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Story 2007 End of 4 Years Quest

Page history last edited by Jerome Moisand 15 years, 12 months ago

The end of a four years quest

 

When May 2007
Where MA
Who All by myself...

 


The story

 

End of last year, I decided that 2007 would be a year where I'd go check a few new venues in MA that I heard of, but never fished. So early April, I took my car, drove to one of those venues, a pretty big one, and spent the day scouting, making every possible left turn to find access, studying the depth map, speaking to locals, etc. I ended up selecting three spots which seemed promising (one of them I recognized from the stories of a friend).

 

Yesterday, weather was great, and I decided to go take a chance. Quite frankly, at this stage, I didn't have much hope of catching a fish, I just wanted to spend a few hours on the bank on each of those three spots and get a better feel. I prebaited two of the three spots with half a bucket of flavored maize, and went to the third one to start fishing.

 

While I was fumbling with my second rod, my first rod moved a bit but then stopped. I had no idea if it just fell from a branch it was leaning on, or if I had a pull. Since I wasn't quite confident this spot was good, I concluded this was just the wind playing with my mind. Two hours later, I was starting to wrap up when I got a line pull, then nothing. Hmmm, this time, no doubt it was a fish, but was it a carp? I wasn't too sure. So I decided to give it 15 more minutes, reeled in and recast. 20 minutes later, I was wrapping up again and... yes, a clean run.

 

I played it, got a first glimpse of it, all right, looks like a nice common. When it came closer, oh wait, this seems like a fully-scaled! I got an interesting time landing it since my net was unfolded by then, but yes, got it! And a glorious fully-scaled it was! 18-8 pounds, my second and biggest fully-scaled! Here it is, both sides of it!

 

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I stayed a while longer, but really wanted to try the spots where I pre-baited. Catching this beautiful fish was enough to make my day anyway, so I was very relaxed about it, I set up in a beautiful spot, and started to read a fishing magazine.

 

Flashback

 

Now, let me come back in time. July 2003. I had resumed fished for carp two years ago, and although I was happy enough catching teens, I had my eyes set on catching a 20 pounder. On the Saturday, I had almost done it on a local pond, with a nice 19-8. So close! The day after, Scott invited me to fish one of his preferred spots and we enjoyed the day catching nice ones. Alas no twenty. At the end of the day, we were close to wrap up (notice the pattern in this story?), and Scott got a run on one of his rods. He told me to get it. I was a bit surprised, but took the opportunity. And oh surprise, a 29 pounder came out. Whoah.

 

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Now, don’t misread me, this was a fantastic fish, I really enjoyed the experience, but afterwards I started to have second thoughts after it. This was Scott’s honey spot, it wasn’t my rod, nor my terminal rig, nor my bait. This wasn’t really my PB… I just reeled it in, no more.

 

So I set on a quest to catch a 30 pounder in MA. This was 4 years ago. Man, I worked hard on it, caught numerous twenties, but I just couldn’t get a 30… I did catch a 30+ in Illinois, several on the St Lawrence, several in Town Lake, but no luck in my home state. This was really eating at me!

 

End of the quest

 

Back to yesterday in the second spot. Two hours later. No move at all, not a single beep. All right, time is passing by, maybe it would be a good move to go check the third spot I had baited (where I knew fish have been caught in the past). I was dragging my feet though, I really liked where I was. So (pattern, pattern!) I started to wrap up. And of course, I was very surprised by a sudden line pull, and… nothing. Hmmm. Could this be a line bite? I remembered Iain telling me last year that a series of 4 or 5 beeps didn’t indicate such a big move on the line, even with braided line. And I had maize on the hair, so it wasn’t going to go away even if a fish took it and wasn’t properly hooked. Plus a nice method ball around it. So… I left it alone, I didn’t reel in to recast. I came back to my magazine, and 15 minutes later was rewarded by a true run. It really didn’t put much of a fight, but it felt like a solid fish. The fish quickly came to my net, and it looked like an easy mid-20. Well, when I lifted the net, my aching back told me otherwise.

 

You know, usually, I always take pictures of nice fish before messing around too much with it to weigh it. This time, pics would wait, I wanted to know right away. And I was rewarded by the very first sight of my Reuben Heaton making a complete revolution and settling around 34 pounds. Give or take a few ounces, I was shaking! It took me a while to find a witness and somebody eager to take pics (this self-timer thingy sucks!), but this turning point in my fishing career was recorded for posterity!

 

More importantly, it took me 4 years of efforts in known venues and I failed in my quest. I went to a new venue, found a new spot by myself, using my own rigs & rod & bait… And I got the 30+ of my dreams at the first try… All mine… Oh… Did I mention it was a mirror?

 

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Finally back to the water.

 

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PS. this fish turned out to be the new CAG record for mirror carp in MA. Just for a few weeks...

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