CHRISTMAS CARP

First and foremost, merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new years; depending on how late I post this to my blog...

Sorry I haven't posted in while but I've been really busy with the holidays n all, but I finally got into a bunch this December. I'm not quite sure, but the last time I went fishing, which I'll show some pics of the trip, was 5 days before Christmas.

Before I get into my latest trip, some of yall want to know specifics on what type of gear I buy, and any new types of rigs I've came up with. To be honest, I've been mostly using the same rigs posted on the blog, with a few minor adjustments.

Equipment:

1. A Spinning type rod/reel combo that's already loaded with 12 LB or higher fishing line. You can find one at Wal-Mart, Fred Meyers, or Dicks Sporting Goods ranging between 20-40 bucks.

2. A wheel of 8 LB Fluorocarbon. This line will be used as your leader fishing line.

3. I used to recommend size 2 circle hooks, but I wouldn't go that high on carp averaging 7 lbs. Size 2 circle hooks with hair rigged bread balls are more better for 15+ LB carp. Size 4 circle hooks are great for carp ranging from 1-10 LBS.

4. For swivels, you should use barrel swivels that are at least large enough to easily tie your preferred fishing knot on with your 12 LB fishing line from your rod/reel combo.

5. Some wire is needed in order to hold the bread for the hair rig. This type of bending wire can be found in any arts/craft section at your local grocery store like Wal-Mart or Fred Meyers.

6. I like to use half ounce to 3/4 ounce sliding sinkers because any one of those can be wrapped with a slice of white bread and it would stay on pretty good when casting. If I ever wanted to cast farther, all I would have to do is add another one of those sliding sinkers to my rig if need be.

Here is a re-post on how I make these hair rigs that are suitable for white bread:

Above is a picture of my rig that I've been using lately. The rest of the pictures below will basically show what I used for this rig.

Above is a pic of the rig without the slice of bread wrapped around the sliding sinker that is furthest from the hookbait. I wrap the bread on the sliding sinker furthest from the hookbait because the other sliding weight is right next to the swivel, and I don't want that to have any bread which would defeat its purpose. Also, having the bread on the furthest sinker rather than the other would have less pressure on the bread when casting because having it on the middle sinker while casting will more likely have the slice come off. The reason why I use two half ounce sliding sinkers instead of one big sinker is because the slice of white bread can't be wrapped around a giant sinker firm enough for casting. I know you can buy or make method type mechanisms on the internet such as large spiral wires or large plastic thing-a-ma-bob with holes on it, but that would just increase the chances of the rig getting tangled when fighting a fish. A lot of these places I fish here in Oregon are not man-made and carp aren't even supposed to be in these waters, so there are a TON of snags. Of course I could just use one half ounce sinker, but the reason why I am using two is for distance and the place I've been fishing has a respectable amount of current.

Above is just a close up on what the hair rig looks like. Keep in mind that the bread I am using on all these pictures are wheat bread, BUT I NEVER USE WHEAT BREAD ONLY WHITE BREAD. The hook I am using is a size 4 circle hook that a friend of mine bought for me on my birthday, along with the sliding sinkers so SHOUTOUT TO THE WYRM!

Above is a pic of the whole rig without any bread at all.

And lastly, above is a close-up on the "hair rig" part without the bread ball.



I got a couple of "fishing" type gifts from the holidays:

Above is a chocolate Christmas bass lol

Now time to try this fishing rig out a few days before Christmas:

First off, I know that some people don't really know what the word "method" means in carp fishing. Basically a "method" is just a mechanism that keeps a large amount of chum on your rig that stays near your hookbait, thus putting more taste, flavor, and freebies around your hookbait in order to attract more carp or whatever you are fishing for.

So at the start of the fishing trip, I started with size 6 hooks and the same rig that I described above with the method. All I caught in about 2 hours were 5 crawfish and a bunch of awkward bites that were hard to decipher. 

Although I wasn't catching carp, these little buggers were entertaining because every time I would take one out of the water after being tangled on my rig, they would chase me for a good 5 minutes regardless of anything. The picture above is just one of those buggers chasing me. After about 5 minutes, they would crawl back to the water after giving me their temper tantrum.

