MJL

I like the Aussies. Big Rexxie, Steve and Bushie(the human broom)

yibbida yibbida

Is Fish-O-Mania the show where 30 or so anglers fish in an Olympic sized swimming pool/pond for carp? I don't have WFN but I saw a show something like that on one of the free previews last year. Wouldn't be my first choice of things to watch but I thought it was OK for the short time I did watch it.

I like watching fishing shows more for their informative aspects rather than pure entertainment. I rarely watch TV fishing shows nowadays. I find most of them rehash the same content season to season or are rarely (if ever) informative from show to show. Never really got into bass or walleye fishing (which most shows are based on) so I don't find them all that interesting to watch - even then I find most hosts rarely try different techniques to catch fish. Example: How many ways can Chronzy catch walleye jigging gulp minnows on a fly-in lake using ultra-lite tackle? The only show that I really looked forward to watching was In-fisherman.

Last couple of years I've really gotten into adventure type movies/shows like the Troutbum diaries and my friends from the UK sent me a DVD of a TV show called Jungle Hooks where the host fishes for Mahseer in India and Arapaima in the Amazon. Also have a number of shows on DVD from Rex Hunt who fishes all across the globe and Matt Hayes who fishes for various species in the UK using a variety of techniques (The Great Rod Race is one of my favourites to watch).

Absolutely brilliant report! Loving the pics too.

Your daughter's a natural at holding fish

WTG

I've only caught 3 redhorses before and they all came from the Ganny (Probably the same species as the one in Ramble On's pic). They also spawned on me too. Eggs looked like prime steelhead bait (slightly smaller than chinny eggs but blood red in colour). I'm guessing it's illegal to use redhorse roe for bait. The ones I caught I almost mistook for steelhead while fighting them. long powerful runs and nothing like fighting a white sucker. My biggest one was around 4-5lbs. I've heard they grow to double digit size like 13+lbs. Definitely would love to hook into more.

Great catch!

I've fished the east most of my life and I've only managed to land 1 laker from the Ganny (Seen a few come out there too). Caught it 8-9yrs ago floating roe off bottom for salmon and browns (+odd early steel)...Caught it on my 15 or 16th birthday just before the season closed.

Some of the locals told me they used to run pretty thick in the Ganny many years ago. They'd stack up in the Bi-way hole and all you'd get for a couple weeks in October were lakers. I've heard of a few coming out of Bomanville too (even further upstream from where you were). Interesting catch nonetheless.

My mistake...I misread your post. I thought you cracked a guide on the tip section. Tip tops are easy to replace. Like the others mentioned, it should take a couple minutes to repair and most tackle shops can do it for you.

Best to get the guide replaced by a local rod builder IMO. Most guides range anywhere from $2 (For Fuji Hardloys or PacBay Hi-alloys) to $10 for SIC's (approximate pricing). Labour is usually $8-10 depending on who you go to. Sure beats waiting 6wks to get your rod back from the company if you decide to send it in for warranty.

I've never heard of any person having positive experiences trying to glue the ring back into place. It usually falls out in no time.

Some places around southern Ontario who do rod repairs

- Angling Specialties (Scarborough & Concord locations)

- Wilson's fly shop (Downtown Toronto - Ask Billy)

- Natural Sports (Kitchener)

- John Collina (JC tackle - Caledonia I believe)

There's a few rod builders on this forum who might be able to do it for you. Spiel comes to mind.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

MJL and eveyone else, the value that was said is correct. I will explain PHOTOZ value, I don't like to be called a liar. I don't have very expensive Euro carp gear in Canada, the match stuff is high up there. I have a Tracker V-16 DLX side console with a 50 4 stoke. I am a crazy collector, I do have the 2 Stellas mentiond, I have many special issue reels, I have collected all the Cargem collection from the Sea 66 to the little Mingon, I have a few Green abu zebcos, I have very rare reels here and in Italy. The value of $25,000 that was said is actually more, considering all the carp/Match equipment I have collected in Italy, ever seen Fish O Mania, exactly like that.

