Golden Bones 2

[zonker]

What to do on my last active day of a week's vacation? Go carping, of course! No one around to argue about it, so I went.

I had the whole day so I spent some time exploring a new place. Beautiful water but no carp that I could see. A nearby muddy river caught my attention. I hiked along it for a half mile. Spotted a few very small carp in shallows. I've seen only small carp on this river in several other spots upstream as well. I didn't stay because the water visibility was very low.

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So onward to the carp ponds where I caught fish yesterday. I wasn't disappointed, though the action was much slower than yesterday. In the first couple of hours I landed this 7 pounder.

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And this 5 pounder.

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Then things went dead. The feeding fish moved out of the area. I don't know where they went. Some spawners were still playing around the area but I couldn't buy a feeding fish. I got back into the car and drove down to a convenience store to buy a soda. I piddled around for awhile then went back out. A few fish had returned but the sun was getting low. I finally got this 9 pound hen. She was so full of eggs that when I set the hook she just went around slowly in a couple of circles. I brought her close and suddenly she realized that she didn't want to come to shore and put on the freight train act as she headed for the other side of the lake. Then she just gave up and I reeled here back in. Strange behavior. Maybe just worn out from all the spawing activity? Who knows?

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All fish were released to do their thing. These ponds have only carp in them.

It has been a good few days.

z~
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Sounds like fun to me. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the last day of a vacation...especially on a nice sunny spring day like that one.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good report and nice pics...as usual.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I suspect the uber-pregnant female was a bit sluggish at first simply because of the load she was carrying. A ready-to-spawn female carp carries an incredible volume of eggs, which weigh from 30-40% of their entire body mass. Since most of the nutrients necessary to produce those eggs comes from stored body fat and existing flesh, the fish is weakened. Even regular feeding is usually not enough to offset the loss in weight and energy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The same thing happens with salmon and steelhead, as we have both observed. They quit feeding when they enter fresh water and by the time they finish dropping their eggs all of the salmon die and many of the steelhead ultimately succumb to their weakened state as well. If you do happen to hook a "kelt"...a spawned out steelhead working its way back to the ocean...it definitely does not put up the same fight as it would when fresh out of the salt at the beginning of the spawning run. Not as pretty either. Some of the survivors are downright ugly. I have never been able to understand why some anglers get excited about catching them and then keep them for the table. Yuck.[/#0000ff]
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[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Lucida Console"][#ff4040]Great work Zonk!! Looks like you have those carp figured out. I bet they are a hoot to catch on a fly rod. I once had a big grass carp hooked on my fly rod...but he didn't want to stay on long enough for me to bring him to shore.[/#ff4040][/font]
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[Majja]

Wow Z you have been slaying those golden bugle mouth bass lately.
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[tubeN2]

Way to go again Uncle Z. Golden Bones, Bugle Mouth Bass and Hillbilly Trout. You da man!!![cool]
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