Zack (Eric's son) Caught his first carp and it was a beauty

Zach's first carp was a 19 pound common

This is a bit late but on Monday I took my friend Eric out carp fishing for a third time. This time we took his son Zach. After Eric showed his son the pictures from our last adventure, it was all Zach talked about all week.

   

We left at roughly the same time as the week before fishing the same location. Fishing was much slower and we didn’t get a hit for the first couple of hours. Zach did not seem to mind. His attitude was great and he never got bored. Since fishing was slow I moved down the bank to spread out. Only a few minutes after I moved Eric yelled for me to come back. When I turned the corner there was Zach holding onto the rod for dear life. He is used to catching blackfish from a boat, so he handled the rod like a champ. The carp went under a tree and the line got in the branches but it came out with a little luck.

   After a few minutes I netted Zach’s fish. It turned out to be a nineteen pounder. Definitely a really nice fish whether it’s your first or one hundred and first. I was impressed that he had no problem picking up the slimy fish or holding it up for pictures. After a few pics we let it go. A little while later Zach got another one about twelve pounds.

   Needless to say, he was pretty pumped. The kid knows how to fish and handled himself like a pro. I had a great time watching him fight his fish. He thanked me for taking him fishing two or three times.  Zach is welcome to come fishing with us anytime!  

Quest fish for thirty species 13, 14, 15 16,17, 18

13 Yellow Bullhead

14 Brook Trout

15 Brown Trout

16 Golden Trout

17 Golden Shiner

I caught a menhaden also. Although they do not bite, I caught one in  the roof of the mouth. I am counting it as number 18. It was caught on rod and reel and even though it was most likely "snagged" the hook was in the mouth.

Thoughts about chasing big carp

Just on of the many big carp
caught this week by many carp fishermen

Last week’s carp fishing can only be describe as epic. Without question it was the best week I’ve ever had. I landed seven carp over twenty pounds. I also broke my personal best carp by two and a half pounds when I caught the 28 ½ pounder last Friday. For one week everything lined up perfectly. I found the right spot that big fish were feeding in. The weather was changeable with many ups and downs on the barometer. The temperature has been just cool enough to keep the carp on the very verge of spawning, but not quite warm enough to spawn.

   I’m also getting extremely lucky. I caught one fish in five hours Friday, while my friend Dave caught 5. My one fish was a new PB. On Saturday, once the word got out where I and a guy named Ryan were catching big commons, a bunch of guys showed up. Five guys fished almost all day. I caught five carp; two of them were 21 pounds. The only other fish caught was a fifteen pounder.  Ten rods in the water, all guys that know what they are doing but five fish found my corn and not theirs… Luck

   I have always been one of those people to notice when “once in a lifetime” things are happening. On Tuesday when I brought my friend Eric fishing and we ended up with five twenty pounders, I explained to him how amazing the fishing was. We realized we were into something special and soaked it all in. It turned out to last all week.

    I know things lined up perfectly for me. I also know some of it comes down to luck. That said I fished hard everyday last week. I was going fishing straight from work packing sandwiches for supper. I found the spot I was fishing and baited it up.  I missed three great striper tides where one of my friends caught about sixty fish. I wanted to dedicate the week to this carp train and ride it till it stopped.

   Although I had a terrific week, I was not even close to only one. A guy named Ryan caught five fish topping twenty pounds. All told I know of almost twenty five carp caught in the last week over twenty. That is insane .My friend Dave caught two twenty seven pounders and Kevin W caught a 30 pound female and a twenty seven pound male. All this can be attributed to the weather I mentioned above, but also the sharing of information by some really skilled fishermen. The guys that put in the most bank time for the most part caught the most fish.

   Here is why I am writing this post. I know a lot of people that fish for carp. Most of my closest fishing buddies are carp guys/gals. They are always searching for the “big one.” I know people that look at a carp in the high teens and it means nothing to them. All they are searching for is a thirty pounder (which is the Holy Grail in Rhode Island waters). With so many big fish caught last week a twenty pounder barely raised an eye brow to some of the people looking for a big one. A couple fishermen I know would consider a twenty pound fish a disappointment. Unless the fish is in the mid-twenties or higher, it was not what they are looking for. That is a shame.

   I have said before that I would never say the phrase “only a seventeen pounder”. By using the word “only” it trivializes the smaller fish (and seventeen pounds is not a small fish). I want to catch giants too, but first and foremost I want my alarm to scream. There are too many blank days on a carp calendar to not appreciate ANY carp. True, catching big ones was easy the past week, but you know what, in a couple weeks when the weather is hot, we will all be scratching for a fifteen pound fish. Catching carp of any size will become much harder very soon.

   You may think since I finally broke my PB, that catching a fish in the teens would not mean as much to me. That is simply not true. Maybe it’s because I started carp fishing in the canal for five pounders, or because it took a few years to catch a twenty pounder but I truly enjoy my alarm going off and feeling the fight of the fish. There are many places I fish where nothing over ten pounds swims. The fish are fun, aggressive and fight like hell.

