Mike drove down to my place and parked the car at my apartment. Soon after, we are off trying to catch the 8:30am ferry across to the Islands.
We caught the ferry and there was absolute no line waiting for the ferry (well, just a few people...not really considered a line
). We got on the Islands and headed straight to my productive spot last time.
The water was really clear and I only saw one fish. There wasn't any feeding action but I thought we'd try there for a bit anyways.
After about 45min of absolute zero action, we decided to move to the other side of the bay after I did some scouting to find some fish.
The fish I found were all near the surface sunning...so we kept looking around until we found the back side of the bay where we saw one carp nosed down and tail up. It looked so much like a tailing redfish in the water
We tossed in our lines and I did get a suck and spit on the hair rig...but then it was an hour worth of waiting with no fish in the area. While I watched my floats, Mike decided to take a nap
So by about 11:30am, we decided to move to look for some feeding fish. We got back to the area where we saw those sunning fish and now some of the fish were mudding. Good sign!
We tossed out our lines and about an hour later, after a lot of chumming and watching fish milled around, I finally saw my float shot off! Fish ON!
This fish knew just where to go...into some submerged branches and trees to the left of us. I had no chance since the first run was straight into the nasty stuff. At the end, my leader snapped but I did save the float.
So I rigged up again and sent it out. About 30min later, my line got another rip and this fish ALSO headed to the nasty stuff...but I managed to stop this fish before it got deep in the tangles and turned it. After the first run, it was just a lot of bulldogging. Once I saw that the fish was out in the clear, I handed the rod to Mike so he can feel the fight of a carp. In the meantime, I cleared his line and got the net ready.
It took a few times to get the fish in the net...but the important thing is landing that first fish
Mike holding the 22" fish (based on comparison with my arm...which is 24" from finger tip to my shoulder). Mike is 6 feet tall
Same fish...just held by a 5-foot-2 guy
Just before the fish gave me a face wash
We sent out my line again and in another 30min, I got a rip! This fish I couldn't stop as well and went right into the snags...and snap! This time I lost everything
So here I was, setting up my line again...put on my float...put on a small swivel...before I knew it, Mike jumped for his rod...and FISH ON!
Man...this is fun now...especially after a whole morning of waiting.
This was a big fish and Mike did a great job stopping it from going into the branches. He said he felt the fish just rested a tiny bit just before it ran into the branches...and he just pump and wind to keep the fish away. This fish was all Mike and he deserves the credit!
What a PIG!!! 26" long...I don't know the girth since I lost the piece of lien used to measure it around...but it's a PIG!!! My guess is it's likely 10+lbs.
Just look at the belly and the back! 8O
And yours truly trying to make the fish look even bigger
By now, we had 3 hits and 2 fish landed within an hour. It was 2:30pm and we said we'd give it another 30min.
About 2:55pm, we're in the dying seconds of overtime. I said to Mike "We'll start packing up, but leave the rods out until we're ready to leave."
And what do you know...I just happened to look over to see my float slowly pulled forward. I looked more closely and saw a fish close to where my bait was. The float went into the water fully and just sat there. At this point, I wasn't sure if the fish dropped the bait of if it was still there. So I reeled the line tight and just gave a sweeping set. BINGO! Last cast fish!
I handed the rod to Mike so he could fight it. He did another good job on this double digit fish. It's not as fat as the other fish...but it was longer...probably another 2" more judging from my net.
So at 3pm, we decided to call it a day on the good note. Total count was 3 landed and 2 snapped off. Not too bad considering most of the action came around after 12pm.
I'm starting to like this carping stuff. It's close to home, it's cheap and it's simple. More importantly, the action is pretty good tugging on these "big" carp. We saw some even bigger carp in there...maybe one day we'll land a 20lb fish