Lazy Sunday Carpin’

Perhaps it’s Dave Pickering’s article in the May Issue of On The Water Magazine, or the guest blog from Captain Jack Sprengel, but I’ve had carp on the brain lately.

The last carp I “caught” took a Mepps Muskie Spinner the hard way—right in the back. Imagine my disappointment when I saw the half-dollar-sized scales and dopey whiskered face instead of the dragon-like maw of what I was certain was my first muskie. That was more than 10 years ago.

Since then, I haven’t bothered targeting carp. The whole muskie fake-out had soured me on the species, and, when I moved to Cape Cod, there were no carp conveniently close to my house. Nevertheless, this year, I wanted to catch a carp—the right way—once again.

Sunday seemed a good day to do it. I fished next to one of the bridges over the Sudbury River at a place some spray-paint-wielding locals had dubbed “The Bass Spot.” A few empty cans of Del Monte Sweet corn suggested I was in “The Carp Spot” too.  I was packing two cans of Green Giant (hopefully carp aren’t too brand loyal) and had to improvise a can opener from the rocks around the bridge.

I know carp-fishing enthusiasts like Dave Pickering have bite alarms and horizontal rod holders and specialized carp rods, but having no carp-specific gear, I had to re-purpose the Fenwick Aetos rod that I use to fish finesse baits for largemouth and the St. Croix noodle rod I use for steelhead.

I pitched out a few handfuls of corn, threaded a bunch of kernals onto size 6 Gamakatsu octopus-style hooks and lobbed the egg-sinker rigs in the middle of the sweet-corn feast I’d laid out for the carp. After wedging the rod butts between the rocks, I found a big flat rock in the sun, grabbed a magazine from the car and kicked back.

The first hit came a few minutes in, but I think it was a bluegill or some small panfish. I missed it. The next hit, 10 minutes after that, felt much more substantial.  I made a triumphant hookset and broke the leader. That was it for the next hour.

After flipping through most of my magazine, I decided to take out my camera and snap some shots of the Sudbury. As I was doing this, one of the rods started bouncing. By the time I got to it, the line was slack. I reeled in to check my bait, but soon discovered the fish was still there. It woke up when it felt the hook and took off on a big run down-river. It’s been a while since I heard my drag sing that loud for that long. Carp can fight.

I landed that fish and one more, missed a few and lost two. By the time the sun had set, the smaller bait-stealers had come out in force, and I couldn’t keep a bait in the water for more than a couple minutes (Pickering has a solution for dealing with these bait-stealers in his article in the May OTW). I tossed the rest of my Green Giant into the Sudbury and headed for home.