Long Time No See

I was fishing again - for carp - unsurprisingly. The weather was not actually really nice. Fishing alone when it rains can cause a bit of claustrophobia. Spending almost all daytime and nights in your tent is not my idea of spending my time in the nature. Enough with the whining and let's move on.

Of a two night session, I managed to catch just one carp. But luckily for me, I was more than happy. It was my biggest linear carp and also an old friend from my last autumn fishing sessions. You can click on this blog entry and compare it by yourself. Of course it's the same fish. Anyhow, now it was fatter than last autumn. Really happy about that. Also I noticed that no way this fish has spawned and would be in this condition in the middle of July! This particular carp had not spawned. I wonder if some of the fish are going to spawn at all?

I am really happy with my Prologic Commander Unhooking mat. Due to its folding stucture, it is compact to carry around. The side and end walls are high, keeping the fish safe.

Midsummer Carping 2015 (and The Small Issue of Bright Skies)

Hi all! 

It's been a long time without any carpy pictures, so I decided to go and take some new ones. Of course, it was not an easy task, as I was fishing a new swim. I once wrote to the Carp Core magazine about new swims and blanking, so I know quite a bit how "carpy looking" swims can cause you some hard times. Luckily, this was not the case this time around.

I managed to prebait the swim just once, so I wasn't really optimistic about catching anything. Luckily the weather was nice with some sunshine, wind and clouds. The night was also quite cloudy, so it wasn't too bright for carps liking. In Finland, June nights are so bright you can read a book outside even at 2 am. Sometimes that is more or less an issue when you fish a night lake (where carp feed only in the dark hours). So having the clouds up in the sky was a good thing for me.

My setup was this time again my trusty Okuma Trio 55 Baitfeeders and Prologic Fastwater 9'6" 3,5lbs. I just can't tell how nice it is to battle carp with this really compact and lightweight setup. I will not got back to using 12' or 13' rods. Casting distances are rarely a problem in Finland anyway, sometimes casting 10 meters is is enough. Doing that with 13' rods is really not easy :) Besides, I usually fish alone - netting the fish is so much easier with a shorter rod.

During the night I heard some carp jumping in my swim, so I woke up every now and then. It really wasn't a good nights sleep. So when I got a definite liner at 4 am, I was getting more and more excited about actually getting a bite. A couple of hours later I got a screamer run. Rushing outside the tent and grabbing the rod was as fun as ever! I can say the fight was really hard, and I was pushing my line (0,405 mm Prologic Interceptor Fluoro Carbon coated monofilament) to the limit. The fish pulled the line through some rocks close to the bank, so I was more than happy to have the fluorocarbon coating on my line. I think braided line would have snapped in an instant... 

I managed to net the fish and my new unhooking mat was tested for the first time. The fish was a great looking common carp. I was more than happy with the result.