The guys down at my rod & gun club were gearing up to do their annual Columbus Day weekend salmon camp trip. I was invited to come along by some of the guys. My original plan was to fish a different river in NY a bit later in the fall, primarily trout. However being somewhat of a newbie down at the club and a couple of good friends encouraging me to go I decided to change plans and join them. With the large crew going I knew it would be a good time. I decided to take my truck and car pool with my good friends Mark and Peter (who are twins). Friday morning we were up early and met up and made our long drive to upstate NY, counting deer sightings along the way. We were in the town of Pulaski by 11:00, we grabbed lunch, licenses', tackle and (of course) beer and were at camp and fully set up by the early part of the afternoon. We managed to get on the river for a few hours of fishing before dark. A spot called the trestle pool, fortunately there was a good run of king salmon providing the bulk of the action with an occasional Coho salmon thrown in the mix but unfortunately it was combat fishing at it’s finest. I had brought a fly rod I was a little rusty with, trying to effectively cast shoulder to shoulder was difficult for me but I made the best of it. Most of my crew had some lost hookups but most still seemed to land a salmon or two. I had landed a small Coho salmon before calling it quits and Peter took honors for the largest Coho of the evening, that sported a hooked nose and kype, that will soon be an addition to his trophy room. The rest of the weekend we continued to fish the Salmon River and along the way hit a couple of other different spots on the river. We all seemed to hook up everyday on king salmon. We had more hookups than landed fish but when your dealing with combat fishing and a sea of other fishermen’s lines all together making synchronized drift casts, one will occasionally make a mistake, therefore the occasional tangle is the norm. It’s gets even more insane when you hook up with a fish. Normally when your very vocal and loud other anglers around you will reel up until you land or loose your fish and then commence casting but once in a while there always seems to be a guy or two that’s part of that small minority that is clueless to the river etiquette. For those that have done this sort of fishing you know the type, the ones that do not understand that when one yells out “fish on” “coming up” coming down” or “coming over” that it means reel up your damn line and get out of the way, then again they might understand and just not care but either way it can be comical at times to sit back and watch this scenario unfold time and time again. While I miss the days of elbowroom it is what it is and what it is, is trying to hook up with giant salmon among a sea of other anglers. Therefore the challenge goes beyond the initial hook up and fight but also extends to getting your fish around the additional obstacle course of all those other anglers and lines during the fight. You can look at this negatively or look at it in a whole new light as something even that much more challenging. As far as my outlook on this it depends on what I have hooked and how big it is.... LOL. The water seemed low this year but the salmon seemed to be abundant in the pools that were fishable. The nights at camp were always a good time, the beer was always flowing and the grill always seemed to have something delicious on it, this complimented with plenty of stories and laughs with my buddies all added up to a good time. So with all that said will I join that circus on the river next year...probably yes! Tight Lines All!

I decided to hit our favorite lake in NH with 2 of my 3 boys Mike and Skylar in search of some large full spawning colored Brookies. We decided to do it months ago. When we got to the lake around 8:00 this was the same spot we slayed them this past spring, it was windy and BRRRRRRR cold 36 degrees. We were dressed for it with our fall hunting jackets. On our very first pass on this fly fishing only lake we caught two 8”-10" little guys. On the next pass Mike nailed a nice 15" Male in the 2 lb class, we took a couple of pics and set him free. On that same pass Mike got another hit and again a nice Male in the 16"+ 2 lb class. On the 3rd pass Skylar was into a heavy Brookie after quite a fight for a 10year old!!! He landed a beautiful female 18" and 2 lbs 8oz!!! On the 4th pass Mike had a super hard hit, he looked over at me and said wow dad that was the hardest hit I've ever felt on this lake. He said I don't want to exaggerate but this is a nice Brookie, when it was about 15 feet away I saw this DEEP RED stripe go by and I yelled its a big Male!!! As he came closer I was in awe at the colors. Once we had him in the canoe I was snapping pics. It was 18" and had the deepest fall colors I've ever seen. We caught another 15 or so Brookies ranging from 4"-12". Around 12:00 we headed to shore for a quick lunch and leg stretch. Once back on the lake we had a long stretch of nothing. Then we started to hook up again, every pass Skylar was hooking up but was losing them. I know most were on the small 6" or so size. Around 2:30 PM or so Skylar had a hard hit, his rod was doubled over. He was in a little bit of a panic but after some time he had another huge Female in the net. This one was 18"+ and 3lbs. She was so fat and heavy. We put her back, this was Skylars biggest Brookie to date "Great job pal". We landed a bunch of Brookies in the 6"-10" range. Mike did land a fat Female in the 2lb range that we put back for another day!!! All I can say is that between Mike and Skylars Brookies we had a pair of aces!!!! What a great day of fishing 32 Brookies total with 5 over 2 lbs. Take a kid fishing - Mike Deloia

