Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Pre-Spawn


Late spring and the carp have snapped out of their winter doldrums. More active, they are exploring shallower water and putting their feed bangs on. All of this in preparation for the spawn, which depending on water temperature varies from body of water to body of water. This short period can feature some of the best carp action of the year before things shut down until the spawn is over…



Typically, the shallowest and more stagnant bodies of water such as ponds and lakes go through spawning first, followed by the creeks and rivers that naturally have colder water. Once the temperature reaches into the mid to high sixties, the spawn may begin in earnest and can last for quite awhile. Prior to the spawn, female carp get rather fat with eggs which can make them lethargic, especially during the fight. On the other hand, male carp are full of energy and can produce some blistering runs into your backing, especially if they have the space.

Early spring produced mostly stillwater opportunities for me in small ponds, canals, and ditches off of creeks. As usual, the hottest patterns were eggs in the form of spawn clusters and glo-bugs. The following are a selection of some of my pre-spawn moments.


Adam debuting a new "summer" ghillie suit. 


He bequeathed it to me, since he is in Alaska for the next few months.



Tough morning outing...





The Carp Dragon doing work...






The C-Tug, saving my back for the past few years...



Feisty male that fought hard in less than a foot of water...


Plump females...






On this SUP outing, I out fished two Euro carpers on the bank 8-2… 
Needless to say, but they had quite a few questions.












Taking a nap during an exploratory mission...






I love finding a new hole that is filled with some super educated bruisers...

3 comments:

LQN said...

Nice, thats a whole lot of carp. Big fan of egg patterns as well for these mud pigs.

Gregg said...

Interesting that you should find Euro Carpers, they must exist here, and I know one by email, but I never see them. My pond spawn is waning, 2 weeks ago was in full glory. Good to see the action was good.

Gregg

Mark said...

Thanks Gregg, it is actually pretty rare to find Euro carpers over here too…