MJL

I decided last week that I would try my hand at carping the Niagara whirlpool. I’ve never been down there before and I was dying to try it out. I found very little information on the quality of carp fishing or the conditions to expect other than the fact that there was a lot current and lots of snags. All the reports stated “Some of the strongest fighting fish you’ll ever catch”…That was the bit that convinced me to go. The reports also said that it required a 20min hike down a steep hill to get to the bottom...To any normal (or sane) person, that means pack light and split the load with someone else. Unfortunately in my case, I couldn’t find another person willing to carry a few small buckets of bait down a hill. My family interested in crossing the border on a shopping excursion, would drop me off at the path and pick me up at a designated time…Whatever I would need for the day; I would have to carry down with me…No car to stash my stuff in. Not knowing what the conditions were like down at the whirlpool, I decided to pack like I do on every scouting mission…Pack for all conditions Beyond some of the main terminal tackle that I use (hooks, swivels, hook-link material, leads, etc), and my rod and reel, I decided that I would bring - My rod pod (front legs swapped for long banksticks) - Spare carp rod (In the event my main rod broke) - Net - A few ice cream buckets worth of bait - Spare camera - A headlamp (In the event that I’m still fishing when it gets dark) - Food + snacks - Water (And lots of it) On the bathroom scale my hiking pack fully loaded weighed 42lbs…My consolation was the fact that it would be lighter on the way back up. Sunday We toured around the Niagara parkway looking for the access point to go down. To be honest, I still don’t know where I descended down the gorge with respect to the Google Satellite map. Not knowing where exactly I had to go, my dad found an opening in a fence with a path and we proceeded. Being of the cautious type I suggested that I leave my gear in the car and scout it first, coming back to the car when we found the stairs. My dad being the practical type told me to take the gear with me…And so I took it with me….Thank you dad for leading me around a bunch of campsites for 10 minutes with a heavy pack strapped to my back…The set of stairs turned out to be 100 metres to the right of that opening. Once on the stairs, my family left for the border and I was on my own. It certainly was an exciting climb down with all the gear. The legs were slightly burning at the halfway point The path But at the end, the view was spectacular I found a spot which looked promising – It was more of a gut feeling – and I set up my gear. Pod with rod tips pointing skyward. The heavy current and the weeds + other junk floating downriver made it hard to fish any other way. I never even used the back rests on the pod because the angle wasn’t high enough. I rested the butt of the rod on the floor and put my rod on the alarm – I also never used the swinger. A good baitrunner or an extremely good drag (set medium light) is a must with this type of fishing. Initially I rigged up with a 3oz inline carp lead and on my first cast, I snagged up in some rocks…The sinker must have drifted 20-30 or so feet from where it entered the water from...I lost it. I re-rigged with a 4oz torpedo shaped swivel weight/lead clip combo and cast it out (If there’s enough interest, I might post up a pic of the rig I was using) …It clung onto the bottom but barely…It’s probably not the type of lead you would want to use in current but that’s all I had to work with. Ideally, a 6oz flat lead would’ve been perfect IMO. Within 20 minutes after re-rigging, I’m into a fish. After another 15 minutes of tug-o-war, I bank my first fish around 16lbs or so. The count when noon hit was 6 fish from 7 to 16lbs. After that everything just shut down for the next hour and a half. A couple random pics I took when I got a little bored The cable car that runs across the whirlpool Mr. Boillie is happy to see you At around 1:30 pm, the action started up again. Leaning into one This one finally comes to net after peeling around 140ft of line on 3 of his runs Landed One fish decided that the pineapple flavoured jumbo corn that I brought was irresistible. This fish made a dozen mind blowing runs before being winched back It turns out to be the biggest fish of the day weighing in at 24lbs 4oz I ended the day at 5pm and made my way up the hill with about 30-35lbs of gear – I used up all the maize, method mix and drank most the water that I brought up with me. I think the heaviest items were the pod and all of its components + the bunch of leads I thought I was going to lose during the trip – I only lost 1 all day so I guess I’m happy I don’t have to buy more…I can't say the same about my back, legs and @$$. All together I managed to go 12/12 on the whirlpool carp. They took a variety of baits including, maize, rubber corn, jumbo corn and boillies rigged on a hair rig. These carp seem like a different breed of fish which have evolved particularly to the Niagara whirlpool. They have quite hard lips and unlike most river fish, these fish had quite small tails for their size. The other fins however (Pectoral, dorsal, anal and pelvic), seemed quite oversized – Perhaps they’re better at probing the bottom in high current VS roaming nomadically. As far as the notion of being the hardest fighting fish in Ontario goes, they’re up there in terms of their bull-dogging and never quit attitude (Maybe their oversized fins have something to do with it). Only a couple of fish displayed the high octane runs that I was hoping for but I was still quite satisfied with each fish that took my bait – The average fight was about 10-15min of shoulder straining fun. Would I go back…Yes in a heartbeat…After I’m able to feel my legs again.

