Crusade for Carp 2006

Goals:
• Catch one of the large ones from Willow Lake
• Catch a carp from a "new" lake
• Enjoy

2006-05-01 Willow Lake - 8 degrees in the water, 12 in the air - 13m/s southeast winds

Had prebaited a few times with crustacean boilies and tigernuts. I had seen carp on each prebaiting trip - even when half the lake was half iced over - but not fished for them. This day the carp where nowhere to be found, though. No bubbles, no liners, no nothing. Still, it felt good to be out and about.

2006-05-04 Willow Lake - Stalking - 15 degrees in the water, 20 in the air - 3m/s southeast winds

Nothing around to stalk. Except a duck (returned it carefully - perfectly hooked in the "lip" though). And bream. Knee deep in slime, in fact. And rudd. And pike. And then some.

2006-05-07 Willow Lake - Stalking

Started the day with some chub fishing in a river. I caught some really small ones (up to 1 kg) on bread. Oskar caught one at 1.5 kg (new PB). No sign of the large ones. Decided to fish for carp in the evening.

1. An old man stops to chat. I try to ignore him - whereupon he talks louder and moves in front of me. The carp dematerialize. Quickly.
2. SMS from Oskar - he has caught a fish and wants me to take a photo.
3. An old crone comes by chatting. I try to ignore her as well - she moves closer to the water to figure out what I am looking for. What I was looking for disappears. I hate Willow Lake!

At least Oskars fish was stunning - and well worth the trip!

2006-05-09 Willow Lake - stalking/sedentary-combo - hot! ~25 degrees in the air. Northeast winds.

Found feeding fish straight away in a windy corner. Flicked in a couple of pellets, it was on it instantly. It wasn't interested in my baits, though. Stupid(?) fish! Moved. Found 4-5 feeding fish. Churning up the bottom, they were. Had a bite on bread dipped in Crustacean-dip. Missed it. Scared the carp. Stupid(?) carp! Mayhap stalking isn't for me? Put in some crushed boilies followed by two rods with boilies instead. The 15mm crustacean boilie was taken in a matter of minutes. The new Century Armalite rods performed marvelously. Neat. Really bend, do the Armalites. The carp looked quite big during the fight - and put up quite a good such as well. It shrunk considerably on dry land, though. Reduced it to a number, and the number was 5.55 (the number of the?). Splendid colours, though (and the first carp of the season, no less!).

The carp started feeding with a lot more caution after one of their mates had been hooked (no wonder). Finally decided to move pitch to the other end of the lake. A lot of carp activity there, but resulted in nothing more exciting than loads of liners. 1dm of dead leaves on the bottom doesn't really aid presentation... Have to think of something for the next trip.

2006-05-10/11 Lake Mörtsjön - overnight - 15.4 degrees in the water, sunny, not much wind (but had been NE)

I, Oskar and Mr. Kangas fished an overnighter. Oskar chose the car park pitch, I the western bay, Kangas the northern "hole". Quite a bit of activity; carp rolling, bubbling and whatnot. I saw a carp a couple of times in "my" bay. Sadly some pike fly fishermen saw it as well, and exclaimed: "A pike! Quickly, cast at it" - the carp said nothing, merely vanished (and they caught no pike). I fished one rod with a halibut corker over pellets, and two with mapleate boilies over boilies - of the same kind. Nothing much happened in my end, except for quite a bit of liners during 10 minutes of rain at 2 o'clock. The carp must have enjoyed the rain, cause I could hear an angry buzz from Kangas buzzer. It turned out to be the carp called "Plupp" at 8.8kg.

Kangas kept on catching all morning, all tench, mind, but still better than naught - which was all I caught. Oskar caught a brace of tench on a spicy popup. Perhaps I would have caught, had I not been allergic to popups (and some kinds of pollen).

