Overnighter Carping in the Kawarthas

[MJL]

The last few weeks, Victor and I have been planning to do an overnight carp fishing session somewhere. Our plans finally came into fruition on Wednesday. We decided to hit up the Kawarthas. I’ve done a few night sessions in the Kawarthas over the years and have done reasonably well in a few spots. Victor has never tried fishing there at night. I wasn’t expecting the action to be all that great. The locals told us that the fishing was slow the last few days. There was also a full-moon overhead which according to carp fishing myth, means slow fishing. I didn’t have anything better to do and neither did Victor so we were up for fishing anyway.

 

Victor and I got to the swim 7pm and set up our gear. We invited Randy (Wolfville) to come with us and he just finished setting up his gear when we arrived. After 10 minutes of setting up, Victor’s rod goes. I managed to steal Victor’s fish while he was taking a short walk to a swim 30 yards next door

 

First fish of the trip at 14lbs caught at 7:15pm

 

This trip we took a more scientific approach to recording our catches. We weighed every fish in a weigh-sling and Victor recorded the times, the weight and who caught the fish on a piece of paper. The total results are at the bottom of this report.

 

An hour later, Victor gets into another fish with fermented maize.

 

Randy gets his first fish at 8:50pm. It was 15lbs.

 

Victor gets his biggest of the night at 22lbs

 

I wasn’t getting much action compared to Victor or Randy even though we were next to each other in a swim that was 15 yards wide – I was on the left-hand side of the swim. I think I was just a little outside of the ‘zone’. I switched up to a tiger nut and cast my rig out 10 yards further and got into fish almost immediately.

 

My first official carp for the night. It was quite a handful on the bank

 

Overall, the action was fairly consistent once the sun went down. We had several double headers during the night. I managed to get a double header with Victor. My fish was 24lbs and Victor’s was 19lbs

 

Randy and I had another double header as well

 

It was a little cold at night. All night a cold mist blanketed us leaving a layer of dew on just about everything (including my camera and bedchair!). We started a fire in Victor’s coal BBQ to keep warm and cook our sausages.

 

Randy caught a fish with some funky scale pattering near its back. In carp angling circles, we call these muddlers

 

At 3:40am I get a fish that peels line off the reel in a hurry and keeps on going. 7 minutes later I bring it close to shore and realize I have to maneuver it around 3 sets of submerged stumps and a couple of other snags – It was certainly a little dicey doing that in the dark. It was 19lbs

 

Victor with a long torpedo shaped carp

 

Around 4am, Randy left for home.

 

The sun starting to creep above the horizon at around 6am

 

Enjoying a misty morning at the lake

 

Victor crashed in the morning after a night of hauling

 

Once the sun came up, the fishing got tougher. In the morning, I managed to land 2 fish at 18 & 15lbs and lost 2 fish to snags. Victor didn’t get a run on his rod all morning. Around 7am, Beans came by to visit Victor and I and fished a swim 30 yards to our right. He chatted with us and told us about what carp fishing was like when he was our age (That’s almost 50 yrs ago!). It was certainly a pleasure listening to him tell his stories. Unfortunately he lost the only run which came to his rod. He left around lunch time.

 

The afternoon bite was better. Once 1pm hit, both Victor and I started getting into some fish.

 

 

 

One that just didn’t cooperate for a photo-op

 

We left our rods out while we packed everything away in our car for the ride home. Victor hooked into a fish while reeling in for the last time but lost it – The net was already packed away In the car. Most of the fish we caught came to maize but a good number came to tiger nuts and pineapple jumbo corn. Victor tried some honey flavoured boilies but they didn’t get any fish. We used basic ledgering rigs either with a straight lead or a method feeder. Here’s the result break down for our trip from 7pm Wednesday through to 7pm Thursday:

 

Captor: M=Mike, V=Victor, R=Randy

Weight: Ounces were rounded down to the pound

 

