hammercarp

Oh boy, if the southern boys heard you say that... Grits is made from hominy. Hominy is made by treating certain varieties of corn with alkali to remove the seed hull. This is the tough indigestible outer part of a kernel of corn. Corn meal is just ground corn. The name grits does not come from the word grit meaning sand or gravel but is derived from the old english word grytt meaning coarse meal. They did not have corn in he old world at that time so it referred to wheat or oats. Hominy is the traditional Native American way of preparing corn. It goes back to the Incas and Aztecs. I can tell you that I have fished cornmeal dough's and pack baits and grits beats them hands down. It's ability to draw in and hold carp is incredible.

Grits has a reputation south of the border as a great carp bait. I attained a supply of them and I can tell you that they really are great. I fished the north shore of Hamilton Harbour on Sunday and had a great time. I caught fish all afternoon and there were three in the twenties. On my very last cast with my last handful of grits pack bait I got a dandy . This guy weighed 38&1/2 lbs very close to a PB .

WTG Beans! It is good to see you getting into them.

Well done, nice carp. That is a pretty little swim you have there.

Well done guys.

Great picture, what a beast of a sucker.

Aerial outhouse tipping, the latest craze.

Done

Wow! That is a huge sucker. What a surprise that must have been.

Great video Shawn. We'll get'm next time. Float Buddha I use to live in Kingston. What a beautiful place to be in the summer.

I remember when we first bought the F-18's. Everybody was aghast that these things cost 7 million dollars each. Little did we know how soon the price would climb to 35 million. Former American President Eisenhower said it. " Beware the military industrial complex."

Great picture.

Congratulations Mike. That was great to see.

Toronto islands for the first time tomorrow.

Once again gentlemen Thank you.

RH fisher congratulations! You just opened the door to many hours of fun on the bank.

I know that pond. I never fished it but I would check it out when work brought me to the area. That is a shame. You have my sympathy.

Thanks guys. And now for that 40.

Everyone has been having a great time fishing a local creek this spring and some good fish have come out including 6 mirrors. I had heard that there were some real monsters hiding out under the bridge there and when I checked it out sure enough I saw a big fish. I knew I had to try for it. Now the bridge is not a swim to be treated lightly . It is full of lots of nasty stuff . There are submerged logs, 3 inch re-rod sticks out into the water, there is a ton of branches that the beaver stuck in there as a winter food supply and other stuff like an old rug and even articles of clothing. I put my faith in my Ambassadeur reel and Ugly Stik rod to handle my appointed task, Which was to haul one out from the front of the bridge and away from all the nasty debris. Next I had to decide where to set up. I chose to place my modified Fox Stalker pod about 20 yards upstream from the bridge. This gave me a straight line from my reel to where my baited hook was. I wanted to be able to put upward pressure on the fish as soon as possible and get it to fight on the surface. If it got it's head down and used the current it would haul me under the bridge where I was sure to get cut off. I was also depending on the pulling power of packbait to draw the fish to the front of the bridge where my plan had a chance of succeeding. My first attempt was yesterday and I landed two fish with one in the teens. This was very encouraging. Today I set up and it was not long before I got one about 8 lbs. This was followed a little while later by one in the mid teens. I was getting a lot of bumps, twitches and short pulls and I had noticed that both fish had been hooked in the upper mouth. I had had some discussions with Andrew/MACOMAN from The Match Anglers Club of Ontario about how puffs behaved in current so I decided to change things up. I used 17 lb Berkly XT for a hook link and made it about 4 inches long. This a much stiffer that the XL. A little while later I had a strong pull and I set the hook vigorously. Not quite a Texas Whip but with some force. I immediately felt the weight of the fish and heaved on the rod. The fish rolled on the surface and I saw I had a good one. I started to play the fish and to back up along the bank upstream to get the fish out of the danger zone.The carp then headed for a submerged log that juts out from the front of the bridges foundation . I heaved on the rod and the fish turned away and then moved out into the middle of the creek. Now I was in open water. Oh boy Oh boy it worked . Eventually I got the fish to the wall and into my net. I was surprised by the weight as I hauled it up the 6-8 ft and over the wall. and onto the bank. I uncovered the fish and I knew I had a very very good fish here. I was pleased to see my Owner #02 wrapped right around the bottom lip. Perfect! I laid the fish out and it measured just over 39 inches in length and 29 inches in girth. I weighed it and the scale read 40 lbs. My sling weighs a little less than a lb so I had a new PB of 39 lbs. I went back and sat down to relax for a while and enjoy the warm sunshine. I thought about the hikes I had taken along this creek as a kid. Tomorrow, Good Friday was a traditional day for going on a hike here in Hamilton when I was a boy. I had even caught fish in it on a bent pin and willow gad. Fifty years later and I am still having fun on it's banks. I set up again and I got one in the teens. I decided to pack it in and so I went home. I would like to thank Mr. Tom Brooks for his help and CAG for the wealth of angling knowledge it made available.

Good Luck googie or as us carp guys say "tight lines". If you catch any please let us know with a post and pictures.

No offence taken Mike none at all. Mike I have no doubt that you can put fish on the bank during pre spawn in your home waters. You yourself have said that once walleye starts your done with carp and your home stretch of the St. Lawrence comprises a fraction of 1% of all the waters in Ontario that hold carp. A jewel of a place it is but still is not representative of all the places that can be fished. Regarding your statement that I underlined, Mike all you are really saying here is that your experience in carp angling is limited. If you knew what was going on in the carp tournament scene in North America your opinion of Paylake stile fishing might change considerably. Packbaits are now being sold even in the UK. I hate to belabour a point but googie did ask if one outfit suited both species. The outfit I suggested does to a T. Now Mike and Daniel what I have said does not mean that I would never use a specimen carp rod. Like I said I own a few. So if I felt it was necessary I would drag them out and fire some lead out to the horizon and I just may this summer during the CanAm but 99.9 % of the time in almost all of Ontario's waters they are not needed. Also those long rods break down into 6 ft sections these can be a major pain to travel anywhere with.

There are no waters like the St. Lawrence for carp any place in the world. That's is why Europeans come here to fish it. It is a world class fishery. Some of the conditions you wrote about are simply handled by using heavy line. The Niagara river here is no slouch either when it comes to current and I have taken fish over 30 lbs on my Paylake outfit from it. Mike. I own 12 ft specimen rods and the reels to go with them. They are purpose built and designed for distance fishing for carp . They are fantastic for that. But that is all they are really good for. Do you use yours for anything else? googie , the person that started this thread asked about channel cat and carp and if they could be fished with the same outfit. Can you fish channel cat, pike or musky with your 12 footers? They are great for distance, but almost all of the time you don't have to cast that far for carp. For someone starting out in carp fishing I think it is much better to go with a more versatile outfit. You get a better bang for your buck. Also the specimen rods are not the only type of carp tackle out there. I think Mike that you would be shocked at the number of carp over 40 lbs that have been taken on a float set up here in Ontario.

It's all good.

Solopaddler Take along a can of corn just in case. They're on sale at Food Basics this week for only 79 cents. The technique I proposed does not get much simpler. A rod, a reel with line, a weight and a hook are all that is required equipment wise.