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The best, just got better      Courtesy of Chris Ball -   

    

          I'm sitting here in my office just a day after returning from another trip to Canada and to fish the mighty St. Lawrence river. This trip though was different because the fishing came at the back end of a considerable jaunt my wife Lynne and I undertook across Canada from west to east starting in Vancouver and ending in Toronto. Between these two cities, some 3,000 miles, we took one of the great train journeys of the world across the mighty Canadian Rocky Mountains. With the weather perfect throughout our stay it made for a trip to remember. Once our time was up in Toronto we flew north to Ottawa, picked up a hire car and made the 75-minute journey to Canadian Carpin's new headquarters, the River Island Manor at Iroquois to meet owners Paul & Lisa Hunt.

 

Canadian Carpin's headquarters, the River Island Manor

 

         This beautiful 19th century home is located right on the river and even better the bottom of the lawn has swims that are ready to go! Clearly the amount of work that Paul and Lisa have undertaken on the house and grounds last winter is a credit to them, the place is truly magnificent with plenty of room for guests. Gone are the days of towing Pauls boat and launching it somewhere along the river, during our short stay anyone fishing a distant mark just hopped on the boat at the River Island Manors private jetty just next to the house. For my first day of fishing Paul put me in house swim situated 30 yards from the property.

 

 Here is a decking swim complete with a couple of classy JRC Euro Rod Pods left in position (with bungees screw-fixed to the decking). Can you believe it the first bite produced an all too rare mirror carp making all four trips I managed over the last ten years producing a mirror on each of them. No sooner had I cast out again when a violent wrench on the rod tip was followed by the rod top quickly pulling downwards with the line simply flying out. The swim is around 15 to 18 feet deep and you only need to cast out 30 yards. Saying that in the couple of seconds it took to reach the rod the fish had already shot off another 30 yards of line and after a typical mad St. Lawrence tussle I banked a nice looking twenty pounder. Paul came down and took some pictures and within the next few hours a number of other fish were banked.   

 

       There were five other anglers fishing the same week, Dave Jarvis, Michael Honychurch, John James and identical twins Peter and Paul Skipworth - no they didn't have a sister called Mary. While I fished the house swim the twins had gone early with Paul to the other side of the Iroquois control dam, here they had a hell of time landing ten twenties and a rake of other fish. The other three anglers all recorded twenty pound fish that day too. The following day I didn't fish for Lynne and I went to Ottawa with Paul and Lisa on a most important day in the life of Paul Hunt. After nine years of trying to gain permanent Canadian status, Paul finally was granted it. That night the champagne flowed as we all celebrated the fact.

 

The next day was a full days fishing for me. It was my turn to fish a swim someway downstream of the house, it fact once I got ashore Paul pointed to a white board way over on the American shoreline telling me that it was from there that Tim Paisley and Steve Briggs won the World Carp Fishing Championship last year.

 

 An immaculate 23lb common with the River Island Manor in the background!         

      

       The swim I fished was a different kettle of fish from the house swim with depths of 40-45 feet just 35 yards out and a most vicious drop off from the bank with a rocky outcrop ledge just a little further out. This could catch you out if you didn't get a fish high in the water quickly. From this position I managed a rake of fish and by the time Paul came to pick me up (Lynne was on board too) I'd managed 27 fish, including five over the twenty pound mark. As they sat down with me another run came and fish number 28 was ashore, then chucking out again resulted in yet another run. When this was landed I'd had enough - hot, tired and sporting an aching left arm - but Paul insisted that I try for 30 fish.

 

Casting out yet again it wasn't long before another searing take materialised. Paul had the video camera on and getting in the water directly under my position of standing on a rock proceeded to say, “Well here is Chris Ball playing his thirtieth fish of the day of course at that moment it fell off! Try once he said with Lynne backing him up. I agreed and within ten minutes fish number thirty was netted. Needless to say I needed a drink after that kind of action. The following day on the house swim for a short while produced another three twenty pounders including a really nicely shaped 23-pounder.

The best, just got better  

                               

 Earlier in the week Paul mentioned that a small bridge which spanned the entrance to a creek to the right of the house had been used by a number of guests in the past to free lined a of hair rigged maize directly into 6 feet of water. I forgot to mention that the St. Lawrence water clarity is superb at this time of the year and hookbaits could be seen off the bridge. Sure enough after I introduced a few handfulls of maize carp could be seen feeding in the area. It was nice to get a few carp on the float. Looking  off the bridge into the creek was like gazing into Redmire Pool from the Climbing Island tree  exciting stuff! Picking up an easy-actioned 2lb TC rod I soon had a bait in position. Within five minutes the line moved steadily away as a hooked fish shot out into the river. To land the culprit I had to walk along the bridge then thirty yards along the bank and net it there.

After a few fish caught in this fashion I was fagged out so I decided to fish off the boat jetty which was close to the bank and my landing net. This spot too produced a number of carp but the bite registration was poor with freelining. Did Paul have any floats I asked? He did and fishing the lift method with a big waggler provided no end of fun. That late afternoon/early evening session resulted in ten fish to 17lb, though there were bigger fish about, I'd seen them from the bridge. The other anglers were catching plenty of fish from the various swims Paul had guided them to and often it was all quiet in the house as weary anglers were mostly in bed by 10.30pm. A couple of days later we were all due to leave and almost everyone was fishing that day by 7am for a few hours  we had to be away by 4pm.It was my turn to fish the golf tee swim.

 

To explain further, on the other side of the earlier mentioned creek is a public 18-hole golf course and a point at the end of a bay some 200 yards away to the right of the house is the 10th tee. Here Paul has a swim and I was delighted to catch a 22-pounder on the first run of day. A party of Canadian golfers arrived to play the hole as I was weighing this fish. we just kiss and cuddle them then throw them back I told them, from the UK and were all carp fishing mad! I got back from the golf tee swim early to grab a shower and check things for the trip home. However Lynne had everything under control and it left an hour to go before we had to leave. Quickly I decided to have a swift go on the float again; a couple of the lads followed me down to the jetty.

 

Then while they watched I received a glorious lift bite then ten minutes later another, both fish were safely landed. With that it really was time to go. Having been twice before to Canadian Carpin, this set up they now have at the River Island Manor is the best yet. Paul Hunt is the perfect guide having some 16-years experience of the river and having seen thousands upon thousands of carp to over 50lb landed he still has tremendous enthusiasm for it all. Lisa is the super efficient host creating wonderful meals and snacks and generally looking after the house and guests.

 

For me the best, just got better!  Chris Ball            Thankyou Chris Ball for the Article's