Great report and pics as Justin WTG

Sweet fish Rich. Congrats to the missus on the new PB

Provided that the light is part of the actual lure, it's legal. You can't use lights (like lanterns or powerful flashlights) to attract fish to your area. From what I've been told, the light (from lanterns) attracts small bait fish which in turn attract bigger fish to your area.

Good luck with your trip MTP. Hope you have as much fun that I certainly had. It's always worth a few casts for those St. Lawrence carp.

You can always sleep on IceGuys front lawn or camp out in his backyard for the night - If he's a nice guy, he'll let you come inside if it's raining and feed you. At least you know you won't be late the next morning...Watch out for dogs who might think you're a fire hydrant.

Pre-baiting works well if you have the luxury of living close to the water or if someone else can regularly do it for you. Most of the time, I don't have that luxury and fish waters that may see only 1-2 other carp anglers over the course of a season - The fish don't get fed much by me or the other anglers. I prefer to find the fish first by scouting or guessing where they will be rather than blindly chumming an area in the hopes of bringing them in. I look for natural paths which the carp cruise along and fish it (you can try to spot fish cruising around or jumping/rolling on the surface). If they're jumping at distance, try casting there...In my experience, it has paid off quite well. If you can't find fish, understanding carp behaviour is key and knowing/guessing where they usually hang out during the different parts of the year really helps. These paths change as the season progresses and swims which produced 30-50 fish in a day in May/June may be devoid of fish in August even if you chum lots out daily (you also waste a lot of bait). If one swim isn't producing after giving it a good try, move on to another or try a different tactic (try casting to a different part of the swim, try a different bait, etc). Hope this helps

No clue if it's invasive or not. I remember fishing one small lake which is part of the Credit river system...Can't remember the name of the place. Saw thousands of mini quarter sized (and smaller) jellies moving around and pulsating like the ones on the discovery channel.

Big Clouser minnows (size 2/0 - 2) off the pier can be quite good provided you have the gear and technique to chuck them into the distance...Shooting heads or a fast sinking line, a fast action fly rod, a large capacity reel and a safety helmet work wonders. I know a few people who take their float tubes out off the pier and fly fish for the staging fish out of cleo chucking range...Looks like mad fun. People are less inclined to crowd you when you're whizzing flies by their heads Other lures that have been productive: - Storm hot'n tot - Clown coloured shallow shad rap (if they're close in) - Husky jerk (fire tiger)

My favourites Cleos and Mepps Syclops (both glow in the dark) for fishing the pier I've seen huge gobs of skien under a Drennan piker float work wonders off the pier...I don't harvest any fish to actually try it myself. As for stream fishing, I like taking them on the fly and centrepin tackle. Favourite flies include (in no particular order): - Black woolly bugger - Woolly worm - Purple Austrian variant - Egg patterns - Egg sucking leech I've also hooked good numbers of salmon on pink 4" Berkley worms while trying for the steelhead. Hope this helps

This report is dedicated to Beans I decided to meet up with a few OFNers this Monday to do some carping. Coming back from a trip to Algonquin park the day before and a family gathering the night before, I was still a little tired. Arrived at the swim at 5:45am and baited up the area with maize, method mix and a few handfuls of boillies. CCMT swung by at around 6am and we set up our gear. 20min later Victor and his girlfriend pulls up and sets up their gear. Only the Lord almighty knows when Wolfville showed up with his son…Didn’t someone say he’d leave the house at 4:30? Fishing was on the slow side for me. I went 4/7 with 1 fish in the low 20’s and the rest in the low-mid teens. Even with the slow fishing, I’ve hit that point in the season where I value sitting in a cool and shady spot over catching large numbers of fish - although if both come along I won’t complain. I can’t say the same for Victor who was roasting all day in the sun. It was quite an adjustment switching back to 12lb mono from the 50lb PowerPro that I’ve been using the last couple of weeks. I was broken-off twice and had one hook pull after a 5 minute fight. Here’s one fish around 16lbs I’m sure CCMT, Victor and Wolfville will post some of their own pics or reports in the near future.

Great fish Crazyhook. Carp fishing is addicting isn't it? To catch them on the fly is crazy fun. Have you been able to get them on surface patterns?

