Conference wahoo::fishing

While fishing a stream (which feeds a lake, known for having a carp population)
for trout with a #0 mepps aglia, I made a cast under a brush.  Something darted
out and hit the spinner.  Well, after about six such casts and hits, I finally
hooked the bugger.  A carp, 'bout 15" long.  I was kindof depressed...I wanted
a 15" brown trout instead.

Oh Well.
Tim

	'Night fishing for Trout' at about 7:00 pm .......

	I was knee deep in one of the nicest looking pools on my streatch
of the Westfield River spin fishing with a Mepps Commit (the one with the
rubber minnow) size #2. I'd cast up into the fast water at the head of the
pool and retrieve just fast enough so that the puls of the spinner blade
could be felt (#6 test on a 6.5' Browning realy can 'talk'). I was heading
deep. So deep that I could feel the blade bouncing off the bottom.

	The sun was setting and as it cast its rosie glow uppon the pool
I knew I was in for some fishing. I cast and retrieved and 'listened' to
the spinner skipping across the bottom into the depths of the pool when
'WHAM' I got hit like there's no tomorow.

	This fish was not about to give up easily and for a minute or
two refused to be budged from the depths. When finaly I began to gain
I was treated to two or three worthy runs - drag whining and rod pulsing.
Not once though did the fish come up off the bottom.

	As I worked the fish to shore, for fear I'd once again play too
long and too poorly - giving yet another noble adversary the chance to
shake the hook - I saw the fish roll in the waining light and flash a
beautiful salmon pink! A rainbow!?! And from the continuing fight A
NICE ONE!

		I netted, to my suprise, a 17' carp!

	Released to thrill some other 'trout snob' on another expidition
			'Night Fishing For Trout'

				Joe Whittemore - From where the Westfield
				                      Meets the Westfield
				                         By the Westfield
				                            In Huntington (MA)

    Wots a carp??? An if its 17', where do chew ketch dem???
    
    Coonass

Coonass:

                              Did I say 17' !

                     Must have been wistfull typing !

                      Make it - shall we say - 17" !

                                        Joe Whittemore - Blah
                                                       - Blah
                                                       - Blah
                                                       - Blah (Blah)

    Well several years ago I was fishing in the spring up at Laconia trying
    for Rainbows and Splake.  It was the end of a long day with minimal
    luck.  It had been overcast and cold all day and a light drizzle had
    begun to fall.  We decided to pack it in and started for home.  Right
    in the middle of town where the the feeder river that connects the two
    lakes run I decided to stop.  Usually when I drive by that spot I
    always see several fishermen.  Because of the cold and rain it was
    deserted.  I baited up and started casting.  I walked up on the bridge
    and looked down into the water.  I saw some large brown fishing rising
    to my hook. I got excited thinking my first brown trout ever.  Well I
    wouldn't give up kept trying in that cold rain for an hour.  Finally I
    set that sucker.  Line reeling out I had to run off the bridge to the
    side to land that little baby.  All the time I was screaming and
    yelling hysterically for my buddy to get out of the warm car and get my
    net to me.  Rod bent over I could see this bruiser of about 3 lbs or
    so coming out of the water.  I finally net the sucker and couldn't for
    the life of me figuire out what I caught.  This thing was Ugggly to put
    it bluntly.  It had whiskers was about 18" and had lips on the bottom
    of his mouth and I swear to this day it was drooling.  Meanwhile a cop
    passing by heard my screaming and pulled into the spot we were standing
    at.  He came over to see what the commotion was.  I held up this thing
    and asked him what it was.  He said it was a carp.  I said its big and
    can you eat it?  He said some do,...... but it eats crap off the bottom
    and if you like that kind of ____ feel free.  Needless to say redfaced
    and chagrined that little sucker went right back in the drink.  Of
    course the ride home was silent, my buddy was pissed for making him
    stand in the cold rain and my girl was pissed for having spent the day
    in a car and I was chagrined for catching an ugly fish.  
    
