CRAIG NIEL AND PIETER WHITE FISHES FOR CARP OVERSEAS

This is a report by Craig on him and Pieter Whites carp

fishing trip to Canada.

We're back. 31 hours to get to Waddington, air Canada loses all my fishing tackle and clothes (except rods). All our baits are detained at JFK in New York, some

twit told customs it was Carp Products (banned) and not Carp bait (eventually released 2 days after the comp is finished) Caught lots of fish, got hit by the back end of a Tornado, which hit Ottawa. Got eaten by Mosquitoes and

caught lots of fish.

We were told by organizers to prepare to fish at 40-55m with 3-4oz leads. Ended up fishing 60-90m with 6-8ounce leads. When locks were opened to allow ships

through even 8 ounces were washed away and

then you added a 4oz to the rig to hold bottom (the 4lbs V Max Spod casts 8 oz flat out without blinking an eye and the 5 lbs does 16oz (1lbs) without breaking a sweat (just about dislocates your finger though) Pieter went as far as fishing 6oz on the 12' 3lbs prophet (at 80m on 50lbs Suffix Braid) Threw all the kingfisher 30 and 50lbs braid we had away as it parted like cotton each time a big river carp took off, Direction Canada. We replaced it with Awa-Shima Maxx PE coated braid and 50lbs and 65lbs Power Pro (USA Manufactured braid) Fish averaged between 8-11kg. The current was so strong in the comp

we couldn't keep the 15kg+ fish in the swim (as they were all hooked at Range) The photo's are of the river and not the ocean, we fished between 10-23m deep water - can't use marker, checked with fish finder on bass boat. Believe it or not but when you hook the big ones they run deeper and not up, the water is 170ft deep in the channel. Cutting blades, 2 new patterns in sizes 2 and 1 and on occasion 1/0 were the hooks used. At time even the 6kg fish were taking double 20mm boilies and even a 7kg on 2 x 28mm boilies.

The last big fish I have in the photo was caught the day after

the comp on the way home it was in the 20kg class and was a strong as a beast in a 10km/h current. Pieter and I finished in 3rd place on our sector, it was well near impossible to compete for the top spots as section 1 for example caught more than twice our sectors weight in fish. 4 pegs topped 750kg in 72 hours and one of them even took all rods out for 4 hours to sleep and to top it all not one piece of PVA was used by those 3 pegs.
Pieter and I learned a mass of new tips and tricks for our upcoming championships. There are many more

American Carp fishermen than you would believe and there is a circuit at many state pay lakes where thousands of anglers make a living on Carp and Catfish tournaments. They fish daily and daily prizes for 1st can top $9000 and on weekends they hold Carp Derby's where $250 is paid for the heaviest carp weighed every 12 minutes (every 12 minutes for 8 hours) I've made good contact with pay lake administrators and 3 tackle dealers and importers in the USA and a large role player in the UK carp retail market.

Getting home was a nightmare. It took us 73 hours.

We did some fishing at Coles Creek in the morning and

left at around 14:00 via Wal-Mart to buy some clothes for the flight home. We waited for our flight at Montréal and boarding was delayed due to technical issues, when we were ready to depart the plane "Broke Down" and the flight was cancelled and we were put up in the Hilton overnight. All the connecting flights from Heathrow to Johannesburg were full so we had a choice of laying over in London till the 25th or flying home via Sao Paulo (Brazil). So we left to Toronto for a connection to Sao Paulo, we landed in driving rain in the morning and experienced a very hard landing and a slide on the runway and that night just after we had took off to Johannesburg the flight that landed just behind us crashed and slid off the runway "I'm sure you saw it on the news"

We got back home at Midday on Wednesday, still no baits or fishing tackle. The added picture is the Ground baits for 2 pegs prior to the molasses pulp being added. The 20l buckets are full of soaked maize and the 100l tubs are filled with wild bird seeds. These are spod fed and/or mixed with binder to make method feed balls catapulted and slung with rod slings. We had to be topped up at 54hours as this wasn’t enough. Keep an eye out for the full article and tips in the next bank angler.