while sick did not sound like much fun, but carp were (soon I hoped) to be on the line, so I got myself out of bed and had the gear set up by around 1:30am. I had some hope that I would get a run relatively quickly but as the minutes turned into hours I began to wonder if I should have chosen some venue a) that someone had fished before, and B) had a larger stock of small fish.

    2016 01 01 002 072 (1024x683)

    I managed to get some sleep on and off for most of the night (while getting really cold), and by dawn (which was a bit rainy and gray) I still had had no activity on the alarms that could be considered a fish – other than a small, I am assuming, catfish, which happily got off. I recast all the rods, and soon after got a run…and landed a skinny channel catfish. I recast and got another one on the same rod. Then things died.

    The lake level was high when I got there and it had continued to increase until the dock at the boat ramp was underwater, and some private docks were just above the water line. For a lake there was a lot of current and it continued to slosh in and out like a tide that got confused and thought that every hour was more fun. I noticed that there seemed to be more fish movement during some periods than others, and made sure to be ready for changes.

    2016 01 01 002 056 (1024x683)

    Well, I had a few bumps on one rod and other than that absolutely nothing. I watched a loon, and made some PVA sticks, and some more rigs. Rigs were kept simple, with a few different variations based on a size 8 Gardner Mugga hook and 25lb Gardner Chod Skin hook link. The lead arrangement was a simple run rig, as I wanted to keep an eye on what was going on at the hook with the hordes of catfish and turtles that might keep the rig from fishing properly. Before casting I put on a PVA stick of liquidized bread or Gardner Bait Bomb of the same.

    2016 01 01 002 041 (1024x683)

    Sooner than seemed possible it was time to pack up. I was thinking about how blanking was really not that much fun, and how writing this would also not be much fun, when my right hand rod comes to life in a big way. I dash to the rod and connect with the fish, which (happy day!!!) did not feel like a catfish. After some very spirited back and forth I slipped the net under a nice 18lb 6oz common. To say I was happy was an understatement – I had not blanked!!! After getting the photo gear set up, I got some pics, and continued to pack up as now I was going to be late getting home. Then the next rod rattles off and I am in again trying to get a very angry carp away from a snag, and get the net back in the water. This fish was 18lbs 13ozs and was again in perfect condition. Well, I figured a brace of 18s was about as good as I was going to get, and I again started packing. Then the 3rd rod goes off. This fish did not behave like the thousands of carp I have caught before, and runs right at me. I recovered the line, and it literally made a “zinging” noise as it cut through the water in front of me. After a really wonderful fight (with fingers crossed that the hook would hold), I got the last, and biggest, common at 23lbs 7ozs.

    18lb 6oz Common

    18lb 13oz 10 45 AM

    23lb 7oz 11 09 AM

    At this point I really had to kick packing into high gear and get home and got my last rod out of the water. The day had really turned around, in a way that has not often happened in a while, and really set the tone of the New Year off right. If you have not fished the FFF before I recommend it and will be doing it again as long as it is happening.

    Happy New Year!

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