Oktoberfest - The Search For October carp

My main target for the season 2012 was to catch a carp in October from a big Finnish lake. It's not that easy considering already some night frosts, which can cause fish to seek shelter in  deep pelagic areas. Also even on good conditions in summertime, big lakes can be tricky with very low fish densities. Anyway, I set my target and had a good prebaiting campaign with DD Bait. I found myself chucking in a reasonable amount of 20 mm boilies, as the carp want to feed before the long winter. 

One week I found time for a quick overnight trip, when conditions were on my side. The night was really dark. You can imagine how dark it can get on a remote Finnish lake at October! I lit some candles to heighten the spirits and make myself at home. After that I had some decent barbecue with sausages and toasts, when suddenly my rod had a long dropback bite. Red Bull snowman was just too tempting! I managed to land the carp in pitch black conditions. After the fish I hit the bed.

Midnight express. The quest for October carp had succeeded!

In the morning I had a slow run, which got a lot faster before I could get to the rodpod. After picking up the rod, the fish had some speed for leverage. The fish easily pulled 40 meters of 0,40 mm monofilament stretched to the limit. Unluckily, the hookhold wasn't that good. In brief, my October expedition was a success with two good runs in a quick overnighter. 

Brrrr... Cold

Dear readers,

It's getting already quite cold here and the water temperatures are dropping steep. Not bad, but combining low temperature, hard wind and rain, the weather is not so pleasant for carping. Maybe I am getting old or too comfort-loving... Probably the latter, but really, spending nights by the lake soaking wet is not probably the sanest thing in the world, is it?

Anyway, a picture of a warm SUMMER morning carp. I took notice that the sun behind the camera isn't that good for the picture. A carp and my skin are so pale in colour, that the picture burns very easily... Not much to see in the picture, but the fish was beautiful. I have never caught that one before! Oh- and notice the camera shadow in the carps belly. It's not always easy when you are doing all by yourself!

Take note how NOT to take a photo. This one is quite heavily photoshopped to even see the outlines of the carp. And yes, there are a lot of carpers out there doing some photoshopping on their carp to get stunning colours... Luckily I got some good release photos on this carp.

Autumn Greetings

Dear readers,

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog. I have still been quite busy fishing for carp and spending time with other things I love. I have had hard time finding the time to write. Life is full of choices, and sometimes spending a few hours in front of a laptop might not be your cup of tea when alternatives are more tempting. Anyway, on with the story.

This season has been quite good with its ups and downs - some blanking and some good nights. Just as it should be. At one point I was quite fed up with catching carp every night and happy that I had a blank night quite soon after that. As I previously mentioned, blanking is an essential part of carp angling. If you are not blanking, you are fishing in waters that are way too easy. And carp angling shouldn't be too easy.

Tonight temperature will probably reach zero Celsius degrees... Winter is coming fast. Yet there is still enough time for some great autumn carping. Last trip me and my brothers had a good session with one of us banking two carp, including a personal best. I hope I have the time and the energy to go chase some autumn carp.

An autumn carp has just been netted and the net is disassembled for lifting.

The Hidden Files of The X-Files

Carp fishing is shrouded in a veil of mystery, at least here in Finland. The carp fishermen are few in numbers and some like it that way. I haven't quite made up my mind if there should be more carp anglers or not.

Getting started with carp fishing is more of an journey than just chucking the rods out and reeling in the big ones. It really can take a few years before you find at least a few good carp lakes. That journey will teach you to appreciate the fish even more. You just cannot compare the fish caught from a big natural lake to the ones caught from day-ticket ponds. The difficulty factor is quite different. I hope I don't sound offensive because of my opinion, but it's the way I feel about carping. The places you find will probably become your secrets.

I hope my "secret spots" will stay secret. There is absolutely no point in telling the secret places to other fishermen. Then they would miss the essence of true carp angling, the journey into becoming one. That is absolutely the most rewarding thing in fishing. The fish, after all, are just fish. Nothing else. All you will truly experience in your lifetime is you. Remember, you will catch you first carp only once in your life. It should be a memorable moment, not just a quick guided trip into run-happy carp waters.

So most of the carp lakes in Finland are the Hidden Files of the X-files. For all the ones who think the truth is out there (and want to catch something instead of searching), should start with a Finnish day-ticket lake. A fishing licence for one year is 25 euros. You got it right. 25 euros... VERY cheap!   http://www.jokamieskalastajat.fi/index.php?p=7&yl=2

Last, but not least, is a horrifying photo of my possessed recliner chair.

The missing episode of "Possessed recliner chair", didn't see that on the X-Files.

1st Anniversary For "Carp Of The Thousand Lakes"

Dear readers,

My blog "Carp Of The Thousand Lakes" had its first anniversary. It's time for me for some celebration, as the reader number has exceeded my expectations. I even had some offers of getting money from writing this blog (!) I had to let these offers down, as I want to keep the commercial aspect as far away as I can. I think you, as well as I, are fed up with the UK-style buy this, buy that, don't buy that (it's the last years model, and because of that, it's crappy).

