Quest for carp 2005

I thought I had gotten the hang of carp fishing in 2004, so I was confident in catching loads and loads of carp. I even set a few targets (ordered by increasing difficulty):

1. Catch a carp
2. Catch carp from more than 3 lakes
3. Catch a common over 10 kg

Lake Mörtsjön 5-6/5 - Henrik & Oskar
Sunny, no wind. 12 degrees in the water.

I caught a small tench on a pineapple + n-butyric popup in the afternoon. If the Tench are eating, then maybe so are the Carp?

04:30 - a Carp is eating hard in Oskar's swim. Bubbles everywhere, and the water surface is bulging! Something must happen soon...

04:45 - a carp rolls close to the far margins, very close to Oskar's second rod. Soon something will happen.

05:00 - I get liners and twitches on two of my rods all the time. Something IS going to happen...

10:00 - nothing did happen.

"Mean pond" 20-21/5 - Henrik & Jörgen
Horrible weather! Rain, wind, wind, rain, despair, and then some...

A lot of fish in my swim during the morning, but no pick-up. Maybe a bucket full of crushed mussels was a tad too much?

Lake Mörtsjön 25-26/5 - Henrik & Mr. Kangas
Sunny, no wind, ~16 degrees in the water. Mild mosquito-plagued night.

03:00 - Kangas gets a stuttering take on a homemade bloodworm boilie (laced with a bit of snail) in a small hole in the weed. He extracts the fish without further ado. The king of snag-fishing showed me how it should be done.

07:00 - I lost (if you can lose something you never had) a heavy fish that took an active-8 maple snowman under the rod tip. The hook point had turned. Damned.

"Common Lake" 4-6/6 - Henrik & Jörgen
Rain, windy (of the northerly persuasion) 14 degrees in the water.

A lot of tench up to 2.9 kg the first evening. I caught mine on Solar Pineapple popups and home made cranberry+caviar+blackpepper (Nutrabaits) boilies. The largest one on a method feeder baited with a 10mm pineapple boilie. Plagued by rudd during the nights. Found a pocket of bloodworm the second morning. Caught tench and roach (quite large ones), that leaked red stuff from both ends, from that area. A few carp were gorging themselves with bloodworm as well, but none were fooled by my baits.

19/6 "Willow Lake" - stalking
Loads of bream and tench. The most memorable event was a glass bottle (Pucko) that suddenly surfaced in a cascade of bubbles. 'Tis a sign, I thought, it's got to be! Remembering Dick Walker's (possibly) teapot surfacing when Chris Yates caught a certain large carp I sat down and braced myself for a fight that would be remembered for ages. My float quivered, rose, lay flat and slid away - all according to plan. Shivering from anticipation I struck and was into a... Very small bream... You always get what you deserve, but seldom what you believe you deserve...

20/6 Lake Mörtsjön - overnight
Perfect weather. Hot, humid, clouded, windy. A lot of splashes and crashes and other -ashes during the night.

Loads of Tench on active-8 maple and halibut popups (that do not actually pop up). No carp caught. No carp lost. No carp. Period.

21-23/6 "Common Lake" - Henrik & Niclas
Sun/rain/hail/thunder/wind from all directions

21/6-evening
Tench on all sorts of boilies, in the margins, 80 metres out in the lake, and in between. Bites all the time on hi-viz snowmen and suspending pellets (avoided those). A few quite close to 3 kg.

22/6-morning
More tench for me. Niclas caught his first fish this trip, a small tench - congratulations (how did he avoid them? Luck? Talent?).

22/6-evening
Find Carp spawning in a bay. Some even swam under the inflatable boat. A few good fish. Instant ( anyone fishing for carp will know how very far from instant moving pitches are, but as instant as was possible!) move to a pitch closed to the spawning carp. No tench! Brilliant. Carp cruising, splashing and crashing - but no signs of any eating.

23/7-03:45
A common of some 10 kilos rolls in slow motion not 2 metres from my baited spot. Line-bites constantly

4:00
A drop back! Strike into thin air. Damned, blasted and whatnot. Put the rig back out again and top up the swim with some particles and quite a few boilies. A bow-wave surges off from the swim. Damned, blasted and whatnot (again!). The fish will ne'er return again! Woe! Suffering!

04:02
Beeeeeep! I stare at my alarm in disbelief. It is a run! Line is actually going out at an increasing speed. This time I strike into a train (which beats thin air by far). The fish gets stuck in the lilies now and then, but the braided mainline effectively severs the stems (glad I put some on my spool). When I am nearly convinced that I might actually land my first carp for the summer it kites to the right, around a reed bed. I have no other option than to land it from the trusty Zodiac. With the help of my skilled gillie the fish is soon secure in the folds of the net, and I can bring it ashore. It was the large common I had seen roll a few minutes ago.

