One of my biggest Carp

20 lb Common Carp

More Carp Fishing

I decided to go Carp fishing at one of my favorite Lakes for an hour in the morning and an hour at night. So for a total of two hours, I was able to land two beastly fish, the morning one being 15 lbs and the night time one being 18 lbs

The first fish, I was still fishing with a hair rigged white bread ball in about a foot of water in front of these rocks that were 30 feet away from me. I was busy texting my girlfriend, when my bite alarm starting going off! In the corner of my eye, I could see my line tightened and a fish going absolutely crazy on the surface of where I casted. For some reason this fish took me about 20 minutes or more to reel it in because it got tangled in some weeds. Luckily my Zebco Hawg Seeker Spincast Reel came with some 20 lb Cajun colored braided fishing line. I love the Cajun colored fishing line because in my opinion, it is more invisible to “carp eyes” than fluorocarbon. Another reason why it took me a while, is because my leader line was 8 lb test and I didn’t want to break the line. Here is a picture of the one I caught this morning:

 

On the night time fishing trip, I was fishing the same spot. Here are some pictures:

 

About me

So far, this blog is obviously more about Carp. I like targeting Carp because they are one of THE smartest fish in the world, making them hard to catch! On top of that, they fight harder than a salmon and are located in MOST waters here in Oregon. Believe me, I’ve caught lots of salmon up to the 30’s, but nothing compares to most Carp.

When it comes to mentioning specific fishing spots here, I’m not going to mention any because there are TONS! Besides, the journey and work you put to land a big fish is what gives the whole trip some gratification.

Carp fishing locations & Where I look up fishing information

Carp can be found in all different types of situations and depths. They are located in most waters near you. On my last post called MY CARP FISHING RIGS, I've described when to use specific types of rigs in different situations and locations. Locations and situations such as fishing around ducks, near rocks, pebble bottoms, near boulders, murky waters, dirty water, tailing/feeding fish, aggressive carp, sight fishing, grass, and reeds.

There are websites located on the right side of the blog under FISHING INFORMATION. These websites have helped me along my fishing journey greatly, and I recommend checking all of them out!

The Oregon Fishing Forum is a popular Oregon fishing forum, which seems to be dedicated to helping others in their own fishing journeys, and a place to show off your catches. I’m an active member on that site, but I’m mostly found in the Carp sub-forum.

Carp on the Fly is a Carp fishing blog about a popular fly fisherman in Oregon named John Montana who mainly targets Common Carp via fly angling. Before I began carp fishing, my co-worker talked to me about how Carp fishing is starting to blow up here in Oregon, and there is a fly fisherman that is making it more popular; John Montana. He also knows A LOT about Carp psychology, behavior, and of course, fly fishing.

The “Uploads by David Edwards” is a youtube channel of a Carp fisherman who documents Carp psychology, behavior, eating habits, and of course, fishing with a view VIA UNDERWATER CAMERA. It has given me VAST knowledge on Carp fishing, so much that EVERY VIDEO he puts out has significantly made me a better Carp fisherman. On top of that, the average length of each video is about 2 minutes long so it is very easy to take in.

Blazer Shane’s Blog is a blog about an Oregon fisherman who is great at catching different types of Oregon fish. His blog is phenomenal for it has videos, pictures, and it is very informative. He is also an active member on the Oregon Fishing Forum.

Oregon Fishing with George Permiakov is also one of the first people I’ve heard of when starting to Carp fish here in Oregon. He has helped me GREATLY on Carp fishing, and how to find them; although he wouldn’t think so because talking about Carp to him is natural. He is also an active member on the Oregon Fishing Forum.

Night Fishing For Small Catfish

The average catfish in Oregon is about a pound, but in very rare occasions, they can be gigantic. I haven’t caught any giant cats yet, but I know how to catch these pretty well:

EPIC CARP FISHING

Went to the Columbia River after school and managed to land over 20+ Common Carp!!This was the first time I fished for Common Carp on the river during Spring and the first time I caught 20 carp! I didn’t manage to get that many pictures because I came from school and my cell phone was dying but I managed to get these two pictures:

Night time catfishing again

By now on this post, it is early Spring; and it’s the first time I came to the Lake for like 2 months because of winter. I went fishing for catfish and carp, but I managed to catch about 7 bullhead catfish. The one pictured below was grey and it had a fat head, that’s what she said. So I just assumed it was a channel catfish?

Hair Rig is better than the treble hook!

Well I caught another huge carp using the hair rig. For those of you who aren’t following, which seems like everyone, I’ve been conducting tests to see what rig hooks more carp. So far, the hair rig has caught 4 large carp and the treble hook has caught none during these tests. Anyways, here is another monster Carp the hair rig has caught using white bread as bait!

13 lb Common Carp caught in 30 degree weather!

 

Hair Rig: 3 wins, no losses to Treble Hook

Yet another Carp taken off the hair rig:

Hair Rig: Caught 3 carp.

Treble Hook: Caught 0 carp.

Hair Rig: 2 vs Treble Hook:0

For those of you that haven't followed, I was conducting an experiment on what is better; a treble hook or a hair rig. I am testing it out by casting a double leader rig with one being a treble with white doughbait and a hair rigged white doughball.

I was testing it out once again but on a sunny Fall day and here is my catch:

Hair rig won again!

Hair Rig: 2
Treble Hook: 0

The hair rig

During this trip, I was able to make a hair rig for the first time using a corkie and wrapping bread around it. I still was using two leaders on one rod but one leader was the hair rig, and the other was a treble and to my surprise, the carp got hooked on the hair rig. So this has become a test between a treble versus a hair rig.

