frozen-fire

Great write-up of your trip! That sweet and sour carp dish looks so tasty!

Nice! Open water whities/lakers sounds so fun.

It was a toss-up between going for brookies with MJL, going for the few remaining steel in the rivers alone, or carping with Victor. At first I was set on steelhead, but a last minute weather check convinced me to head out with Victor to target spring carp. I figured it would be a nice relaxing outing. I'm not in any way an experienced carp angler. This is my 3rd outing ever, and I'm still getting used to all the gear and rigs used to catch these monsters. My two previous trips, I was guided by MJL and he did all the work involving the rigging, baiting, casting, set-up, etc. I just sat back and waited for the sweet sound of the bite alarms LOL. On this morning, Vic let me prepare the setup I was to use. I've never baited a hair rig before and it was a very neat experience. I was pumped for some crazy action seeing all these carp reports on OFC lately, but sad to say that our first spot produced nothing. Not even a bump. We did bump into another angler who had a very familiar logo on his hat LOL. Nice to meet you Fang. He went on his way after a short chat and we continued to wait for the carp to start showing up to our baited area. It didn't happen. We moved onto spot number two. Vic says that this spot regularly produces 30lbers. We set up and again wait for them to start showing up. It didn't happen. We both fell asleep waiting. I saw one decent fish surface as I woke up. I look around and realize that Vic isn't in his chair. I get up and see him in the comfort of the car while I am in the rain LOL. It didn't rain hard though. Forecast was bang on. We moved on and checked out some other spots. Eventually we settled on spot number three, where we finally saw some people fishing. We asked a fellow carp fisherman if there was any action and he said he just landed and released an 8-10lber. This news lifted our spirits and we set up in a small open area. We cast out and baited the area. Within a minute or two, the long awaited sweet sound of the alarm caught my attention. Picked up the rod and was greeted with a feisty carp running straight towards some overhanging trees. Careful not to get the line caught in the branches, I horsed it in... probably too much though as the hook popped out when the fish was just a couple feet away from being in the landing net. Oh well. It wasn't a huge fish. I check my rig and cast it back in the same area. 5 minutes later my alarm goes off again and this time the fish goes on some super powerful runs. It was pure muscle. My arms got sore fighting this brute. Eventually, we get it in the net and Vic brings out the equipment for safely weighing the fish (a 50lb digital scale and a light fabric sack with clips for the scale) 20lbs 6oz! A new PB for me and it was a fantastic fight. Fish was released and we continued fishing. Vic landed 2 more carp and we lost a few more in the rain. Completely soaked at spot number 3, but well worth it. These fish are so underrated.

Oh my.... we unfortunately did not have the same luck Great job out there. Hope to bump into you again one day.

Huge carp! Congrats on the PB. I have a feeling you'll have more PBs to come at the rate you're going. I hope to get my hands on a couple of those myself eventually

Very sad news. RIP JohnF

Beautiful fish Mike. A lot of dropbacks? I notice you dunk your reel in the water quite a lot. With my old Islander, I found that whenever it was submerged, it would spin poorly afterwards. I guess maybe the water I've been fishing had too much sediment in it. I try my best to keep my reel out of the water now.

Nice to finally meet you Carole! It was definitely a fun and cool experience. Some of the biggest steelhead I've ever seen.

Wow....look at the size of that thing! So jealous. Way to go man. Well deserved with all the crap you've been going through over there. Whoa now... I did catch fish. Suckers do count Suckers should be higher ranked than steelhead.

Do we need to bring nets? I don't think I have any as large as the ones in the pics.

Nice shots!

Baitmaker roe tying material is also on sale at $1 each pack (100 pre-cut sheets) Regular price is $2.99. I just cleared out the CTC I checked out...only saw chartreuse though. Also picked up one of the filet knives, but could not find any of the frogs... and only 1 spool of Suffix 832 left.

Did you find that they smell like cucumbers? LOL

They're both stocked fish The one to the right has it's left pectoral clipped and the one to the left has it's adipose fin clipped. I had my first taste of fried whitie a couple weeks ago and it's delicious.

Great documentary. Opens your eyes to what goes on I guess... You should watch Sharkwater too.

Green Heron. Great shot!

I was thinking the same thing HAHAHAHA Canon T2i for me.

I've noticed them on small lakers I've caught in the Muskokas. I try to take them off before releasing the fish. They're some sort of parasite.

I have an 8" finbore III that I normally use. It was Victor that drilled the 6" for me You think there are any lake trout around that would have problems fitting up an 8" hole?

No...with the long awaited success, it was indeed time for a change. Got a Crispy Chicken Sandwich! They actually messed up my order and gave me the same sandwich that Vic ordered. I originally wanted to try the Southwest Chicken Sandwich.

I was convinced that lake trout would know I was fishing and would tell all other fish around not to take MY offering. Last year, I was fishing with Jet... he almost had a double digit day...all nice sized lakers. Even though I was fishing so close to him using the same thing, I ended up with nothing. It's so depressing! It also seriously sucks when you go out on so many outings, go home sulking...log onto OFC, and see reports from so many members on how they slammed the fish LOL. I make myself feel better by saying they all have sleds and go to the middle of the lake while I can only go out on foot.

More lakers! Even bigger ones! Keep going at it. Finder makes a huge difference. I don't think I can go laker fishing without one. Have to see where the fish are and how they're reacting to your offering/presentation. You two are stealing my glory!

This was trip number 12 that I've been on the hunt to get one of these things! I have got a number of smaller lakers, but was looking for something that actually had some weight I have hooked a couple bigger ones that got off and lost one right at the hole before, but have never had one in my hands. I was beginning to lose hope, but finally....iced a decent laker. This one is for you jet. Thanks for the inspiring advice! You may miss the laker fishing through the ice here, but we're all jealous of your west coast scenery/fishing. I don't think I've ever wanted a fish so bad. Felt amazing to finally get one. Perfect wild specimen. Had to go back. Barely fit through the 6" hole. Had to force the head/belly through. Didn't take long for it to start kicking. Soaked on release as it powered off. See you next year Can't wait for more.

Great trip indeed. Got into our first lakers of the season and some ling action too LOL. Big thanks to Mike's dad for the construction of the DIY ski system which we used to pull out our gear. Worked great. Loaded on a 2 man portable hut, 2 chairs, and 2 sleds... full of gear including augers and finders. Here is Mike dragging it out to the laker territory. My first laker of the year!