 

I really hope this clears thing up, and I hope you can understand I was not shooting my mouth.

 

Daniel

Never doubted the value of your gear. Already knew you had a boat...Just a little friendly ribbing on my part.

Looking at my own inventory, I don't have a boat but I do have a vice for high-end carp and steelhead gear

Who ever said fishing was cheap was a liar.

I bet those ho's gave your soul an orgasmic experience

Can't wait for the full report!

$15,000....That's a lot of Delkims and custom Harrison carp rods

Been using my Stradics for about 8 yrs. Never had a complaint with any of them. Performed beautifully and when they eventually die I'll replace them with the newer model. Never heard a bad thing about them.

My dad's a Daiwa fan. I played around with his Daiwa Advantage (It's black and gold) and it also felt great.

Thanks guys for your comments. I really appreciate it.

Cliff, next time we fish together I'll autograph your hat.LOL

During the tournament I had no clue where I stood compared to the rest of the competitors in the other park. One of my friends tried to send me a text but I got it after the awards ceremony.

Some other pics I uploaded this morning

Jay Foster’s swim and the camper he fell out of Friday night

Norm’s bivvy is almost the same size as my bedroom. There really was a kitchen sink inside…

I never did sleep in the tent. My dad took my bedchair. I sat on the bench in the rain most of the time like a hobo carper. My peg-site. Looking at a single fish crashing at 200yards away

Big water and big boats

Throughout the entire tourney, Steve Conger wanted to know what my secret bait was. I had 3 in my arsenal and here are 2 of them. Hookbaits with a method mix.

The Awards

Lorne (Hammercarp) for being the most spirited carper at the tourney.

Carl (IndyK) for being the most sportsman-like. Without a doubt, he deserved this fantastic prize.

Jeff (Canadian Carp Club): 3rd place for total weight

Mike (Me): 2nd place for total weight

Rick (CarpDaddy): 1st place for total weight

Andrew for biggest fish caught

Mike (Me) for smallest fish caught

I have to agree that mirror carp is well a bit different hehe. And not bad overall catch Mike. BTW nice bed chair who makes it and where can I get one?

The bedchair is made by D.A.M.

I got it on sale from www.wackerbaits.com

Most places in North America stopped stocking D.A.M products. Best to get a quote on shipping before you order especially if you're going to ship it to Toronto.

Early this year in March, Lorne Morley (aka Hammercarp) - the Ontario provincial chair for the Carp Anglers Group - contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in participating in a small carp fishing tourney on the St. Lawrence. The idea would be to pit American carpers against the Canadian carpers for an international border battle of the carping world. One Canadian angler would be matched up with an American angler. I only had a little bit of experience fishing in tournaments but the prospect of fishing big water and strong fighting fish was the clincher for me. This one would be 48 straight hours of fishing and I was used to fishing 10-24hr long sessions. My dad was interested in going over as well and seeing what tournament fishing is like. He preferred to be a spectator instead of actually fishing in it.

From March through to Late August, I acquired new tackle, a new bed chair, brolly, a whack-load of terminal tackle, bait (boilies, maize, chick peas, commercial groundbait & method mixes, jumbo corn, etc). Hoping to match my current custom Harrison carp rod, I got the last ACS MIA II carp rod from Big Carp Tackle (Based on a Harrison Chimera blank) - Being from Ontario, I never bought 2 of the same rod. In New York you're allowed to use 2 rods at once.

For the big items I had the items shipped directly to Ed’s Bait & Tackle in Waddington NY – The home base for the tourney. I booked a room at the Riverview Motel in Waddington a month in advance. I had a feeling it was going to be booked full later on - It turned out to be the case a couple days before the start of the tournament.

Although it was a free tournament to enter and the pay-outs for the winners were not anywhere close to some of the big ticket events, our Canadian national carping pride was on the line! I was also really looking for a kick-@$$ way to celebrate my B-day. I couldn’t think of a better way to do it than on the shores of the St. Lawrence with an angry carp at the end of the line.

