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St Lawrence pt 2 |
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| Beautiful Sunset on the St Lawrence |
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| We arrived on Saturday, at Chris Marshall?s. Chris was celebrating his 60th birthday & we too had a glass of wine in mark of the event. The journey to Quinte was a hot one, & we had been traveling for less time than one of our American counterparts. Gary had come prepared with canoe & fish-finder, he had stayed overnight on Saturday at my house, to break up the journey. Brian had supplied the mobile accommodation (5 Star) I had supplied the location & a smattering of inf. about the area. Terry, too, had traveled a long way with a ton of gear to take part in conquesting this famous fishing location. We were all filled with anticipation on what the following week would bring; little did we know just what lay ahead for us! |
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We arrived fully equipped with men bait & tackle on Sunday afternoon in sweltering heat at Long Sault campground. We were a little early to check in at the campsite so we wandered around a while, checking the water for signs of fish. We saw plenty, but not of the size we had hoped to cash in on. It became more & more obvious that we would have to take out the canoe & look wider - amongst the full splendor of the mighty St Lawrence River! As evening drew closer, we loaded up the canoe with bait & began to scout the river. For those of you who have not been to the St Lawrence it is a truly amazing & challenging area to fish. The river is huge & ocean-going liner's traverse its length. There is current, 70!!? Feet depth, mussel beds & border lines to deal with. |
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The first place we looked at was the area where I had caught fish on the previous trip; this area was now almost devoid of carp. I had feared this to be the case, but was not surprised, since the St Lawrence carp come into this shallow area early in springtime to spawn & once they have completed this show of endurance & pro-creational frenzy, they promptly move away from the shallows. No fish there; we moved along the bank-side looking for deeper water, on the nearside bank we could find no suitable depth for the big fish to feel safety in. Looking across to the center of the river, we could see a couple of islands only 250 yds away. We turned towards these islands & could see little green umbrellas along the bank of one of these large islands. 3/4 of the way across we switched on the depth sounder, 60 ft it said if I remember correctly, & we were within 40-50 yds of the island. Checking around the area we soon began marking fish at around 30-40 ft, not wishing to infringe upon other persons fishing, we sought to find our own area to bait up. We did not have to look too far. Along the bank we looked for peninsulas or 'points' which dropped off steeply to around 25 ft, we then located plateau's at this depth; here was where we dropped bait & marker bottles, which were 1 litre pop bottles anchored with rocks. We baited 3 such area's, & satisfied with our preparations, we headed back to shore, where Brian was busy cooking the much needed nutritional requirements. We sat in the haze of mosquito's tying up hair rig's ready for an early start. The alarm clock was set & we were all ready to get at these fish! |
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Mon |
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| We were all up before dawn, sandwiches made, we loaded up the canoe & headed up to the baited areas. As we neared the area we could not find the markers! Perhaps they had been washed away in the current, but no; all three of them had gone & we suspected foul play (someone had removed them). We located the plateau again, & rebaited, Brian & I had elected to fish together. Terry & Gary moved away to one of the other prebaited swims. It was a bright day & as the sun rose the heat began to intensify, then the fish started to show, some big cats and other fish, & then carp; big fish but they were just out of range! By now it was around 9:30 am, suddenly a big carp crashed out showing golden bronze & all its muscles. We had our baits out & soon it became apparent there was one hell of a current out there, I had a 3 oz lead on to hold bottom, with 2.75LB test curve rods & they had a significant bend in them just holding against the current. Infact I had to use a tight line clip to stop the drag from the current. We both had bite alarms & Brian's was the first to scream, I can clearly remember Brian bracing up to do battle with a big fish, he had 30 lb. Power -Pro freshly spooled & looked like ready to haul in the Queen Mary! Brian?s rod hooped over & after perhaps 10 seconds it sprung upright,- - the fish was gone & we were about to learn all about the St Lawrence mussel population. Mine was next to scream & I faired no better, I changed the type of shock leader's, but no matter what I tried the end result was the same, broken line & no fish! This happened at least 6-7 times between us & then we