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Story 2008 La Belle Province Nine Days

This version was saved 15 years, 9 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by PBworks
on June 21, 2008 at 9:28:49 pm
 

La belle Province - Nine days of pure fishing pleasure

 

When

May 25th to June 3rd, 2008

Where

Province of Quebec

Who

Fishing with new friends

See also

Private Picasa albums

 


The story

 

I had planned since my discovery trip last year to go back to "la belle province", namely Quebec, and spend a full week in Montreal before the spawn.

 

May 25th

 

After months of thinking about it, I was finally on the road, and 6 hours of driving brought me to Montreal mid-afternoon.

 

 

I registered to the motel, found out the exact spot where my friend Martin pre-baited for a few days, threw some of my flavored maize. Then I walked a bit along the river and noticed a couple of nice spots that would deserve a visit later on. Now it was time to go buy my fishing license and more maize.

 

When I came back, I was nicely greeted by two locals (Daniel & Melanie) who recognized me from pictures posted on the Internet! We set up to fish for a couple of hours as a warm up. I landed the first fish rather quickly, but... what in hell is this midget carp (which I weighed at 4-12lb)? Am I really fishing the St Lawrence? Give me back my money!

 

 

No, that was just the big river playing games with me, and twenty pounders found their way to our net as the sunset started to show its colors. And here is a new PB for Melanie, at 20-8lb.

 

 

And a new PB for Daniel at 23-8lb. A bit of rig tuning improved their catch rate quite significantly!

 

 

Eight fish for me in a few hours up to 24lb (before the last catch at 10pm), meeting with two very nice people, now that's a pretty good start!

 

May 26th

 

An early 17 pounder for me in the spot where I did so well last year in October, then Daniel joined me and well, no activity at all. We moved to a third spot, where our friend Martin was going to meet us. I had bought some gear from Wacker & Resistance for Martin, but told him "show me you can catch fish first!" (that is, in French, this is Quebec, remember?). Which he did rather quickly, with this 17lb. So we started to unpack, this felt like Christmas Day!

 

 

Another run on Martin's rod, who kindly gave it to Daniel, and this turned out to be a splendid 28-8 pounder!

 

 

As to me, I had chosen to cast farther away, towards what seemed to be a carp highway, and well, for once, I got it right in my analysis of a new spot, I landed a good number of upper teens and low twenties, and we actually got a double catch later on, one on my rod, the other on Martin's rod, I believe. Two happy anglers!

 

 

May 27th

 

Walking around the day before, I had found a nice water outflow from a pipe, so I decided to give it a try. Chumming the evening before and early in the morning, then after a quick breakfast, I set up and madness began... Three hours of fishing, a single rod (Quebec's regulation, didn't bother me this day!), a run every 15 minutes... And my first 25+ fell to my midget corn mid-morning.

 

 

I had to take a nap and do some errands, but around 2:30 I was back to where Daniel & Melanie greeted me. I wasn't too sure this was a good spot for big carp though, but was quickly proven wrong, a 25lb to start, then a 26lb, then a 22lb... I spare you the entire list, and will just show the biggest one, a superb 28lber, which turned to be quite a "bolter".

 

 

 

I was joined by Daniel, Martin, his son and Carl (Indyk on this forum). Which of course led to a few double catch.

 

 

 

And a cool pic of Carl and Martin's son.

 

 

I finished the day with 17 fish, average definitely over 20lb, now this is a fishing day to remember. Can't do better than that. Can we? happy.gif

 

May 28th (AM)

 
I went through some scouting of another large bay, but didn't like it too much. So I drove to a small canal upstream where nice carp had been reported. 30 minutes after setting up, a 18lb rewarded me, then a couple of more fish, and then complete surprise, a mirror carp (which are extremely rare around here). And I have a witness!

 

 

 

Two more fish, then silence for an hour, I started to wrap up and... Big run, long dogged fight, is this the 30 pounder I was waiting for? Not quite, but a hefty 29-4lb. Super cool. Or maybe 29-3lb if I had seen and removed this ugly lamprey. rolleyes.gif

 

 

 

A bit more scouting, and I came back to the first spot to meet again Martin, Daniel and Melanie.