   As for fish topping out over 20 pounds, in Rhode Island, that is a pretty good feat. There are not a lot of bodies of water that have fish weighing that. I did not take for granted any one of the ones I caught. I know how unusual it is to catch them that size, I know how much time it normally takes to catch one. Some of the guys were absolutely giddy over catching fish that size. Others would be“ho-hum, it’s not a PB or a 30”. Personally, I side with the giddy folks. I love hanging around with enthusiastic fishermen instead of giant hunters, whose only goal is a monster and anything less is a failure.

   As I have said before carp have the largest average size of any freshwater fish in New England. The only other fish that can reach its trophy sizes consistently are pike, which are far less common over ten pounds. There are some dedicated carp anglers out there that love the sport. There are others that just want the trophy and don’t want to put in the work to find it. Either way we should all remember and appreciate that a fifteen pounder may not be huge for a carp, however for a freshwater fish it is a monster. I think we should all take a step back and realize how lucky we are when we get to tangle with an average size carp.

  

New Personal Best Carp Caught on Friday

On Friday I caught a new personal best carp. My previous PB was 26 pounds. I have caught thee twenty six pound fish including one on Tuesday. I couldn't seem to break that number. On Friday I went to a big fish spot known to produce large mirror carp. I went with a fishing buddy that outfished me 5-1. However my one fish made the day worth it. It weighed in at 28 1/2 pounds. Needless to say, I was pumped.

You may want me to tell you where I caught it. I can not. It was a spot shown to me, therefore it is not my spot to give away. Even if you know the lake I caught it in (many carp fishermen know where the huge mirrors are) I can't/won't show you where I was fishing. I won't give you directions. You are more likely to get one of my kidneys. Again this is because it is a very small private spot that very few people know about. The few guys that know about it would be pissed if the word spread. It would cause friction between friends and trust would be lost.

Sorry for the downer paragraph above. I just know a lot of my friends would certainly love to catch a huge mirror carp. I figured instead of telling them all individually that I would lose a friend if I told them, I'd just put it out here. Instead of being upset that I can't tell, be happy you have a friend you can trust

Epic Night Carp Fishing!

I think the pictures speak for themselves.There's not a lot to write about, we had a great night. We caught eight fish, five over twenty pounds and a nineteen pounder. All weights were rounded down..Pictures are in order from first fish to last fish All fish safely released.

A marathon 26.2 pounds

10 pounds

15 pounds

Twenty two pounds

twenty four pounds

Twenty one pounds

Twenty four pounds

Last fish of the night 19 pounds

My friend Eric Meyer caught his first carp last night

On Sunday my friend Eric Meyer called me and asked me if I would take him carp fishing. He saw a picture of me with a carp on Facebook and was intrigued by them. I told him I was going Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and he could pick a day. We made plans for Tuesday.

When we met at 5 pm I gave him the rules of Carp Club.

First rule of Carp Club- A good day is three, we will be happy to catch one

Second rule of carp club- They are not all twenty pounders, anything over 10 pounds is a good fish.

   I went on from there. I then explained how to put corn on a hair rig and what a method ball was. I showed him how to engage the bait runner reels. After the ten minute tutorial we casted out baits and waited.

Eric and I haven’t seen too much of each other since high school so the first two hours went by really fast as we caught up and shared stories. After about ninety minutes I was getting anxious that the fish wouldn’t come through.

   Luckily about 7:30 an alarm went off. Eric set the hook and Game on! He couldn’t believe the strength of the runs as it peeled off line two or three times. After a few minutes I had the privilege to net Eric’s first carp. It was a solid fifteen pounds. He was happy with it and I was relieved.

   We baited up again but nothing happened for the next thirty minutes so we each went to our respective houses to watch the Bruins lose. I switched over to the Red Sox but did not stay up to watch Grady Sizemore’s walk off.

   All in all I think Eric had fun and will be out carping again.   

Golden Trout!

This weekend was Rhode Island’s Free Fishing Weekend. For this weekend only no one needs a fishing license. In coordination with this weekend the DEM stocks golden trout. In years past they were only stocked in one pond and only about 100. This year four lakes were stocked with the goldens. I have been trying for three years to catch one, all failures.

Of the four lakes stocked, I chose Peck Pond in Burriville. My reasoning was that is the furthest away from cities so hopefully less fishing pressure. I arrived at 7:30 am and there were only six cars in the lot.

All the fish were balled up near the dam. I could not reach them from my spot. There were a lot of guys right around this swimming lemon colored ball and there wasn’t anywhere I could squeeze in. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore so I asked a guy if I could stand next to him and make a cast and catch one trout. He was okay with it. I waited for him to hook up, once he got his fish close to shore, I casted out my casting bubble/ fly combo.

