I yakked up some grass....

[Steve-O]

Grass carp that is...

After the Saturday morning chores and honey do list were complete my wife sent me out with a liberty pass for the afternoon and early evening. I loaded my Cobra Fish-n-Dive kayak into the minivan, grabbed some gear, bait and hit the road south. A few miles later and I'm in the water. My first order of business was some practice casting with a new baitcaster by Okuma for the trip to Alaska later this month. The reel is a Citrix model that I spooled up with 30 # PPro to cast jigs, spoons and crankbaits at Silver Salmon in the fresh waters of Prince of Wales Island. Normally we exclusively use spinning gear to toss Vibrax and Mepps spinners but I have taken my Abu G-6500's for tossing big Pixee spoons across the wider parts of the rivers to cover more water per cast. When the bite is fickle a Pixee spoon rigged with a siwash hook succeeds in dredging the liplocked bottom huggers out when treble hook spinners fail to do the job. And it's the long casting heavy spoons and freespooling baitcaster that gets to the fish outside of the spinning gear's range on the far side of the river.

So I got the little Okuma Citrix a few weeks ago and tore it down to check out the guts. What did I find? Greased innards. A decent sized CF drag disc that WAS greased, also.  Great free spool out of the box. So I only wiped it down and re greased some areas and made sure the disc was Teflon greased before buttoning it up. After a few land casts I was ready to hit the water with it and tune my back-lashing skills ... I mean "professional overrun" .

As soon as I hit the water with my yak and noticed the few degrees cooler water temps, I immediately thought this was going to be a scenic paddling trip and NOT a fish catching excursion. The pond is only 11 acres small and the fish I was after have nowhere to go except down and dormant when the weather cools here in Utah. And the cooling has begun. At the first cold snap the lights go out on carp fishing like a blown panel fuse!

I paddled around the pond scanning for swirls and saw NONE, zero, nada. Not boding well. The shore anglers were few as well as they sat here and there in there folding  chairs with a water bobber cast out just above their bright green power baited bottom rig. Waiting on rainbows. Stockers up to 13 inches. Wow! somehow after living here 5 years I still find it hard to get excited about a fish that barely fits a hot dog bun. Sorry folks but that rod needs to bend and the drag needs to sing. So the lowly carp is my game in this state. 

On to the fishing. I found an out of the way nook and fed the ducks a few minutes while waiting to see if the grassies would rise to the occasion. There were only two ducks but I had to paddle all over this small corner of the pond to keep ahead of their feeding habits with the sourdough bread chunks. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, nod, nod, say no more! he said knowingly. After the ducks paddled off, I ran the stern of my yak into the shore weeds and waited a few.  Was that a bow wave? Good water craft in carp angling requires reading the surface to deduce what's under said surface. Baitfish? Bluegills, gas bubbles, a turtle? they all leave a different signature. The distinctive bow wave of a big fish is like no other. Even a slow cruiser displaces water and the stealthy alert angler thinks...."GOTCHA!" at their approach. and sure enough following the bow wave was the characteristic SWOOSH! of a big grassie killing some bread crust on the surface. You can guess the rest. A couple more freebies of cast sourdough bread that I yanked the hook out of once it got soft and then a sandwich that bites back. Cast, plop, wait for it, WAIT for it,  SWOOSH!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttt! and the sleigh ride begins.....well sort of.





The sleigh ride was more of a tow job as the fish pulled me out of the weeds and headed across the pond. Every now and then I paddle steered it away from shore and it seemed like I would get a slow ride back to my car.  It tired so I netted it and removed the hook. Saw a kid and his grandpaw on shore and asked them to do the camera work before releasing it. I did this a few more times and then relocated to a quieter spot at the other end of the pond since my catching activity got the shore anglers all giddy. Instantly, everyone wants to know where you caught it -"in the mouth" and how - "with a hook on the end of my line...." What kind of bait?..." special" and for the more friendly types I'll answer with truthful specifics.  Sourdough bread still puzzles them though.









For the last few I had such a small cove picked out that I hooked one up and steered myself and fish to the shore; the fish doing the towing with me turning his head now and then with the rod. Got on shore for a few more as the sunlight faded and dusk settled in.





Found this little guy floating belly up in the weeds.




Two more releases and I'm homeward bound.  All my catches were in the 30 to 36 inch range. What I thought was going to be an upper body workout paddling around turned into a golden rewarded grass fest. The best part is I think there's one last hurrah before the season is over. This coming weekend looks good and then the following weekend it's up to Alaska for Silvers!

I used my Abu G spinning reel and rod on the fish as the baits were freelined to the fish. Only a #4 or #6 Owner hook tied onto the mainline. You dip the bread crust in the water for about a second and then cast lightly or lob side armed as gently and far as possibly into the zone. You only get one cast. The bread becomes soggy and the fish will spook if you even twitch the line.


I'll give a report on the Okuma Citrix reel when I get back Oct. 1 from AK.





tight lines and enjoy your fishing season while you can. 

Steve-O

[redsetta]

Another great story Steve-O - was right there with ya!
Cracker pics, too.
Cheers for sharing, Justin

[Alto Mare]

Nice story Steve. Always a great report! Thanks for sharing.