Election Day Carp Session

I had the day off work, the weather offered 53 degree temps, 25 mph wind gusts and a 60 percent chance of rain by midday.The forecast for the weekend is miserable with predictions of sleet, rain, flurries and a mix of all three with falling temperatures, so by all indications this just might be my last opportunity to catch carp in 2014.

I had lines in by 7:30 and my first fish on the bank by a little past 10:00. It was a nice 21 pounds and 9 ounces. I had more fish by 10:30 and even more by noon. Then the flood gates opened and I had several more fish before I had to leave at 2:15 because it was beginning to rain and I needed to go do my civic duty and vote. I caught several fish consistently in the upper teens and another topping the scales at exactly 20 pounds.

Here are some pictures. My photographer had to work, so I did the best I could with the timer on my cell phone. It's the first time I tried using it, so pardon the odd angles and poor lighting in some of the photos.

My window to the carping grounds this morning. When I took this picture it was still relatively calm.
A little later in the day there were 25 mph wind gusts with 1 foot white caps.

My first fish today weighing in at 21 lbs. 9 oz.

It's s blurry shot with the timer on my cell phone, but not too bad considering the low light levels.

 

My second fish today weighing 6 lbs.

Close-up

Third fish weighing 11 lbs.

Upper teens

Same fish, posed with the cell phone timer

Upper teens

Fifth fish of the day

I lost a fish before this one to a hook pull, but luckily there were plenty of others today.

I think I kind of like these types of poses after all. Fins up.

20 lbs. on the button. This one was a fighter for sure.

I fought this one with a real light drag to be sure I could land him.



18 lbs. and my last fish of the day (possibly 2014).

It couldn't have been a better day of fishing. I caught other fish, but these pictures posed on the landing mat are pretty boring. I will spare you those and just say that the action was good today and if it hadn't started raining, I probably could have caught more than 20 fish today.

And I still made it home by 3 p.m. to vote!

In October I set a goal to catch a 30 pounder before it turned to cold to fish. The 30 didn't come, but I gave it my best shot for sure. I have fished twice a week for the past 4 weeks catching fish ranging from 4 pounds to 26 pounds 6 ounces (my new personal best).