2-3/7 "Common Lake" - Henrik & Niclas
A few tench, no carp. Still spawning like mad.

4-5/7 "Badluck Lake" - Henrik & PG
Sunny 25 degrees, SE-wind

We decide to fish Leaf-pitch as the wind is pushing into that bay and it looks like a nice spot. Quite a few carp showing themselves. Plagued by bream and tench all night and in the morning. One small bream picks up a Source pop up, fished over a carpet of 10mm source boilies, in the morning and manages to get stuck in some weed. Go out with the boat to fetch it. Realize it is a tiny carp. Land it with the "bass-grip" (thumb in the mouth job).

Tiny mirror

The second night we are plagued by tench and bream again, but I manage to sleep through it all - did not sleep at all the first 24 hours! To my surprise (and it's I am sure) I find a snake in my backpack when reaching for some snacks.

6-7/7 Lake Mörtsjön - Henrik & Oskar
One carp bubbling like mad in the morning but ne'er came close to the bait than some 5 metres. Reeled in, attached a PVA-bag filled to the brim with pellets, crushed boilies, and active-8 maple dip. Lobbed out the tackle about 1 metre in front of the fish. Before I could attach my bobbin I had a take. Lifted into the fish, and the hook-link parted - probably a bite off. Should have used a slightly shorter rig now that I was fishing over a pile of tiny particles...

Just after sunrise a man in a suit arrived on the opposite side of the lake. We did not take much notice of him. Then when I looked up he was climbing a portable ladder in the "nudd". He climbed the ladder a few times with his "tackle" dangling, then got dressed and went home (?). Weird indeed.

9-10/7 "Common Lake" - Henrik & Jörgen
25 degrees. Sunny. Lots of bubbles around "Car Park Pitch", decided to fish there.

I caught one Tench, Jörgen caught two. No sign of carp.

19/7 "Willow Lake" - Henrik, Jörgen & William
27 degrees. Sunny.

Walked between "hemp traps" with a float fishing set-up. Tench, tench, tench, and tench. Moderately close to get a bite on floating crust... No carp landed, none lost.

22-24/7 "Badluck Lake" - Henrik & PG
Rain, cold. Fished "Bath pitch". One fish crashed once. Even tried for perch without success.

24/7 - "Willow Lake" - Stalking - Henrik & Oskar
Nice weather (for fishing, not for actually catching)

Started fishing by the channel at 9 o clock. A lot of carp showing. Oskar lost a fish that might have been a Carp. In the afternoon I went for a walk. Spotted a small(ish) leathery carp feeding in about 0.5 metres of water. Crushed some Tutti-fish boilies and sprinkled the pieces around it, carefully - mind. Fetched my tackle and lowered the bait into the spot. After about 30 minutes I was connected with a carp. It actually stayed connected all the way to the waiting net. It was one of the pretties Carp I had ever seen, albeit quite small. Named it "Quasimodo", due to its hunched back.

Quasimodo 4.6 kg

Saw some more carp, but no more bites...

12-13/8 "Common Lake" - Henrik & Niclas
Sunny, N-winds

A lot of carpy activity all evening - crashing, rolling, and bubbling... No takes though.

Nice weather - a rare sight this summer

00:00-awoke to a screaming take. Felt like a good fish, it put up a really good fight. I was a bit disappointed when a small, but plump and high-backed, Carp tumbled into the net.

The small one. It took a Banana-Crustacean snowman on a size 6 Mugga

The Carp activity continued throughout the night, but nothing very exciting happened. In the morning I started to get very funny semi-takes. On changing to a slightly more advanced rig (a shot on the hook claw rig) the funny takes were converted into full blooded runs. The culprits turned out to be Crucians(!).

A crucian (1.2 kg) that was tricked into taking a 18mm Solar pineapple popup.

Changed to claw-rig on two rods and suddenly started catching a lot of tench. I had to revert to the ordinary rigs in order to get some rest during the day!

The activity increased even more in the second night. Liners all night, but no takes. When I reeled in in the morning I realized why... My new make of PVA-bags were still intact, wrapped around the whole rig like a certain type of contraceptive. Disappointed!

19-20/8 "Common Lake" - Henrik & Oskar
Sunny, 25 degrees, S-wind

20/8 - 05:30
Screaming take to Oskar's close margins rod (baited with a tangerine-fish snowman). The fish kited to the right and weeded itself. The line snapped (poor Oskar).