    To make a long story short, I haven't fished Laconia since
    

    
    Hey Hobbs
    
    As you have most likly gatherd by now, Carp as not respected as a
    gamefish over here in the U.S. They are usually caught by lower class
    people and imigrantes with only the very poor folks or uneducated
    eating them. The reason is that the carp eats shit fron the bottom of
    the rivers which often contains heavy metals, pestisides and inorganic
    compounds that can cause cancer, birth defects and terrible painful
    death. 
    The social implications of eating a carp are on the order of consuming
    dog or cat flesh and only one step above feasting on rodents.
    
    However it is fun to catch the buggers and rid the waters of this
    pestlence of a creature.
    
    Which leads me to MY CArP STORY. A few years back at my house on the
    banks of the beautiful pristene waters of Beaver Brook by the confluance
    of the Merrimack River in historical Lowell, Massachussetts which is
    renouned as the first urban historical milltown national park. My truly
    faithful canine companion whom was trained in the recovery arts
    discovered that he was endowed with a natural talent for Carp fishing.
    
    Upon the pricipiece embankment he would poise, awaiting the traverse of
    piscatorial species. While in slient observance, antisipating that
    proper moment when his preatory prowness would be brought to apogee.
    At that, he would trust himself into ballistic interceptions with his
    objective, crashing fourcefully into the aquatic relms to emerge
    victor of his quarry. 
    
    He would then prance with pride unto the patio and deposit his trophy
    at his masters feet. It took a bit of training and the use of a shovel
    to bury the dozzens of these dam carp that stupid dog kept dragging
    home, before he eventually got the idea. Now he bring nothing but the
    finest colored rainbow trout.
    
                                So Much for CARP
    
                                   Walt
        

    This isn't quite a fishing story, but it is a carp story.
    
    About two years ago my fiancee, now my wife, and I were invited to an
    evening party at the house of a friend of a friend.  We were told that
    the hosts were a bit eccentric.  When we arrived we were given the
    cook's tour of the house.  The topper however was the basement.  In the
    basement of what I believe was an old carriage house, was a full size,
    20' X 40' inground swimming pool full of carp and other assorted exotic
    fish (huge bubble-eye goldfish etc.)  It was about the most amazing
    sight I've ever seen.  The pool was complete with statue fountains.
    

        At the age of twelve I liked nothing better than to spend the day
fishing the river that ran behind the factory where my father rented
manufacturing space. Once a season this stagnent slimy rocked stream was
stocked by the F&G with trout doomed to perish by hook or suffocation.

        All the mills on this river had for years, and some still did,
discharge the liquid byproducts of their endevors into this poor abused
watercoarse. This fact escaped my notice until the day my mother set
the only plate full of trout I was ever able to catch out of that water
in front of me at the supper table and I was given a taste of some truly
tanted flesh.

        Prior to this lesson however I persewed, with all consuming
intensity, the species harbored within those opaque waters.

        Well I remember the day I let my 'gob' of worms drift the lazy 
current for more than the customary seconds. When I began to retrieve
my line (dads old Mitchell on a Sears & Robuck rod) I was presented
with an unexpected resistance that had much more sperit than the
customary (if not opligitory) snag. After a tussel that lasted more
than a minute and realy gave me a thrill I landed the bigest 'trout'
I had ever seen attached to my fishing line! My companion at the time
and I admired the fine fish as I slit its stomach open and removed its
innards. I strung this magnificent catch onto my stringer and gleefully
headed back up the road to my fathers factory.

        Every time a car would go by my nose or eye or cheek or some
other facial appendage would 'itch' where I was 'forced' to raise the
fish toating hand to 'scratch' and thus present the occupants of the
vehical with a splended exposition of my angling prowes.

        Never was a little boy more deflated than when I presented my
'trout' to my father for his approval and admiration only to be told
by him, the master himself; my mentor, that I had a very nice 'carp'!

        Gutted carp make a wonderous sound striking that stagnent slimy
rocked stream from a fourth floor window!

