Discovery month teaser

The story

Back to known territory

We were a bit bummed to tell you the truth. This island just seemed so perfect. So we fished for a while in a known swim, I caught a decent number of fish by getting up early, including a couple of mid twenties, a thirty was also landed by one of my friends, very cool, but this doesn't count for a discovery story! So let's move forward a couple of days.

Island discovery - Second try

When you have discovery in mind, you don't give up that easily. While I was busy during the following morning to catch fish from our known spot, my friends were working hard at identifying another possibility for island fishing. They settled on something pretty far away. We drove out there (nice countryside), and couldn't find the boat launches listed on our local map. We ended up at a boat launch a solid two miles from the targeted island. Long story short, a lot of work, quite a ride on the river, and all that for an island which turned out to be a pile of mud with reeds on top and thick weeds around it. My vibe was basically telling me 'get out of there'. Morale was low at this stage. On the way back, thousands of seagulls appeared out of nowhere and flew over us (hard to see on the pic, check all the tiny dots). Lacking umbrellas, we were quite happy they didn't recently have dinner...

Back to good old shore exploring 

The day after, my friends had to go to work, and I decided to come back to my usual way of exploring. Take the car. Follow the shore. Turn in every possible street towards the water. Don't be discouraged by dead-ends and 'do not enter' signs. Find openings. Do some plumbing. Try to speak to local anglers if any. More importantly, try to find a spot where you get a good vibe. Hard to explain. But it (sometimes!) works.

Today was such a day. The very first opening I found was a point of land in the river. With nice depth in front of the rocky point. Shallow water and weeds on the side. Seemed like it. I had already made my mind before speaking to a local bass angler who confirmed he saw carp in the area (and also mentioned another place I had visited another day that didn't entirely convinced me). So I threw a bucket of maize in there, then spent most of the day (and quite a few miles and frustrating U-turns) doing more exploring, and well, all I could think of was to come back to the first spot I had found! This was definitely the plan for the following day.

At the end of this day, I wanted to come back to our known swim one more time, and fish a slightly different location while staying late in the evening for a change.  I struggled with bad snags, but did have a good time, including another mid-twenty (a thick 25-8lb). Ok, moving 30 yards on the side doesn't really qualify as 'discovery', but still, I was happy with my move, so I'll include a pic of the biggie. Oh, and a pic of the last carp I caught this evening while I was wrapping up. I didn't weigh it...

Hard work is starting to pay 

What would you have done the next day? Rush to the "good vibe" swim? Well, I didn't fully trust my instinct and wanted to hedge my bets. So first, I went to see the other place that the bass angler spoke of. I wasn't quite sure about it because it's getting deep real fast (an easy 20 to 25 feet deep twenty yards from shore). Also a weirdo only wearing a string was parading, and... no thanks, not what I wanted to catch! Still, this area did seem worth trying, as another local angler confirmed that carp were roaming there. So another bucket of maize went in the water, planning for the day after! I try to think one step ahead in such conditions, although it's not always easy.

Enough with the strategizing, it was time to go fishing. Let's go to the "good vibe" swim. I threw some more bait, was very happy to see a couple of carp jumping, patiently waited in the sun (not much shade out there), all that to catch nothing in 2 hours. I changed a bit my approach, trying to fish closer to the weeds on the downstream side of the point. And got a run within minutes! Which went straight to the weeds. I had to wade chest-deep to get this fish out, a solid 24 pounder. This was quickly followed by a 21lb, and a 23lb, and an upper teen. If not for the fact that I had to go extract each of those fish from the weeds (being soaking wet makes you appreciate a hot sun much more!), this was starting to look like a really nice place.

I decided to fish with my drag set much tighter and horse the fish before they reached the weeds. Can't say I like doing something like that with braided line, but this worked better. After catching a few more upper teens, I landed a strange fish... Upper part looked quite big, but the lower part seemed to belong to another (much smaller) fish! How big would you have guessed this fish to be only based on the first pic? It was actually a 23 pounder. A couple of more carp landed, and after a colorful sunset, a solid fish gave me a harder time than usual. With a great outcome, my biggest fish so far for this trip, a hefty 28 pounder. At this stage, I was already more than happy with my discovery work.

More big fish ahead!

Remember the strategizing and the other place? I was there the morning after, of course. Luckily, the weirdo with the string wasn't. I threw some bait, went back to my car to go get the rest of my gear (by the way, can't remember who sold me a nice backpack a few months ago, but this was put to good use!), set up a rod and... got a run almost immediately.

Seemed too good to be true? I lost this fish in less time than it takes to type this sentence. A few minutes later, I landed a low twenty. Then lost the next three fish. There was a rocky edge under water before it became much deeper. An absolute killer with Powerpro 50lb. I tried to move a rod 30 yards upstream, although I just hate doing that when you have a nice school of fish in front of you and you succeeded to get them excited on your bait. Of course, it took me a while to get another run. It was worth it though. Yep, you guessed, this was a thirty. A 33-8lb carp to be more precise. Second catch from a brand new location. Amazing! Funny how such achievement instantly changes your state of mind, and you suddenly become very zen about the rest of the trip, simply savoring every new minute of fishing, without the fear of going through another frustrating time (we don't speak much of those in fishing stories, but let's admit it, there are many such occasions).

