2014 Session #1 presented lots of excellent fish!

IMG_4031_edited

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a43CEzOfqPA[/youtube]

As you can see spring is finally here after a very long winter! As most of sat indoors and could only dream of spring the months dragged on and on. Just when you thought spring would be here the cold temperatures came back and began to wreak havoc on the lakes and made the depth of the ice over a foot thick in a lot of locations and some saw close to 18 inches.  With that being said the flowers are blooming, the trees are beginning to bud and all signs of spring are finally here.

I have been hitting the lakes close to 3 weeks now with no luck whatsoever and it was starting to seem like they would never move in. I began baiting several spots heavily every night for around 6 days in hopes that something would move into the area finally.   I usually put a variety of baits out to chum and also various sizes. It is important to cater to other fish as well and not only carp. I found in recent years that if you can attract the bluegill and perch into a spot it almost instantly triggers the carp to move in and feed heavily. The night before my last campaign I noticed  crayfish had moved in along with some other small bait fish so that was a sure sign things were improving. The toughest part with the northeastern climate is just because it hits 70 during the day doesn’t mean it won’t dip back into the 30’s at night cooling the lake right back down and holding up progression.

The afternoon of my session I received my new Sonik rods. I chose a 3.5tc 12ft sk4xtr 50mm ring  for my setup. I use a lot of 3-4oz leads plus the pva bag so I am casting out a heavy load all of the time. As you can see in the picture they have a beautiful carbon weave and really stand out. I will be doing an in depth review of them in the near future and also a longevity review a year later to show how they performed. They cast extremely well and also easily. I was able to hit my target distance without really trying at all so I am definitely going to put these rods through the ringer and make sure they are up to the tasks that lay ahead of them.

IMG_0913

IMG_0914

So after getting my rods and setting them up I headed out for an evening session that my initial plans were just to fish for 5-6 hours and see how things were progressing along. I fished two rods with CC Moore Equinox boilies 18mm and chummed out a catapult full over each rod which is roughly 8-10 boilies to get the fish feeding. As usual I found that using pva bags full of pellet ads a nice touch to attracting the fish in to the bait. I usually fish Equinox matching pellets but ran out so I used Live System pellets and glugged them in Equinox bait dip and that did the trick. About 2 hours after setting up I had no signs of fish then all of the sudden a few beeps and then a slow steady run. I lifted up on the Sonik rod and felt a nice weight pulling me into the deeper water. After getting the fish closer you could see a beautiful golden color which often resembles the spring time fish. As I netted her she had a full stomach and proportioned nicely.  Always when you get a new product you have to get used to it a few times but my new rods felt like I have been using them for years. The reel seat is firm so netting fish is extremely easy to do by yourself as there is very little give which allows you to have better control over what you are doing.

IMG_4056

If you check out the photo at the top this was my first fish of the day clocking in at 26lb 8oz. The fish was ice cold from the water and I was a little hesitant if any more would come out this evening. Well about 30 minutes later after baiting up a little more boilies I had two fish nearly back to back one on Live System and also one on Equinox pushing 24 and 25+lbs. At this point I was thinking this is awesome and was more than pleased with the results as I usually do not have many fish out of the lake and especially not this close together in time.

IMG_4058

IMG_4085

After I released these fish back and baited up with some more boilies it was apparent the fish had moved in as I was seeing a few roll very far out and moving in closer and closer. Finally at midnight I had a slow run and lifted up on a nice freight train of a fish! She was pulling me all over the place and at one point I thought for sure I was going to lose her in the rocks as I could feel the line vibrating against them. I took my time with her and after getting her out of the snags she made her way back over to me. The result was a stunning 31lb 12oz common carp. I was so excited when I was shooting the video that I said the weight wrong! lol

IMG_4107IMG_4114 IMG_4111 IMG_4115

So now I was up to 4 fish and decided I had to wait a while longer because nights like this do not happen very often at all. At 1am I had a HUGE fish on but my line snapped 20 feet from the net. It seems like the story of my life sometimes when the big ones are hooked something always happens but there is always next time and of course with using carp friendly rigs I am ensured her safety when my line broke off so I am confident she will be fine and eject the hook and rig.

Until next time thanks for sharing in my adventures and plenty more session reports to come!

Brian Wingard

Products used in this article can be found at Big Carp Tackle.

Sonik Products  http://www.bigcarptackle.com/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=sonik

CC Moore Products http://www.bigcarptackle.com/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=cc+moore

Trakker Products  http://www.bigcarptackle.com/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=trakker

Leave a Reply