Sunday, June 26, 2011

Deja Vu



One year ago today, I posted Breaking Down The Wall. The day I finally hammered down one of the huge canal carp I had spent the previous year and a half hunting. Exactly one year later, I found myself once again, alone on the canal path on a humid summer morning. This time, it was raining and I could barely see my adversaries feeding in between mats of vegetation. I had several shots at fish, but I had trouble registering the takes as the rain left dimples all over the surface of the dark placid water. 

My opportunity came when I spotted two cruising and feeding fish. One was a true monster and the other a respectable fish. One was a very long male and the other was a much shorter, plump female. I watched them both cruise under some vegetation and decided to have my damsel waiting for them on the other side. Straining hard to see the damsels descending on the edge, my heart jumped when I saw the head of carp emerge and suck it in. In that moment, I had no idea if it was the larger or smaller fish until the fish erupted. It was the big guy. My six weight promptly bent to the cork and my 3x tippet strained as I attempted to subdue the initial run into vegetation and towards structure on the opposite bank. After about five minutes of down and dirty carp fishing, I was bringing him into land and was able to corral him in about a foot of water. I went for the grab, but the fish was still hot, and took off. A repeat followed for another five minutes before I brought him in for good. He was a true submarine, Virginia class, and I struggled hoisting him from his home.











Fishing the canal, the window of opportunity for catching these guys is between 5 am and 7 am on most days. Since it was raining today, that window opened considerably as the rain clouds kept light and pedestrians from disturbing the feeding carp. I took full advantage of that opened window and continuted to fish to feeding fish until 8 o'clock. In that time, I managed to land another large male, a few inches shorter than the first. I also hooked into two other very hot fish that broke me off on structure. It was a day to remember and I finally caught the large carp I had been looking for all spring.





5 comments:

Unknown said...

Mark,

Your clearly a carp bandit, complete with mask??

Can you tell us a little of the technique you use, such as how much lead you give the carp. Do you ever feel a take, or is it all visual etc.

Great post.

Feather Chucker said...

Nice, that is a huge carp. Did you actually see the take?

VICTOR said...

ES fantástico este blog.
FotografĂ­a de primera genial, un saludo.

Mark said...

Gracias Victor

@ Kev and Rich- all our carp fishing is 100% sight fishing

For techniques, check our our carp label or go to the carp section under top posts. a lot of the techniques we use are found in those areas.

HighPlainsFlyFisher said...

That's one bad-a$!@$ fish right there! I've stuck a few smaller fish so far this year but nothing like that pig. Love the shots of that big fish too , who says carp are ugly.
Jeff