Time/Weight/Captor

7:15pm, 14 lbs, V/M

8:10pm, 19 lbs, V

8:45pm, 15 lbs, V

8:50pm, 15 lbs, R

9:00pm, 22 lbs, V

9:15pm, 24 lbs, R

9:18pm, 15 lbs, M

9:45pm, 16 lbs, V

10:25pm, 19 lbs, V

10:25pm, 24 lbs, M

11:10pm, 14 lbs, R

11:35pm, 19 lbs, R

11:56pm, 14 lbs, R

12:30am, 14 lbs, M

1:10am, 18 lbs, R

1:40am, 19 lbs, M

1:40am, 15 lbs, R

1:43am, 15 lbs, V

1:55am, 16 lbs, M

2:00am, 18 lbs, V

2:05am, 16 lbs, M

2:10am, 15 lbs, R

2:50am, 12 lbs, M

3:10am, 15 lbs, M

3:40am, 19 lbs, M

4:05am, 17 lbs, V

4:10am, 19 lbs, M

5:30am, 22 lbs, V

5:45am, 13 lbs, V

5:55am, 13 lbs, V

6:20am, 16 lbs, M

7:05am, 18 lbs, M

9:40am, 15 lbs, M

1:25pm, 15 lbs, V

1:50pm, 18 lbs, M

1:55pm, 14 lbs, V

2:15pm, 20 lbs, M

2:45pm, 19 lbs, V

3:00pm, 13 lbs, M

4:00pm, 18 lbs, M

4:05pm, 19 lbs, V

5:50pm, 15 lbs, M

6:20pm, 12 lbs, M

 

 

Totals

 

Captor/ Number landed/ Total Weight/ Biggest fish

Victor: 15.5, 263 lbs, 22 lbs

Randy:8, 134 lbs, 24 lbs

Mike:19.5, 321 lbs, 24 lbs

 

• The 0.5 in numbers landed represents the fish I stole from Victor

• I lost 8 fish all together and Randy lost 2-3. Not sure how many Victor lost

 

Victor, Randy and I all had a blast. This is the 2nd all-nighter Victor and I have done together (We did one last year). This time we were prepared to sleep a little – I brought my bedchair and Victor had his cot. I didn’t use my bedchair much. I just can’t sleep when I’m fishing - I’m too busy scanning the water for activity. The full-moon phase didn’t seem to phase the fish much and the fish were of a bigger average size than what I’m used to catching at that spot.

 

One of the locals who stopped by to chat with us said, “You guys are crazy…I can see myself doing an all-nighter with a blonde, maybe even for walleye, but for carp???”

 

YOU BET!!!

 

Can’t wait for the next one

 

Hope you enjoyed

[tjsa]

WOW!!!!!!!!!! Nuff said.

[drwxr]

spectacular!!!

[Terry]

wow done

 

 

I mean well done

[bassman87]

Awesome report. Looks like you guys had an amazing time, congrats.

[danbouck]

seriously?...

[John]

Well done guys!

[angrypigeon]

sounds romantic

 

good job

[frozen-fire]

ummm.....wow.

[MCTFisher9120]

Wow, that's a die hard Carp angling group right there! Lot's of carp man, wow!!

 

Unreal job, somebody has to catch those things...You should of kept them all imagine how much food you would have in that freezer lol.

 

Thanks for sharing,

MTBF

[knightfisher]

Wow, some great numbers there.

 

Great job.

 

[Beans]

Fantastic report mike...well worth waiting for...like we told TJ...when it comes to carp...you're the man !

[bigugli]

Sounds like a great round the clock fishing session. WTG guys.

[splashhopper]

wooohoooo////// yeeehaww./////// ada boy's/////// uda-man's :D

[Cudz]

Not a carp fan but that is impressive indeed.

[tibbs]

Wow great job

[scuro2]

Hardcore carping...can't argue with success!

[Radnine]

I am not much of a carp guy (in fact, I can't imagine staying up all night to do anything) but I admire your conviction and passion.

Very impressive.

Congrats and thanks for the great report!

Jim

[Billy Bob]

I have never targeted carp but your pictures tell it all. You put a real hurt on them there carp....job well done.

 

Bob

[Greencoachdog]

That was an excellent report with some real nice fish caught all 'round!!!

 

A good fishing trip with good fishing Bubbies is something you'll always remember!!!

 

The stats were very impressive!!!

[ccmtcanada]

You guys caught more carp in one night than I have total...LOL.

 

Looked like a great time guys...congrats on a fantastic overnighter!!!!

[ehg]

Never tried that carp fishing but that is an impressive report!

Non stop action there. Very nice.

[Leecher]

Excellent report and pics Mike

One word "EPIC"

Congrats to all involved!!!

Leechman

[tonyb]

Great to see the Kawartha carp fishery is on the mend...it provides a substantial boost to the economy from foreign travellers and local anglers alike!

 

Good stuff!

[BITEME]

Nice Job Im not a Carp fisher but thats almost like a good night of flossing