                                      Once again a flash during pitch black dark

I finally purchased a night light

So far…the score is:

Treble Hook: 0 carp

Hair rig: 1 carp

Carp Love

The following picture may be disturbing to others…

 

Finally I was able to get some “better” pictures of the common carp I’ve been catching. I was able to catch 4 more in that 2 hour fishing trip in pitch black dark; which explains my funky smile in the pics because of the bright flash. The biggest of the day was a 17 lber pictured in the last two pics.

At that time, I was using a two leader rig, both with trebles with one being longer than the other. My bait was white bread wrapped around both hooks.  

 

Night time catfishing

Another fish that bites more during the night is the catfish. Other than carp, I've been able to catch bullhead catfish and small channel catfish. For these bottom feeders, I've been using around size 12 trebles and molding white bread around it. I think the reason why all these fish love bread, is because all the people around this lake throw bread to all the ducks. So free chum for me!

 Look how big that is compared to my size 11 foot!

Here's a another picture of the 3 lb bullhead catfish. This is big for a bullhead, since the oregon record is 3 lb something ounces.

 

I would rather use worms than bread in any other situation such as the Willamette River, but these pond catfish love white bread.

White bread is starting to become my favorite bait.

My first Carp

So after thousands of bluegills caught using white bread was getting old, I've decided to follow what the "nighttime" fishermen would show and tell me.

Some days it would be these two Asian guys with a bunch of fishing rods and these two other white guys; and some days one of them wouldn't be there at night but still they were catching a lot of bullhead catfish. The baits that they were using ranged from white doughbaits, wheat doughbaits, worms, doughbait dipped in bacon oil/fat, etc. 

So one night I fished there by myself. I think they stopped fishing for them because there were no more catfish. An hour has passed and still nothing on my white doughbait, but for sure I was getting bites. Suddenly, one of the bites was typically hard, but the line got really loose. So I picked up my rod and started reeling it in, and I felt something slowly tugging the line. The tug was constant, and it was slowly pulling my line and my rod towards the water; I had something BIG. The tug was so strong and constant, it lead me into the water, where I finally figured out how to loosen the drag on my fishing rod. Keep in mind it is pitch black dark. I thought I hooked into a zombie or an alligator, I have to admit I was pretty scared. So once I loosened up the drag, but it was still running. It ran probably about 150 feet to another bank, and kept running along the bank away from me. I did scream for help because I know a couple of the fishermen that catfished at night lived nearby, but no one showed up. So after 7 minutes of running, I decided to tighten up the drag, and slowly reel him in like I was deep sea pumping the rod. You know, Jerk, reel, jerk, reel, repeat. After about 3 minutes of doing that, the thing was somewhat next to the bank; but it was too big to be directly next to the bank since it was really shallow and my line would snap if I pulled any harder. So in my mind, the only way I could land whatever it was, was to go next to it and grab it; which I did. Once I got close to it, I saw the face and remember the pictures of carp being caught here, and I picked it up by the mouth and body:

I put it in a bag to use my scale and weighed it. It was a gigantic 18 lb common carp. I have never caught something so big by myself. I know I caught a 30 lb chinook, but I was on a boat with some people to help me; so this carp was more important to me. Keep in mind that fishing rod is 5.5 feet long with 8 lb line. That fish is half that fishing rods length, if you want to know how big it looked.

I was able to catch 4 more smaller carp after, but my phone died.

 From then on, I became obsessed with Carp.

Tons of Bluegill

So I found a pond nearby during Summer and fished it a lot with friends and family. All we caught were infinite amounts of bluegill, crappie, and pumpkinseed. I also met a fishermen who showed me some gigantic beasts he caught in the same lake. He has caught everything from huge bass, catfish, and something I have never seen before; monster carp. Anyways here is a picture of an average panfish we caught:

You never forget your 1st

When I was younger, I used to fish for trout, salmon, bluegill, bass, pike, catfish, and almost any popular freshwater fish in Oregon you could think of; until one day we had an epic fishing day of salmon on the Columbia River according to most fishermen. Why do I say according to most fishermen? Well, it's because I was still a child and we caught tons of salmon, and the people that me and my father tagged along with also wooped out their bat and started beating on the salmon. During that trip, I managed to land the biggest fish of my life, and it's still my personal best today, which was a 30 lb chinook or king salmon, but the bad news was they beat it to death with blood everywhere and what not. Also the slaughter houses in The Philippines kind of scarred me for life, so I kind of grew into a "humanitarian" type of person. By now I became a fishing fiend at a young age, but after that fishing trip which concluded with countless salmon, I decided to quit.

One day I grew up and moved near the Salish Ponds, and one day I randomly decided to go fishing there. I forgot what it was like to go trout fishing, and I forgot when fishing at a place that stocks trout, people fish really close to each other. So I managed to find this spot, until a group of people came up right next to me. Apparently I was at a known "hotspot", and they were trying to bully their way into stealing my spot, but I gave them a real bad attitude. I was ready to kick some...well you get the point. I just wanted to have some peaceful fishing time.

After that spiel, I noticed some guy fishing a few "safe" paces away from me and he was catching some small trout. He was using a spinner, so I copied him except I threw a kastmaster. I remember kastmasters were killer back in my younger years. Yet I still wasn't catching. I asked him about his technique, and he told me he would let it sink to the bottom first, than retrieve it. So I did that, but I still didn't get a fish because as I was retrieving it, I could see my lure and I was almost done reeling it in...

But then I reeled it into a snag, but then I looked in the water and saw a glimmering beautiful rainbow; and it looked huge according to my standards. The fish thrashed extremely hard and I was trying to land it with my hand while asking the guy next to me to help me; but I managed to pull him to the bank:

I know it's only a 3 lb rainbow trout, but at the time, I was kicking and screaming because I thought I caught a monster. I caught 11 more smaller ones, but you never forget your 1st

and so it began...

The Fishing Journey