*(Please note that I had to break this post up into several parts because I was unable to put all the pictures directly here into this post--sorry if there are too many posts)*
**also, all carp were safely caught and released!!!**
Hello everyone,
now that I've had some time to recover and calm down from the mind-blowing session we had at Emma, here are the pics/videos we took during the "magical" 3 days we were there. This was my first time to Emma and keep in mind that before I went to Emma, I may have caught something like 5 carp and 2 buffs in my life since becoming a carper last winter when I met PapaWhiskey at the Cliffs and learned a lot about hair rig/method/etc.
As an overview, we arrived around 5pm Thurs and left at 1pm Saturday. We used the method mix (calf manna/oats/flour/sweet canned corn) and the hair rig with nothing but Tres Flores baits including Scopex/Tutti Frutti/Nanshe/Mulberry maize and Tutti Frutti boilies.
I usually put 4-5 maize on the hair or did a boilie/maize combo on the hair. We cast our lines out from 40-70 yards I would say and didn't have the problem with weeds that some posters have described. We chummed the area regularly with range cubes with that balloon launcher I got from Academy (thanks for the advice) and launched some method balls out there as well. Weather was relatively warm, but very breezy at times.. and we experienced a few brief showers as well. No mosquitoes at all, but there were ants to deal with.
We caught 22 total carp (here are the weight ranges in pounds) in the order they were caught on my camera I believe (and some pics/weights are missing since my friend took some pictures with his camera and I haven't got them yet from him):
14.68, 10.22, 12.38, 14.61, 17.06, 24.44, 12.89, 31.12, 17.24, 15.34, 12.43, 15.05, 21.07, 12.23, 25.48, 18.12, 13.60, and 11.37. My new PB was 25.48, and my freakin wife got her first carp and shattered my "new" PB with her 31.12 lb!!!
We also caught 2 smaller catfish, and amazingly one very large bass on the maize as well. I was hoping to catch those huge 50, 60, 70 lb buffs that some of you have, but we didn't get any.
We arrived at Emma Long around 5pm Thursday.. of course all the utility sites were taken, so I asked for a campsite as close to the bank as possible.. and they put us in the "Grove" section (campsite G-6 to be exact), which are next to the utility sites. Was a decent spot, had water/portapotties nearby.
Here's what it looks like from the bank:
and here's what the fishing site looks like:
here's a quick video of the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4JzDnjVNMwthe weather was warm, and quite breezy there.. so we set up camp.. it's about 30-40 yards from the campsite to the poles/bank (this was funny, cause sometimes when we were not sitting near the poles, we had to run from the campsite and by the time one of us got to the poles, the carp had already stripped off maybe 50-100 yards!!!):
About an hour after we arrived and setup, while we were all eating dinner at the campsite, we hear one of the alarms go off like crazy/nonstop... I bolt from the table and hurdle over the ropes--across the little road--hurdle another rope and get to the my pole... may have stripped about 100 yards of line by the time I got there. I couldn't believe the pull this carp had.. I had never experienced that before with any carp/buff I had ever caught. Everytime I got the first carp kinda close to shore, it would go on another run and strip more drag.. this was repeated about 4-5 times with this first carp... everyone was so excited, including myself!
here's the first carp and a great way to start our session:
while we were trying to weigh the first carp, another alarm went off and we scrambled to haul in the 2nd carp. I don't have pics/video of this one since my friend took those.
Here's my friend steve struggling with a carp:
and here's the video I think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDYi2MDm3Q
