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!

FishingFury Now on YouTube

I’ve started rending out all of the Fishing Fury videos and posting them on YouTube, fee rating and commenting on YouTube as well. I have more videos going up soon so keep an eye on our youtube page for lots of cool updates, of course I will be posting them here too, but you may spot some surprises before they get posted. You can also subscribe to all of our videos.

This video is from Christmas 2004, we went out to Bass Pro Shops in Vaughn Mills and shot some great footage and stills of their massive freshwater tank. The song is Luna – Renee is Crying, in case you were wondering.

This is the compilation “lookback” video of all our favorite moments in 2004. The song for this one is Man or Astro-Man – Taser Guns Mean Big Fun.

Fish Robotics

Newlaunches.com has created a list of the Top 5 Robots of 2006, naming Mitsubishi’s robotic fish as number two. Mounted with a CCD camera, these aquatic robotic creatures will be used in the future to help us uncover the secrets below the surface of the worlds oceans.

“The robot is modeled after a Nishiki koi carp as a form of tribute to Hiroshima Castle (whose nickname Ri-jo means Koi Castle). The 80-cm (31-inch), 12-kg (26-pound) fish has a white body with bright red spots. Though the tail movement is very smooth and lifelike, the remote-controlled koi is capable of moves that a genuine koi is unable to perform, such as swimming in reverse and rotating in place.”

via Pink Tentacle

While impressive, this is not the first time we have seen robotic fish. The London Aquarium featured autonomous robot fish over a year ago as one of their technology exhibits.

If you like robtic fish, check out the videos on YouTube.

Extreme Aerial Bow Fishing

This is the greatest bow fishing video I have ever seen. ‘Nuff said.

Let me also recommend another video, “one mans sport is another mans fear”, for a really good laugh.

One Mans Sport is Another Mans Fear

While the introduction of a invasive species to a water system can destroy local fisheries, it can make for a pretty funny news report. Especially when the reporter is afraid of fish.

Sadly, these asian carp are on the verge of entering Canadian waters; which is bad news for any fisherman.
View the Asian Carp Invasion documentary here: Part 1, Part 2

Carp on the Fly? Believe it!

Our good friend Ric, who’s been making a killing fishing Toronto Islands (on multiple outings) , headed over to Ontario Place to check out the situation. Ric has been hard at work trying to get a Pike on his fly rod and while he still hasn’t succeeded, this experience sure opened his eyes to carp fishing.

We got down there and started spotting fish to cast to. I’ve had the fly rod out a couple of times this season and have been able to raise a lot of fish. Still can’t get one to commit though. So anyways, the fly I’m throwing this big clown head. The pike were really spooky and weren’t really responding but as I’m working one a nice carp swims up to the fly and just sucks it in. It happened right in front of Doug and myself and we just kind of turned and said.

“Did you see that?”

So before he could spit it I reared back on the rod and set the hook hard! At first she didn’t really understand what was going on and just sat there but then…. Game On!! I gave Doug my camera and then spent the next 10 minutes trying to deal with the sheer strength of this fish. Thanks for the great camera work Doug!

Man these things are just so strong! I have new found strength in my knots after this fish! She was just mowing down the towers of weeds through out the whole area! The rod is a Cortland GRX 9WT. She was definitely put to the test.

Every time I got her in she would just turn and bolt! Nothing I could do but just hold on. My arms were starting to burn and I just wanted to get her off so I started to really lay into her. Finally I got her in. Man was she heavy! Lots of lamprey marks on a lot of the fish this year! Not just carp! This one had 3 or 4 of them.

After a few she was good to go! And so was I! Unfortunately, Ontario Place is now open and we were asked to leave not long after. You can’t fish anywhere from the the first bay on the east side all the way the parking lot on the west side. Now that they’re open they really will enforce this so yet another spot is closed off to us shore guys.

Man, I had a great time and would love to get into one of these guys on the fly in my float boat!
I really do have a whole new respect for these fish and will probably target more of them this summer.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my little saga! Take care!!