Carpfishing in Canada
Stalking bottom fish
The time that I am going to tell you about was in Canada, I had ben fishing during the morning, & had a couple of fish. By 11:00 am the fishing had slowed to zero, but I had another 8 hrs to go, so I decided to go & look for the fish. I covered the whole peninsula from which I was fishing, which was about 200 yds long & densely populated with trees. Surprisingly I had spotted only one carp so far. As I made my way back to where my rods were, I looked through a gap in the undergrowth, I could have sworn I saw a fish & indeed I had . Infact several of them ! I pushed forward into the undisturbed foliage & after a tustle with the shrubs ,I made it thru' to the water's edge. I was dumbfounded ! just 10-15 yds out were a shoal of fish (aboat 8-10 fish), they were sunbathing & well within casting range with light gear, At least two of the fish looked over 25 lbs, one of them into the 30's! my heartbeat started to race.
Quickly I returned for one of my rods, I nestled into the cover , which was provided by a conveniant fallen tree. Now I already knew that these fish would not touch surface baits, but I figured they might go down for some corn as the water was only 3-4 ft deep. I gingerly fired a pouch of corn adjacent to where the carp were sunbathing. Nothing happened for about 10 minutes & then I noticed that half of the fish had dissapeared.
I had rigged up with a simple running ledger rig , 10 lb mono hooklink, stiff hair rig , with 1/2 oz running lead. I set the rod with a bow in the line, & hung a lightweight bobbin between the reel & butt ring. It did not take too long. Suddenly my line was not limp anymore & I was soon into catching mode. Infact I seem to remember I caught 4 fish of the 10 showing. Eventually they moved further out ,between the weeded area & open water beyond, it was not easy to prevent becoming hopelessly snagged , the fish were now safe ! Next day I returned to try for the bigger fish ,but now the fish were noticably disturbed & I did not get the chance I was looking for.
Well inspite of that I believe this shows fairly well that if a little more effort is put in, the rewards are well justified. I think that I would have ended up with just two fish for the day, but with the stalking expedition, it had turned into a very nice day for carp catching. I went home feeling well pleased with myself.
Simple running lead rig, which I used to catch fish above. This rig is braided for clarity, in clear water, mono would be better.
Click the thumbnail for a big pic of the rod set-up.