So I decided to switch one of my hooks on one of the rods for a size 4 instead of the size 6. After landing 5 carp on THAT CERTAIN ROD, it became clear that the hook was the problem. So I decided to switch all the hooks out for size 4 hooks. Very quickly my swim got demolished by carp. There were actually several occasions where I almost had a carp on all three rods. In "carp" or "fishing" language, it would've been called a triple. I would land a fish in the net, and at the same time, another rod would start bending, then I would reel that one more quickly than the first, and the third rod would ring, but wouldn't stick. So I ended up having that happen 5 times which landed me 10 carp. Definitely a #worstbehavior worthy instagram post.

So I ended with 15 carp, and 5 crawfish. The carp weight average was around 6-8 LBS I believe?





 If you look closely in the pic above, you can see that the size 4 hair rigs have done their jobs. The first 5 carp I caught, bent the wires straight so I had to rebend them

Here is a pic of something I shouldn't try doing again...

I'm going to find time to edit my blog and change the background to something different since the new year is coming up.

anyways, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, HAPPY NEW YEARS, AND KEEP YOUR LINES TIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYE BYE 2013, AND WELCOME 2014!!!

All I Caught

I went to Kelley Point Park for a few hours for some good old Carp fishing and I kept getting these awkward bites where the pole would bend once. As I reeled my last rod in, I caught this big guy

18 lb Common Carp (Extended Version)

Here is an extended version of the 18 lb Common Carp I caught last Spring. A lot people were asking for the raw video footage to see how long they actually take to reel in. Honestly, I can't even watch this video without throwing up because it's such a shaky video.

6 lb Common Carp Oregon

11 lb Common Carp Oregon

Common Carp Oregon

Birthday Carp

I was looking through some old photos and I found this picture of the 25 lb Common Carp's tail, and I was just amazed...

My girlfriend and I started our hike at Kelley Point Park in order to find some Carp. A little rule I like to follow during the warmer seasons is 20% of the fish is in 80% of the water. In winter, 90% of the fish is in 10% of the water if this makes any sense at all.

Here is a picture of my beautiful girlfriend who came out to fish with me like always. I'm thankful I got a gf that loves to fish.

I'm not sure wtf I was doing in this picture

Here is pic of a nice 6 lb Common Carp

All in All We caught 2 Carp in 2 hours of fishing....A 6 lber and an 11 lber, so it was a great day before the rain starts again...I hope it doesn't rain 15 DAYS IN A ROW like when Fall just started which really depressed me...

This picture I like to call Fishing Inception. Anyways click on the picture to see a full view and you'll know what I mean

So the day before that fishing day above, was my 25th Birthday and I got a fishing hat and a bunch of Carp fishing gear for my birthday. My co-worker wisely asked me what kind of rigs, hooks, equipment, etc he need in order to go Carp fishing because he supposedly was going to try it out himself...surprisingly he took those notes and bought me fishing gear. I used those gifts to catch the fish above. I think I might make a thread on what stuff to buy for Carp Still Fishing....My girlfriend bought me a laptop so now I'm here editing a few fishing videos that I will post up here soon....

River Monsters+ App

Just showing off a somewhat new App called the River Monster+ App. It's basically like the Facebook App but for fishing.

A new characteristic is that it shows the biggest fish of a species in a specific waterway.

This is one of the first pics I saw from the app. This guy logged in where he caught and how he caught this magnificent beast

Here is the 25 lber I caught at Salish Pond using a white hair rigged bread ball dipped in strawberry syrup, and the 18 lber I caught at Chinook Landing Backwaters using corn, but I got lucky and snagged it instead. Basically what happened is I left my bait out there for like 30 minutes, and when I decided to leave, I picked up the rod and jerked it and it felt like I snagged something, until it started pulling a little then swam directly at me, then exploded left for two minutes straight. I'll upload the full/long/agonizing long video soon. The crowns in the pics represent the biggest fish of its species at that specific waterway aka the king of the water.

So far I've been fishing the Columbia Slough a lot lately but I haven't yet caught "the king of carp". I know so far that the biggest Carp caught off the slough is a 18 lber, unless you guys have proof of something bigger.

Here is a picture of the feed. The feed is practically exactly like Instagrams feed but the left navigation box which I'll show in a bit is like facebook apps left navigation box

You can click analyze to see other locations where this lure has worked or look up all the catches that have been caught with the lure.

Here is a pic of a fish caught and shown in the feed along with comments. For some reason the new update is not letting me reply or comment others...

It's cool how it logs in where your at in a fishing trip like a GPS and shows the weather, water temperature, and your type of bait.

