I registered to the motel, found the exact spot where my new friend Martin (thank you, Internet!) pre-baited for a few days, and I chummed with 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 the bait and it was time to go buy my fishing license and more maize.
When I came back, I was warmly 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 the 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 in the evening and early in the morning, so 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. Plus a strangely shaped two-tones.
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 in another town where 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 release the carp we caught downstream from our fishing spot.
I kept spodding to feed the 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 kind of sleepwalking, but I was quickly forced to open my eyes since again fish graced our rods every 15 or 20 minutes in the morning. Nothing big though. A few 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 some nice gifts for me, plus a 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 Cristian plus some new participants came in. After a quick crash course, Jean-Sebastien, Stephane and his wife were catching their first carp. Cristian landed a nice one too, and Duc did get a run on this creative rig!
Martin had a bit of a slow time, but then caught the third biggest fish of the day, 27-12lb (he was on fire this day, he reeled in the three biggest!). As to Stephane, he was so happy to catch a couple of more carp that he laid an egg. Don't ask me how.
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 and exhausted fish-in organizers, I tell you! Overall, around 30 carp caught, two thirties, multiple high twenties, several new guys initiated to carp fishing, everything was just... perfect.
June 2nd
Fish-in is over, I slept like a rock and I was fishing for myself this morning. I wouldn't mind another 30+...
I landed a 28-8lb at the beginning of the day (yeah, bad pic). A good number of fish in-between, plus some scouting of other potential swims and a nice lunch at a restaurant which didn't mind feeding a ravenous and dirty angler.
Another Daniel came with his family early afternoon, I gave him a couple of runs, and he landed a 26-4lb (new PB, of course). And I got 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 and my time was running over!
June 3rd
I had 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 couldn't stop there. I needed to catch 101 carp! Yes, seriously, this is exactly what I set up as a goal for the coming few hours. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't leave until I landed 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... I had to recheck that the scale is properly zeroed. It did look like it... No, better 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 was cool, but back to my goal of 101 fish. Another nice 24lber after the 30, and then another run. This one didn'go far, but it was heavy... It gave me a heart attack by escaping out of the net when I was quite sure I had nailed it, but it finally made it to shore. And amazingly enough, 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 fishing. I still have three carp to catch to reach my goal and things are slowing down a bit... I landed fish #100 (24lb) and I now had to share my swim with other folks. But no matter, I did get my last one, a scrappy 15lb which pleased me so very much... Now I could go buy some French books & magazines at Renaud-Bray and 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, but 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. "La belle province" clearly deserves its name. |
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