Moonlightin’…

This past Friday night was an unlikely candidate for a fishing session.  First, I had to work a production that lasted until 5:30 PM (instead of the usual 4 PM).  Second, I had been under the weather since Wednesday with a scratchy throat, congestion, and noticeable fatigue.  Third, when I arrived home to an empty house (everyone else was at one of a couple different events), I walked into a kitchen piled high with dirty dishes!  I decided that I had to clean up that kitchen first as a matter of course.  That took a good hour—by the time I was done, it was around 7:30 PM.  I decided to reward my labors with a little later-than-usual Friday night session!

I decided to fish for both carp and cats simultaneously.  I fished my 12’ crappie ultralight spinning outfit for carp, rigged with a #10 hook baited with a single kernel of yellow Evolution Carp Tackle plastic corn under a 2” glow-stick-rigged puddle chucker.  I cast it about 20 feet off shore, then catapulted three pouchfuls of prepped deer corn around my float to get the carp feeding. 

For the channel cats I fished my usual 6½‘ Ugly Stik spinning combo with a glow-sticked slip float and a #6 treble hook baited with punch bait.  As usual, I started a series of fan casts from the left shoreline and gradually working my way around to the right shoreline.  I started with a depth of 1 foot, and increased my depth by 6” every cast to hopefully quickly find the depth where the cats were feeding.

This night was particularly gorgeous.  A ¾ moon glowing brightly cast its soft glow over the entire lake and shoreline stretching before me.  The lake itself was mirror-still—not a breath of wind, and none of the minnow-chasing predators that were tearing up the surface a few nights before.  The only sounds I could hear were those of the human residents along either bank.  Here and there a snatch of conversation, a door closing, the occasional car passing through the apartment parking lot across the lake.  From time to time, the relative stillness and silence was punctuated by the loud crashing of a breaching carp—and I noticed something specific this night that I had not before—all the breaches were near the far shore.  I called to mind how, nearly every morning since spring, as I arose from my slumber and looked out my second-story bedroom window, I would often see multiple sets of ripples emanating from the near shoreline, revealing the presence of carp feeding in the margins.  The idea occurred to me that, during the spring, summer, and fall, perhaps the carp followed the sun, feeding first on the western shore where the east-rising sun first shone, then following its warming rays to the eastern shore as the sun slowly sinks into the west.  At this point, just a theory, but the morning observations were certainly very consistent.  I will have to continue to observe whether the evening breaches seem to be concentrated on the far side, or if that was just a one-off on this particular night.  Of course, with the changing of the season, that pattern—if it is indeed a pattern--may shift as well.

By 10:30 PM, I had caught two small catfish near or on the bottom, both around 15-20 feet off the near shore.  My carp float had budged slightly here and there, but never the confident moving off that characterizes a typical carp take.  About an hour into the session I changed up my yellow plastic corn kernel for a glow-in-the-dark one, but that change did not change my fortunes on this night.  While a bit disappointed and surprised, especially at the lack of carp action (Were they all on the far shore as the breaches seemed to indicate?), I could not but help be elevated and satisfied at having experienced such a beautiful, peaceful evening on the water.  Maybe the next evening session I will break out the carp rods, which can cast further to where the carp were breaching, and see if that approach will net more bites (and fish!).  Back home and in bed by 11 PM.  Goodnight, Friday!

The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray…

Two weeks ago today I took a vacation day, originally with the idea of finally having a good, long carp session (which, to me, means sunup until late afternoon) in the lake where the 20-pounders swim.   I think I’ve only had two or three sessions total there this year, which is really disappointing when you’re on a quest to break the 20-pound mark (a trophy carp in Virginia).  In between the time I asked for that Monday off and its arrival, I was besieged by a mountain of paperwork pursuant to some lengthy applications.  I decided, in the face of that ponderous weight of wood pulp pressing down on me, to defer my long-awaited session until another day and work, instead, on the applications before me.  Of course, that day was a perfect fall day weather-wise!