The closest I came to catching was when I found a carp feasting on roach-eggs (they were spawning like there was no tomorrow - which, considering the amount of pike they attracted, might have been the case) under a tree. I quickly reeled in one of the boilie rods and converted it into a stalking kit. Down went my breakfast (in the form of a lump of bread), into the water that is, and to my surprise the carp actually took the bread(!). Naturally I struck too quickly (as I always do) and didn't actually hook the carp - but still... Methinks I am getting closer.

2006-06-02 Common Lake - 2 nights - 20 degrees in the air, 16.5 in the water. windy S-SE

Baited one swim in the margins with pellets. One in the middle of the lake with hemp and tigers. One in the far margins with red shwimp boilies, small DD-biored boilies, some hemp and a handfull of pellets. Got takes straight away on the margins rod. Tench, tench, tench and more tench! Suddenly I had a triple take! (my first ever) A crucian on the margin rod, and tench on the other two. Crucian - on a 20mm red shrimp boilie!

Suddenly the I got a really carpy take (or so I thought). The fight was that of a carp - albeit a small one. The culprit turned out to be a largish tench with huge fins!3.1 kg tench, taken on a 20mm red shrimp + 10mm squid octopus popup (solar).

The action slowed down betwixt 11 (in the evening) and 2 in the morning. Caught tench now and then all morning. At 9:15 the far margin rod screamed into life - the hanger banging the butt with a loud "clonk". The carp (for it was one) kited to the right, hitting 'is 'ead on the marker-pole - though, somehow, managing not to tangle with the other line. It continued kiting into a small bay and firmly lodging itself in some reeds. I had to take to the boat in the end. The 5.5 kg carp took a 20mm red shrimp + 10mm squid octopus popup.

I baited with approx. a quarter of a kilo of boilies after each fish. The second night I spent sleeping (didn't sleep at all the first night). When I woke up I didn't have any baits on (no wonder action was slow at night!). Rebaited and started catching some tench. I caught the 3.1kg tench again. In fact I didn't catch any new tench at all - merely fish from the night before. In total ~30 tench, 1 crucian and a carp in two nights. I baited with a bucket of hemp and tigers, one bucket of pellets, and around 7 kilos of boilies!

2006-06-05 Lake Skanssjön - overnight - 17 degrees in the water, sunny, windy NE

Fished the bridge pitch. I baited with loads of Tutti-fish boilies. Caught a bream almost straight away. Had heard that the bream were a pest in here. Had some liners on a pineapple popup fished over some pellets. Nothing much happened at night. At 08:00 a 10kg+ fish suddendly rose out of the water in slow motion (over Oskars swim, of course). After a few minutes it did it again. Oskar decided to check his bait (which was just as well, as he had no bait on the hook - bugger!).

At 10, on the morning clock, when all was calm and dead as dead, a big carp crashed in Oskars far margin swim. It was, apparently, attached to his hook - as the alarm screamed into life not long after. The fight was dramatic, as the carp kept swimming under a bridge(!) - trying desperately to find safety. It surrendered eventually, though. The long-shank hook was firmly lodged in the bottom lip.
11.3kg 82cm - not a bad first fish in a new lake!

At noon(ish) we put in the remaining boilies and called it a day. I happened to glance at Oskars swim when we passed it on the way to the parking lot. At least 3 large carp was chruning up the bottom! Damned. O well, we went home anyhow.

2006-06-14 Willow lake - stalking - sunny and HOT

Baited some pellet "traps" which I moved between. Managed to attract a few carp into the Spring pitch. The competition between them caused them to throw caution to the wind! My float lifted and lay flat! I struck. Solid resistance. Hook and hold. Splash. Scream of reel. Wallow. Splash. Done. My first carp on the centrepin was a fact! 5.51 kg No giant, but very welcome.

I managed to hook and lose a second carp ~10 minutes later. After that there were a few close shaves, but no hooked fish.

2006-06-20 Willow Lake - overnight - sunny, hot (28 degrees!), S-wind

I fished one rod baited with a Red shrimp boilie over a light scattering of the same. The other rod baited with a tiger nut fished over hemp.

