A single bar of gold…

…makes all the effort worth it!  After spending all day catching up on neglected household chores (updating checkbooks, budget spreadsheets, and the like) by virtue of one week’s sickness followed by another’s commitments outside the home, by 3:30 this afternoon I was ready for a break!  I was finally able to get to my baited spot on the neighborhood lake around 4:15, and all three rods were in the water by 4:30.  Like last week, I fished two bolt-rigged carp rods (far left and right) and one float rod (directly in front of me).  My left rod was baited with three prepped deer corn kernels tipped with a yellow plastic kernel (to give a little more buoyancy) on a blowback rig.  The right rod was baited with the same white Evolution Carp Tackle plastic three-kernel corn stack I had such good luck on last week (also on a blowback rig).  Both bolt-rigged rods used an in-line method lead that I packed with a method mix of oats, calf-starter pellets, sweet corn, and liquid molasses flavoring.  My middle rod was baited with two kernels of sweet corn on a #10 Korda Krank hook two feet under a puddle chucker float. Once cast, the two outer rods were placed in bank sticks with bite alarms atop.  I catapulted three pouches of prepped pigeon feed/cracked corn/whole corn mix over each rig to hopefully get the carp grubbing around the vicinity of my hookbaits.

My first take came on the float rod within about the first ten minutes.  My float suddenly submerged, then started off toward the left decisively.  I quickly picked up my rod, tightened up the line, and set the hook.  Unfortunately, after a momentary feeling of weight, my 6-pound test line parted, leaving my float bobbing unattached some fifteen feet off shore.  Not anxious to part with that float if I could salvage it, I reeled in my left rod and started gently flip casting beyond the float (so as to not unduly disturb the swim), attempting to snag it and drag it back in.  I never did hook it, but dragging the lead and hook over it repeatedly moved it closer and closer to shore until I could reach it with my net.  Don’t know what happened exactly to cause the line to break, but the take had the unambiguous feel of a carp.  Turtles diddle and bob the float, and may even eventually submerge it and slowly move off with it, but their bites are usually not nearly as decisive as a typical carp bite.  Generally speaking, when a carp takes the bait, it swims off with it, and there’s generally no doubt about it.

After re-baiting, re-packing the method mix around the method lead, and re-casting my left rod, it was time to re-rig my decimated float rod.  Fortunately, the upper float stop was still threaded on the line, so all I had to add was the float, a small split shot squeezed gently on the line just below the float, a small cone-shaped sliding sinker (like bass fisherman use to weight plastic worms), and, at the end of the line, a small black swivel was tied using a Uni Knot, my go-to fishing knot for the past several years.  As I was getting out a hook link to attach to the swivel, my left rod’s bite alarm let out a series of short beeps, then a continuous beep.  I quickly jumped up, grabbed the rod, and began playing the carp.  The fish felt pretty heavy, but it did not put up the usual spirited battle.  It resisted a little, but none of the long, back-and-forth runs that usually characterize a typical carp fight.  Within a minute or two I had it in the net.  On the bank, this fish turned out to be a nice 7-pounder.  What it lacked in fight in the water, it made up for on land—I could hardly stop it from flip-flopping long enough to snap a picture or two.  Finally succeeding, I gently placed it back in the net and lowered it into the water, where it slowly and silently glided off into the depths.

A quick check of that rod’s bait revealed that it was undamaged, so I re-applied a fresh ball of method to the lead and re-cast.  With both my left and right carp rods in their bite alarms and ready to sound off, I picked up where I had left off when the left rod’s bite alarm screamed to life.  I tied on a six-inch hook link with another blowback rig and re-baited with four kernels of sweet corn on the hair.  After re-casting, I sat and awaited my next bite.

As the late afternoon gradually gave way to nightfall, I enjoyed watching the mirror-slick surface of the lake, here and there punctuated by the odd baitfish, predatory fish, turtle, or breaching carp.  A beautiful 2/3 moon was gradually rising above the opposite shoreline, illuminating the lake and the surrounding shorelines in its soft light.  Despite checking my baits, re-applying method mix to both carp rods, and catapulting out a little more seed mix every fifteen minutes, there were to be no more bites this night.  At 6:20 I started reluctantly packing up all my bits and bobs of tackle.  By 6:30 it was time to bring the rods in—always hoping for a last minute bite, which never materialized.

Comparing this day’s sortie to my last six days ago, today’s lone capture was on my left rod, wherein I had nary a nibble last time out.  In addition, this time I caught on a natural bait—prepped deer corn (albeit tipped with a plastic kernel), whereas last week all four of my takes were on wholly artificial baits.  This week I also had a float-rod bite on sweet corn vis-à-vis last week’s on night-glow plastic corn.  My method mix was similar to last week’s, but flavored this time with liquid molasses flavoring to complement the dried molasses (and the molasses that is part and parcel of the calf-starter pellets I added this time), versus last time adding liquid plum flavoring to the mix.  If this flavor alone accounted for the difference in action (which it may or may not have), the carp definitely prefer the plum flavoring, as I had nearly instant action last time, and approximately twice as many runs in the same time period of two hours.

If the weather and other factors permit, I will give it another shot tomorrow afternoon.  Looking forward to continuing the carp lab experimentation.  In addition to trying different types of method mixes, I am looking forward to trying different flavors of jumbo carp corn (I have about a half-dozen flavors.), boilies (again, I have between a half-dozen and a dozen flavors of these), pop-ups, and hey, I even have a jar of tiger nuts!  Hopefully I can eventually find a few baits that they really consistently like.  Once the cold really sets in, I have been told that my best bet will be sweet corn with a little liquidized bread for a method mix.  Never really fished this lake for carp in the winter; curious to see if I can find and catch them then.