Sept 25

We crossed over the border into Ogdensburg and stopped in at the Price Chopper to do some grocery shopping. We were unsure what food items would be allowed to be taken across the border so we didn’t bother bringing food with us. I still have no idea what the speed limit is like on Route 37 between Ogdensburg and Waddington. Most cars were going much (And I do mean much) faster than we were. We popped into Ed’s Bait and tackle for our NY licences and picked up a few items like 5-6oz lead weights and had Ed spool some fresh 65lb PowerPro on my Shimano Thunnus.

Also picked up stuff that I had shipped over to Ed’s like my Brolly, bed chair and rod. No more sleeping on the ground with the earwigs and potato bugs for me.

My dad and I drove around Waddington looking for areas which we might be fishing in at the tournament. We stopped at Whittaker Park and scouted out what the conditions were like. I had a 7’ bass rod with me along with a few soft plastic baits and tried to catch the 6-10 inch smallies which were cruising the shallows…I didn’t catch any. I also noted the places I wouldn’t want to fish due to the severe weeds. The view is just beautiful from this swim.

At night all competitors who arrived early met up at Murray’s Old Irish Inn for dinner. There were raffle prizes and I won a big bag of Concept boilies + Concept super slimy bait dip (Bloodworm flavour). Ed didn’t think I was of age (which most people don’t) and gave my beer chip to my dad.LOL Carl from Team Canada, being the nice generous fellow that he is, gave me a spare Polaris float that he had in his box as a present. He definitely deserved the most sportsman-like award at the end of the tourney.

We stayed at the Riverview of Waddington motel for the night. Great accommodations at a great price. I wasn’t the only angler to peruse their carp shop that day.

Sept 26

Meeting at Ed’s bait shop for the peg draw and team matching: Team Canada plus one strange American spy (orange shirt) strategizing about the best tactics to use.

I picked my spot from a hat and ended up choosing peg 4 along with my American competitor Amy. It was at Whittaker Park and one of the spots I didn’t want to fish because of the massive weed bed right in front. The weeds extended out to 30-45 yards from shore – whatever fish I would hook would have to be pulled though it. Bob said this was a big fish peg but thinking back I thought it was going to be a big pain in the @$$ to fish it (it was!). The rocky bank was steep and fairly hard to walk down which made it all that more challenging to fish.

I arrived at the peg and set up. Hammercarp was to the left of me and further down along the bank, Steve (Carpsava) was to my right.

The fishing was dead slow during the morning and afternoon. I think about 3 fish were caught from Whittaker park where I was at and none of those catches were made by the Canadians. It was an eye opener seeing the different types of techniques and baits each angler was using. Take this for instance.

Also managed to see one angler’s rod + reel launch itself from the banksticks and fly into the water when the carp took his bait. I guess he forgot to put his baitrunner on or it failed to engage.

As night came, I started seeing fish crashing near my baited spot 60-80 yards out. My alarm goes and I lean into the fish. It locks itself into the thick weeds and I try my best to haul it in. My rod guides were actually groaning while pulling in the fish. I finally managed to land one fish for Team Canada and I got to Christen my new rod doing it.

Through the night and early morning I land 5 more to 23+lbs. Amy my teammate lost 1 fish but it did give her a good tussle before her hooklink unraveled. Amy slept most of the night but that was OK. I didn’t have any problems netting the fish and I brought the fish to her tent for verification. I bet she was a little shocked to see a carp’s head sticking into her tent the first time I brought one over.

Sept 27

Late morning and Afternoon were dead slow like the previous day. I think I saw 2 fish landed out of 10 anglers in that period. The guy who lost his rod the day before hired a pair of divers to retrieve it – In the end he got it back. Many of the participants came by to my peg to wish me a happy b-day.

