Diary of Fishing April 2000 Hi All,     Went out  Saturday evening, to Lake O. (Hamilton Harbour) , weather sunny &  fairly warm gentle onshore breeze. Set up alongside the connecting creek to the  spawning area. Fish were rolling & rising right in front & other places  too. Several people lure & catfishing (no-one admits to carp fishing even if  they were). Bait hit the water  within seconds they were twitching around  at the bait, nothing to hit though. Pulled in changed rigs & baits around  after about 30 mins of twitching about. The guy in the next swim hits into a  fish & I can see him struggling like hell with it. I walked over inquiring  about what he is fishing for, he replies that he is fishing for anything. Good,  I said, that looks like a fair size carp, he denies this ,saying it's too strong  for a carp. 10 mins later I netted about an 8 lb carp for him, he then walks off  in disgust. I tell him that I am here fishing for the carp , he walks off even  faster then ! Great thinks I ;  now I have less disturbance !  Back at my swim the  carp are still twitching about , then I had a fairly decent run, which connected  & then dropped off (probably line bite, but cannot back lead due to  mussel strewn bottom ). I recast & put out a second rod & double  'piggy back' boilies. Shortly after this, I had a decent run on the boily rod, I  struck into this & the fish seemed really surprised ,at first doing nothing  ,then powering out 80+ yds towards the centre of the harbour. The fish was not  fast but totally unstoppable, I had plenty of line on the reel ,but was still  concerned about the flaming mussels. I held the rod as high as I could , when  the fish was judged to be far enough out that I could clamp up, this proved to  be enough to turn the fish. I began to gain line but it sure did not feel like a  carp, (could not feel the dorsal fin 'pinging' as direction changed, also it did  not kite at all (unusual for carp). Eventually I had the fish in the margin  & it DID prove to be a carp ; but hooked in the TAIL :-((  Fish was  about 18 lbs ,I easily unhooked it , hardly  much damage, & off it went. I  had so far had 3 different baits on. I was not going to put on a jig if I could  help it ! Anyways I went back to the van for my sandwiches ; I had wanted to try  out a new tin of bait for some time now. In my van I had a tin of baby clams, by  now a couple of freinds had arrived, Dave is already carp converted, but since  struggling on the last trip, he had decided to try at the Channel cats instead.  Mike is not at all sure about carp fishing but wanted to see what it is all  about (or some of it anyhow). The pair of them are laughing themselves silly at  what they describe to be the resemblance of an accident after a bad wek of flu ( my baby clams look a bit like a handful of snott !) Undetered, I stick the  baiting needle into them & soon they are in the water amongst the fish,  within about 2 mins I struck into a definate run & was praying it was hooked  fair & square , which it was, although only a baby it was a very pretty  fully scaled mirror, which more than compensated for the size (about 6-8  lbs). Just after this another man came along on the way back from fishing.  I asked him how had he faired ? he replied that he had caught only a carp.  When I told him that I was after the carp also, we ended up having a really  interesting chat. This guy is about 55-60 & has been fishing this harbour  for carp for years. It turns out he has had a 37lb'er earlier in the week ! I  asked him what he is using; guess what ? doughballs ! thats right, doughballs.  Not being one to qeustion success, I ask this guy if he can spare a little. I  put it on & we continue talking. I am still getting some twitches but not  like with the corn & stuff. Eventually my doughball rod (which so far has  not uttered a sound) starts a definate slow run. I lift the rod & strike :  at this point I would like to finish off the story by saying that the doughball  produced a 30 lb whacker but actually this is real life & those things dont  happen regularly enough to me anyways. I was not too dissapointed though it was  a nice plump breeding ready female of about 10 lbs. Quickly unhooked &  returned , she swam off powerfully into the red looking harbour. That was now  two in the mouth  &, we were at least improving in strategy if not in size !  To finish off, I managed another on the clams & (about 14 lbs)  & was at  least happy that I had found a bait which was capable of hooking the fish in the  regulatory area.  Infact I now had two baits which about a month previous  would not have considered using at this time.  This proved once again to me that nothing is  certain in carp fishing, if anything is definate with carp fishing it is that we  must constantly review our strategy to ensure we are getting the best from the  area, or indeed if we are even in the right area. I think the 37 taken a few  days previous proves the fish are there so the area is right. I believe that the  bait problem is now looking much better.  Now its time & a little luck  needed to get in amongst the big boys ! Tite lines & smart carpin', BFN, - - - - Carpsava Carpfishing in Canada, visit Carpsava  at; http://www.oocities.org/carpsava/ (Kitchener,  Ontario)