May 28th (PM). Four anglers (Martin, Daniel, Melanie and myself). Four rods. I opened the show with a 21-8lb, and everybody was onto fish quickly. Melanie improved her PB twice, at 22-12lb, then 24-8lb. Two doubles, including this one with Melanie's new PB and a smaller fish for Martin.

 

 

Nice fish so far for us this afternoon. Sounds good? Even better, a triple catch (including a 27-4lb for me)... Yes, we felt quite elated... tongue.gif

 

 

I kept spodding to feed this obviously large group of carp we had in front of us. A first run on the left side for me, a second run on the right side, we netted them, but wait, a run on the third rod, and a run on a fourth rod. I kid you not, four anglers, four rods, four runs, four fish landed. The perfect quadruple catch. thewave.gif

 

 

Followed by a few more carp, and... Another triple catch, this time with a 28lber for Daniel. And a few more afterwards before we stopped, totally exhausted.

 

 

May 29th

 

This time, I wanted to explore other spots downstream, notably some islands. Long story short, I walked a lot, fished a bit, grumbled after the one-rod regulation (which doesn't exactly help when scouting new spots), and caught nothing... I met a better fisherman than me (which isn't hard!), and saw some proof that carp do occasionally come where I tried to fish (but I wasn't going to catch this one!). biggrin.gif

 

 

 

A lonely rod in front of an ocean of water...

 

 

At the end of a long exploratory day, a tad frustrated, I came back to safer ground, and was duly rewarded by several twenty pounders (up to 25-8) and another fellow named Cristian came just in time to take a pic of my last 20+ of the day.

 

 

May 30th

 

Cristian was there real early, before 6AM. I joined him half sleeping, and again, a fish every 15 to 20 minutes graced our rods in the morning. Nothing big though.

 

 

I fished a very scenic spot early afternoon with Carl, a very quiet English-looking pond located just behind very powerful rapids, but only colorful birds were interested in our bait.

 

 

 

 

End of the afternoon, we had an improvised fish-in with Cristian and a few new guests, Mario and his wife Nicole and the brother-in-law, Yvon. Both of them had caught their very first carp the week before, and ready to catch more!

 

Yvon quickly opened the show with this healthy 21 pounder.

 

 

Quickly followed by Mario with a lively 17lb.

 

 

We got quite a few more, but Nicole's rod just didn't want to move. So I gave her a run on my rod, and lucky lady, this was the biggest fish of the day, 27-8lb!!

 

 

In the mean time, hidden a few hundred yards upstream at the pipe spot, Melanie and Daniel proceeded to put to good use the new techniques they learned in the past few days, and Melanie extracted an amazing 32 pounder. Way to go, lady!

 

 

May 31st

 
It's raining. Hard. So where should I go? Easy! The pipe outflow where Melanie did so well!

 

Usual routine, early chumming, breakfast, go fishing. Martin came to say hello when I got started, and I told him that I had thrown a good deal of bait, so it was unlikely that I'd get a quick run. I cast my rod. Didn't take more than 30 seconds... I told Martin to take the run, and here is a wet fish (duh!) and a wet angler. Which was quickly followed by another one, and another one...

 

 

Martin had to go to work, I kept going and had a great stretch with a 23lb, a 29lb (where is my 30+, aarg) and a 27lb. Here is the biggie.

 

 

Cristian braved the rain and came to fish with me late morning, and he was soaking wet, I tell you... But he got a 26lber and a smaller one, so the weather was (almost) forgotten laugh.gif

 

 

Early afternoon brought a few low twenties, just routine... Another guy (Radu) came to show me a rare muddler (funny, there are much less of them than in Waddington), which was his new PB (25-8lb) tongue.gif

 

 

Late afternoon was much slower, birthday boy Carl tried to catch a 31lb (cf. his new age), but stopped at 17lb. He must be much younger than he thought! I finished the day with a 23lb and a 25lb, listening to music on my iPod while playing the fish, that was cool. Overall, yet another great day. It was tough to drag my feet to throw loads of chum in the water late in the evening to prepare for our official fish-in, which we had postponed to Sunday because of the weather.

 

 

 

June 1st

 
I woke up early to find one of our best spots occupied by not-so-carp-friendly anglers. Arumph. I was glad I had chummed a good number of openings. I started topping a bit the bait in the other spots, I knew that what I threw last night didn't last long... I looked on the other side of the bay, and this was the longest boat I have ever seen... Watch the pic closely to see the beginning and the end of this huge stretch of a boat!

