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Story 2015 Discovery IN

Page history last edited by Jerome Moisand 3 years, 8 months ago

Discovery 2015: A Multi-State Journey

 

When

September 2015

Where

Lafayette, IN

 


Indiana

 

Quick recap: I decided to drive, discover and fish in every state between MA (where I live) and IL (where the CCC is hosted)... Amazingly enough, I did succeed every time so far (New YorkPennsylvaniaOhio). I was not expecting that at all, and now the pressure was high to deliver in the final state of my journey, Indiana.

 

The evening before driving to Indiana, I really had no clue where to go. I knew I didn't want to fish the White river (too well-known), nor fish lake Michigan (done it multiple times), then what? I was also a bit suspicious that various blue dots on Google Maps were small ponds in cornfields (I got that right!). After hesitating for a while, I noticed Lafayette on the map and the Wabash river going through it. A quick Web search confirmed (in the midst of those alarmist reports on Asian carp 'invasion') that this river holds common carp, and I felt that fishing such a river would nicely complement my series of discovery adventures. A few more hours of driving, I crossed the Indiana border and arrived mid-afternoon in Lafayette. 

 


 

I started to explore, found some access to the river, except that... the water level was crazy low, one or two feet deep at most. I tried another spot (access to the river was rather hard to find) and same thing. Third attempt, same thing, etc. The few inflows were dry. I was quite stumped, I hadn't thought of such possibility at all.

 

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The various bridges had some interesting paintings, but were not of any help either, no depth nearby. 

 


 

I went to check in at the room I rented via Airbnb last night, was met by a pretty woman (my lodger), who was very busy making her own flavor of muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning. Nice! The house and room were great, I started to chat with her (you know, the French charm at work!), and she suggested to explore a hidden path leading to the river where she jogs, and maybe a couple of small ponds in the town itself. At this point, I was grasping at straws, having very little belief left that I could fulfill my goal. I located a tackle shop nearby and went to talk with the owner, who wasn't super helpful ("carp are everywhere in the river, I love to shot them"), then he told me that the ponds on the town map were actually private, or devoid of carp. Great. 

 

I did follow on the tip of the hidden path, found it behind a dog park, and the spot did seem nice if... the water level would be at least one foot higher. Plenty of small fish were visible, but little room for bigger ones. This seemed my best option so far, but it just didn't feel like it.

 

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I tried a couple of more things to no end, bought a dinner sandwich (time was running out), then ended up at one of the local ponds, finding hard to believe that carp would not be there. I finally found a couple of anglers (didn't see any so far), they seemed to know what they were speaking of and confirmed the lack of carp in there. Darn.

 

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I discussed for a couple of minutes with them, explaining my quest, and finally, one of them had this seminal insight, asking me if I checked the bridge to the north of the town. I had seen it on the map, but didn't go there. He said that there was a great spot to catch carp and he thought (but wasn't sure) that there might be more depth in there. I was tired, I hesitated, then kicked myself, and drove there just in case.

 

There was a boat launch that looked like a decent possibility and a couple of bridges. I finally noticed a path on the right side, followed it and hey, what's that? An eddie, love it! I took my plumbing rod, cast a lead and... YES, there were definitely several feet of water, 4 or 5. And it looked carpy for sure. I didn't hesitate one minute, went back to get a bucket of maize and bird food, and threw it all in the water!

 

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After some proper sleep in my rented room, I woke up on my own before the alarm clock would ring, quite eager to go. I had boiled more corn the night before, re-arranged a bit my car and remembered the muffins. Oh man, they were AMAZING, the pretty lady proved to be a great baker! This was a good start and I drove to last night's bridge. Usual routine, I threw a small quantity of maize, cast two rods in the water while taking my time to make a mix and observe the environment. There were signs of fish, but no obvious sign of carp.

 

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One of my rods started to twitch, then I got a half-baked run on the other one and I had a few chosen words for what I perceived as catfish messing up with my bait. I did complete my mix, recast, and waited. Another weird run, I hooked on something that went straight to a snag. I painfully got it out, landed the fish and was very surprised to find a buffalo in my net!

 

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This kept going for a while, several half-baked runs going nowhere, I landed another buffalo, and although I was happy to catch something, this wasn't quite satisfying. I finally got a real run, got stuck, and this time, snag city won the fight and I broke my line, cursing rather loudly.

 

Things calmed down and I set up a third rod (legal in IN). I was enjoying another delicious muffin when I heard a great steady run. Hm, strange, this fish didn't fight much, just zig-zagged in a strange way close to the net. I finally saw its head, and what's left of my dentition fell on the floor. A grass carp, really? I *never* caught a grass carp, ever. I finally got it in the net, and yes, I had a 20 pounds grass carp flapping on my mat. COOL! I returned it to the water, waited for a while, got another run, and landed another grassie of a similar size!

 

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Then things slowed down. I tried various things, casting farther away, adding more flavor to my method balls, etc. I finally got something, a tiny catfish, sigh. I tried to cast right behind the bridge pillar and was rewarded by a quick run, another grassie, and a bigger one this time, 24-4lb, which got quite stuck in yet another snag, I got it out after slipping in the mud and nearly falling in the water. Lucky me, somebody drove by at the right time and took pictures of my new PB grass carp (those flapping things are sure hard to handle). Finally, as I was stretching my fishing time, I got one last grassie, slightly smaller at 19-8lb. 

 

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Four grass carp around 20 pounds, now that was worth a lot of common carp! Yeah, I didn't succeed to catch a common from all four states, but I couldn't think of a better finish for my multi-state discovery trip.

 

I was finally on the road around 1pm, on my way to Illinois and the CCC, with a giant smile on my face and starting to plan for another road trip like that! Will be hard to beat, but hey, one can dream...

 


 

 

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