07:00
My rod tip starts twitching. I strike, and catch another Crucian(!) on an 18mm Solar pineapple boilie (again). This one was slightly larger - but looked very similar to the other one

Day - time for stalking
During the head of the day I decided to do a bit of stalking. Armed with my avon rod I went for a stroll. Found a small group of commons. They swam around and looked catchable. I presented bread to them - which they puffed on but did not eat. I offered them pellets - which they nosed down on but did not eat. I flicked some sweet corn to them - which they did not eat either. Weird.

Evening
A few tench. No carp. Lots of liners during the night. A bite could come at any time (or so I thought).

21/8 - morning
Still liners on the same rod. Something have to be amiss. Reel in and something has stolen my boilie. Rebaited and put the rig back out. Bow-waves leaving the baited spot. They did not return.

27/8 "Willow Lake" - bolt stalking
20 degrees, sunny

Fish eating here and there. Hard to decide where to fish. Decided on the "spring pitch". Lots of fish eating my free offerings. No bites though. When it started to get dark I, out of desperation, changed baits to a wafting halibut pellet popup. Gently lowered it into the water, and within seconds I was off! Hook and hold was called for, due to a lot of snags. The fight was over in less than a minute.

My prize - a leathery mirror

Strangely, naught happened to my second rod - fished in a small opening in the lilies - even though that was where most Carp were showing... My friends had a bit of a laugh the next day when, in the sunlight, they saw some reflections in that very same hole. Apparently someone had thrown this into the lake - and I had my bait IN it.

Blimey, a bike

"Acertain Lake" - A windy day in September - evening after work
Suddenly, without warning, I felt compelled to fish a certain lake. I packed my gear in record time and went there. The first thing I saw was a large patch of clouded water. I flicked in some boilies - as a Carp was evidently eating hard. To my amazement and surprise the coloured water got distressed and swam off slowly. It was, in fact, a really large Carp. The Carp. The big one I had never seen for myself, despite visiting the lake on and off for years. I put out some more boilies and my rods and waited - hoping that the Leviathan would return. After a few moments one of my rods suddenly jumped straight up and was nearly dragged into the water. Luckily the reed was stopped by the alarm. The rod balanced dangerously on top of the alarm, while the reel was letting out line at a speed I had never before experienced. After an age (at least it felt that way, but it probably was merely a second) I reached my rod and disengaged the baitrunner. The rod bent to it's full test curve and the fish actually accelerated! Before I realized what was happening the fish kited towards a tree that overhangs the water. I quickly tightened the clutch, but there was no stopping it. My heart sank when the rod straightened. The 15lb trace had parted. I would have loved to put that fish on the bank, but the bright side is that the lake still has it's uncaught monster (something for next year, mayhap)...

15/9 "Willow Lake" - stalking
Walked around looking for signs of feeding fish. Baited some spots with loads of hemp. When I returned to one of the baited spots several carp had arrived. Lowered a bait to them and waited. Tried several different baits. After a long frustrating while I finally had a take. The fish bolted a few metres, and shed the hook. I saw no more signs of fish after that.

23-24/9 Lake Mörtsjön Henrik & Oskar
NW-corner. Some clouds. 15 degrees in the air, 14 in the water.

Fished one rod baited with active-8 maple to the far margins. Two rods in tiny holes in the pads. One with a 10mm the source stack-rig and one with a small pineapple popup. The source rod was fished in a PVA bag filled to the brim with 10mm boilies, the other one loaded with proactive pineapple pellets. A lot of fish showing during the evening. Windy, quite warm night - should get a bite or two. We got waht we deserved - a few line bites.

09:00

The line bites stopped on the maple-rod. Reeled in, and the bait was gone. Put a new one on and out it back out, scaring off a big fish in the process. Nothing more of interest.

2-3/10 Lake Mörtsjön - Henrik & Oskar
Clouded, W-wind, some rain.

A few fish rolling at around 9 in the evening.

Midnight
Awoke with shivers running up and down my spine. I was very uneasy - a feeling not unlike the one I get when a large carp is approaching. Sat up in the bed and tried to figure our what had pulled me out of my sleep. Suddenly a dark shape raced out from under my bed, screaming at the top of it's lungs! I am certain my heart stopped beating for a while, but it compensated by beating at full speed for half an hour afterwards. The black shape was nothing more exciting than a cat...

Otherwise it was dead as dead.

8/10 Lake Mörtsjön - Henrik, Oskar & Daniel (young Master Kangas) - ceremonial last session of the season
12 degrees in the water. S-wind, sunny, clear night, misty morning. Final of the "Mörtsjö Challenge". Daniel won by far (most doubles/night fishing during the summer). Theme of the food was eastern Europe - feasted on "Palinka" and Gulasch.

