EDitorial

A lot of people have asked me Ed how do we catch those Carp in Clear Lake. Well this takes me back to when I was a kid in Phoenixville PA fishing on French Creek. This little water way had Trout, Small Mouth Bass, the occasional Largies, lots of Blue Gills and Rock Bass, A fish we called a chub made a lot of noise when you held him in your hands and Carp big Carp. These Carp so big that when the jumped out of the water it sounded like a depth charge when they hit the water. They also got big by jumping and hitting branches that contained berries into the water where they would just chow on them. So this got me thinking one day, I tasted the berries and they were sweet. My typical bait of choice was whole kernel sweet white corn, of course Pennsylvania grown by the Amish yeah baby but what if I added the berry juice. So One day in my mom’s kitchen I got a bunch of corn a bunch of berries I picked and mashed them all together. Well needless to say my mom was not happy with the mess I made and left but that is another story.

So off to my favorite hole behind the SCM company a hole that got almost 20 feet deep and had a little current but a nice tail out under the bank, nice water. Well I chummed a little of my bait into the water put about 6 kernels on my hook using a sliding sinker rig, bail open and preceded to sit there playing my harmonica yes all true when BAM a hit. My line took off like a bat out of hell I picked up my rod engaged the bail fought for what seemed for ever (really on a few minutes) then snap my rod shattered into a million pieces, well a few. Dazed and confused as to what just happened I began to put the pieces together, a big carp which I caught a glimpse of matched with a tiny Daiwa Gold Series Rod and Reel combo you no the $29,99 version, kinda like hunting a lion with a BB gun I know. Yet another story for another day.

I ran home about a mile, understand I would hike to the Creek every day in the summer from 1 mile to 4 miles depending on where I was fishing and my parents would let me. Try that now days. Well I got home to the angry mom whose son had destroyed her kitchen with berry juice to regale her of my adventure. Needles to say that she was not receptive to my story at that particular moment but later after calming down we began the process of figuring out what happened. So that night mom and me made up more of my experiment being neat this time and next morning I ran out with a little stouter ride and low and behold caught a bunch of carp. Well later in years the messy bait got simplified to corn and Kool Aide. Cherry, Strawberry or occasionally some vanilla extracts enough to make it sweet you see Carp have a sweet tooth a big one just like me. I will never forget my mom and me over the sink making that mess and all the time she let me go fishing. Thanks Mom I miss you.