A few days ago, I decided to tag along on one of the most improbable sounding sessions I can think.
Two nights at Emma...with Krista, and Long-Haired Dave.
Now, if you're new to our section, that probably doesn't sound odd, but if you're one of our regulars...You know just what a WEIRD session that sounds like! Lol. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC session though, and I literally caught more fish in the last couple days then I ever have in any Emma session ever before.
I ended up with a total of 17 fish, 15 Commons and 2 Buffalo!
And I caught a new PB buffalo of 31lbs! Not as big as some of you, but I was VERY stoked to have not only caught a new PB buff, but to have FINALLY broke the 30lb barrier.
Awesome.
Krista had a total of 13 fish, with the big fish of the trip, a 43lb buffalo.
Dave reversed his insane streak of beginners luck from the last session, and only caught about 4 fish, though he did get a beautiful 37lb buffalo.
I'm still really tired from the trip, so I'll just hit the highlights, and mention one really cool story.
The first day, and the first night, it rained...and rained...and rained...and rained some more. This would not have been so bad, if it hadn't been so chilly. It wasn't cold...yet...but the rain made it feel a heck of a lot colder then it really was. I rarely break out any kind of rain gear, so all I've got is an old school, yellow poncho...
Which when added to my long hair and my head lamp, makes me look like some kind of crazy cult member when I'm wearing it in night time fish pictures...
Krista started off the trip with a bang, landing a 24lb buff, and several nice commons, including her biggest of the trip early in the night:
On the other hand, my first fish was a teeny tiny little common, so here I am, looking like a cult member, holding it:
Krista wanted in the shot too:
And she wanted to make a funnier shot:
MY next carp was a little bigger, and Krista wanted in on that shot, too:
Then she decided she didn't like that fish, and she kicked it:
Then I decided that since it had just gotten kicked in the face, it needed a drink:
...Yeah. It was that kinda session.
We got bored enough after that, that we started taking pictures of the air, with the flash on, just cause we liked how it made the constant, drizzling rain look:
A while after that, we all went to bed. Sometime in the night, Krista lost a huge buff, and I got woken up to land another common:
I got a little sleep that night, but not much, as Krista had another fish right around dawn, and I decided I might as well get up, and net it...
Actually...I decided I might as well get up and let Dave net it, hehe. Since Krista already had her net and mat out, Dave and I decided to leave mine in the truck to avoid stinking it up with the smell of buffalo jube on the way home.
And since Krista's net was broken, and only had half a handle, and I didn't have any knee-high mud boots...that left Dave and Krista to do all the net work.
Awesome.
Keep in mind, I HAD brought shoes for the mud...but because it was so rainy and wet, the mud around the water was much thicker and deeper then usual, and my extra mud shoes were not tall enough, nor warm enough.
And the drawdown had brought the water to pretty insane levels:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Drawdown3.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Drawdown1.jpg[/img]
The next day Krista and I continued our catching streaks, and Dave continued his blanking streak.
I got some nice fat commons in the low 20's:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp4Big.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp5-5.jpg[/img]
Then, the first of two truly insane events happened.
I got another screaming run, which was starting to see common at this point.
This one was different, though, it may have been the fastest, hardest run I've EVER had since I made the upgrade to Euro gear. For the first time, my "big and ugly" alarms that can't "tone out"...Toned out.
Beep...beep....beep.beep.beepbeepbeepbeepBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
Running the long distance from the picnic tables down the vastly ddrawdown-extended bank, I could actually see my reel spinning faster, and faster, and faster, and faster...it was nuts!
I grabbed my rod, flipped the baitrunner, and lifted up, and the fish never even slowed down. I LOVE it when that happens!
The fish took out a lot of line, and I worked him back in towards shore...Then he took off again, and bolted right through a brushpile or something. I could still feel the fish, and he was still running and still peeling drag, but the place where my line entered into the water was no longer moving.
Which meant the fish was still running freely, but had hung up my line on something. That's almost certain death as most of you know! I tried to work him free to no avail, and finally decided to set my rod back down to see if he could free himself. I set it back on the alarm, and flipped the baitrunner back on.
