With the summer getting into full swing and my Renegade Bass season just about to ramp up which occupies all my weekends from July til mid-September, we have a tradition of heading down to the St. Lawrence for some family time/camping. As luck would have it I’ve found us a few campsites that you can Carp fish right at the site. So basically it boils down to set up camp, and fish for about 40 hours. Perfect.
Birdee, Ariel and I arrived on Friday afternoon (Nick had to work all weekend). We setup camp quick and I got down to baiting the area with corn. The Long Sault Parkway is just a really nice place to fish. Lush green trees and crystal clear water everywhere you turn.
The Carp had me puzzled on Friday. I traditionally fish the area directly in front of the site but being that it is a deep edge and likely cooler water they weren’t feeding in that area. Once I got onto them I knew exactly where they were. It made for some tricky management of the 3 rods but we managed easily. Heavy baiting with corn kept them in the area. As well as some other visitors!
When this fellas head popped up from the bank he gave us a bit of a startling!
The first morning started off with a decent fish. I am always up at the crack of 6AM and sneak in a few fish while the others snooze away! Tipped the digi scale at 19.15 lbs.
Then it became the Birdee/Ariel Show as I just got to work resetting lines and netting fish. I was somewhat disappointed with the size this year. I believe all but 2 of the 30 some fish we banked were Males. The girls must be late to the spawning party in the nearby shallows. Still loads of fun though!
Ariel banked her best fish of the weekend at 19.05 lbs.
Birdee was onto the small fish pattern for awhile but made up for it with a 19 plus of her own on Sunday evening. This was a great battle as this fish took off deep and ran for a long time!
Carp fishing is by far the most social fishing there is. We had many guests pop by for a few hours to hang with us and even bank a few fish. Brad and his wife Jenn popped by with their newborn Sarah. Brad wasn’t long before a rod fired and he was up! Sorry for the small fish Brad!
Later that afternoon my Mom and Dad arrived. I challenged Mom on whether she had ever caught a fish before in her life. She didn’t deny my accusations so she was up on the rod first! After a few fruitless hours filled by great conversation a rod fired, and Mom was on it!
With a little coaching and some luck as this big girl went shorebound up the bank for a little tour of the rocks we banked her. At 22.10 it was the biggest Carp we landed all weekend. Nice work Ma!
Now Mom is giving RJ Sr. the gears. Deciding that 5:15 was departure time with a fish or no fish scenario for Dad. At 5:14 right on queue!
They left happy with a story to tell!
One of the stranger sights of the weekend was this Golden Pheasant. It was running free within the campsite and clearly didn’t belong there. The Park Ranger was hoping to catch him and get him to the Bird Sanctuary because they highly doubt he’d make it through winter.
Ariel capped the weekend off for us last night right after sundown with this one. Great fight in the dark and some great teamwork clearing lines made it happen.
A few more random shots from the weekend. Numbers, weights and times all blur after awhile!
Ariel with the smallest Carp I have ever seen caught on the Larry!
We packed up early Monday and made our way home. Sunburnt, Sunstroke, wreaking of Carp and Campfire and Lovin’ it!
This is what this weekend is about to me, Mission Accomplished.
