Story 2005 St Lawrence Fall Frenzy


St Lawrence Fall Frenzy

 

When

Oct 18th to 20th, 2005

Where

Waddington, St Lawrence

Who

Fishing with Scott, Vinny, Terry and even three ladies!

See also

CAG Forum thread

The story

 

After Chris Chiodo and Bob Giordano did so well at the St Lawrence (loads of big fish, and one 40+ for each of them), Scott and myself couldn't wait to go give it a try. Here are the two monsters.

Thanks to contacts established during the previous Junior tournament, Bob and Scott has found a home for fanatic carp anglers, we would be hosted by Jay and Jevonnah Foster in Ogdensburg. And what a great hospitality this was, very generous people.

 

The first day started very hot. I caught fish after fish on Pescaviva, even succeeding to outfish Scott for the first time of my life, 18 carp to 12! Mostly a lot of upper teens with the occasional twenty, all very energetic fish ready to take 50 yards of line in no time. Why didn't Scott watch the camera? Because he had another run just when I was taking the pic!

In the evening, we stopped by Ed's Bait and Tackle, and discovered an interesting yet slightly disturbing toilet seat!
On the second day, I had this crazy dream of catching two thirties the same day. I caught one in the morning (which I think was 30-0lb, but I will always have some doubts that I deceived myself and it was slightly under, oh well). Then I had a terrific run, and a steamy fish jumped out of the water, and started to go away at high speed close to the surface. For a few seconds, I really thought I had caught a sturgeon! Turned out that this fish was indeed a carp, but a very special one, my first 20+ mirror, and a stunning beauty. 24-4lb to be precise.

In the mean time, Scott was fishing with Jevonnah and Amy, and they were on a school of BIG fish. No less than four thirties for Scott, plus one for Amy and two for Jevonnah! Amazing time! First and foremost, a 37-8lb tank for Scott. And a very cool release picture.

Then the ladies. A new PB at 33-8lb for Amy. Then Jevonnah on a roll, a new (angry fish!) PB at 29lb soon obliterated by a 31-4lb. And thanks to Scott's mentorship, she added a second 30+.

Scott caught more thirties, of course... Here are a 33lb and a 35lb. If you're wondering about the orange hat, Scott was a bit nervous about the local deer hunters. Me think it's hard to confuse Scott with a deer, but still, he clung to his orange hat for quite a while!

The ladies left and the wind started to blow quite hard in our face. I moved from the rocky point to the spot where Scott and the ladies did so well, and soon the shore was battered by wind and waves. The lines keept being dragged by big chunks of weed, and the fish were biting furiously. At some point in time, I had a run, started to play the fish, then got another run on my second rod. I asked Scott to take my first rod, but he said "er... you sure? I saw the fish, it's a big one". I had no idea, fishing in the waves completly changes your perceptions! Ok, so I kept at it, and he was right, this was my 2nd thirty+, and my second biggest fish ever (so far), a superb 34lber. Oh, and I totally lost count of the 20s we caught. I wouldn't have thought this possible...

The day after, we fished with Terry and Vinny, and things were a bit calmer. Still, we did quite good, and Vinny caught a nice mirror followed by his first 30+ of the trip. Terry also caught a nice 30+ while displaying a very relaxed way of fishing...

This day was definitely slower, we even had time for a few nature pics... But fish were still biting from time to time!

Sarah More came to join us, bringing a much welcome cake for the ravenous anglers! Her car got stuck in the mud, so we had to call AAA pretending she was my wife (this worked!). She had never caught a carp so far. So I gave her my next run, and it turned out to be a 29lber. Not bad for a first carp!

One more run for Scott. This one got stuck in the weeds, and Scott was absolutely convinced its was a 45+ monster. He waded in the water, succeeded to get it out, then figured out it was "only a low 30" and was quite dejected. Er... Hello? Somebody was getting a tad too greedy here! ;-) Sarah wanted to help, but Scott uncemoniously took the fish under his arm to bring it to shore!

We caught a few more fish the following morning, before leaving for Philadelphia (taking Sarah Stevens with us on the way down) where we met the local gang, but didn't catch much! One last stop at the Hudson river (not much luck either), and this was the end of a memorable week of fishing!

 

A few numbers to finish about the fishing frenzy on the St Lawrence... I *think* I landed 35 or 36 carp in 3 days and a half, plus lost a handful. Two 30+, plus one darn close (29-12 or so). I honestly have no clue how many 20+. Most fish were energetic upper teens. I don't think any fish was under 10 pounds. The first few carp fell to pinapple boilies (pop-up), but I caught most fish on Pescaviva Almond, usually combined with groundbait (either Terry's secret mix, or oat meal + sweet corn/pescaviva).

 

Scott amazing memory at work, he stated the following: I landed 41 (12-12-13-"4"[""in about 4 hours]) carp total up there in about 3 1/3rd days of fishing. Much of my time was also spent BSing with good company. 25 topped 20lb, 5 topped 30, with one just under 30, and a small host over 25lb. Every single fish was landed (for me) on maize soaked in Boilie Shop Tutti Frutti glug, or Pescaviva that Jerome had em going on. Every cast I made was with method, either oatmeal, or Terry's mix. Thanks again T! Several thirties dropped close to shore by us, meaning our totals might have been much higher. Not bad for fishing only about 10 hrs a day.

 

Scott also did the following math: my 41 fish averaged probably 23lb, which is high considering the first day when it was about 17lb. So, that's about 920lbs. You also averaged about 17 or so day 1, and ended with probably a 22.5lb average also. That (with your 36 fish) comes out to about 780-800lbs. So, we'd have taken the WCC with our catch, and we half fished, for only a total of about 34 hours...