As we stood next to my pod, waiting, one of my other three rods suddenly beeped a few times. Something peeled off a little drag, then my line went completely slack, dropping all the way back onto the bank. I yanked up the rod, reeled in the slack and set the hook into a much heavier fish!
I had a double!
Of course, as soon as I started fighting that fish, the other one started stripping line off the baitrunner again. We knew it was still pretty snagged though, and the fish I'd just lifted into felt a lot heavier, so I was much more concerned with landing it.
We decided to leave my snagged fish to try and unsnag itself, and followed my fish down the bank so we'd have a little room to net it without getting tangled in my other lines.
This fish didn't strip off a whole lot of line, at first, it just sort of let me drag it into shore, as though I were pulling a log through the water.
Classic buffalo behavior.
Also, classic buffalo behavior...When I had finally worked him towards the net, he took off like an angry demon, and the battle was really on! For another 5-10 minutes, I played tug of war with what turned out to be the biggest buffalo I'd ever landed. We finally got it in the net, and all three of us could tell I'd finally, FINALLY broken 30!
Something plenty of you did a long time ago, but hey...I work in small increments lol.
The fish ended up weighing almost exactly 31lbs, and I was stoked!
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/31lbbuff.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/31lbbuffb.jpg[/img]
It had some really cool coloring on the bottom of it's tail, check it out, almost an orange color. Never seen that on a buffalo before.
We got that fish back in the water, just in time for two of Dave's alarms to go off. While I had been fighting my buffalo, my carp had gotten all the way over into Dave's lines! Of course, it didn't help that Dave had been casting over my lines, hehehe.
Dave picked up one of his rods to try and bring it in, and realized, he could feel my fish through his line! I picked up my rod, and I could feel the fish was still there, too. Working together, we tried to drag the lines in, with another of Dave's lines getting involved, leaving all three of Dave's lines tangled with my fish, and my line!
Krista grabbed one of Dave's lines to try and help him bring it in, and suddenly, the carp boiled no less then 15 feet from shore! Krista had a moment of inspiration, and began to carefully pull in my fish, using Dave's line, hand over hand! The fish ran a few more times, but somehow, Krista was able to avoid cutting her hands on the line.
Finally, she'd dragged in enough line to be able to grab my shock leader. Dave went for the net, and Krista pulled in my fish, still hooked, by the shock leader that had gotten wrapped around Dave's lines, and Dave netted it!
INSANE.
Needless to say, Krista had to get in on the shot:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp6-4.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp6b-2.jpg[/img]
Now, while we had been pulling that fish in, several other baitrunners had been peeling off drag, including mine, and two of Dave's. So we paid little attention to the fact that my third and final rod had been beeping sporadically.
After all, each time we'd pulled in one of the other lines, line had peeled off my last reel, and the alarm had gone off. So it was only natural that we figured somehow, it had gotten tangled up as well.
Then, it beeped on it's own, and a few more clicks of line came off. I finally figured I might as well make sure it wasn't a fish, and see if I could unsnag it.
I picked it up, and the line dropped back...That was odd, I thought...just in case...I reeled in the slack, and set the hook...
On ANOTHER Fish! This one took off immediately, and ran straight into a snag. By this time, Dave and Krista had wandered off. I hadn't had much sleep, at all, and the fact that I'd just had 3 fish in a row, one on each of my rods, in less then 30 minutes, seemed absolutely hilarious to me.
I started cracking up, and Dave who had yet to catch a single fish, yelled out to me, "What the hell are you laughing at? ...You better NOT have another fish!"
"I DO have another fish!"
I could hardly believe it. I was sure I was going to lose this one to the snag it had gotten bogged down in, but I was too stoked by my new PB and the hand-lined carp to care!
So it was a real bonus when the fish actually got itself loose, and started stripping off drag again!
I fought this fish even longer then the 31lb buffalo, and for a while I was convinced it was going to be another angry common. But as it turned out, it was my second and last buffalo of the session, and just happened to be a lot angrier then my first.
After a very hard fought battle, I landed my third fish in 30 minutes, a 20.5lb buffalo with a really odd looking mouth:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/205lbbuff.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/205lbbuffb.jpg[/img]
Hairlip buffalo! Lol.