				Joe Whittemore - From where the Westfield
				                      Meets the Westfield
				                         By the Westfield
				                            In Huntington (MA)

    The story in .8 reminds me of another carp fishing story.  A few years
    ago I, along with about six or seven friends from DEC headed up to my
    place at Richardson Lake in Maine for landlocked fishing.  Most of us
    enet out on the boat that afternoon and evening, but two newcomers said
    they preferred to stay on shore and fish there.  OK by us and all the
    more room on the boat.  
    
    After about three hours or so us boaters came back to the dock to find
    our two compatriots with smiles from ear to ear.  "Any luck?" they
    asked.  "No, not tonight," we answered.  "Well who needs to go out in
    the lake for salmon," they told us.  "Look at all we got here right
    from shore," they said, holding up a long stringer of fish.
    
    Some of us nearly split our sides as we looked at that stringer of
    dace. (I believe they fall into the carp category, don't they?)
    
    By the way, somewhere in this file (or the FLYFISH file) the author of
    .8 wrote out the best description of info for a neophite flyfisherman
    that I have ever seen. Very useful info for *this* neophyte.
    

	>.5 & .6 
	
	JFYI:

	Carps are good fishes. They live, true, on the bottom, but if you
	keep them alive for few days in current water, they'll become cleaner
	than ever. Ask to Japanise, goldfishes are of the same family!
	Farmers are used to grow them into ponds because they can 
	live with very low oxigen. Here in Italy, as well as in other parts of
	Europe, they are considered good trophy and lot of fishermen spend
	days and nights preparing the place throwing their own mixture of food 
	(base is corn) before actually fishing the spot.
	Personally I don't like the way to fish them: sitting for hours waiting
	for a strike. And they've too many bones, but they are good fighters 
	though! Only one old-dad rule: 
	once she breathed the battle is over, so try to bring her up.
		
	Another fish I've never saw taken over-sea is the EEL. I'll might
	start a topic on it.
	Here is a delicacy. Especially for the Christmas dinner. It is a 
	tradition in Rome and in the south in general.

	By the way the best rice I've ever had in my life was back in 1975, 
	I was in the army, when we went to a small family restaurant and they 
	prepare the rice with:

	CARP
	EEL
	CATFISH
	TINCA (I don't know the name in English) is greenish with yellow belly
	and lives as well on the bottom (same as Carp's habitat).

	Cheers and HAPPY 1990 FISHING

	Joe

    ELL'S ! YUK Those are them dam water snakes that my Grandfather used to
    slice up and fry in butter. The only good thing to do with an Ell is to
    use it for bait to catch a real fish. Goldfish ?? No way! Give me good
    ole American type foods like Squid and Oyster and Lobster And Mussels
    and Rainbow Trout.
    
    Walt: Who don't eat  nothing that could be someones pet!
    
    Who ever heard of a pet  Lobster??
    

>> Who ever heard of a pet lobster?


Hey Walt, my brother has one in an aquarium.

Tim

    RE:.10
    
    Thanks for the support,
     Tinca is, I think, a Tench. Also a member of the carp family, it
    has red eyes and is well known for it's disgusting thick slime,
    which in olden days was believed to have medicinal attributes.
    
    Eels fight very well as they can swim backwards as well as head
    first, but they tend to wind themselves around things (snags,arms,
    throats,etc) and are also very slimey.
    
     cheers,
    
    
    
    andy
    
    

     
     I can remember 2 summers ago, At Lake Atitash there were 3 of us in
    a 10ft flat bottom boat. My brother,me and my best friend. We spent
    most of the day catching black bass, I think that's what they were.
    After 2 or 3 hours of fun we decided to try our luck in another spot.
    Well we caught a few perch, UNTIL my drag suddenly took off!!! My
    little brother said holy $#it. ( he was typical 13 year old). After
    bragging that it was probably a northern pike. As I was reeling it in 
    he saw the head and jumped back to grab the oar.  I said "what's the
    matter" He said "It's a snake" It turned out to be a 4.5-5ft eel.
    Judging by my pole and the way it wrapped around it. And about 2inches
    in diameter. After  freeing it from my pole he had to smack it. And
    away it when soaring in the air with a headack.
    