noticed Gary & Terry coming over with the canoe for lunch. At the same time I had a screamer, I let the fish go on a run whilst holding up the rod as high as possible to lessen the damage caused by the mussels. Whilst this was happening a familiar looking sunburned blonde haired gentleman appeared on the scene. I signaled to Gary in the canoe to get over quickly, I was determined this fish was coming to the net. I jumped aboard the canoe & we cruised out beyond the shelf to give me a chance to play the carp in open water. The carp felt really powerful & after perhaps 15- 20 mins of hard work I had the fish alongside the canoe. With a heave she was in the boat, cushioned with a lifejacket we headed shorewards to weigh in my first fish, it looked way over 20, I was not to be disappointed; it went 27.5 lb. I was well pleased! |
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| My First of the trip at 27.5 lbs ! Strictly speaking a U.S fish at this time. |
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The blonde gentleman proved to be Bernie Haines, after chatting a while it became apparent that we would have to move, it turned out we were actually landed on U.S soil & since we did not fancy fishing 'illegally ' we would have to begin again on our search for the big fish areas. Whilst chatting to the 'Great' Bernie, I admit to becoming rather slightly disillusioned for a while, but one seemingly good thing came from this, Bernie did point us in the direction of another suitable area. Once again we loaded the canoe & headed upstream to Canadian waters this time. Terry & Gary had each had fish, including a couple of 20's & it appeared the swim they had chosen was not so badly infested with the underwater scissors population, after some discussion we had all decided to look for & check out the other area. Anyway we dropped off Brian & some gear at the caravan & headed to the new area. It took us about 15 mins by boat to get there & we spent a lot of time finding a plateau, but eventually we did. We dropped the marker & bait & stepped ashore. The 'shore' was actually a disused road, highway 2, flooded when the Canadians & Americans had decided to raise the level by building a hydro dam downstream. We cast in & sit back to relax a while, the next thing that I remember was seeing my rod catapult towards the water I could see my alarms (LED's) glowing underwater. I grabbed the rod with one hand & the alarms with the other. Once again we boarded the canoe & played out the fish whilst 'waterborne'. The fish swam around all over the place; it towed us about & fought mostly on the shallows, which I thought to be rather unusual. Eventually we landed the fish & it weighed in at 22 lb. Once again I was grateful for this stamp of fish. Gary & Terry were getting action too, but all too quickly darkness was pulling in & the mosquito?s were making it painfully obvious, we made haste to get back - - & quick! With preparations of the swim complete we were looking forward to the coming dawn, already we had used 10 gallons of maize! |
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Tues. |
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We had decided to do the boat trip in two stages, we had a mountain of gear & deemed it better safe than sorry. Gary & Terry were the early birds, Brian & I made up the sandwiches. Soon enough Gary returned with the canoe to pick us up, extra tackle loaded we sped away to the swim. Upon arriving we soon learned the fish were going bananas. Terry had already caught several fish, he had rigged up with neutral buoyancy maize & they were hitting the stuff on the drop! Brian set up on the right side of the swim, Terry was on the far left, adjacent to the shallows Gary & I were piggy in the middle. From the right of where Terry was set-up there was a steeply sloping shelf dropping from around 12ft to over 25ft within a short distance from left to right. A similar shelf existed directly in front of us. In effect we were fishing into the corner of a ?square?crater. The drop-off areas, being so steep made the line drag across the edge of it, & if this was not enough of a problem, also the side of the sloping area & the bottom was infested with razor sharp Zebra mussels! This was to be our biggest problem, & we lost many fish & lots of tackle before the answer was found to this problem. Sometimes the line would be cut immediately upon lifting the rod, other times the fish would power off for 5-10 seconds or even several minutes before that awful feeling; of slack line & no fish. Terry was having the most success, using 30 LB Fireline & gentle pressure, most of his fish were landed. I lost at least 6-7 fish & Brian was getting the same treatment, eventually I let a fish go with absolutely no pressure whatsoever, I thought well there is only one way to clear this shelf ? out in the canoe. I landed the fish with the help of Gary, who was to kindly sacrifice lots of his fishing time getting in other people?s fish. I might have got peeved , but Gary was a saint! Many fish were caught, I think Terry counted around 30 fish between us. Personally I got a brace of Twenties. Infact I think