I'm Hooked

[2dalake]

All of you veteran carp anglers probably aren't surprised, but I took the plunge on carp fishing this holiday weekend and I know it will always be a part of my families' fishing trips from now on.

I first caught the bug when I snagged a 15 pounder a couple of years ago, crankin for bass. I checked out websites and made a few attempts, got spooled twice because I didn't know what I was doing, but this weekend was the breakthrough.

My extended family met at the lake (13 of us) and took turns reeling them in. we didn't get one for everyone, not everyone wanted to try, but we caught eight from 11 to 22lbs in about four hours of fishing, and I'll take that. My 8 year old landed two that went 21.6 and 21.8 (Berkley scale, doesn't measure ounces). My brother cranked one in at 21.4 lbs and is also hooked. We left two boats tied to the dock and he rigged a muskie rod with a hair and corn. We even had a double going once, all from the dock, a real family event with every fish.

I have a couple of questions for you vets though:

1. It seemed like they slowed down when it was cloudy and cool, is that normal?

2. Is it illegal to return them to the water? We had an arguement about that.

3. Will they get even bigger if we fish deeper? We were fishing about 25 feet from the dock in four feet of water, with five kids 6 to 11 years old running around.

It'll be three weeks before we can go back now, my boys are wound up about it already.

By the way, we also caught walleyes, northerns, bass, bluegills and crappies this weekend, but the conversation concentrated on carp.

[LEECH21]

It's great that you discovered the greatness of carp fishing. They are probably the hardest fighting fish in freshwater. As for your questions. I've had better success on sunny days apposed to cloudy days, although I've experienced hooking up in almost severe weather before. It is NOT ILLEGAL to release carp! I've caught hundreds of carp in my years and have never killed a fish. I release them so they get bigger and I can catch them another day. Last question was about lake depth. I've seen 30 and 40 pound fish basking in the sun in only 2 feet of water before. Carp will pretty much go wherever they can get their bodies to pass, even the big ones. Hope this info helps. GOOD CARPING!!!

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[2dalake]

That does help, thanks. My eight year old did catch the same fish twice. His first went 21.8 lbs, his second, the following morning, went 21.6 but had the original hooking wound and a hole in the jaw where I had hung it on the scale. My brother told him it only counted as one fish, but he didn't think that was very funny.

Does anyone know where I can get a rod holder that will mount on a vertical dock leg?

[LEECH21]

I'm not sure what kind of dock you have, but most likely you can rig something up with a piece of PVC pipe.

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[2dalake]

I thought of that, but I'm a little worried about the rod getting yanked out. The rig I'm using lets them hook themselves and when we pulled it out it was because the drag was screaming. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

[barnyard]

take a piece of PVC pipe and cut an "L" shaped groove from one end. Make the groove wide enough to slide the stalk (?) of your spinning reel. Your combo will be locked in place till you remove it.

I am pretty sure that Jim C took photos of our rodholders when he fished with us. Maybe he could post one????

Tom B

[2dalake]

I getcha, that's a great idea. So the spinning rod locks in when you lay it over to one side. All I'd need to do is mount it on a 2X4 block and secure it with at least one "C" clamp. It would be even more stable if I anchor the blocks on three sides of the dock leg.

Great idea, thanks!

[Guest]

Tom,

I do have some pictures…I’m just not sure how to post them here? Tomorrow I’ll try to figure it out…OK?

Jim C