Carping with a "Pro"

Yesterday, I woke up REALLY EARLY: three in the morning. I already had a goal in mind: catch some big carp! I had scheduled a fishing session a couple days ago, for yesterday, with one of my colleagues from PAC: "GC". Now he's more of a friend to me than a colleague, hence we already met in real life.

For the people unfamiliar with PAC: PAC is the Philadelphia Anglers Club (one of the biggest online fishing Forum made by LOCAL ANGLERS in Philadelphia , and their logo is "Serious Multi Species Fishing". The website itself, which is actually a fishing forum as mentioned before, is run by two really charismatic local fishermen, from Philadelphia: "Louis Cook" and "Matt Coll". They are both very wise, serious, and dedicated fisherman; and if you wish to know more about them - google their names, or join the PAC website. You can click on the link below to obtain more information.

http://www.cookplex.com/pac/

If you took a look at the website above, you will see that there are two sections on the PAC website: (1) "Welcome to Philadelphia Anglers Club", featuring the following topics: About Philadelphia Anglers Club, Local Issues, General Fishing, Local Fishing, Not So Local Fishing, Events, Resources, Off-topic Discussion, and Philadelphia Area Tackle Shops. This section of the Forum is open to every guest and person that registers in the website, and contains a considerable amount of fun, knowledge, and discussions about fishing. However, if you are really into the "SPECIFICS" of fishing a certain species, and you consider yourself a serious and dedicated fisherman, you should become a member of PAC (the monthly fee for joining PAC is only $3 a month, which is actually very low considering that you will meet some legends and pros in Philadelphia, be able to talk to them, ask for tips and hints about fishing certain species, etc). The second section of the website is divided by species, basically: (2) "Club Members Only", featuring the following topics: Bass, Carp, Catfish, Esox, Salmonids, Shad, Walleye, Members only reports, Members only Trips & events, and David has a melt down.

I am a member of PAC since the beginning of June, and I can clearly say that I enjoy very much paying only 3 dollars to stay in touch with those wonderful fisherman, not to mention that I would never really met GC in real life (which is a CARPING PRO) if I didn't become a member. Therefore, the PAC website certainly already have my gratitude for certain achievements that I've obtained lately, in terms of fishing skills.

Anyways...."GC"; which is the person I scheduled the fishing section with, and also one of the oldest members of PAC; is a very knowledgeable person when it comes to carp fishing. One may really call him a "Carp Pro", among many others at the PAC forum. GC fishes for carp almost for seven years now, 200+ days a year, and he has caught nearly 3000 local carps since the beginning of his Carping career as a fisherman. Among the different types of carp, GC has already caught the Common Carp, Ghost Carp, Koi, Mirror Carp (Including a Full Scaled Mirror Carp, and a Linear Scaled Mirror Carp), etc. The only type of Carp that GC has yet caught is the Leather Carp (considering that he possibly caught a Grass Carp before). Overall, his techniques and skills in Carping are really great and wise - and he's certainly one of the top levels "carpers" here in Philadelphia.

We started our fishing session yesterday around 5:30 a.m., at Kelly Drive. We talked for a good while about Carp fishing during the day, including subjects such as: choosing certain spots for better chances of landing a fish, chumming and preparing the spot before fishing (meeting nutritional needs for the fish is a plus), using adequate rigs for Carp (e.g. hair rigs and its variations), preparing and choosing different kinds of chum, choosing the rods and the adequate pieces of equipment while fishing for carp (including a discussion on poles, drags and reels, and lines), etc. By 9:30 a.m. we caught two carps. They weren't measured with any tools, but GC measured them with his eyes: the first one was proximately 8lb, and the second one was proximately 12lb. For a spawning season at the non-tidal Schuylkill river, we were more than satisfied with two fish over nothing (the photos are below).

The First Carp - Proximately 8lb.

The Second Carp - Proximately 12lb

The Second Carp However, GC wanted me to really have a good experience in fishing for Carp. Therefore, we packed our gear and we moved to Delaware river waters, next to the Philadelphia Airport. The place was certainly beautiful, with an amazing view. The water was tidal, meaning that there was much more current compared to the waters of the non-tidal section of the Schuylkill river. We stayed there from 10:30 until a little bit over 2:30, and we got 4 fish over there - all bigger than the Schuylkill river ones. Those included a male carp (which was REALLY long, and put up a REALLY good fight), a full scaled mirror carp (the first one in my life - and very rare, weighting around 20-21lb. Note: It weighted 25lb with the net), and two other common carps. The pictures are below:

First Carp at the second spot next to Delaware River - clearly bigger than the Carps at Kelly Drive

The Male Carp - Very long and Torpedo shaped

Fightining with the Fish - Notice how the face and the hand is showing persistance towards the fight.

The Full Scaled Mirror Carp - a very rare finding according to GC

Sometimes they slip - don't let them fall! You may get sticky, but don't let them get hurt.

Finally, I would like to thank GC again for this wonderful opportunity. He had the patience, and allowed me to learn and experience the fish itself.

Best of luck for all of us!

Stay tuned for next updates...

Long Days and Pleasant Nights.

Leo S.