Very little carp activity. I did catch some bream, though. Oskar spotted a fish in the early morning ("head and shoulder"-ing), cast to it, and was away within minutes (on a pellet hookbait). Quite close to spawning, methinks!

I walked around the lake twice during the morning. Spotted 1 fish each lap - where were they hiding?!

2006-06-26 Red Lake - overnight - rain, rain, rain, E-wind

Fished a "new" part of the lake. I baited a spot in the near, and one in the far, margin with hemp, tigers, cranberry cream boilies and some halibut pellets. Fished one rod in the far margin, and two in the near dito. At 01:45, in the dark, in the rain, I got a screaming take on a cranberry cream boilie. I stumbled out of bed, into darkness, into rain. Gripped the wrong rod (of course) and struck into air. Darn. Gripped the right rod (or rather the middle rod) and struck into solid resistance. The carp just kept going off (as in away, not as in turning rancid or suchlike). For ages (or at least 20 metres). I managed to turn it, and get it close to the pads some 5 metres out, then it steamed off some 25 metres again - 'twas no stopping it. After some time of giving and taking (felt like mostly giving) the large fish started kiting to the left, into a bay; into reeds. I managed to free it from the reeds and got it moving again. Suddenly Oskars larm indicated that the carp had tangled with his line. Oskar slackened off, but it was too late. The carp was no longer attached to my hook - it disappeared into the darkness and became a dream again.

Nothing much happened after that.

2006-06-29 Lake Skanssjön overnight - rain in the evening, clear in the morning - N winds

A bit of carp activity in the evening. Great diversity of biting insects! Fun. Caught some bream. Joy. At around 3 (on the morning clock) I had loads of carp on my margin rod (baited with hemp and tigers - fished a nut and plastic corn on the hook). Swirlings, bubbles, shaking of roots and whatnot. Expected a bite at any time. Checked my rig after a while. A bream and a large waterlogged log (!) was attached. Scared off the carp - hoped they would come back, they didn't. Some carp on my second baited spot - expected a bite at any moment. Geese and ducks found the spot and had breakfast. Started casting stringers at feeding fish instead. At around 6 I was reeling in a bream when I got another bream(ish) take. Struck on the other rod. 'twas a bream. I reeled it in. About halfway in the bream started kiting, swimming on the wrong side of a buoy. Strong bream. The buoy tilted. Very strong bream. The line got caught on the top of the buoy, but the bream managed to pull the line free. Hmmmm... The bream picked up speed and headed up the canal - reel screaming. Hey, this is no bream! After a fairly decent scrap Oskar safely enclosed the fish in the net. A familiar face, the same carp Oskar caught a few weeks ago. Now at 11.7 kg.
A few more bream, then we moved on in search for grasscarp.

Grass carp. I have never even seen one. We decided to walk around the lake - to see if we would see any. At all. First thing we saw was a decent bream. Not huge, but OK. After a bit of a walk we saw some movements in the reeds. I snuck closer. And came face to face with two grassies. I was so close I could have touched them.
They drifted away. Back to the car to fetch the fishing gear. I and Oskar split up, walking down different sides of the lake. I saw one impossibly large bream on my side. It came up from the depth, in slow motion, glared at me, and sank. Oskar saw some of these:
However, none showed any interest in the baits we offered. We tried for a few hours, then gave up and went home. With a new goal for the summer - to catch a grass carp!

