It was a beautiful day here in Albuquerque, and I decided I would take advantage of it and do some Carp fishing. Of course beautiful days are relative and this one was no exception. It was going to be sixty degrees Fahrenheit in town and forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit up in Sante Fe. I was going almost two-thirds of the way to Sante Fe.
I am not sure what the temperature was at the lake, but warm it was not. There was a steady cold breeze with some gusting. The lake is popular with sailboaters because of the winds. The wind was frigid coming off the surrounding mountains which still have snow on them.
I only had a few hours to fish, as it takes most of the morning to warm up, and it starts cooling off quickly towards sunset. Even though it is winter, the lake was free of ice except for one point about one-half mile away which seemed to be holding the remaining ice on the lake.
I was not sure I would catch any Carp, as they tend to move to deeper water in cold weather. I used a basic setup. I had a light sliding egg shape weight, swivel, about eighteen inches of leader and a number six Salmon egg hook. I used whole kernel corn for bait.
Most of the corn went into the lake for chum. If you chum for Carp, ensure chumming for Carp is legal before you try it. I only held back a small handful to use on my hook. A car pulled up with a man and women in it. The woman walked off to look at the dock and the man came to where I was and we chatted.
He was recently from California, and was familiar with the Mammoth Lakes area where I lived for a few years. He was an avid fisherman too, I could tell because he brought up some of the places I used to fish at while living in Mammoth Lakes. He is also a Carp fisherman. I thought this was unusual because he talked on some about Ocean fishing.
The Man said he took up Carp fishing a few years back. I knew he was a dyed in the wool fisherman because one of his Carp grew five pounds over the telling of his story. Or maybe I was a little envious of the story. He was telling me about a big Carp he landed on Ultra Light tackle and six pound test line. I could see in my mind what a battle that must have been. Using ultra light tackle and hooking a big fish!
A few minutes later, he left because he was cold. The rest of the hour was uneventful, and I thought I was wasting my time. Thirty more minutes and I was sure I was wasting my time. I put on more clothes to warm up. Getting warmer, I was getting sleepy, or maybe it was the lazy day at the lake. One impatient soul showed up with his sailboat. I guess he could not wait for spring either. I lazily watched him launch and get his sails up on a cold day.
I started to nod off as there were no more distractions other than wind humming in one ear. The sun was warm, and my chair was comfortable. A few seconds later, off in the distance I heard a clicking sound. I have two baitrunner reels and the sound came through the fog of almost sleep. I opened my eyes and one of rods was twitching opposite of the wind!
It seemed only an instant and I was standing holding my rod, and releasing the bait runner drag, ready to see if I actually had a Carp on. The line tightened and my rod bent. I wish I could say it was glorious fight. In very cold water fish are sluggish, and this Carp was no exception. It gave its best fight, but nothing like I would have had in the middle of summer.
I landed a nice, very bronze sided Carp of about twenty-five inches. Unfortunately, it was on the hungry side, and not carrying a lot of weight. Not unusual for this lake, as there is not enough food to grow heavy fish in this water. Catching one Carp had me wide awake and ready for more. Unfortunately, one Carp was my fishing excitement for the day.
It was a good fishing day. I know as spring creeps up and I can not resist the urge any longer, there may be at least one hungry Carp waiting for an irresistible piece of corn, or a little dough ball of homemade something to snack on.
The Carp were far out in the lake. They were jumping forty or more meters from shore and on the far side of weed beds. Perhaps fishing pressure on this particular lake is heavy enough to force them from shore. I fished in close to shore on the bank side of the weeds, and the Carp were having none of it. I changed to my twelve foot Carp Rod so I can cast halfway to Texas, or at least out where the Carp are.
My first design was using the white pipe with an end cap. Of course using a tube has its flaws. The largest sized bait is limited by the tube size. Not to mention getting any distance in a throw is an awkward process. I cut the end cap off and glued it on using it as a cup instead. This worked, but left a lot to be desired because of cup walls held the bait inside.
The second item I found is this gray and blue item. This is called a sweat stick, and is used on sweating horses. It is essentially an oversized shoe horn. While it worked, it was not the end all of bait sticks. The throwing distance is limited by design, and you have to be precise to get a good throw, without your bait or sinker falling off in mid throw.
The third, and I thought end all discovery may be familiar to you if you own a dog. It is a dog ball throwing stick. A tennis ball fits in the cup and when you use a throwing motion, the ball bounces away for your dog to chase. I thought it would be perfect and it is, if I want my bait to hit the water a few feet in front of me with sonic speed. The angle of the handle is not correct for a distance throw.
Small bread balls were flying over forty yards down the road, larger bread balls and stones flew as if the were catapulted and not thrown. Whole kernel corn went wherever I sent it, up to almost four ounces a throw if I wanted. It brought back memories of my childhood, hitting rocks and golf balls with a bat. Corn, liver, dough balls, minnows, worms, whatever I want to toss gently in the lake was now fair game.
Here is a great Chef’s trick used for making hold able handles on all metal pans. You can use this to keep your string from rotting or coming apart. After tying the spoon on, I rubbed in as much vegetable oil on the string as the string would hold and placed it in the sun. The oil after a few days to a week hardens, and keeps the string from coming loose. Almost any cooking (not machine or automotive) oil will work.
Fishing a new lake is an experience in how to compete. Not competing with other fisherman, but competing with with the local food supply. I knew Catfish, Trout, and a hybrid fish named a Tiger Muskie were present, it seemed possible that Carp were around as food for the Tiger Muskie. I was wrong, there were no Carp to be found.
Food sources are another determining factor when fishing. Knowing what food the fish you wish to catch prefers, is a determining factor in where you will do your fishing. Some very big fish are hooked and landed by young children, who don’t know that certain types of big fish hunt for food close to the waters edge in hopes of a small animal falling in the water. Other fish forage in the depths where the type of food they prefer lives.