On my second cast I hooked a golden trout. It was absolutely beautiful. True to my word, I only tried for the one fish. I said thank you to the fly fisherman and took some pictures of it. After I took the pictures I drove off and had one of the most memorable days ever carp fishing (see posts below).

If you get a chance, try going out on the free fishing weekend. Those golden trout are a really neat novelty. There will be a lot of people fishing. By the time I left at 8:45 twenty five people were fishing

My friend Daphne caught two personal best carp in the same day!!!

Daphne's first PB of the day, 19 pounds

I fished with my new friend Daphne on Saturday afternoon. Daphne is a very skilled fisherwomen for multiple species. Last year she was introduced to cap and she is into it big time.

 We had an unbelievable fishing outing. I got two the first spot before she did. Fishing was hot for a couple hours. I landed 10 carp mostly in the high teen weight range.
When fishing slowed we moved to another spot fifteen minutes away. Daphne caught the first fish. It was nineteen pounds. Her previous personal best was fifteen so we were both pretty excited.

An hour later she hooked up again. I netted a 22 pound fish for her. In an hour and a half she beat her previous personal best by seven pounds. Talk about an awesome fish

I had chosen the spot and told her gave her the best casting spot. The fishing gods sent down good karma on me because I caught one fish at that lake but it was a big one too. It topped out at twenty four pounds.

Her previous PB only lasted an hour since she landed
this 22 pounder

Golden Shower

On Saturday I caught three species of fish that were the color gold. I thought that was kind of neat

Golden Trout

Golden Shiner

The biggest of the 11 carp I caught Saturday, 24 pounds

The first brown of the year was by far the hardest to catch

   

For the last couple of weeks I have been targeting brown trout on at least one of my days off. This week was no exception, in my quest for 30 species, browns fit into the category just under sure bet (sure bets are fish like bluegill, yellow perch, carp and stripers, fish I am definitely going to catch every year). Browns are in the category of “if I put in enough time I should easily get one”. Unfortunately, I have put in a lot of time and before today…no brown trout to show for it.

So I set out on my weekly pilgrimage Thursday. I planned on hitting a few lakes. I was going to fish in Plymouth early and when the stocking report came out from Mass Wildlife, decide whether or not I would go to the Cape. My first stop was Fearings. Last week I could not access this pond because the road was being paved. This week access was easy on the smooth new asphalt. What was not easy was catching fish. The weather was perfect. It was warm and cloudy. The surface was flat because there was no wind to speak of. There were bugs hatching all over the surface.

   In the two hours I was there I only saw three trout jump. That’s it! I only caught a few sunfish on my fly rod. I tried near shore and way out with my spinning gear. About 10:30 I checked the report and saw Lout and Little had been stocked. I couldn’t get to Lout last week either because of some other road work. I figured I’d give those two lakes a shot.

   When I arrived at Lout a guy with a canoe was cleaning a fish on the shoreline. I thought “this looks promising”. He said it was a brown… even better. Then he told me they were very fussy. Cocky me thought “I’ll figure it out”.

   On my first cast I had a very solid hit but missed it. I thought “All right I’ve got a school in front of me”. And I did, I could see fish, sometimes swimming within feet of the shoreline. They were fussy as the fisherman said. I didn’t get any from shore.

   So I launched my kayak and covered the shoreline with my spinning gear and mixed in a few casts on the long rod. In two hours casting everything I had, I had three hits. I think they were hitting with their mouth closed. All the hits were smashed but there wasn’t anything to show for it.

   Finally I hooked a brown trout on a firetiger Roostertail. After playing the foot long fish way too carefully I netted my first brown of the year. I took a couple pictures and let it go. I was so relieved I almost left. I then casted with my spinning gear another ten minutes without a hit.

   I decided to fish the small area of shoreline that I caught that fish with a fly. The fly of choice was a size 10 olive beadhead wooly bugger. I figured I’d give them some meat. Although to be honest I didn’t plan on catching anything else.  To my astonishment I did catch them. I landed fourteen more trout in the next 90 minutes on the bugger. I also figured out where the fish were. Almost everything I caught was within three feet of the shoreline. Some of my hits were in six to eight inches of water. It was a blast. I couldn’t “sight fish”, but I could watch my fly and see it get smashed. I probably missed another ten hits, sometimes reacting too quickly to seeing the fly get wacked.

   Fishing is a funny game. I’ve spent entire days looking for this species of fish the last couple weeks. Thursday I went four hours of solid fishing in lakes THAT HAD BROWNS without a fish. Then all of the sudden all hell breaks loose and I catch them as fast as I could get them in for an hour and a half. I was soaked from fish splashing while trying to land them. I even caught one on my last cast so who knows how many fish were in that thirty feet of shoreline. I guess that’s why I love it… you just never know when it’s going to be great!