everyone had 20 LB + fish. Brian got a PB of 22.5 LB Gary had a 21 +, I lost count of how many Terry had, but the action was hectic, especially in the early hours. Around midday another face appeared upon the scene, Paul Hunt from ?Canadian Carpin? dropped by, with a little more diplomacy than Bernie, Paul was also on the protective side of this Canadian territory. Paul rather quickly informed us that this area was also PRIVATE, & we would have to purchase a camping permit to allow us to fish the area! - - - well blow me over with a feather , I could not believe it. We had already purchased a camping permit for the trip & we were not about to buy two ! Anyway the two campgrounds were run by the same parks commission, in our minds the money was going to the same place, so what was the difference? We fished on anyway, but that was not the end of it. Promptly after this the Canadian customs & immigrations gave us a visit, as far as they were concerned though, we were quite legal. They gave us no further trouble. It sounds stupid I know, on a river of this size, that there could be these kinds of problems with access. The truth is, although there are tens of thousands of carp, they travel in huge shoals & they go to feed in the deep areas where the bait is & the mussel beds. It?s the old saying that 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. We were once again thinking we would have to look to yet another area, however upon further talking to Paul he gave us several other areas to check-out. We were also getting dangerously low on bait by now, in light of this we had decided to take the next day checking out a downstream area, where the Powerdam is & hopefully we could get some maize to replenish our rapidly dwindling supply of 'superbait'. |
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Brian with his PB of 22lb 8oz |
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Cracking fish, mid 20 caught by Terry |
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Wed |
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Following the chat with Paul we had decided to check out the Powerdam area, which was several miles downstream in Cornwall. We located a feed supply store & purchased a sack of corn, then we drove on to the dam area. It was an interesting area, there was a disused lock system & fish were still spawning in the locks. The heat was once again intense, there were lots of fish showing but we were looking for BIG fish & the ?normal? 10-15 LB fish were sidestepped. Eventually we found the trail down to the dam, there was a ?scallop? in the riverbed due to fluctuating water levels & ice break-up in the winter, so we sat down amongst the lower part of the bank-side. Terry & I did a short plumbing check of the area, then we baited the whole area with 1/2 a bucket of maize. Brian drove round the van to a closer parking area, it was several hundred yards from where we had baited up though, in light of this we attempted to drive the van down closer to the water. The security guard did not like it but Terry managed to convince the guard that we were not about to install bombs on the dam & after a few minutes of persuasion, the good fellow let us drop off our gear to fish. It did not take us long to get fishing & in short order Gary was the first to get a screamer. He stuck into the fish & then the line went slack! Upon examination of the hook-link, it appeared that the line had failed at the knot, this had been a mounting problem with the line & knot we were using, which seemed to be able to take the strain of the first fish only, in spite of a 30 LB BS rating! After that the fishing was real slow, we sat there boiling in the heat, getting the occasional ?twitcher?, eventually Terry had a fish on plain old canned sweet corn. In light of this fact it suddenly seemed obvious why sweet corn had produced the fish, inspite of the fact that we were relying upon the maize generally to get into the fish. This area was NOT pre-baited in any way (as the Long Sault area is), here we are in fact dealing with totally wild fish, natural feeding, & in these situations fish are generally spread out. There was probably no advantage in baiting with ½ a bucket of maize, in fact it probably worked against us! Carp will also accept soft corn far quicker than maize. NOW it seemed to make sense, also the rigs required adjustment, I took off the 2-oz leads & re-rigged with ½ oz confidence style. The next take was several inches of line followed by a confident medium speed run. I struck into a fish, which made off quite powerfully out into the river. I ran up the bank to gain as much height as possible, then, proceeded to play the fish from my elevated vantagepoint. Just when I had some confidence that the fish was in open water the line grated & become snagged - - - one more jerk & -bing no line, no fish, no lead, - -no nothing, blast the carp had won yet again! Then Brian had the same thing, & Terry had another, that then concluded the day?s events at the power dam. |
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Shot of the Powerdam in Cornwall, here the fish were spread out, sweetcorn worked best.