Fast-forward to last week, when I asked for (and received) today off—same intended carpy purpose.  Unfortunately, my daughter came down last week with some sort of sore throat and congestion bug.  When I woke up last Wednesday, I had a slight scratchiness in my throat.  Since then I haven’t felt bad enough to stop working, but I’ve felt noticeably sluggish and congested.  On top of this condition, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, turning much colder—nights dipping into the low 40s.  Last night I didn’t feel good at all.  I set my alarm for 4:30 AM, but I wasn’t sure I’d be up to being out in the cold all day.  Sure enough, it didn’t take any time to realize I just wasn’t up to all the preparations, packing, toting, etc. involved in a full-blown day’s session—especially in 40-degree weather.  If I had been feeling well, that level of cold would have been no big deal, but, when you’re weak, tired, and having a constant runny nose, that’s another matter entirely.

I immediately went back to bed, planning on going on in to work as usual when the alarm hit 7 AM.  Trouble was, when the alarm went off at 7 AM, I wasn’t feeling in any condition to work.  I re-set the alarm for 9 AM, planning on spending another vacation day continuing working on the same applications I had started on a couple weeks ago (but was still only 56% of the way finished on one!).  The day turned out to be a productive one; I made a lot of headway on that application (now I’m at around 80% completed), and I also got several other letters written, forms filled out, calls made, etc.

By 4:30 I was ready to leave the day’s paperwork behind.  It was sunny and in the mid-to-high 50s, so at least I could fit in a short session in the neighborhood lake!  This time I decided to fish for both carp and cats simultaneously.  I fished my 12’ ultralight crappie spinning outfit rigged with a clear plastic float (aka “puddle chucker”) rig and one kernel of plastic corn directly on the #10 Korda Krank hook.  I cast that rig out a good 15-20 off shore, then catapulted three pouchfuls of prepped deer corn around my float for chum.  With that (carp) rod in place, I engaged the baitrunner lever (which engages a secondary drag that lets line out so your rod and reel aren’t pulled into the drink by a running carp—don’t laugh—it happened to me this spring!), then set this rod down so I could fish my other catfish pole.  As usual, it was rigged with a slip float set about a foot deep with a #6 treble hook baited with punchbait.  I fan cast that rig, starting to my left, then gradually casting my way around to the right as far as I could.  After casting this out, I’d let it sit for a couple minutes, then, if no bite, reel it in about 2-3 feet and repeat.  This cycle continues until it’s close to shore.  With every re-cast, I’d re-bait with a fresh dip of punchbait.  After completing a cycle of fan casting, if there are no bites, I typically change up the depth, adding 6” or so, then repeat another cycle of casting.  The idea is to eventually find the depth where the cats are hanging out.

After about one cycle of fan casting, I began to notice a lot of feeding activity and swirls near the surface, so I decided to change strategies a bit.  I fed dry dog food on the surface, and, sure enough, started seeing fish (and turtles) start coming to the top to take the free offerings.  Based on a previous experience this past summer, I molded bread around my hook, then cast to where I was seeing surface-feeding fish.  This past summer this produced instant and confident takes, enabling me to quickly catch several carp and catfish.  This time there were little nibbly bites.  Several attempts at hook-setting yielded only flying rigs and tangles.  Most likely panfish or turtles sucking the bread off the hook.

While I was still trying to entice a bite with the molded bread dough balls, I noticed my puddle chucker starting to slowly move off!  I quickly grabbed my rod, tightened up, then set the hook into a nice fish.  After a nice battle on my ultralight rod, I netted a fat carp that proved to be 5 lb. 12 oz. of golden beauty.  He (she) must have spent considerable time mopping up my chum, as it had quite the bulging belly!  Quickly unhooked, photographed, then released my prize to grow and be caught another day.  I quickly cast back out into my baited spot, re-setting the trap for another unsuspecting Hooverer.