If it was this weekend it couldn't have been me...I was in Algonquin park. Technically Monday doesn't constitute as part of the weekend Perhaps Wolfville, Victor or CCMT might know something about it

I used to go to Duffins creek to watch the salmon jump the dam when I was a kid. It's a bit of a hike from the car. I remember having to jump across a small ditch to get to it though. Ganaraska has a nice viewing platform to watch the salmon jump into the ladder. Here's Bomanville from a few years ago..It was quite late in the season. Humber river is another place to take the kids. I spent some time there in between classes watching the fish go up. As far as the one that leads into Toogood pond, the steelhead do make it there in the spring...What they do in there is beyond me. I'm not sure if there are any suitable places to spawn north of the pond.

This past weekend (Friday to Sunday) I went north to Algonquin Park and camped with some high school friends. We paddled into our campsite on Canisbay lake. We had camped on this particular lake twice before and I have fished it 4-5 times in the past with good results. I’m not much of a bass fisherman and my range of tackle for them is quite limited. I brought with me a 7’ 3-piece Shimano Compre and a Shimano Stradic 2000 loaded with 20lb PowerPro. The spare spool was loaded with 6lb mono. I also brought my 8wt fly rod in the hopes of getting a few smallies on topwater poppers. The conditions all weekend was pretty much rain. There were breaks from the rain but none seemed longer than 5 minutes. It made starting a fire difficult but we had a small stove to cook food on – We did get a fire going in the rain to roast marshmallows. My friends didn’t believe in Gore-tex and other waterproof fabrics so they mostly stayed at the campsite during the trip. A couple of my friends did venture out for some fishing in the light rain. My 4th cast standing on a rock 10’ from shore, I landed this one. It hit a Berkley bungee leech. It’s the 2nd bass I caught this year. I paddled around the lake by myself most of the time looking for “bassy” structure - Fallen trees, logs, boulders and rock piles, etc. My polarized glasses were also key in helping me to spot "bassy" spots. I docked myself to a fallen tree. My third cast in with the bungee leech I winched this one out before it could wrap itself around a branch. Another one from that spot I located 2 other spots which produced fish but none of any great size – Most of the fish caught this weekend were about 11 inches and under with 4-5 fish in the 2lb range. They were still good fun though. Most of the fish I caught came to Berkley Bungee leeches (cut down), Storm curly-tail grubs in a brownish colour and the same Storm grubs in a smoke colour with silver flakes in it. I couldn’t get a fish on the fly rod although I did get a few near hits on a white deceiver pattern. Overall I had a fun time fighting the smallies. My thumb is still chaffed from all the lipping.

I've seen pics of small ones caught in the Niagara. The anglers hooked them while they were steelheading.

I've never been up there but my friends and I were thinking about it. I e-mailed the people at the park about the fishing and their reply: Greetings from Killarney Park. For good fishing, I would recommend canoeing on Johnnie, Bell, Balsam and Fox lakes. They are located on the east side of the park. All of these lakes have good bass and pike fishing. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me. Regards, Kris Friends of Killarney Park Killarney Provincial Park Killarney, Ontario P0M 2A0 Phone - (705) 287-2800 Fax - (705)287-2893 Visit us at www.friendsofkillarneypark.ca

That's one beauty fish. You take that back!

Totally agree with Aaron. You'll never know how many opportunities you could've had if only you tried harder in class. And if you do skip class...Don't get your pic plastered in the newspapers like I did in 1st year I didn't skip class (I never have...honest) but convincing my parents that I went after-class was another thing. All I can say is...Multi-piece rods rock for concealability and portability

Correction, it was at the age of 3 when I was afflicted with this disturbing disease. Who knew a Play school fishing rod could be the reason for what I am today? Perhaps it was that one snowflake that started an avalanche. I read, dream, talk, think and enjoy writing about fishing. Several of my presentations (during high school and university) were of fly fishing and the recreational fishing industry as a whole. At any one time I have rod building equipment, fly tying equipment and/or carp rig accessories strewn on my bedroom table. It is said that as you grow older, your sense of responsibility takes over (it's called growing up)...In your case it may mean: - longer fishing trips, sometimes to distant remote places - Purchasing specialty tackle suitable for only 1% of the conditions you'll ever face - Living like a hobo because you blew all your dough on a new custom centrepin reel - Living off of granola bars or GORP because you're never home to do the grocery shopping or food preparation - Dedicating half of your living space for tackle (because as many may know, we can never get enough) - The weather network is your favourite channel (if you don't have WFN) - The local tackle shops within a 50km radius are on speed dial Born to fish...Yes. I don't think there are any support groups for fishing like Alcoholics Anonymous...I'd gladly be your sponsor though.