2006-07-01&02 Common lake - hot(!) - S-winds

Carp spawning. Like mad. Visited them with the boat. The three large commons and the large mirror approached me (all of them in a row) - seemingly to check out their adversary (and quite possibly to mock me). They stopped less than a metre from the boat and glared at me. Then they turned, in slow motion, and swam off. Nice to see that they are alive and swimming. One tench on a red shrimp boilie at night. At 9:30 I thought I wouldn't get in contact with any carp. Then I had a few liners. Then, suddenly, the alarm alarmed and the baitrunner ran! One of the large(ish) commons tail walked, like some kind of big game fish, off. Before I could say SNAGGED the carp was far (and away) through lilies, into reeds. I took to the boat, but when I started to get close the hook hold gave. Darn. O well, I had one more night to go. The second night the tench had really, really, found my sweets (if it is feasible to call the red shrimp boilies sweets!). I caught a tench, rebaited with particles and a generous helping of boilies, waited for 1-5 minutes and caught a tench again. That continued for a few hours before it slowed down to a stop. I fell asleep. Awoke at dawn and figured something must be wrong as I had caught naught during the, usually, productive early morning hours. Turned out that I had fished with a 0.5 kg rudd on one rod. Single hook (without bait) on the second. The third was ok, albeit baited with a pineapple boilie that worked well last year, but hasn't caught me a single fish this year(!). Rebaited. At around nine the pineapple rod tore off (or rather the fish attached to the hook). Felt very much like a small carp. 'twas the formerly 3.1 kg tench that I had caught two times this year! At around 9:15 the event from yesterday repeated itself, lost that one as well - even though I had changed to the Fox series 2XS hook that rarely fails (but then I fear that it was I who failed, not the hook - but it feels better to blame the tools). Double damned.

2006-07-04 Willow lake evening stint - hot(!) ~30 degrees - S-winds

We saw a lot of carp. How come carp grow at all when they mainly swim around at high speed without eating?!?!? Naught more to add.

2006-07-05 Snakepit overnight - hot(!) ~30 degrees - S-winds

The plan was to catch a grass carp. Minutes after arriving we were informed, by a bailiff, that the part in the fishing rules for the fishery where it said: "killing carp is prohibited" really meant: "Fishing for carp is not allowed. Nor are you allowed to put in any form of groundbait. If you happen to catch a carp anyway, then you should release it unharmed". Slightly miffed and quite a bit despirited we fished for bream instead. The approach was much the same as it would have been for the grass carp, but anyhow. Oskar managed to catch a new personal best Crucian at 1.4 kg.
We also had high hoped for large tench, everyone knows that tench thrive in pits. The tench thrived all right, a bit too well, in fact. All of them, and there were loads, at around 0.7 kg. We did manage to avoid any accidental captures of grass carp, though!

A, more or less wasted (I did extract a 1.8kg carp on sweet corn from Spaciouslake - and nearly caught a couple from Sandpool), hot bloody summer later...

2006-08-12&13 Redmyre two nights - when the heat wave broke it's hold - ~20 degrees - e-winds - clouds/showers/pouring rain

We pre-baited two days earlier. Carefully raking the bottom and pouring in some 10kg of mixed particles (hemp and tigers on my part, Oskar put his faith in maize and peanuts. We also piled in some 5kg of boilies on the top of the lot. Upon arriving I put out roughly 1kg of boilies (tutti-fish) and half a bucket of particles. I fished one rod with a method feeder baited with a balanced tigernut (very fashionable - or was that last years fad?), one with a tutti-fish 20mm boilie and the last one with a maple-8 20mm. About half an hour later (around 6 in the afternoon) my tutti-rod rattled off. The carp, for it was indeed a carp, put up an impressive fight - but my Armalite rod subdued it in the end. At 7.31 kg it wasn't very large, but I was very pleased anyway!
Suddenly it turned dark out (as it does at a shocking pace at this time of year). The night passed without much further ado (strangely two of my hangers had detached themselves from the line at some point - but I could hardly have failed to wake up, could I?). At about 9 o'clock Oskars jacko-special+maple-8 snowman steamed off (or rather the fish that was attached to his hook, which was in turn attached to the snowman). That was Oskars first take after buying new rods (Daiwa infinity slim) - as usual the carp didn't fail to punish him for buying new gear (though, more strangely, not even bream or tench had taken his bait since the purchase)! The fish stayed deep - and dove into about a tonne of weeds! We took to the boat - when we were above it Oskar regained contact. The carp emerged - and turned out to be a familiar one (though I had ne'er seen it "live" before). There was a lot of giving and taking (did I imagine it, or did Oskar play the fish extra carefully?). Eventually there was less giving than taking and the carp was safely confined within the net. The carp was in splendid (depending on who you ask, I suppose) condition. It turned the scales (if digital scales can indeed turn) to 9.92 kg - the lake is very reluctant to produce a "new" 10 kg fish!

