London, Ontario Carp Fishing
Today Gillian and I decided to head down the street to the river and see if we could catch some carp. There are several spots that I have seen carp swimming around in so I was confident we would find some fish. As soon as we arrived I threw out several handfuls of corn and then we got our equipment ready and started to fish. There were carp in the area within minutes. Despite several ducks stealing the corn, Gillian had a fish on within 20 minutes!
Armed with a Quantum 20 PTi and an UglyStik (a combo I refer to as beauty and the beast) she was caught off guard when line started peeling off the reel. The drag screamed as the fish headed down stream. I quickly realized her drag was set really light since I had last used it for walleye up at LV. After a huge run, I looked down at her reel and could see that the bottom of the spool was fast approaching, Gillian was a step ahead of me though and was already starting to head down the shore in chase.
She was quickly running out of room and needed to scale down a 6 foot wall to get to the shore in order resume her chase. Being nearly 7 months pregnant, this was not an option - she handed me the rod, and I jumped down the wall as the last few strands of line were about to unravel. I grabbed the line and pulled, turning the carp. I quickly adjusted the drag by this time Gillian had found her way down the wall, so I handed her back the rod. The fish was now in the current and despite a legendary effort, Gillian could not get him to move. After several minutes he charged back up stream and Gillian was able to gain back some line. Finally we had a good look at the fish, a solid 7-8lbs - A very nice sized carp for this area of the river. She slipped on a glove and held the fish for a quick photo and a release as a small crowd watched from the top of the wall.
Thirty minutes later it was my turn. I watched a small carp moving straight toward my bait and I held on tight expecting another epic battle. I was using my ultralight rod (5′2 UglyStik) with 10lb powerpro. I set the hook and….nothing . The carp flipped and flopped a couple times and I was able to grab it within a minute. Quite a disappointment after seeing how hard Gillian’s carp fought. We called it a day shortly after, but we were both very pleased that both of us landed a fish. The carp pupulatiosn are healthy and strong here in London, unlike the fish in Lake Scugog.
The first in-utero fish!! My baby boy has got an early start!
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