This past weekend I decided to do some carp fishing. Wind was a strong factor in making my decision as always. The wind was predicted to be in excess of 20 mph so I knew I would need to fish somewhere sheltered. I narrowed my choices down to either crappie fishing once again at Rocky Fork or to do some carp fishing at Rocky Fork. Crappie fishing was tempting as I did so well last weekend but I enjoy variety. I've been wanting to do some carp fishing for a while now. Each year I try to make a few trips to catch the hard fighting carp. So that's what I chose.
So I headed to the lake with a can of corn, my preferred carp bait. When I arrived the conditions were worse than I expected. 2ft waves with white caps on the main lake. I debated briefly if I still wanted to go through with this. I decided I wasn't backing down. I got on the water around 2pm and headed out into the waves. Waves began splashing over the sides and bow of my Nucanoe as my bow slammed over each wave. I came to my first cove option... it was occupied. I was starting to seriously regret this decision. I pressed on. It is safe to say that this was the most nervous I have ever been in my Nucanoe by far. I came to a second cove, this one also had one boat in it but this was a much larger cove so I headed in. I looked around and debated what to do. The water was still pretty rough inside the cove with 6"-1' waves. I seriously considered heading back to the boat ramp when suddenly I seen a large carp come leaping out of the water near the back of the cove. This was all I needed, I was ready to fish. I took a picture of the main lake once I was in the safety of the cove. Of course the picture does not do it justice.
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I anchored myself to the bank near where I saw the carp jump and threw out half my can of corn to chum the fish in. I tossed out both my baits and waited. I simply use a small bluegill/crappie size hook with 4 or 5 pieces of corn threaded on. Sweet corn to be exact. After 2 hours I hadn't had any bites, that I could see at least as the waves were still banging me around pretty good. I was getting pretty disappointed as I had seen several more carp jump. I decided to add a small split shot 1ft above each of my hooks to help keep my lines tighter to see any short bites. Not long after I noticed one line had gotten tighter but no line had been taken. I picked the rod up and let out some line. After a minute the line had gotten tight again so I set the hook. I had a fish on but I quickly found out my drag was way too loose as the carp shot straight into a snag and came off. These carp were picking up my corn and not taking off with it as carp typically do.
An hour later It happened again, my line tightened but didn't take off. I set the hook and again I had a carp on. This time I was ready. A short battle and I landed my first carp of the day. A small 3lb 1oz 18.25".
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| 3lb 1oz 18.25" Carp |
Every hour after this until sunset I had similar results with each carp being progressively larger. The second carp was a 5lb 0oz 23".
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| 5lb 0oz 23" Carp |
The third carp was a fat 8lb 9oz 24.5"
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| 8lb 9oz 24.5" Carp |
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| 8lb 9oz 24.5" Carp |
I thought for sure this carp was going to be the Fish Ohio size (26") I was looking for but it turned out to be short and fat.
Finally as the sun set I got a bonus channel catfish. Unlike the carp, the channel actually took off with my bait. The channel cat went 4lb 2oz and 24".
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| 4lb 2oz 24" Channel Catfish |
I soon headed in as it was getting dark and I was out of corn anyway. On my way back I cast a wobblehead but didn't get any bites. The water was very muddy from all the waves. Water temperature was 61 degrees. Thankfully the lake was significantly calmer as I headed back to the boat ramp. I was glad I decided to brave the tough conditions.
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