Here is the left navigation box that looks like the one in the facebook app.

Here are some pictures of some catches

So join the River Monsters+ App/follow me and follow me on Instagram at igquick

tight lines

Fall Carp

I'm pretty sure I made a post a while back talking about how I lost a Carp using an ice fishing rod strapped with 6 lb test line, in which the fish managed to run into a snag, and SNAP THE LINE. Well I managed to buy this new fishing line below:

This caught my eye in the store because for one, it was 20 freakin bucks which to me is very expensive, the name spiderwire is very catchy in my opinion, and it is 20 lb test line with a diameter of a supposedly 6 lb test line. So I thought replacing my fishing line from my ice fishing rod would be genius!

The line is EXTREMELY HARD TO CUT and George Permiakov of http://fishoregon.blogspot.com/ recommended I rather use Powerpro but I didn't see it last time I was at Wal-Mart. 

So anyways I made some new hair rigs, fixed three fishing rods, and set out to Kelley Point Park and hiked my way around the Columbia Slough to find a fishing spot. Once I got settled, I casted three hair rigs:

...and was able to catch 6 bullhead catfish in around 1 hour and a half of fishing. Catching bullhead is not too bad for a fishing session but my goal was to land the big fish. It was kind of hard avoiding these little buggers, so I went out on a limb and used this rig instead:

I managed to land 6 Carp in the next hour and a half:

The averaged weight of Carp was probably around 9 lbs.

A lady randomly showed up to my swim and asked me if she could fish next to me, which reminded me of a funny occurrence that happened when I found fishing again. I know I probably told this story in the beginning of this blog, but I remember two people trying to bully me out of a fishing spot. Keep in mind there was probably about 75 yards of free fishing space, yet they had to fish right next to me. So I got really hostile and kicked them out of my spot. For one, I would never try to kick another fishermen out of their spot. One of the most important quotes I learned this year is to "Treat people the way you want to be treated". Try it one week, or a month, or a year; you might find yourself out of the social awkwardness that most people have. 

So I'm really happy that the fellow fisherman lady asked really politely. She said she was there for the catfish and I told her where I kept catching them, I told her that the worm would probably work significantly more better than my hair rigged bread bait since the catfish in the Columbia Slough love worms, I let her borrow one of my rod holders, and I let her keep one of my fishing bells which takes out the middle man of second guessing whether or not the current is making the rod move or if it is a fish. The way I use the bell is that you could fix it to where it would only ring if there was a bite, and not the current. If you set up the bell on a rod after you cast, just wait 10 seconds for the bell to be noiseless, but if it isn't, just move the bell down the rod, until it is able to be noiseless. So the bell would only ring if a fish where to take a bite, not if the current moved the tip of the rod, and I hope this makes sense so far. Anyways I also gave some helpful hints that her fishing rod was too big, there was not enough line in her reel, that she should buy this and that, and I taught her to be very careful about the spines on the bullhead. It might sound like I'm invading but in the end, she was able to catch numerous amounts of catfish and she said it was her most successful day of fishing.

So the moral of the story for today is, "Treat others the way you would want to be treated" because you never know that the random act of kindness could lead you into your most successful fishing day.

11 lb Common Carp

Caught at Kelley Point Park at the Columbia Slough.

Last Summer Carp

I've been testing out what's the minimum amount of bait I would have to use in correlation to lake size, river size, and stream size this Summer. I've came to the conclusion that if you are fishing a medium sized lake (100 acres-1000 acres) you would need to add a method to your rig like the one below for extra scent to attract carp:

A method is basically that extra glob of bait in which I wrapped around my sliding sinker and swivel for extra scent.

OR

you can use a double hook rig like the one below BUT I WOULD USE HAIR RIGS INSTEAD OF THE SINGLE CIRCLE HOOKS. Also you would have less tangles if one leader is longer than the other. For example one being 19 inches and another being 8 inches:

I've also found that in Lakes that are smaller, rivers, or streams, I could get away with just a single hookbait. The scent of the single hook bait is just enough to cover a significant area of a small lake, and the scent disperses really well in current such as a river or a stream. For example fishing Kelley Point Park with a single hook bait works great:

The largest one of the day was this 11 lber that took about 10 minutes to reel in:

I would've uploaded some sort of video footage of that day and other successful fishing trips I had last Summer but my Windows Movie Maker is broken for some odd reason