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| Shiner Bock and Camping Shot |
As the Wild Carp Club of Houston's 2013 season is in full swing, we recently held the 4th event of the season at Boomtown RV Resort in Vidor, TX. This was a new style of event for us, being the first overnight fishing event. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for an overnight event - jeans during the evening and shorts during the day. For this event we had four anglers fishing (Justin, Loren, Nick, and myself) and a few others that came to talk or hang out. Boomtown is an RV resort that allows us to camp and fish there but also has quite a few residents that live there. Setting up our euro gear attracted a bit of attention, and allowed us to talk to a lot of people about how to catch carp and smallmouth buffalo. We chose this event because it offered a chance at some larger fish that we don't normally see in Houston.
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| 14 lb common carp from the margins |
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| 24lb common carp from the margins |
The event started at 9AM, meaning we could begin prebaiting at 8AM. Vidor is about an hour and a half away from Houston, so I shared a ride with Nick. When we got to Boomtown, Justin and Loren were already there and had laid claim to the beach/traditional tent camping area. There really was only room for two, so we decided to scope out around the lake. Ultimately we found one corner of the lake that looked amazing. It was designated as a fishing zone only. The lake is an old sand pit, and you could see a pronounced drop off about 10 feet off the bank, where it dropped from 7 to 20 feet very quickly. You could also see ridges between the pits and a channel off to the left. The water was a super clear color as opposed to the brown of normal Houston water. As we left the truck to do some scouting, we saw a few carp spawning in the shallows, and even saw a few cruising in the margins, some as a pod and some cruising alone. This gave us a lot of confidence, and I couldn't wait to put a rod in those margins!
9 o'clock and the start of the tournament came and I immediately put a rod in that margin. Nick and I ended up setting up the rest of our swim, feeling confident having seen so many fish. We were also hoping that not all of the fish were spawning with "other things" on their mind =] than eating. I was fishing with my new spod mix, chicken scratch. This is a mixture of cracked corn and bird seed. I prepared it by adding boiling water to about 2 gallons of chicken scratch in a 5 gallon bucket and sealing the lid on it the night before. Overnight, this bait swelled to roughly twice the size. I like this spod mix because it is a lot of small pellets, and I feel it helps the fish get their heads down and feeding more aggressively. I put one rod in a channel that dropped from 7 feet on each side to 12 feet in the middle, one in the margins (my favorite spot), and one in 15 feet of water straight out. Nick set up a swim in the margins and one in 15 feet of water. He was going for buffalo, he claimed having caught a 30lber the last time to the lake. He was using his trusty Fox Armapoint LSCs, which ended up being very effective. Gotta get me some of these!
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| 26 lb smallmouth buffalo |
Our confidence in seeing fish swimming in the margins quickly diminished as we weren't fortunate enough to have any runs straight away. So we set up the rest of the camp and settled in for the long haul. About 9pm things had gotten dark and the mosquitos had come out. Justin and Loren were fairing the same. Then, all of a sudden, my rod started going off. I had some trouble with my head light and ended up doing a dead sprint in the pitch black, luckily not falling or hurting myself along the way. By the time I got to the alarm it was a solid scream and I lifted into a hard running fish. Nick came over to help and we realized the fish had run into the rushes between two pits. Luckily, with some pressure, I was able to ease it through and netted a nice 14lb common! This was the first time I had ever been in the lead in a WCC Houston event, and I was stoked! And guess where it came from? The margins!
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| 21 lb smallmouth buffalo |
We had until noon the next day to fish, and we were hoping things would pick up with fish coming in. Unfortunately, the rest of the night was uneventful, except for a few small catfish for both Nick and I. This actually kept me from sleeping much, as I was having tweaks and pulls and ended up with three small catfish. To make things worse for me, I woke up to a text message from Justin who landed a 24 lb common. Boo! At about 530AM I woke up to Nick's alarm screaming off. He struck into a fish and I came over with the net. After a good fight, he landed his first real fish, a 26lb smallmouth buffalo that catapulted him into the lead. After a few pictures, we let that fish go and settled back to sleep. Around 6:30AM I saw my rod bouncing a bit and struck it. I had a good fight on my hands with the fish not running much but shaking its head. Nick didn't know I had a fish and didn't wake up, so I fought it a good while and netted it myself, quite a feat with a 12ft rod! I woke Nick up and we weighed the fish in at 21lbs - back in the lead baby!
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| 26 lb smallmouth buffalo |
But it didn't last long. Nick let me have the lead for 5 minutes before his rod started bouncing again. He set the hook and landed another 26lb buffalo, to put him in the lead with just over 53 lbs. Things were looking up as we had caught 5 fish overnight plus some catfish. Sadly though, the carp started spawning again in the shallows and disappeared, just as they had done the day before. The event ended at noon with no more fish caught. Nick was first, I was second, Justin third, and Loren fourth.
However, as the carp fishing slowed down, we saw mullet tweaking our lines and eating our method mix. My method was made from a
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| 5lb 4 oz striped mullet |
combination of salt, oats, and the chicken scratch I discussed before. I took my spod off my spod rod and put on a small float and #8 hook. I had a school of four or five large mullet destroying my method in the margins. I took a very small ball of method and molded it around the hook. I saw the mullet circling and sucking up the method, until they finally go to my little tiny ball. One sucked it up and I struck him good. He gave me an awesome fight until Nick netted him. He came in at 5lbs 4 oz and was 24 inches long...AN UNOFFICIAL TEXAS STATE FRESHWATER RECORD STRIPED MULLET! I decided not to certify my scale, but it was a cool feat. We kept trying to catch a few more, but they're surprisingly hard to hook and we ended with just the one.
Overall, it was a very fun overnight camping trip and a success both personally and for the Wild Carp Club of Houston. We generated a lot of interest among the locals, and had a lot of discussion over rigs, baits, etc. That's the whole idea of the club. Most importantly, we also caught a few good fish and had a lot of fun.
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