    
    
    Bill  I'm new to this file I could not enter the introductions
    

    Never had the chance to fish carp but eel is an excellent sportfish.
    It is unbelievably strong and puts up one hell of a fight when hooked.
    What comes to eating eel I must say it is an excellent tasting fish.
    Smoked eel beats hands down smoked salmon. But remember to skin
    it before smoking otherwise it's too oily. (I agree that fried in
    a pan with more oil makes it uneatable.) 
                                                          
    Eki
    

    
    Last summer I took my girlfriend down to Cape Cod to visit my
    grandparents and I decided to take her fishing. We sat on the end
    of a dock and were catching small flounder and throwing them back
    in, when all of a sudden the line was stripping out like mad......
    I thought she had a good size flounder on ( we were using small
    fresh water rods), she reeled it in and pulled the line out of the
    water...and there was an eel about 3 feet long......she screamed,
    threw the rod and eel at me and took off running.....it was great8*)
                                                 Walt

    I remember fishing for striped bass off the bridge at Plum Island. 
    Caught something great, the line stipping etc.  Pulled it in and found a
    big eel.  Tried to do the right thing and release the slimeball. 
    Grabbed the head to release the hook and the slimy disgusting thing
    wrapped itself around my forearm!!!!
    
    Talk slime, talk total grossout.  Out came the wirecutters clip off the
    leader and hurled my arm straigth out and watched that slimey sucker
    shoot long and far.   Eelssss grrrrrrosssss
    
    Those things definitely beat the hell out of carp.
    
    
    
    
    

    My Tante cotched wun ob dem eels a cupla years ago. We fed it to the
    turtles an eben dey wudnt eat it!
    
    We got pictures tho,
    
    Coonass

       Last summer I was fishing in Goffstown N.H.  at a stream that
    was somewhat quick moving.  My friend and myself had a decent day
    catching about 4 or 5 rainbows of varying lengths(keepers).  It
    was starting to get dark and it was about time to call it quits.
    I figured one more cast.  I tossed my line out, let it run , and
    started retrieving slowly as I directed the line towards a rock
    ledge that I had good luck with.  All of a sudden my Berkley Power
    Pole bent right over.  I was going nuts as I shouted for my friend
    to come over and check it out.  I stated I either had a mean mutha
    rainbow or an eel. He said, "No way, the water is too swift for
    an eel".  Shortly thereafter I yanked out a 3 1/2 ft eel much to
    my disgust.  I cut my line without haste and packed up in a huff.
       As far as carp I have tried for them very late at night in the
    Merrimack River in Hudson N.H.  Using doughballs we had no luck
    and I found this particular method of fishing lacking excitement
    and challenge.
    
    
    
                                                 Chip

    Hi Chip,
       the challenge with Carp fishing is hooking one. You can't make
    a carp mad, he won't go for a lure, if your setup or style is off
    he will not even take a sniff at the bait. When he picks up your
    bait he'll take it away a stretch but spit it out if it doesn't
    taste right.
    
      The true carp angler will fish for days and prepare for weeks
    and when he lands his specimen carp from a seemingly "dead" lake
    he never, never shuts up about it. An irritating bugger, huh ?
    
     cheers, andy
    
    

    A three day/night trip to the Basingstoke Canal (UK).  I lost 23 Carp
    (I only had 3lb line) landed 4 Carp and 4 Tench.  The Carp average about
    6 - 8 lb in the Basingstoke Canal
    
    The biggest I hooked while there were lots of people at my peg.  There
    is also a pub (bar) garden opposite and a bridge to the right.  So I
    had about 30 people watching me play this fish.
    
    After about ten minutes the fish was nearly ready for the net, when all
    of a sudden a large pleasure barge, with about 30 people on it, came from
    under the bridge.  We had to stop the boat while I landed it.
    
    When I lifted the net out of the water, complete with fish, everyone
    gave a great cheer and took photos etc.
    
    It was only 6�lb but it sure made up for all the one's that I had lost.
    
    
    BTW I think that one of the pleasures of Carp fishing is being able to
    leave the rod out and talk to friends.  There is a great social side to
    Carp catching, but it helps if you get enough runs, or you catch a big
    fish.
    
