Whirlpool Carping - Sept 2

[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.

[jediangler]

Great report & pics. I've always wanted to try the whirlpool, in the spring they say you can catch almost every specie that lives in the system.

[mikeymikey]

Yes, Whirlpool is great scenery.

[scuro]

Nice carp...awesome report of a place that one always hears about but few go too. Thanks for sharing.

[FinS]

hey look its the next fish 0 mania contestent

wtg nice catch there

beautiful place 2

congrats

finS

[charlied]

yep you found the right trail and the best spot for carp...congrats on the Carp. Pretty soon I will be making my daily trek down for the salmon run. I have also gone carping in the Niagara and in some spots they get twice that size....wait till you hook into a 30 pounder. Congrats again and nice pics....you take it for granted when you live close to the whirlpool but when you see pics of it its a like a whole new world.

[dsn]

This is a "No NO!!" Mom always says don't play around with your food.

 

Man You gotta be really bored to do this.

Heard it was always great fishing down there. Nice report.

 

dsn

[fatherof3]

great report and fish. I have done that walk before minus all that equipment,you must be feeling it.Good job

[lazybum]

Nice carp...awesome report of a place that one always hears about but few go too. Thanks for sharing.

 

It's a beautiful trail but there are sections that are quite steep and rugged. Good hiking shoes are a must. It was so peaceful as you walk under the completely treed canopy covering the trail. The only complaint I have are the noisy helicopters that totally spoils the experience of the nice walk.

 

I didn't fish but opted to go shopping on both sides of the border since MJL cautioned that I was too old and out of shape to be able to go up and down the Gorge. As it turned out, I went down and back up twice (but without any load).

[ccmtcanada]

Awesome report! So, if you were there alone, who took the pics of you fighting your fish?? haha. I'm assuming your dad came back down. Great job out there in new waters. You had to work hard to get there and overcome some adverse conditions, but your persistence, knowledge of fishing and determination got you into some fish and you had a great day!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Report! I hear the walk down(and up) is brutal!!!Must be fun fighting fish in that current though!

[MJL]

Awesome report! So, if you were there alone, who took the pics of you fighting your fish?? haha.

 

There were a few people down in the whirlpool who passed by and took a few pics for me. The others I did survivorman style by setting it on a large rock or my bait bucket and using the timer.

[BGis]

hey look its the next fish 0 mania contestent

wtg nice catch there

beautiful place 2

congrats

finS

 

With his devotion he should go

[danbouck]

Great Report and pics!

[wolfville]

Great report, making my yet-to-post first mirror carp of the year not so shiny anymore ;-)

 

BTW, I wouldn't have minded the walk with you down there all the way ;-)

[Victor]

love the colors on those fish! i wouldn't mind all the walking either with such a beautiful swim at the end of it ...

 

work starts tomorrow " boo

[lunkerbasshunter]

great report! Lovely pics!

 

Cheers!

[mikeh]

very nice shots of the scenery and congrats on the fish.

[007]

Wow - another great carping report from what is probably the last place I would have thought of for carp fishing. Nice to know the salmon n trout don't have the river all to themselves!

 

Looking forward to the next report Mike - still time for a few more carp this year?!.

 

007

[frozen-fire]

that's an amazing write up with awesome pics too.

 

if i ever get into carping again, i'm coming straight to you.

[Golfisher]

Now that's a dedicated carper! I love carping, but you couldn't pay me enough to trek down AND up with all that gear. WTG!

[mooseroo]

Excellent report! The more I hear about carping, the more I want to try it out. So much fishing, so little time!

[Family Fisherman]

Wow,

 

 

Great report man. I'm motivated to try the whirlpool.

 

 

FF

[Terry]

boys and their toys

here I thought carping was an old rod and reel, some strong line and some corn and a fishing you would go

 

but

it's really high tec if you want to go that route, I see

good report and pictures too