I tried repeated casts with the molded dough balls to showing catfish—the lake was alive with baitfish and catfish (and probably bass and other predators) chasing them.  Unfortunately, they weren’t at all interested in the dough balls today.  I eventually switched back to the more-fish-like punch bait, and, just as darkness was falling, I got a take from (and caught) a dinky channel cat.  As many times as I cast both the dough balls and the punch bait to showing fish, I got very little action.  I wonder how I would have done with live shiners fished a foot or so deep!  Bet I would have mopped up!  Another experiment for another day…

With darkness falling, I had promised my wife I would be home around 7 PM, so it was time to go.  Once the sun went down, it quickly got much colder.  I started with a fleece jacket unzipped earlier in the session.  Eventually I zipped it up.  Not too long after, I grabbed my heavy coat and stocking cap and put them on.  My feet never got cold, clad as they were in woolen socks inside knee boots.

I am now genuinely concerned that I will not get that longed-for long session with a chance for a 20-pounder before winter sets in and makes that a much less pleasant (and productive) specter.  At least I was able, after a fishing-less weekend, to scratch the angling itch a little bit!

A little preparation...

After an evening spent doing various chores and errands, about 9 PM I decided to prepare for my next sortie in the neighborhood lake. First, my catfish rod (6 1/2 foot Ugly Stik spinning combo with 12-lb. mono) needed a hook and leader change-out. The hook had lost its sticky sharpness after repeated catches, and the leader was too short to merely tie on a new hook. Secondly, my favored float rod (12' crappie pole paired with an ultralight spinning reel and 6 lb. test mono) was only rigged with a #10 Korda Krank hook from my last floater fishing session. This rig was not what I have in mind for my next session.

What do I have in mind, you ask? I want to chum pretty close to shore using dry dog food on the surface. Once the channel cats and carp show up and start feeding, I want to try float fishing for them below the surface with two different baits. Once before I fished doughballs made of bread squeezed onto the hook about a foot deep underneath floating chum. I quickly caught a channel cat and three carp. I want to try this again using my catfish rod.

On the float rod I want to try, under the same conditions (fishing under floating chummed dry dog food), some little chunks of Slim Jim (thin spicy cylindrical sausage sticks). I have heard of using Pepperami in the UK as a carp bait, and Luke Nichols says Slim Jims are a wonder bait for bluegills. I'm betting that, with both carp and cats swimming around and in a feeding mode, I should get some quick action from both on this (new to me ) bait.

With this plan in mind, I rigged my float rod with a sliding float adapter (a small swivel attached to a small, cylindrical piece of stretchy rubber tubing designed to grab and hold the base of a waggler float) sandwiched between two float stops. A couple of split shot 6" above the #10 Korda Krank hook completes the rig. I should be able to fish small pieces of Slim Jim directly on this hook, still leaving the hook point exposed to make setting the hook easier and more consistent.

I fantasized a bit about trying this out tonight between 9 PM and midnight, but decided against it after completing the re-rigging cited above. At any rate, I am ready now to be able to quickly get out on the water, rigged and ready for action, on short notice.

By the way, I am thoroughly enjoying my Fox large rucksack. Last week I transferred all my tackle and bait items from another carryall. This rucksack, while pretty heavy when fully loaded, allows me to carry ALL my carp AND catfish tackle and gear in one hands-free place. This makes it easy and quick to go for either a carp or channel cat session, whether I'm stalking, floater fishing, float fishing, or even fishing bolt rigs with bank sticks and bite alarms. Mobility and portability is a beautiful thing!

A desire satisfied…sort of

For some time, I’ve been wanting to try out the bank sticks I bought earlier this year.  I also haven’t tried traditional bolt rig carping in my neighborhood lake since early this spring.  This afternoon was so pretty, I decided to give both a try at the same time.

I took two of my 10’ carp rods, one rigged with a semi-bolt rig under a Polaris self-adjusting float, and the other with a straightforward bolt rig.  Since the wind was blowing left to right, I walked down a 100 yards or so to where the lake turns to the right, thinking the fish would follow that wind.  I fished one rod (the semi-bolt, float rod) to the right side, probably ¾ of the way across to the other side (where the wind was blowing to) with a bright yellow popup. The other rod (straight bolt rig) was fished to the left, about halfway across.  This left rod I decided to dedicate to artificials.  I started with a yellow Evolution Carp Tackle corn stack on the hair.  Both rods were rigged using blowback rigs tied on #6 longshank hooks with a split shot an inch down the hook link from the hook.  I chummed three pouchfuls of prepped deer corn over each hook bait, set both rods up in their bank stick/bite alarm combos, and waited for the carp to start feeding in my two baited areas.

