I registered to the motel, found out the exact spot where my new friend Martin (thank you, Internet!) pre-baited for a few days, and 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. I topped up a bit the bait and 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. Upper teens 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 as well for Daniel at 23-8lb. A bit of rig tuning improved their catch rate quite significantly!
May 26th
An early 18 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 for several hours. Ok, maybe this isn't where they congregate at this time of the year!
Another run on Martin's rod, who kindly gave it to Daniel, and this turned out to be a splendid 28-8 pounder!
May 27th
Walking around the day before, I had noticed a nice water outflow from a pipe, so I decided to give it a try. I had chummed 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 a bit this day!), a run every 15 minutes... And my first 25+ fell to my corn mid-morning.
May 28th (AM)I did 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!
A bit more scouting, and I came back to the first spot to meet again Martin, Daniel and Melanie and fish with them in the afternoon.
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. Melanie was religiously following my recommendation to free the fish downstream from our fishing spot.
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 the fourth rod! I kid you not, four anglers, four rods, four runs, four fish landed. The perfect quadruple catch. Unprecedented as far as I know. Just plain amazing.
May 29th
Today, I wanted to explore other spots downstream, notably some islands and spots supposed to be spawning areas. 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 hook this one!).
May 30th
Cristian was there real early, before 6AM. I joined him still half sleeping, but I was quickly forced to open my eyes, since again, a fish graced our rods every 15 or 20 minutes in the morning. Nothing big though. A few more fish had lampreys on them, which we removed and killed. What an ugly parasite.
May 31st
It's raining. Hard. So where should I go? Easy! The pipe outflow where Melanie did so well! I'll make it short for this day. 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...
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! Daniel and Melanie arrived early, bringing the new weigh sling they designed themselves the day before. Oh, and a trendy new hat as well!
By now, the undesirables had moved away from the platform (taking a few carp in their trunk, grrr), and some new participants came in. After a quick crash course, Jean-Sebastien, Stephane and his wife were catching their first carp.
Martin had a bit of a slow time, but then caught the third biggest fish of the day (he was on fire, he reeled in the three biggest!).
And I finished the day with a late-minute 24lber, my rod was lingering while everything else was wrapped up and procrastination paid off! Martin and myself were 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.
June 2nd
Fish-in is over, I'm fishing for myself this morning. I wouldn't mind another 30+...
A 28-8lb at the beginning of the day (yeah, bad pic). A good number of fish in-between. Another Daniel came with his family alter afternoon, 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. Another great day of fishing, but where are those thirties? I was greedy, I wanted more than those 28/29 pounders!
June 3rd
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.
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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