Whilst the fishing was on the slow side, a couple of good points came from this, Terry had remarked about the stop-go type of aborted takes we were experiencing, he had designed an anti-eject rig with some wire & shrink tubing. Upon examination it was very similar to the ?bent hook? rig, with the extra advantage that the ?wire hair? could be adjusted for angle, allowing varying amounts of hook jam-up possible. We did not have time to test this rig out at the Powerdam, but it could be added to our arsenal for future use, another iron in the fire, so to speak. We had also reasoned that to get over the line-grating problem, it would be better to use a big float to hold the line up in the water. We had no floats big enough but this was not a problem, those red & white abominations, which you see in Walmart, were about to be put to good use ! On the way back to Long Sault we replenished tackle, bought some floats & jammed some fast food into us. Things were going to be different, or so we hoped, the next day back on highway 2 swim! |
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Thursday |
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| Next morning soon dawned, I guess we were anxious to get fishing. The boat was fully loaded with all of us. We had streamlined our luggage a little (especially Terry), the canoe was about to get a full rated load test, & I have to say it passed with flying colours considering the liberties we were taking! Full speed ahead & after 15 minutes we had arrived at the ?highway 2? swim. We unloaded at double speed & piled in the maize once again. We also had to reposition the marker, which seemed to be drifting along in the current despite being anchored with a 4-oz lead. The Sun rose majestically & soon enough we knew we would be on the ?roasting spit?. We were all ready to rock & sure enough we did not have to wait too long. In no time action came thick & fast, so fast infact, I believe at one point in the morning there were 4 rods with fish on! & Terry managed to get a prize shot with 3 of us grinning like ?Cheshire cats?. There was good humor between us, & somehow or other Terry was in amongst the money so far; having set a small wager on the largest fish. Terry had so far landed the largest carp at a little over 29 LBS. Every time the canoe was taken out into the water the hauling of the fish into the boat becoming somewhat exaggerated. Sometimes it looked as though a whale was being attempted to board on the canoe! I?m sure I could see Terry?s face pursing under the strain, however, so far no one had got too close to tipping Terry?s best fish. Then it happened again; that curse of officialdom was thrust upon us! Things were going pretty smoothly, then suddenly, who comes trundling down the road? but the campsite manager. He promptly explained to us, (surely enough this was becoming familiar conversation) that we could not fish here without paying the campsite fee, I was getting rather short fused on this subject, we were not camping here & not disturbing anyone either. Was there nowhere we could fish without someone demanding more fees? What with license fees campsite fees, then more campsite fees to fish, it did not seem fair to me. Also as previously mentioned the same parks commission owns BOTH camping areas! Anyhow, seeing the potential flare-up in the situation Terry soon was over to the rescue & with production of a $20 bill the guy soon became highly apologetic about the whole deal. He was just acting upon ?higher authority?, of course. The problem as I see it is; in Canada you can fish anywhere, as long as it?s from a boat, & as long as you are on a boat no-one will give you any hassle. You are mobile & soon enough you can simply sail away from a situation. On the bank however, you can fish only in designated areas, if there are no fish too bad, no one understands about carp fishing, & so many areas are private it?s only tiny areas that are usable for bank fishing. Topped with that the U.S. owns the entire prime island fishing areas out in the river! Many of these Islands are well over against the Canadian side! But there?s nothing you can do about it. I was suddenly able to see Paul?s perspective & was somewhat glad not to be financially involved with the whole barrel of apples! I would point out though, there is nothing to stop you going across the bridge & fishing the U.S side though, & the areas around Massena are renown for huge fish too! But we were here to catch fish from the Canadian side. |
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Next thing I knew of was a squealing sound next to me, it was Gary?s alarm this time & with no time wasted I offered my services maneuvering the canoe. We were soon over the shelf & in open water, Gary was hauling for dear life, he certainly was not letting the fish go anywhere without permission! I kept the nose of the canoe in the direction of the fish, Gary played the fish in like a pro. Within 10 minutes the beast was in the boat, puffing & somewhat surprised the fish remained calm while we headed shorewards. |