During the rest of the day I kept actively fishing with a methodfeeder baited with a halibut pellet popup - and kept catching tench/bream every 5-10 minutes. I figured that, sooner or later, it should produce a carp. I was wrong (I quite often am). Instead, at about 5 in the afternoon, a carp took a liking to a pineapple+cream (Essential opal) boilie fished at the outskirts of the baited area. Again my Armalite rod performed marvellously (damn I like them!) and the carp was brough to the net. Slightly smaller, but then a carp is a carp is a carp is welcome.

2006-08-20 Willow lake morning.

Prebaited HEAVILY (5kg+ rock-hard boilies) 2 days before fishing. At dawn, when I arrived, my swim was absolutely alive with carp. There were carp cruising around the swim, bubbles on the surface, swirls and whatnot. Exciting. I cast out with stringers. After some 15 minutes I had a screamer. And then some. I fished locked-up (or so I thought), but the carp swam off unhindered. I tried to stop it, it surfaced - looking like a submarine - and accelerated. It felt as if someone was repeatedly kicking my rod, hard! Suddenly I lost contact. The hook had failed. The korda wide-gape size 4 was straightened. Damn. Gave me some sleepless nights that fish. Re-cast and was into a carp quite quickly. This one of a more modest size. Missed another before I had to leave. Not my day - but perhaps the heavy baiting was the solution to Willow lake?!
Jörgen fished the swim the following day and caught a nice linear carp.

2006-08-22 Willow lake - Jinx over day!

I and Jörgen have never caught carp whilst fishing together. Ever. Even though we have fished quite a bit of carp together. A lot, in fact. We both opted for "new" swims. I baited quite heavily - as I had had success on that earlier. And in the evening I got a good take. However, ti was impossible to net the fish as I hadn't thought of clearing the margins from weed and lillies! I shouted for help. "JÖRGEN!" "JÖRGEN HELP!" "JÖRGEN CARP!" No reply. I shouted even louder. And got the reply "I have one as well"! After years of blanking we had been awarded a double take! What are the odds of that?! Jörgen landed his carp, then helped me with mine. Splendid. Jörgens fish was a common - in a lake where we have (almost) never seen a common. Imagine that. He actually managed to bank two more commons a few days later, but that is his story - not mine! Mine was a sparsely scaled mirror

2006-09-07 Common lake - Jinx really is over

Fished the social swim at Common lake. Not a lot of activity. Things were not looking bright on the morrow. Still, suddenly Jörgens delkim started shouting. Beeep. Beep. It shouted, and angrily - too. Jörgen tried to take control over the fish, but it just kept going. And going. It kited into a bay on the left hand. And was stuck. Damn. We took to the boat. the line was hopelessly stuck close to the shore. The carp had to be gone. But suddenly the fish (for it was till attached) started moving again - out into open water. Jörgen played it, and played it, and played it.. It wouldn't stop hugging the bottom. After what felt like an eternity we managed to, with a joint effort, force it into the net! 35 minutes had passed! We thought it was one of the lakes monsters, but when we got a closer look it was but a long and lean common!

2006-10-08 Willow lake afternoon session. Jörgen and Henrik

Found a lot of fish at "spring pitch". Jörgen drew the longer stick, and got the swim with fish! After half an hour his rod was almost wrenched from his rod rest! Hook&hold did the trick, and I could safely net the absolutely stunning fish! What autumn colours!

