After last fall's success using chick peas as bait for carp fishing, I decided to dedicate most of my carp fishing this season to sticking with chick peas, for pre-baiting, chumming, and hook bait. I was quite hopeful, as in the previous season, I managed to avoid any other "nuisance" species, such as tench, suckers, and catfish.
Knowing that my first spot for the season typically starts producing carp once the water temps nears 55F, I planned my first pre-baiting campaign, chumming chick peas for 3 days in a row, before finally fishing it on the 4th evening. I invite my friend Warren and his kids out for the outing, and sure enough, they managed to land a carp within less than 10 minutes. Nothing big, maybe in the 12-13 lbs range, but it had them fired up for a bit, until the bite died down and they started getting cold, which spelled the end of their outing.
The rest of my spring carp fishing was a complete shock. Despite a few heavy pre-baiting campaigns using only flavored chick peas, I managed to get skunked 3 outing in a row during what should have been peak carping conditions during pre-spawn.
After a few weeklong trips up North to start the summer the summer, I finally got back to carping late in July. I managed 4 outings within 9 days, all with more heavy pre baiting. Again, I was surprised by the meager results, with 2 outings producing only 1 carp each, and getting skunked on the other 2 outings. At least Audrey and Zev managed their first carps of the season.
At this point, I decided to give up on that fishing spot, and started pre-baiting chick peas in another area. Sure enough, the first outing worked out well, with Zev landing 2 more decent carp.
Feeling confident that I was onto a good bite, I kept chumming the spot. I invited Eli and Audrey out for the next 2 outings at that spot, and again, we got skunked both times. This was getting a bit frustrating, but being my stubborn self, I decided to switch it up again and heavily bait a 3rd area with chick peas, before attempting to fish it with Eli and Audrey. Again, another fail, with us getting skunked yet again.
At this point, I was thinking my last year's success may have been a fluke, possibly just having hit some good timing. I gave carping a break until the fall, focusing on enjoying what was left of the summer, chasing bass and pike from my float tube.
As fall rolled in, we were still enjoying slightly warmer than normal weather. Having a few KG of dry chickpeas, as well as left over range cubes and boilies, I decided I'd try chumming a combination of all 3 baits. After a couple days of prebaiting my carp spot with all of the above, I took along Zev, Eli and Audrey, for an afternoon/evening outing.
Bite was one, we landed 2 nice carp, with Audrey catching her new PB at 28 lbs.
Hoping to build on the streak, I returned with Eli the following evening, only to get skunked again.
After a couple weeks enjoying the Jewish holidays at home with the family, I was itching to give the spot one more shot in cooling water. Historically, I've landed a good percentage of trophy fish at this spot in October, and I knew I had just enough bait left for a couple more pre-baiting campaigns. Again, I went with chick peas, range cubes and boilies, chumming my fishing spot 3 consecutive days before fishing it for a few hours. I timed my outing to coincide the the peak of a mid October heat wave.
For the first time in a while, I went solo, which meant that I had a shot at landing my first carp of the season, being that I'm usually guiding the kids. Sure enough, I got hit within less than 10 minutes, and landed a fat 30 lbs carp. Unfortunately, the passerby that offered to take a picture though they were doing so, but after I released the carp, I realized the pictures had never been snapped. Oh well.
Luckily, I managed 2 more carp within the next 40 minutes, 19 and 25 lbs. This time, I made sure the pics we on my camera before releasing the carp.
Bite died down for a while, and eventually, I had to leave to run some errands. Just as I stared packing up my gear, my rod went off, and within minutes, I landed another 30 lbs carp!
Gotta love those fairy tail endings whenever they happen. As well, I didn't feel as bad about missing the pictures of the first 30 of the outing.
Being down to my last bits of bait, I return the following week, considerably colder temps in the single digits. Water had cooled by a few degrees, and I didn't manage any bites after a couple days of pre-baiting mainly chickpeas.
At this point, I'm done prebaiting spots for carp for the season. Chickpeas will definitely be part of my next years chumming plans, though I'm likely going to mix in range cubes, and probably boilies as well.
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