11:00-evening Lost a good fish on a maple-8 boilie fished to the far margins. Was connected for a second or so, then it just shed the hook.

08:00-morning Lost another fish on the same rod, same thing happening again! Lots of twitches on a method-feeder rod. No bites.

9/10 - "Common Lake" - Henrik, Niclas & Jörgen
11 degrees in the water. SW-wind ~15 degrees in the air. No frost, but still cold during the night.

Niclas had prebaited for a few days. I Caught 2 large(ish) rudd during the night. The only Carp I saw was one that visited my swim minutes after I had reeled in my rods and was about to leave... I did not put out my baits again.

21/10 - Common Lake - Henrik & Jörgen - yet another last trip of the season.
6 degrees in the water. Rainy quite warm night.

Lots of bubbles in the middle of the lake. One liner during the night.

5/11 - Common Lake - Henrik & Jörgen - very last session of the season
12 degrees in the air, 8 in the water. Some clouds, warm (for that time of year), S-wind.

09:00-evening Jörgen caught a male tench on a 20mm DD-crustacean boilie.

01:00-night stuttering take on a maple-8 snowman fished on a carped of hemp, sweet corn, pellets and quite a few boilies. Turned out to be a 1.35 kg Crucian! Topped up the swim liberally.

02:00-night another stuttering take. Lose another(!) Crucian when I try to land it without the net.

03:00-night a screaming take. The carp surfaces when I lift into it. I see a small mirror in the light from the torch. It kites to the left and gets snagged on a formerly unknown submerged branch. I strip and wade out as far as I can go. My legs go numb very quickly and I realize it is too dangerous to swim on my own. Pull for a break - the hook link snaps. Freezing!!

12/11 - "Porsch Lake" - Henrik & Oskar - last session?
Yet another last session of the season. 7 degrees in the water, 10 in the air. Sunny morning, clouds in the afternoon.

One rod with a nylon rig baited with a 10mm hi-viz Pineapple popup was cast to the far margins. I baited the other rod with a newly composed boilie nick-named "red shrimp" (20mm) and placed it some 10 meters short of the far margin where the marginal slope levelled out. I wanted to try one rod close to the margins, and one in the deepest part of the lake - as I was a bit unsure if the carp would still patrol the shallow areas in this fairly cold water, or if they would be holed up on the deeper bottoms. I attached a 3-bait stringer to the "red shrimp" rod, and catapulted a further ~15 baits around it. The hi-viz rod was recast now and then to likely looking spots along the far margins, sometimes with a small PVA bag of pineapple pellets and sometimes relying on the attraction of the bait itself.

11:30 - action
My Delkim signalled a take on the food-bait rod. At first I thought there was something wrong with the alarm. I was not really expecting any take at all that day - and if I, by some stroke of luck, would get a take it should, in all fairness, come to the hi-viz rod. The rod tip was actually moving, and I could not deny that the reel was grudgingly letting out a couple of centimetres of line (I was fishing locked-up). I struck, and was actually rewarded with quite a bit of resistance. It felt extremely good to be reminded of how fighting a carp feels (it had been a while since the last time). The Carp fought surprisingly well, I would have thought that Carp would be at least slightly less spirited in cold water. It kited to the right, then to the left, and to the right again. Each turn I gained a few metres on it. The only dangerous snags were under my feet, so I did not rush the fight - wanting to be sure of it being tired when it was time to net it. It did try, in vain, to reach the snags - but Oskar scooped it up with the net. I had never seen a Carp in winter colours before, so I was very pleased to see how vibrant they can actually become. The mirror weighted 5.7 kg, no monster, not even large - but very welcome!

The 5.7kg mirror - caught on a 20 mm boilie on a size 6 Korda Wide-gape

13:00 - what the?
Out of the blue - after seeing not one single bubble. Same rod, same place, same bait, same type of fight, just as surprised. The fish was slightly smaller though.

A 4.65 kg Carp

~14:00 - Oskar
Oskar got screaming take on a pineapple popup. The hook-hold gave after about a second (no luck this time either).

14:30 - Time to go home
It was getting dark (dark place in winter, is Sweden). We had started to get ready to pack up when my second rod screamed into life. I could not believe it. 4 takes to me and Oskar in the winter, in the day, in a lake that predominantly is a "night water". Actually coming in contact with a fifth of the total head of carp IN the lake. I actually did manage to land the last Carp as well (even though it is something of a statistical impossibility for me to land three carp in a row). I played this one even more delicately than the other two as it was attached to a size 8 hook.

The last one. Smallest of the lot, and very similar to the second one (brothers?).

This was actually the last session of the season!