 

 

People started to come and to start fishing, and it didn't take long for Martin to catch the very first fish, a nice 25lber, and win the first prize, an artefact I bought in Hong-Kong a couple of years ago.

 

 

Carl and Daniel started to catch, so I walked far away from my rod... Big mistake... When I came back, Martin made a strange face and told me that he landed a nice real fish on my rod. Nothing less than 33-12lb, the 30+ I just couldn't catch so far! I made a face as well, but then thought that it was a really great symbol of our work together in setting up this fish-in, and everything we had exchanged so far, and a new friendship. And I was truly happy by then. smile.gif

 

 

Then Martin paid a visit to the other guys, and Georges, the most experienced carp angler of the group, caught a 26lber on Martin's rod! Then I caught a 25lber. And then Martin landed a 30-8lb (this time, on his rod!). Our swim was hot!

 

 

 

By now, the undesirables had moved away, and some new guys came in. After a quick crash course, Jean-Sebastien, Stephane and his wife were catching their first carp.

 

 

 

On the other side, Carl, Daniel and Melanie had a blast as well. I had multiple runs myself, and couldn't keep up with the pics... But Melanie definitely deserved the "lady angler" of the day award.

 

 

Martin had a bit of a slow time, but then caught the third biggest fish of the day (the guy reeled in the three biggest!).

 

 

And I finished the day with a late-minute 24lber, my rod was lingering in the water while everything else was wrapped up! Two happy fish-in organizers, I tell you! Overall, around 30 carp caught, two thirties, numerous high twenties, several new guys initiated to carp fishing, everything was just... perfect. cool.gif

 

 

 

June 2nd

 
Fish-in is over, I'm fishing for myself this morning. I wouldn't mind another 30+...

 

I'll make it short for this day. A 28-8lb at the beginning of the day (yeah, bad pic). A good number of fish in-between, plus some scouting. Another Daniel came with his family, I gave him a couple of runs, and he landed a 26-4lb (new PB, of course). And another 28-8lb at the end of the day. Oh boy... bonk.gif

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day was of a different nature though. Martin showed up at the end of the day with a totally unexpected and really cool gift, with three pics which illustrated the best our experience so far. Thanks, buddy, very much appreciated, and now hanging in plain view at my home.

 

 

 
June 3rd. I have to leave and go back home now. But I woke up early, and a quick check of my notes told me that I landed 91 fish so far. I can't stop there. I need to catch 101 carp! biggrin.gif No, seriously, this is exactly what I set up as a goal for the coming few hours. Call me crazy, but I won't leave until I have fish #101.

 

Fish did start to come, one after the other, although I lost a few due to bad hooks (me and my lazyness with damaged hooks!). And suddenly, a really big run. Took a while to bring this baby home. Could it be... No, I had to recheck that the scale is properly zeroed. It does look like it... No, I have to put the scale in a stable position on a tree... And yes, I landed a 30-0lb, I swear to the god of all anglers (no, Scott or Iain, this isn't you!).

 

 

Now that's cool, but back to my goal of 101 fish. Another nice 24lber after the 30, and then another run. This one doesn't go far, but it is heavy... It gave me a heart attack by jumping out of the net when I was really sure I had nailed it, but it finally made it to shore. And yes, this was my second 30+ of the day, a magnificent 31-10lb. I love when those Reuben-Heaton scales make a complete revolution!

 

 

 

Back to work. I still have three fish to catch and things are slowing down a bit... I got fish #100 (24lb) and my swim was now invaded by other folks, aaarg. But no matter, I did get my last one, a scrappy 15lb which pleased me so very much... Now I could drive home, I was done. tongue.gif

 

 

When I organized pics at home, comparing notes and pictures, it turned out that this was actually fish #105 or so... Plus around 15 carp landed on my rod by somebody else. I did some math with Excel, my notes aren't perfect because it was sheer madness at times, Here it goes... An average size very close to 20lb... More than 2400 pounds of fish... Three 30+ and a slew of upper twenties...  I just love to be able to claim that I caught "a ton of fish... litterally!". No wonder my arms still hurt. Fisherman tendinitis, if there is such a thing! And more importantly, multiple new friends, all really nice people. Can't get any better than that.

 
I think this will stay as my best 9 days of fishing ever.
 

 

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