So, 30 minutes, 3 rods, three fish, nearly 70lbs. Awesome.
After that, things went back to normal. I kept catching, and eventually, Dave finally got a fish, too, and later, Krista had a 30 minute triple as well! Hers was 3 buffalo.
I didn't get pictures of all of them, but I'm sure Dave has pictures as well that he can post.
I did have to get pictures of a few of her buffs, though, including her monster 43:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista43lbBuff.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista43lbbuffb.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista43lbbuffc.jpg[/img]
And the release:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista43lbbuffrelease.jpg[/img]
She also caught a really weird buffalo, that only had 1/3 of a tail!
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista3rdtailbuff2.jpg[/img]
That thing is just strange looking!
Krista got hungry, hehe.
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Krista3rdtailbuff.jpg[/img]
Around the time of my 30 Minutes of Mayhem, the cold front it...and it began to get colder...and colder...and colder. You can tell it's getting colder if you look through my carp pictures for Tuesday in order, as you can see me wearing first, a T shirt when I caught that triple...then a sweatshirt, and finally, a coat hehe.
Krista ended up with like, 9 jackets on, and a ninja mask by the time she caught her next fish.
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Kristabuff2mask.jpg[/img]
I put up with the cold a lot longer then the other two, and made do with my sweat shirt for as long as possible.
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp7-2.jpg[/img]
But that fish was the last straw...it got me wet, and the wind was COLD, and it was time to put on my coat, as well.
The fishing slowed down for a little while, and Jason and Peter showed up to spend the night fishing and hanging out with us.
We spent the rest of the night sitting around a campfire, telling stories and making fun of each other, and drinking.
You know, the basic Emma trip. Peter turned out to be a really cool guy, and I was glad I got to meet him.
Though I'm quite sure Dave and I successfully convinced him that American carpers are a bunch of drunken lunatics!
Awesome.
Oh, and I caught a few more fish, too.
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp8-1.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp9-1.jpg[/img]
I also experienced something else truly insane, worthy of it's own, seperate post, so I'll put that up in a minute hehe.
Then this fish came about 3 AM, after I was soundly asleep in my very warm sleeping bag. I was so groggy, and it was so cold, I ALMOST didn't even get up for the fish...I finally forced my feet into my shoes, and stumbled down the bank in just my sweatshirt and jeans in the 30 degree weather...I literally stumbled around I was so close to being still asleep...and still drunk, and almost pitched right into the water after I lifted up into my fish.
Krista was good enough to get out and net it for me, and I told her to "take one really quick shot because I'm throwing this fish back in the water, leaving this line in, and getting back in my sleeping bag."
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp10latenight.jpg[/img]
The next day was COLD, COLD, COLD.
I lost one rod to a snag, and another to a rig had gotten pretty messed up in another snag, so I cut it off. But it was cold, and I was convinced we'd be packing up soon, so I decided to just fish one rod for the rest of the morning.
And I ended up pulling a Donny...or a Zach, lol.
Despite only fishing one rod, I just kept hauling in carp!
I had another five or six fish, plus the one I lost to a snag, and another that I lost to my only hook pull of the weekend.
Awesome.
The first was another real nice fatty, just creeping past 20:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp11.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp11b.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp11c.jpg[/img]
And the rest of my fish:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp12.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp12withKrista.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp13.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp13b.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp14.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp14b.jpg[/img]
Whoops!
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp14dropping.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Carp15b.jpg[/img]
Dave also picked up a couple carp, at least, including this dirty girl:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Davecarp1-1.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Davecarp1b-1.jpg[/img]
And this fatty with a strange tail wound:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Davecarp1injured.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/DaveInjuredCarp2.jpg[/img]
Which he had to give a loving hug to make it feel better:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Davecarphugging.jpg[/img]
Dave also picked up this big, fat, 37lb buff, which he couldn't resist making faces with:
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Dave37lbbuff.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Dave37lbbuffb.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/StarlessDragon/Dave37lbbuffc.jpg[/img]
And that about ends this crazy rant.
![[Linked Image]](http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd292/machine_024/WCBLogoGIF2_zps9e2c9d75.gif)
