Thursday, January 20, 2011

Trekking Through the Snow for Carp


Today was quite the challenge. After skiing and shoveling snow for the last 5 days, I was ready for a break. My first thought was to go ice fishing, but all that melting snow and rain that fell on the ice in the last two days made me wary of it. I never liked going on snow covered ice that has a layer of water underneath it. So, it was a simple choice....I'm going carp fishing.

I picked a spot in which I had to walk a distance though the woods to open water in a river. The trek was brutal. There was about 15 inches of snow in some spots with a crusty top. When I got to my spot, the shoreline had ice out to a short distance. My strategy (if I was lucky enough to catch a carp) was to get the fish to the edge of the ice and then haul it up and slide it to shore. Well, to my surprise, I did not land one carp, but landed 2 (see photo of one fish at right) and the ice slide worked beautifully. I also last another fish right near the ice. The hits were very subtle and there were no screaming runs, but the fish offered a decent fight once hooked. I was using my favorite winter bait, pineapple flavored sweet corn.

Yes, carp can be caught in the dead of winter.

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