    Also some have said that Carp are ugly.  I agree that Common Carp are
    horrid, bit have you ever seen a good conditioned Mirror carp.
    
    And finally, I have caught Trout from the bottom of a river on numerous
    occasions, so maybe they eat $#it from the river bed just as Carp will
    eat dog biscuits or bread from the surface.
    
    
    MattyB

    When you people fish for carp do you leave the bail open on spinners?
    Or with a baitcaster, the drag off? Reason I ask is one of my pals 
    was carp fishing when his rod took off like a rocket never to be seen 
    again.

    Rich

    RE.22
    
    The top carp anglers over here use special reels called bait runners. 
    They are made by Shimano (I don't know if you get Shimano stuff over
    there) and cost about �50 - �70.  You fish with the line tight to the
    rig/bait and have the bail arm closed.  The reel has a special switch
    so that you can switch the drag off while waiting for a run.  This has
    the same effect as leaving the bail arm open.  Then when you get a run
    you lift the rod clear of the rests, engage the drag switch and strike
    or bend into the fish.
    
    It would be intresting to see what would happen if you used Hi-Tec
    English Carp methods on the Carp over there.  The Carp over here are
    sometimes very hard to catch and have become used to the methods we
    have.  But everytime something new is invented, or a bait discovered,
    more good Carp are caught, until they become suspicious.
    
    I have seen instances where 50 or so anglers have been fishing for Carp
    and none have had a bite, while the Carp were everywhere and the weather
    was perfect.  That's how clever the Carp can be.
    
    I there is anyone over there who wants to try English methods, I would
    be eager to help and hear the results.
    
    
    MattyB

    How do you fish for the through the ice? :-) I suppose it might even 
    be easyer. Drill the hole throw a can of corn down, set the tip up
    and wait. Plus you get 5 rigs in Mass, naw I'll stick to pike,picks and
    bass.
    
    Rich

    
    The north shore of the St Lawrence river between Cornwall and Long
    Sault, Ont is well know for its carp fishing.
    
    There is a provincial park on some islands that were formed during
    the construction of the seaway that is ideal breeding ground for
    them with lots of shallow, less than 2ft of water, with everything
    covered in algae and weeds.
    
    They have a really big bow-fishing competition for carp in the spring
    and usually pull in some huge ones.
    
    One of the funniest things I saw some years ago was a guy who had
    left his rod in a cheap holder while he had the bail on and the
    drag tight. A carp took the bait, and as was mentionned in a note
    a few back, the rod and all went.
    
    Because the water was so shallow you could see the wake of the carp
    and the rod. You could also see one po'd fisherman running through
    the water, falling down in it and generally providing everyone else
    with the best laugh of the day.
    
    Roger

	Not Quite a Carp Story but I want to tell it anyway...


Me and my partner were fishing A1 on a slow day, he decided to try some 
shiners. Soon he had a bite and it was one of those where the fish starts to 
pull the canoe around. He's playing the fish when his rod snaps. I tell him 
reel in the slack and see if anything is still on there... sure enough the 
fish is still on as he finnally gets this thing near the canoe i figure 
he must have a 15 lb Bass and new state record fron the way he is grunting 
trying to reel it in. Then i see it break the water near the boat. It's
a Snapping Turtle with about a 15" shell diameter. I mean this thing was big 
and ugly and mean lookin. Being the joker I am I say well you know it don't 
count unless you land him into the canoe ( I was Only Joking ) he reaches down
and picks this snapper up by the back of the shell and lifts it onto the bow 
of the canoe, then turns back towards me to gloat, as he was turned around I 
notice the 24" girth neck start to extend out and a large jaw open. I was 10 
to 12 feet away and scared. before I could get out a word he turned around and 
the head of this snapper takes a lighting quick hissing lunge at his face.
I jumped about 3' and almost swammped us while he managed to flip this now 
very mad snapper of the bow, With his eyes closed I'm sure. He said he did'nt
need to change his underwear but I made sure I manuvered the canoe so that 
I was upwind fore the rest of the day.

Johnny Roach