Really cool pics! I don't think I have ever seen one of those in the wild before. The only one I ever saw was at Big Al's in their goldfish pond years ago.

Those are great pics. Really like the release shot. What type and how heavy of line are you using to winch out those bass?

When they're hovering around on the surface not doing anything early in the season, they generally don't feed till they've soaked up enough heat from the sun to become active...That's just in my experience though. My experience on surface fishing is limited. I've only caught 2 off the top and both times the kids next to me were feeding the ducks. The carp were also feeding on the free handouts. You'll find that seagulls and ducks love to mess around with your surface baits. I will be in Algonquin park from Friday to Sunday. I'll be camping with some of my high school friends - We've gone up almost every year since we graduated...They don't fish though. I usually fish for the smallies there...It's the only time of the year I actually fish for bass. I wouldn't mind getting a laker on the line but I have very limited experience fishing for them.

After coming back from a fun road trip for carp last week, I needed a break…And when I say break, it really means fishing some of my home waters…And when I say “home waters”, that pretty much entails a 1hr travel radius (by car, TTC, ferry, foot, rickshaw, golf cart, etc) from my front door/garage. Monday Aug 20 Having a whack-load of maize left over from my trip last week, I decided to hit the Islands with DSN. The weather was not the most comfortable to be fishing in. There was the 20km east wind and the on/off rain. It felt bone-chilling at times. We met at the Ferry dock at 8am and left the mainland wondering what the fishing would be like with the cold front upon us. Upon landing we scouted the various canals and bays for the carp. I almost forgot how heavy a bunch of carp leads weigh when strapped to my back – DSN being the ultra minimalist obviously doesn’t have that problem. Lazy b@$tard I say! He’s not the one carrying all the bait! We unloaded some of the canned corn, maize, groundbait mix and boillies into a few places that looked promising. We would return later in the day if the action sucked elsewhere. We stopped at one swim where DSN and I have had success in the past. Both of us set-up our rods, banksticks, alarms, swingers and net and tossed in our hook baits. It was about 10:30 when our first run came. Unfortunately it managed to break my 50lb PowerPro mainline and I lost everything…I should’ve checked the line for frays. After that, I was getting runs fast and furious. We took refuge underneath a tree from the rain and it was a 30 foot dash to our rods when they went off…Mad fun it was! One around 17lbs DSN and I were fishing the same pile of groundbait for most of the day. I managed to go 6/8 while he went 1/1…Unknown to DSN, I plumbed around the bottom with a lead sinker before casting in to determine where the clear spots were to present my bait in the best possible place. I also used a piece of rubber corn which added buoyancy to my bait, making it easier for the fish to suck in. It just goes to show that the carp at the Islands can be very selective and paying attention to even the smallest of details can pay dividends. Wednesday Aug 22 Having a stellar day on Monday, I decided to go back to the islands to fish a couple places we didn’t try the previous trip. I left the house at 5:30am, walked 10min to the bus stop, I took the bus to the subway station. Took the subway down to Union Station, hopped on a street car for a block and met up with DSN at 6:47 for the 7am ferry. Tired as ever having slept 4hrs during the night, it was another 25min walk to the swim…Again I had 2 buckets of maize and a bunch of lead sinkers. Who knew lead could be so heavy? We baited up as usual and waited for about an hour and a half before DSN got a tiddler around 7-8lbs to hit. We quickly released it without taking a pic. Then a whole lot of nothing happened and we decided to switch spots. At about 11:15, I managed to catch this one – It hit just as we were packing up to leave for another spot. She weighed in at 25lbs 1oz on the scale and put up one hell of a tussle. Glad I had 50lb PowerPro on, I had to winch her out of very thick weeds – She just wouldn’t quit. My dad showed up with his rod around lunch time but as luck would have it, he forgot his reel at home. I still let him land one of my fish though…Being the nice son that I am DSN not to be out-fished again pulled a nice fish out around 23lbs It was a 2 man job to lift it on shore 2 good fishing buddies We managed to go 3/3 each. While the action was slow much of the day, at least we found a nice shady spot without any goose droppings to step on. It was quite a relaxing day to be out and about. Overall I had fun fishing the Islands and I’m sure DSN also did too. Off to Algonquin park on Friday…The carp will just have to wait a little before I get back to catching them again.

That was a great read. I loved the pics especially the last one...Yummmm. The scenery looks amazing up there...Unfortunately finding places like that close to home is next near impossible without a homeless guy popping out of the bushes. WTG