I was encouraged when, within 10 minutes or so of casting out my right rod, a nice carp breached pretty close to where my hook bait was positioned.  Shortly thereafter, I saw several other breaches nearby.  In fact, I saw (or heard) numerous carp breach all around the area I was fishing.

Every fifteen minutes I would catapult a half pouch of deer corn over each rod.  After a half hour, I checked both hook baits.  The popup had obviously been gnawed on by the hard-shelled folk.  I decided to change up to a Green Lipid Mussel boilie on the right rod, and catapulted a half-dozen into the vicinity to hopefully prime the bite pump.  I tipped this boilie with a bright pink fake maggot cluster for added visibility.  I was hoping this particular flavor of boilie might appeal to either carp or catfish.  I also changed up the bait on the left rod to a yellow corn ball.

Over the course of a couple hours, I changed baits every half hour or so.  In addition to the bright yellow popup and the GLM boilie, I also tried some 10mm corn-flavored boilies on the right rod.  On the left rod, I eventually changed the yellow corn ball to an orange corn stack.

I repeatedly saw bubbling around my right rod, so I know carp were feeding in the vicinity.  Never saw any bubbling near my left rod, but that rod was in a bit more chop, so it would have been difficult to make out anyway.

Over the two hours, I never got the screaming run I was hoping for.  The left rod never so much as bleeped, and the most I saw for the right rod was the float knocking and bobbing here and there—most likely as turtles attacked the bait beneath.

To allay my boredom while waiting for a bite, I threw out a handful of dry dog food to see what would come to feed.  The first to come were, surprisingly, not the hard-shelled folk, but small channel cats.  The turtles did show up shortly thereafter, but not in the numbers of a couple of weeks ago.  Eventually even carp got in on the action, but they were very spooky.  One would come up for a dog biscuit, then veer away when it saw me sitting motionless on the bank.  Once I saw what looked like a pretty-good-sized channel cat breach and inhale a pellet—I’d say around 3-5 pounds.  Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my catfish rod today, and I didn’t feel like re-rigging one of the carp rods, so no channel cats today.  I reckon that if I had had my Ugly Stik and slip float rigged with punch bait with me, I could have caught a good half-dozen.  The channel cats have a characteristic way they feed off the top, and there were quite a few in the area, though I suspect most were quite small.  I continued to throw out additional handfuls of dog food every 5-10 minutes, and watching the feeding frenzy kept me quite amused, despite the lack of carp bites.

Earlier this spring I did a bit of experimentation with hair rigs using #6 hooks versus using #10 hooks with the bait (sweet corn, prepped deer corn, or plastic corn) directly on the hook.  What I found was that, in this lake at least, the hair-rigged hooks did not produce nearly as well as the smaller hooks with the bait directly on the hook.  The number of bites was significantly and noticeably less with the hair rigs.  Not only so, but the turtles really seemed to zero in on the 2-4 kernels on the hair--less so with a single kernel on the smaller hook. 

While I enjoyed trying out my bank sticks and alarms today—and I really like the portability and ease of use vis-à-vis a rod pod--I think I could have banked 3-4 carp minimum fishing with a puddle chucker float and a #10 hook fairly close in.  Fishing a single, float-rigged rod is so much easier to manage than carrying two big, heavy rods and bank sticks.  I have really come to enjoy float fishing with my 12’ crappie rod with its ultralight spinning reel and 6-lb. test mono.  Since the carp are, on average, small (3-4 lb.) in this lake, playing them on the ultralight outfit is a ball as well.

As autumn comes into full swing, I will continue to fish for both channel cats and carp as the temps drop and the leaves fall.  My first two carp early this spring came on the float on a day that was so cold and windy my hands were aching from the harsh wind, so I have reason to believe I can continue to float fish with some success as winter approaches.  As for the channel cats, I will continue to fish for them with slip floats and punch bait until they become inactive or unfindable.