2006-10-14 Lake Mörtsjön overnight - Oskar, Jörgen, Young master Kangas and me.

I and Oskar had prebaited our swims 2 days before D-day. Kangas saw a (large) carp roll in my swim before I had reached it. The sight that greeted me when I arrived was very promising! Bubbles all over, and signs of feeding carp. Put our my baits with a minimum of disturbance. The night passed - without anything interesting happening. On the morrow my swim was alive with carp, 1*1 metre of frothy bubbles, rolling fish and whatnot. One hard liner was all that I did get though. Nothing much happened for Jörgen and Oskar. Kangas, on the other hand, got a screaming take around 9 in the morning. And, without further ado, landed the fish known as "Kylie" at 10.7 kilos. Actually the same fish that I caught in September last year.

2006-10-22 Afternoon at Porsche Lake, 11 degrees in the air - 10ish in the water, clouds - rain in the evening, windy (pictures to be added)

Baited the south-east end first (saw some bubbles and carpy signs), then walked on to the north-west end where I saw even more signs of carp. Baited quite heavily along the far margins. Cast a halibut pellet popup loaded with a pva-bag with trout fry pellets close to the near margins, a double BYST (Belachan Yeast Tiger mix with seafood cocktail powder) 14mm with a dynamite stick to the far margins, and a single Cream cajouser BYT 14mm slightly to the right along the far margins. Saw signs of carp eating boilied specials right away - and something was instantly attracted to my PVA bag. Tried to switch off the carp by making tea. The tea (loose leaves of course) was nearly finished when the bobbin on the middle rod sank - faster and faster. I grabbed the rod and was into a carp. It put up a good fight and did it's best to pick up the other lines. Finally it yielded and was in the net. The gamakatsu g-hard hook that I tried for the first time, and had high hope for, was severely damaged - it had opened up slightly, and the point had turned. Hardest steel in the world, I wonder... It was good enough for a carp of 6.5kg, at least. Re-baited and re-cast. And drunk my cold(ish) tea. Had a lot of liners on the close margin rod and the middle rod - but no takes. Figured that the carp were a bit annoyed and nervous, as their friend had suddenly disappeared - at least for a while. Decided to move to the other end of the lake. Baited up with a few handfuls of fresh boilies, dropped a bait in the close margin (left rod), one to an old jetty (cast spot on - nearly touching the wood), the right rod to the far margins. Put the kettle on, tea nearly finished, bobbin started sinking slowly, started rising, fish noticed that it could move no further (fished locked up), bobbin sank again. Carp, again. This one felt rather heavy - at least far heavier than the last one. After a spirited fight I could only just make out the fish in front of me - when I heard voices behind me. "Oh. He's got something. What a large pike! No, it's an Id isn't it?". The birdwatchers (for that was what they were) helped me with a quick photo. 9.3 kg was the weight of it (possibly a new lake record). Re-baited (and sorted out the mess that was the result of the carp swimming back and forth on a short line and picking up the other lines). After a few minutes I started getting liners on the right rod. A carp showed in the middle of the lake. Cast a PVA-stick to it - but it moved off. A few cups of tea later the bobbin on the right hand rod started quivering, more and more intensely. A carp had - apparently - found the stringer. Bleep. The bobbin sank (third drop-back!). This fish was obviously a smaller fish - but it compensated for the lack of weight with speed! 'twas an extremely high-backed common of 4.8kg. It did, in fact, spit out 2 whole boilies and 4 halves in the net - proving that it had gulped the whole stringer and the hook-bait before moving off. After that I managed to miss 3(!) more carp. The first one took a PVA-stick before it had melted. The second one failed to be pricked by the hook - as the hook was inbedded in detritus. The third one actually was connected - but total darkness and pouring rain made it impossible to actually see where the fish was - and where it was going. It was headed for some roots - under where I was standing! It snagged itself and transferred the hook to the root. Damn. The trek to the car was incredibly wet and impossibly dark.