Article 3

  Article 3

Article 3: Canadian Carpin' Fishing paradise!   by Jo Green

Canadian Carping on the St. Lawrence I had been looking forward to this trip since I booked it way back in February. it was to be one of the best foreign carp trips I had experienced. I arrived in Ontario, Canada on Monday the 29th September early evening, to get greeted at the airport by Lisa hunt, the other half of Paul hunt who run carping holidays on the sty Lawrence river. It was about a one hour drive to the island manor hotel, where the whole concept is run, its also Paul and Lisa's beautiful home. myself, the other half mike and the other 9 anglers settled in and got to know each other, then after a lovely home cooked meal it was time to get down to the natty gritty of how it all works, explained in detail by Paul and Lisa.

With all the information taken in, it was time bed down in one of the luxururious rooms as it was to be an early start. Up at 5am on Tuesday morning, brimming with excitement, a quick breakfast is was time to board the boat with all the supplied tackle ready to be dropped of at one of the 5 chosen swims Paul uses for that time of year. myself and the other half were dropped off second to the swim that is known as the rolling rock, this is the only swim that requires a long cast of about 100 to 120 yards to get to the deep waters of about 45ft where the hotspot is to catch the bigger fish, we got one rod set up, cast out to the spot, spotted out about 2kg of maize then preceded to get the rest of the rods out which proved to be difficult for a while, within a few minutes the rod we had put out screamed off (we had decided to take it in turns with each run for a fair chance each) mike hit the rod the carp took the best part of the rest of the braid off the reel almost down to the backing before he could stop it, eventually after getting the fish out of the flow and under control we landed a pristine 29lb common. it took a further 2 hours to get the rest of the rods out they seemed to be out of the water more than they were in due to all the runs we were getting on more than one occasion that first day we 3 fish on the bank at the same time, it was chaos.

By the end of the first day about ten hours we had banked 1 thirty a number of high twenties and a couple of high doubles. The next day we were dropped off at platform 3 this was by the dam and known for producing 30s if you get the bait in the right place, we decided that as well as spotting out the maize we would use pave bags of maize as well, this had an impact on the catch rate, it was crazy fishing it took nearly all day to get all the rods in the water at once, we had run after run, by the end of the day we had banked a thirty each, a large number of high twenties and a backup of a few doubles from 17 to 20 pounds. Normally what happens is each pair does a different one of the 5 swims each day, but for reasons only known only to themselves the other group of 5 dropped out of the fishing and didn't fish for the rest of the week. So the third day me and mike decided to go back the rolling rock swim as we had a choice, it was as mad as the last time, a huge number of high twenties and a thirty was banked we had another busy day.

The fourth day we decided to go in platform 2 somewhere different for a change we thought, yet again another busy day with a large number of high twenties, and then came something special, it was my turn for this run I hit the rod after 15 minutes of hard fighting the carp came to the surface about 40 yards away it was then I realised it was a rare sty Lawrence mirror I could barely wait to get it in the net and claim my prize, there it was a beautiful mirror 24.10 The fith day we went back to the rolling rock swim, it was to be a little quieter than before so we had a chance to sit back and take in the atmosphere of what it is like to fish a place like the sty Lawrence river by the end of the day we had banked a large number of high twenties. A this point we needed 13 more carp on the last day to hit the one hundred Day 6 the last day, we went back to platform 3 to see if maybe we could bank mike a mirror, sadly it wasn't to be however we I did get another thirty and we also banked alot of high twenties, the total for the last day was 26 carp so we had gone over our target of one hundred fish, it was a very busy week but we enjoyed every minute of it, with a tally of 113 carp, however it wasn't to end just yet.

Paul came out in the boat for the last time to collect us, well that's it he said, with that we said not quite, if its ok with you we will do a few hours tonight in what is know as the garden swim, Paul said course you can, no worries but you won't catch, this is because its not generally fished at this time if year because it just doesn't produce. Anyway after our last home cooked dinner we decided we would give the garden swim a go. By the time we decided to pack up and get some sleep we had banked 2 good twenties and another 30 taking our tally for the week to 116 carp not bad for just 6 days fishing. the fish were caught on a combination of 1 14mm sc25 boilie and giant corn on the hair for hook bait, maize spoded to area and maize in pva bags as the bigger fish tend to come to boiles rather than maize.

The carp in this this river fight like no other, they are pristine commons many of which we caught hadn't been caught before, and if your lucky every now and again a mirror graces the banks of this stunning river. Paul and Lisa are great hosts and I would recommend Canadian Carping Holidays again and again, in fact before we left we booked up to go back the same week next year. Canadian Carpin' fishing paradise.