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21+ for Gary, who certainly put in th effort to get it ! |
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Terry's fish (freshly spawned) |
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On the way back in Brian had jumped up & was playing another fish, it looked to be on my rod though & sure enough it was. O.K then out in the canoe again! Mine was landed & unbelievably whilst we were heading back to the swim Brian was up again & also Terry was playing a fish too. They both had fish on! Brian then jumped into the canoe & while Brian was playing his fish Terry had in a nice one & promptly readied it for a photo. I took a couple of shots of Terry with his fish & then handed the camera to Terry who then took a Triple shot of the rest of us holding our prized catches. |
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Left Carpsava Center Gary G Right Brian B |
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We all got lucky with this triple shot, Terry's fish was caught at the same time! |
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During the morning spell 3X 20 lb. fish in succession had been taken on boilies. Had we found a way to select the bigger fish? Well unfortunately no, it was proved out to be a coincidence, & finally I think just as many 20+ fish were banked on the maize. The afternoon continued with fits & spurts of action, shoals of fish moving through, eating their fill then moving on again. The ?bob-float? line riser was working like a dream several fish being landed from the bank with this method. Simple in its entirety, all you need is a 2-3 "dia ?bobber?(Canadian translation for float), simply threaded on the line with a stop knot about 5 ft over depth to stop the float drifting downstream & dragging a large bow in the line. The Line now floating on the surface (& kept there whilst playing the fish) cannot become trapped by the mussels, simple! & it was working like a charm. The float also acts like a chum marker, is so much better for topping up the chum. Also when fish are playing with the bait you can often get a hint of this with a float, I?m also sure it helps to pull the hook into the upper lip too, often resulting in a positive run. I had decided to stick it out with the boilies, hoping to get into a bigger fish if one was out there. The afternoon was drawing towards one of those hot sultry evenings when, after a fair spell of inactivity, once again my alarm went a screaming! Apologetically I looked over towards Gary, he did not even need prompting, in short order we were out on yet another boating ride. As we were cruising out, Brian?s alarm sounded & Brian struck, but something was wrong, I could feel the vibration of another influence, & it appeared for a short while that Brian actually had the fish which had somehow swum through my line & give me an indication before Brian. My float was now suspended from Brian?s line, quickly we paddled over where the float hung suspended from the line attached hopefully to a whacker of a carp. We untangled the float & it was then seen to be that the fish WAS attached to my rod. I glanced down at my reel & was rather horrified to see that my backing line was actually out into the river. I had not seen the spool this low for a long time! Gary paddled like a demon & slowly but surely we made line on the fish. The carp was way out near the center of our section of river, we got over the top of the fish & switched on the echo sounder. I think it read 57 ft or somewhere near. The fish however was not ready to come up, I heaved for dear life on my rod which was well & truly hooped over, with full test curve bend on the rod, the clutch was still giving line! The carp was seeking the very depths in the centre channel of the great St Lawrence River. Just when I was thinking I could not stop the fish, all went slack, my heart missed a beat, & then was pounding as though fit to burst from my chest. I had that sick feeling of total devastation, & then a flutter on the line, the carp was still on! It had about turned & was now heading full bore to the surface, I have no idea why the carp suddenly did this, but I was certainly most grateful. At least now I could see the huge boils on the surface, looking over to the shoreline, it looked half a mile away. Another thing which was a first, this fish had gone UPSTREAM, which shows credibility to the power of these fish. Feeling more confident that I could beat this fish now, I gained line quickly & soon enough we had the carp ready for the net, It looked magnificent in the blue hue of the river. I had within my grasp one of the great Bronze Leviathans, Gary gently slid the net below him, & he lay there quietly; we both heaved on the net, in a flash the carp was MINE. I cradled the big carp in the safety of a lifejacket, thankfully it lay still in the boat, Gary fired up the little motor & we traveled ashore under gas power. The fish weighed in at slightly over 33 LBS & I was well chuffed. Terry took some terrific shots & at one point I hardly had the strength to hold up the fish, it felt like it had lead bones! |