The pic was taken by my friend, who timed his arrival absolutely perfectly. I told him about my troubles with the rocks. I had tried to use some sort of shock leader, but all I had in my bag was way too short and didn't last long either. He had the right line. Powerpro 150lb, no less. I didn't even know there was such a line. Looked like a submarine cable to me, but once I started to connect 30 yards of it to my main line, funny, I stopped losing fish. Oh, they still got stuck in the rocks mind you, but I could always get them out, this was magical!

Thanks to the submarine cable,  I landed a few more, including a funny round fish, and... another thirty (32-8lb). This was quite a day.

The day after, I was no longer hedging my bets! I was back at the same place. I spare you the details. I caught all day, 17 fish landed, very few fish lost, no thirty this time, but giving a 23lb to young Samuel to play was another way to really enjoy my day. Oh, and an immaculate 25 pounder didn't hurt either. It is just so enjoyable when you succeed to keep the right balance, get them started, catch, chum again, catch again, and this keeps going all day. Only problem was that I seemed to intercept all carp passing by, and my friends weren't catching much at all. Sorry!

And now for an unexpected twist!

Something I didn't mention so far is a plaque I saw during my driving & exploring day. It was a tribute to a team of benevolent workers from a local town, and they were dubbed "the carp team". This came from a local artist who did a lot of sculptures & mosaics about the local river. I had noticed some of her artwork as I was exploring. No need to say I was really intrigued by the plaque. Somebody knowing about carp, a local artist, and this choice of symbolism? In the evening, I succeeded to track down the e-mail address of the artist, and was soon swapping e-mails with her. She explained that she didn't have much a clue about fishing, but thought to use the carp symbolism because they made her think to quiet individuals, yet strong and persistent workers. I loved it! She then asked if I had seen the 30 carp mosaics close to the plaque? Er... No, what a dope, I had completely missed it!

It gave me some heartburns to not go spend my last vacation day at the place where I landed the two thirties, but I just couldn't pass on it, I had to go see those mosaics, and try to catch a carp out there. Meeting the artist would have been a bonus, alas she wasn't available. So here I was, while everybody was going to church on Sunday, I was using a parking spot nearby, and my prayers went to another god, the god of fishermen. I did find the carp mosaics quite easily, on a big pile of rocks near the shore. Some of them didn't look much like a carp, but others were really good. The artist tried to make each of them different, this is really unique artwork, very impressive creativity. Here are a few pics.

By then, I was very motivated to catch a real carp near this place. Trouble is this is a large bay, with strong currents swirling, and after a few casts, I also figured out it's full of thick weeds. While I was pondering what to do, I saw two fish jump, pretty far away. Not quite sure those were carp, but this prevented me from faltering, and I did try to fish in areas where I was able to hold bottom. A bit of additional baiting, and I resumed my prayers to the god in charge. The guy really had to do something special for this to work. Alas, even gods can't make carp bite when they don't want to or are not there (more likely in this case!). After two hours of struggling with the current and the weeds, I realized that I was just wasting my time. I made a weak attempt near a boat launch where there was some sort of current break, and this didn't pan out either. In retrospect, I actually regret that I didn't try harder at this second location, I really think this could have worked, but the temptation of coming back to where I had caught two thirties was just too strong...

Mid afternoon, I resumed fishing in my newly discovered place. And quickly proceeded to lose a carp, and the full 30 yards of shock leader with it. Not a great start. I then landed a nice teen, and... another 30! The weight was 30-0lb, right on the mark, I love when those Reuben-Heaton scales make a complete revolution. I didn't even think to get a sideview pic with the happy angler, this seemed like a nice fish but not that special. Speaking of being spoiled! A few fish after, I had another run, and the fish seemed quite heavy. I was quite focused on what I was doing, but when I saw a huge tail flapping on top of the water, I missed a heartbeat or two, and became VERY focused. Alas, it turned out to be another of those disproportionate fish, this time for a 27-8lb with a giant tail. Nice fish in any case!

Fishing was quite slow by then, not quite like the previous day. I stayed late in the evening as a last ditch attempt to catch another biggie, but only a couple of more teens graced  my landing mat. While I was enjoying the view of the river flowing, listening to music in the night, I had a couple of unexpected visitors attracted by my method mix. First a big muskrat which frightened me as much as I frightened it. Then an obstinate skunk which came back no less than 4 times. I caught it head into my method bowl (took the pic one second too late!) although I had put my scale on the bowl's lid, I became a tad irate, and whipped its rear end with my spodding rod. Might not have been too wise to do that to a skunk, thinking about it!

After landing one last teen, it was getting quite cold, this was it, time to go to bed and sleep on those great vacations. Yes, the island discovery plan didn't work out (next time!), but I would certainly not complain, a total of 3 thirties, 9 carp over 25lb, two new locations delivering most of those biggies, not too shabby. Best time of my fishing year actually, by far. Many many thanks to two special individuals without whom none of this would have been possible. You know who you are.

I am writing those final words on Sep 30th. Tomorrow is the opening of the 2009 CAG Discovery Month. Your turn now. Give it a good try. You might not all be as lucky as I was, but still, try and try again, and one magical day, the stars will align. Whether this happens or not, you will certainly enjoy your time outdoors. Also do keep your eyes open for the unexpected (like I did with those carp mosaics). Just don't forget to take plenty of pictures and to share your adventures afterwards. Tight lines.