Here’s Steve’s (Carpsava) fish which he managed to land in the evening. The sun was still up and I have no clue why the background came out so dark.

Nightfall came and the action starts to heat up again. I hook into a nice fish that dives into the weeds. It locks itself into the weeds and it’s a slow tug of war between me and the fish. I get it to the net and it turns out to be 28lb 10oz on my scale less the sling. We also put it up on Norm’s set of Reuben Heaton scales and it came out to the same weight. I caught the biggest fish of the tourney for now…

The action wasn't overly fast but looking at the other anglers, I was getting hits much more frequently albeit one every 40-90 mins or so (I actually didn't have a watch on).

At 2:30am my alarm screams off and like before, I slowly gain line and winch the fish through the thick weeds. My dad nets it and I scale the steep bank to help him carry it back up. I did a second glance at the fish and realized it was a big mirror carp. Placed her on the unhooking mat and my dad and I could’ve sworn it was close to 30lbs.

My other rod suddenly goes off and I’m into another fish. My dad puts the mirror into a fish sack with help from Hammercarp and I bring in a small common. We weighed it, released it and then un-sacked the mirror, weighed her and took pics. She was only 22 or 23+lbs. Certainly a new PB mirror for me by 1-2lbs. I'll have to confirm the weight when I get a copy of the score sheet. I was too tired to remember the exact weight.

Close up. Holding her up was almost like holding a big glob of Jell-O. I’ve never caught a carp that fat or jiggly before.

In total 8 fish came out during the night and early morning. Both nights I had a chat with Norm and Jeff from Team Canada at around 4am when the bite died down briefly. They were the only ones I could find close to me who were awake. Jeff loaned me a carp sack and gave me a bucket of maize when my stash was running low.

Sept 28

No fish were hooked once the sun came up. I was in zombie mode with only 30min of sleep since 3AM Friday morning. Packing up was hard and news of a 29lber upstaging my 28l+ber was quite sad. It beat my fish by only a few ounces. Top Angling to Andrew who caught the biggun at the last minute.

At the end of the tourney, the majority of participants met up at the local bar to do the awards. Andrew won the big fish prize of $200+ and Rick Walker managed to out-fish me with 230+lbs of fish to my 216+lbs (If only I didn’t lose that last fish!). I won a silver medallion along with a beautiful picture and $50 for catching the smallest fish at 6+lbs. Team Canada won the tourney with the most points. The score sheet can be seen here (Wolfville posted this link already in another thread)

http://theonlinekeepsack.com/Tournament_Results1_Third.asp

Here is Team Canada with the CanAm carp plaque.

Front Row (Left to Right): Carl, Jeff, Bob (a great host of the tourney), Me (I look like I’m in zombie mode), Roger

Back Row (Left to Right): Vali, Andrew, Lorne, Norm, Steve

Everyone voted that I should keep the CanAm carp plaque at my house till next year’s event. It’s currently in my room waiting for the first tab to be shipped over and installed (Canada gets to Christen it ) . Congrats to both teams and all the participants who showed up to fish the event.

Thanks to our hosts Bob (a Director of the Carp Anglers Group) and Ed (from Ed's bait and tackle) for setting up the CanAm carp cup and acquiring sponsorship for the event. For the month prior, I must have nuked their PM boxes with questions and they were always more than happy to answer all of them. Thanks to Andrew (AKA MACO Man) for donating medals, Rick walker for donating the beautiful pictures, the owner of Concept baits for driving all the way from Niagara falls with bait and bait dip that he donated and Jeff Vaughan for smuggling over some of his “secret bait” for me. There was also Mike Ripa and Becky who were great runners during the tournament who brought over anything you could possibly need. Have to thank my partner Amy for helping me out with the weighing and for being a great sport even with the slow fishing and bad weather we had.

Lastly (but certainly not least), thanks to my dad for being my runner for the tourney. He cooked my meals, picked up stuff from Ed’s tackle shop when I was running low on spods and did a great job at netting my fish. He also paid for the hotel, gas and food bills as well . Without him, I doubt I would have had the results that I had.