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33 lbs of 'Muscle fish' biggest of the trip. |
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Eventually the area had done as much as we thought it could do, & we packed our gear once again into the canoe. We still had one more full day & had decided to search the shoreline along the front of the campsite, it was hard work catching the fish from highway 2 swim but that said, this area has much to recommend it. We sailed back to the campsite & whilst Brian sorted out some more food, we found another likely looking area right in front of the camping area, to the right hand side of the campsite beach infact! We had not found this area before & so we piled a whole pail of maize into a fairly wide area to draw, hopefully, a lot of fish into the area. Satisfied with the morrow?s preparations, we sat fairly content in the caravan, & had a glass of beer each, in celebration of a good days fishing! |
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Friday |
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The morning dawned & the weather had dramatically changed. The wind had increased & the sky was overcast, we did not rush around, deciding to take it a bit easy on this final fishing day. We drove across to the beach area. The wind was blowing all right! & then the rain came. We cast out with big leads & arranged the umbrellas for shelter. Soon enough Terry had a run, I think the carp was landed, but of no significant size. Then I had a run, I promptly lost the fish too, and there were obviously many carp out there. I seemed to spend ages retying rigs, & the wind made fishing rather uncomfortable, we had limited room on this little point alongside the beach. After a couple of hours the rain stopped & the sun came out, we were able to emerge from the umbrella & fish properly. Lot?s of carp were showing but they were just beyond our hookbaits. I wound in & re-cast with a heavier lead, the cast hit the spot & within minutes I had a take. I struck into a fish, which made a powerful run directly away from me. In no time I felt that familiar grating on the line, I knew I would lose it & sure enough the line was cut. |
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Gary then arrived with some food & we all tucked in, conditions looked ideal ,the carp were certainly feeding, but they seemed to be of a smaller size range. Terry got another, & time was ticking away. Around late afternoon Chris arrived, & we were soon chatting away at fishing related events. Chris is firmly embedded in the production of an unbiased fishing magazine, rapidly gaining readership, he was obviously excited at the prospects. Chris always has a tale or two to tell, & had arrived to pick-up Terry, who was due to travel back to England after about a month of fabulous Canadian fishing. We all went back to the Caravan to help Terry pack his gear. Farewells were exchanged & they drove away into the distance, we were sad to see them dissapear, but happy to have participated in this enlightening expedition. It was certainly an eye opener, & one which we all hope to repeat, sometime in the not too distant future. |
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I would like to say that this venue offers superb fishing opportunities for carp. The area is perfect for big carp, they have everything they need at this venue & are not persecuted or despised by the Long Sault inhabitants. This in itself makes for a better fishing environment, they grow to prodigious size. Certainly there are dozens of fish above the Canadian record swimming in the St Lawrence. The area surpassed all my expectations, the scenery is superb, and there is lots of room. I would say though if a trip were anticipated, go with a boat & at least a sackfull of maize. You can read all about preparation of this grain in the bait section within this web site. Camping is available in the St Lawrence parks or you could get in contact with fishing guides in the area, they produce an all-in service, which makes an overseas trip much easier. Contact me for details, most important of all ENJOY your carpin?, tite lines & happy fishing. |
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