One other float-fishing technique that I’d like to try again works in tandem with chumming trout chow or dry dog food on the surface.  Since this type of chumming (that I generally do to keep the turtles preoccupied on the surface so they leave my submerged suspended or bottom baits alone!) attracts both carp and channel cats, I found by experimentation on one occasion that fishing dough balls made from squeezed bread worked quite well at catching the carp and catfish swimming around under the floating chum.  Further experimentation is called for…

Still hoping for a longer (dawn ‘til mid-afternoon) session on one of the lakes where the 20-pounders swim.  I’ll have to take a vacation day during the week to make that happen, as weekends are ALWAYS too busy to afford such a luxury.

Cats are Callin’...

With my wife and daughter spending the evening with a friend tonight, I had hopes for a little evening session in the neighborhood lake.  I’ve been wanting to try out a couple of bank sticks I bought awhile back that I’ve never as yet used.  As almost all of my carp fishing in the neighborhood lake this past spring and summer was either float (fishing with a float) or floater (fishing with floating bait like bread pieces) fishing, I’ve been wanting to try a little bolt rig fishing with the bank sticks and bite alarms.

First off, I had to work later today until 5 PM (I normally get off at 4 PM.) to make up for a day earlier this week that I had to leave an hour early to meet the installer for our new dishwasher (another story for another time).  Secondly, on the way home, Carolyn called me, telling me that she had gone to Greenbrier Mall to buy Alyssa some polo shirts on sale, only to find that Aeropostale is no longer taking personal checks.  Since she had a commitment to meet her friend at a certain time, she asked me to go and pick up the items she wasn’t able to purchase with a check.  As I was already on the way home, I stopped by to see if my son Joseph wanted to ride with me.  He didn’t, so it was off to Aeropostale solo.  With that task done, it was time to take Joseph out for his Friday night fast food (a Venable family tradition!).  After a quick and satisfying trip to McDonald’s we got back home around 7:30 PM.  Joseph was eager to do some computer tasks, and, as I walked into the kitchen, it was a mess!  I decided that I would like to surprise Carolyn upon her return by cleaning the kitchen for her.  I washed, dried, and put away the dishes, then wiped the countertops, then took out a few accumulated recyclables to the bin on the side of the house, then finished off by a quick once-over sweep of the kitchen floor.  By the time I had finished, it was about 8:30 PM!  I asked my son if he was OK with me fishing a bit while he computerized, and he was OK with it.  Since it was going on 9 PM, I decided that carp fishing with the bank sticks would have to wait—too much prep time!   I quickly rigged my 6.5 ‘ Ugly Stik spinning outfit with a slip bobber and #6 treble hook for channel cat punch bait fishing.  Grabbed my newly-packed Fox jumbo rucksack and net and I was out the back gate in a flash.

My first stop was a small bit of open bank 20 yards or so down toward the left.  I threw out some greenish chicken livers for a bit of chum, then started my usual fan casting with punch bait.  I decided to fish shallow—about a foot deep—to reduce the chance of snagging on underwater branches, logs, etc.   After a complete cycle of casting a dozen times or so from left to right without a hit, it was time for a move.

There was another open spot about fifty yards further down to the left, so I sat down on my weighing mat to start another cycle of fan casting.  This time, about the third cast toward a bush overhanging the left bank, I got my first hit, and, after a pretty decent fight, landed my first channel cat of the night—a nice 3-pounder.  Over the course of the next couple of hours, I hooked and landed a total of four channel cats; one was about a pound (and fat!) and the others were fairly dinkish.    Two were caught fishing shallow (about 1 foot deep), and the other two were caught fishing deeper (about 3 feet deep).

It was a cool, breezy, and very pleasant evening on the water.  I mostly sat and fished in darkness, only illuminating my head torch (battery-powered LED head lamp on an elastic headband) when I was re-baiting or dealing with a fish (netting, unhooking, etc.).  I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet and peace of being on the water and soaking up the sights and sounds.

That last cast is always hard for me to come by, but I finally called it quits around midnight and brought myself and my gear back to the house to be stowed in the garage against the advent of my next fishing opportunity.

I may not have captured that elusive 12-pound trophy channel cat, but I started the weekend off nicely!