CCH Articles

Article by Steve Walter

 Article 11:  I’d begun my adventures with Canadian Carpin’, only last year, and was hooked after day 1, now I was back for my second trip of the year, 

My first trip was in July last year, and boy was it hot, but my fishing partner for the week, Roger and I, still managed to catch a respectable number of fish,

My trip in May this year was totally different, we fished the bays not the main river, and despite temperatures as low as 6 degrees and bitterly cold north easterly winds, Paul still found fish for us to do battle with, and I managed personal best Canadian Commons and a fully scaled Mirror. 

Now I was back in the middle of June, my new found pal of last year, Roger was here with me, this was the time we tamed the mighty St Lawrence, or so we hoped.

We arrived to the normal exuberant welcome from Jetta the 'carp dog’, and Lisa’s evening meal of ‘Spagbol’, that I had been thinking about for most of the outward flight, then it was early to bed ready for the morrow.

The first three days for Roger and I was the stuff of dreams, we landed 80 fish in those three days, had a weight of over 500lb of carp on each of those three days, had more double hookups than we could remember, three or was it four triple hook ups, and two quad hookups, Its amazing how your first quad hookup can turn relatively calm, in control fisherman, into unco-ordinated panicky individuals who you would think had never held a fishing rod in their life before.

21LB 8OZ

We were shattered, with a combined age of over 125 years, there was no way could we carry on at that rate.

We fished the Manor swim on day four, hoping quietly, that we would have a nice steady day, it did in fact start that way until the thunderstorm struck, then the carp went crazy,  We were just unhooking a fish when the rain began, well rain is maybe the wrong word, it was more like a pressure hose being aimed down at you,  on the first flash of lightning away went the other rods, so there we were, Roger at the front of the platform, waving his bending rod in defiance at the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed, me playing my fish from the back of the platform, whilst gripping the brolly pole between my legs to try and keep the brolly in the same state . and Paul sat cosily, in the dry in the Manor watching us and telling everyone via the walkie talkies that ‘both Steve and Roger were playing fish in the Garden’. We finished with 15 fish that day, with a total weight of just under 300lb.                                                                                                       35LB+

Day 5 needed a drastic change for us, we needed a rest, we thought about having a non fishing day, that thought maybe lasted 3 seconds, before we chose Paul’s plan, 

Platform 3 on the Dam, boilies only, that was bound to reduce the number of takes drastically, which would give us a rest, and the chance of a bigger ‘loner’ fish.  The plan worked, we had only 4 takes in the day, two were dropped, Roger and I finishing up with one fish each,  we had managed our rest day ! there was an extra bonus though, my never ending screaming take was eventually subdued and landed at a PB of 35lb, I was still smiling at breakfast the next day.

34LB+

Day 6 we mixed boilies and Maize as bait and took another 12 fish, 

We finished the week with over 1100lb of carp each, 4 x 30’s plus numerous large 20’s, and an average fish weight of over 20lb. And  a 20lb carp in the river here, is a harder fight than a big 30 in the UK, you cannot imagine the power of these wild river carp until you’ve actually hooked one.

Roger departed after his week, leaving me to do battle with the mighty river for a second week,                                                                                                                                                  33LB 8OZ

It got really hot the second week, but I still managed over 700lb of carp to 34lb,  but that’s a tale for another day.  My third trip with Canadian Carpin’ and it just gets better and better, maybe because you start to appreciate the river more, the more times you come, and realise that what you know about  carp fishing in the UK, doesn’t help you a great deal out here.

32LB

So there you have it, Great Fishing, Superb Facilities, Food that will get you expelled from Weight Watchers, And in Paul and Lisa you have hosts that treat you as part of a family, not just as guests. Canadian Carpin has it all.    Roll on September when I’m back again, looking for my target of a St. Lawrence 40+.                                                                                                                                                             33LB+