I really would love you to subscribe to my blog or leave comments. It's the fuel that keeps me writing this blog. Also, all the contacts I have received via email have been very interesting and I am very pleased receiving them.

Now some talk about carp fishing... I have learned about carp fishing a lot this year. The most interesting part was to have Enrico Parmeggiani (Italian carp angler) visiting Finland. We had some good debate about the behavior of carp. The conclusions were quite different, and there are some very big differences in Italian and Finnish carp. Like the biggest disturbance by the lake we fished was a woodpigeon cooeing 1 km away...  So at least the acceptable disturbance levels in carp fishing are quite different here and in more urban waters. Carp fishing is always a learning game for even the most experienced carp angler. And in my opinion that is the biggest reason I will keep on fishing for carp. It's not the record carp, it's not being famous, just the idea of something I will never master even how good I will be.

This Northern Beauty missed a scale.

Doing Good Deeds... Lifetime Patron of The Wye

Dear readers,

I FINALLY had the chance of repaying the hospitality of the Wye & Usk Foundation, Mr. Martin Bowler for giving a day of his time and Mr. Peter Drennan for letting us fish on his private waters.

I recently had my barbel fishing article published in a Finnish fishing magazine Metsästys & Kalastus (issue 6/2012). The magazine has around 40 000 subscribers and 400 000 readers. The article itself was 5 pages, with a full double page trophy shot of a barbel and me. :)

Anyhow, I donated the money from the article to Wye & Usk foundation. The sum was 500 GBP, which makes me Lifetime Patron of The Wye. Now send me the crown and I'll wear it every time I go fishing :) Don't get me wrong, I am not rich. I just wanted to do something to repay the hospitality.

Mr. Martin Bowler guided us to several barbel on the Wye. He is a true ambassador for fishing.

The Night Of The Living Mosquitoes

I had been prebaiting my swim for a week with DD Bait Feedermix and boilies. A few kilos of Freshwater Snail Feedermix and about 2-3 kg of boilies every other day. The boilies I choose for prebaiting were the Banana&Crustacean and Red Bull Guana. I was really looking forward to fishing the spot, as I have succeeded there almost every time.

The night of fishing came, but it was actually a night of terror, as mosquitoes were trying to take over the world. Literally, there were hundreds of them just waiting to feed on me. Taking some pain and around hundred mosquito bites, I managed to set my rods and my bivvie. So it was just a waiting game then. I managed to get some sleep, and around 4 am, I woke up to my alarm going off!

I hurried to my rods and saw the right rod going off in a good speed. But I also found out that my left rod had lost 100 m of line and it was pointing to another direction I cast it to… I took the rod on the right and landed a beautiful mirror carp. It was in really good condition after spawning, and by the looks of her, the boilies had been very tasty…

After that I started to work with my left rod. The rig was probably stuck in tens of waterlilies, so I pulled the line to cut off the lilies. One by one, I managed to get the rig closer. It took around 15 minutes, and I put very heavy strain on the Prologic XLNT Camo monofilament. Suddenly the rig was loose of the weeds, but I also realized that the fish was still on! My situation was quite tricky, as I had my landing net occupied with the previous carp… After some hectic (and not so educational) close quarters battle with the carp, I managed to get her also in my landing net. A landing net can get crowded… But to cut a story short, the lean and mean fighting machine common carp was 12,3 kg. Both of the fish were caught with a combination of DD Bait Red Bull Guana and Banana Crustacean boilie.

Bait Masters and Masterbaiters...

Dear Readers,

If I got an euro for every "Master Baiter"-related joke, I think I wouldn't have to work anymore. Carp angling related jokes aside, the season for me is really about to start. I have been way too busy with other matters to go angling. I think that's a lame excuse, but it's an excuse anyway!

My article just appeared on a Finnish magazine called "Metsästys & Kalastus" (Issue 6/2012). The magazine itself has around 40 000 subscribers and about 400 000 readers. So it's really nice to have a bigger public once in a while. My article was about barbel fishing with Martin Bowler on the Wye. Even being critical to my own work, I liked the article. Hopefully I will get to write more articles... 

Barbel fishing is something I wish to do also in the future. It's such a beautiful fish, and the rivers are really enchanting. I have seen the laid-back approach for barbel (see my earlier Waterlog Weekend blog entry), so I must reveal you my best kept secret - the floodwater rod rest...

The utterly cunning idea of a floodwater rod rest! Behold! I caught a 10 cm dace from that swim!

Anyway, I will keep this blog entry short (and quite pointless), because I am too busy going carp fishing. I just air dried another 2,5 kg of boilies... Does all that fiddling with bait make me a Bait Master or a Masterbaiter?