I had a blast fishing 48 straight hours and can’t wait to compete again in next year’s event

Hope you enjoyed

Great report and pics. Love the backdrop of that river with some very nice bass to boot!

WTG

Those fish are uber huge!

Congrats on the fine catch

Thanks guys. Was a rough tourney conditions-wise. Will post a report later today.

Great catch!

Also got into the small rainbows on another trib this week (Lake O) but did see a few small minnow/shiner type of fish around with them.

For my guide spacing on float rods, I usually start at 3-4 inches from the tip and add an inch for each guide along the way down. For example I usually start with

Tip, 3”, 7”, 12”, 18”, etc as a rough guide spacing

I’ll temporarily tape the guides in place, run a line through the guides and flex the rod to see if I get any flat spots. Sometimes I have to move guides around a bit. When I first started building rods, I was told to have the butt guide around 30 inches from the reel for float rods (perhaps less for shorter rods). Doubt yours will break with the current guide spacing although casting efficiency might be decreased.

Stripping off epoxy is one of my least favourite things to do. I give the finish a quick shot of heat from a heat-gun or hair dryer and take an exacto knife to the thread. Make sure to cut on top of the guide foot to prevent damage to the blank. Try and grab a loose end of the thread and unravel it. Clean up the residue with a combination of light heat, denatured alcohol and a finger nail. Some people use razor blades to scrape off the residue from the blank but you have to be very careful doing so. Angling Specialties sells an epoxy solvent that is more potent than denatured alcohol but less harsh than acetone…I do not recommend using acetone.

Hope this helps

Great report Cliff and happy belated B-day

Beautiful job Kemper!

You're absolutely right about the purpose of building or customizing rods to suit your own preferences. I personally couldn't ever use a handle configuration like yours...Then again I'm not sure how many out there would like just 5-6 inches of butt behind the reel seat which I have on my rods.

Angling Specialties - Scarborough or Concord location. They have a few Sage spey blanks in stock. Best word of advice is to buy in Canada if you can.

Some of the larger rod building suppliers in the States don't ship blanks to Canada by ground and the with the ones that do, expect to get raped by customs fees, shipping charges, over-sized handling fees, brokerage fees, etc. If you do order from the States, avoid using UPS as they charge noticeably higher fees over Fed-ex. I must just be unlucky but I've never had a great experience ordering blanks from the States.

Great catch Cliff

Instead of counting from 1 to 15, try counting down from 15 to 1...You'll get more hits that way

Not hard if you have access to components. There are a few places online where you can get components and blanks. I'm not aware of any companies that sell rod building kits for float rods. In the past I've always bought blanks, guides, reel seats, cork, etc separate (not in a kit).

Like Solopaddler mentioned, most companies don't honour warranties if you do the spey/float conversion thing. I think Sage is the only company out there that does.

I've built 1 spey conversion for a friend on a Sage VT2 blank - 13' 7wt. Not sure if the blank is available anymore but it's a relatively inexpensive blank compared to other models out there. I think he paid around $240 for the blank or somewhere around that. The Z-Axis seems to be the "in" blank at the moment. It is definitely a sexy blank - really light too with a fast action (if you're looking for that).

Looking forward to the Can/Am too. We lost Jackel due to work, that is a shame because he has a lot of experience on the St. Lawrence.

 

See you out there.

Most of Team Canada has fished the St. Lawrence before. We already catch more fish than the Americans and we only need one rod to do it.

It really sucks how school has begun and I'm all the way in Waterloo ... I really wanted to go to the Can/AM.

I thought by now your profs would've told you they don't expect you to show up on Fridays. GET WITH THE PROGRAM VIC!

That totally sucks. People do strange things for $. I imagine it was probably going to be sold in the auto-parts market.

In my case, I don't think anyone in their right mind would want to steal a bumper from my car which we've Christened, "The Rustang"