(Click on the video above to watch it) 

(Click on the video above to watch it) After a long absence from saltwater fishing and mainly focusing on freshwater, I was really starting to miss the ocean. It was time to switch it up a bit and get back into some salt action again. Over the summer I gladly accepted some invitations from friends and joined them on a handful of trips targeting striped bass and codfish. This video shows some of the highlights from those trips. Each trip was a blast and I now have the salt bug in me again. With a renewed interest I now look forward to other future excursions out on the sea. Special thanks to my friends for letting me join them on these trips and the laughs that came with them, I hope you guys enjoy the video and I look forward to fishing with you all again next year. Tight Lines All!

Hey guys I have been busy and unable to get out much lately. Between prepping up for the hunting season and some much-needed yard work (thanks to hurricane Irene) has pretty much kept me away from the water. Going to try and squeeze some fishing when I can but in the meantime check out some new videos below that accompany some of the reports below that have already been logged here. Enjoy and tight lines all.

During the hot month of August I visited a spring fed pond (a little spot I like to keep to myself) to target trout from shore. This video shows highlights of two successful days of fishing the pond. The target fish I was after were two rare golden palomino trout that were stocked back in May as novelty fish, along with a generous number of rainbow trout by a private hatchery for an annual spring trout-fishing event at a public pond. The two golden's surprisingly somehow had managed to avoid being caught by other fishermen and birds of prey. Being bright yellow they stand out and are generally more vulnerable to predation and anglers. The state of Massachusetts does not stock golden palomino trout, hence the rarity of these fish in MA public waters. Though it sounds a bit crazy targeting only two fish in a entire pond and for a type of fish that in known to be difficult to catch for refusing offering after offering but (though it did not come easy) I did manage to land them both and along the way of my golden trout hunts I was pleasantly surprised with another trout rarity, a beautifully colored up tiger trout. As well as a bunch of (very aerial) rainbow trout, that after being hooked put on a great show.

Carp Fishing the Assabet River in Massachusetts. A collage of video clips taken from 4 short trips of friends and I targeting mirror carp and common carp. While carp rods set up on tripods with bite alarms and baited with boilies and such is cool and all, none of us in the video own any specialized carp gear. We simply used our bass and trout rods baited with kernels of corn. Keeping it simple still produced us some decent fish. It does not have to be complicated, so get out there and give it a shot.

I wasn’t planning on going back to the spring fed pond. After all I had fished it last week and finally caught that golden palomino trout I was after and thought it would be best to hit other and closer water this week but I knew there was one other golden trout in the pond, one that was even a little bit bigger than the one I had caught. But this particular fish was even more cautious than the other. Then I also thought it would be pretty silly to drive all the way down to the pond to target one fish (a scenario that was starting to become way to familiar). Not to mention the golden palomino would probably be hiding somewhere in the weeds and not even show itself. Golden Palomino Trout are hard enough to catch to begin with but normally you can generally locate and cast to them repeatedly. They generally approach with an interest only to reject your offering at the last second, painfully over and over again. But this particular fish seemed like it spent most of it’s time in hiding, it took 2-3 trips to the pond before I even noticed it (and I was always scanning the water with my polarized glasses) and when I did it was a brief encounter and it wasn’t long before it darted back in the weeds not to be seen again for the rest of that day. So making a trip exclusively for this particular fish seemed foolish and a loosing battle. Casting opportunities seemed unlikely or very limited at best. I’d be lucky enough to just spot it once and get one good cast at it. I tried justifying another trip to the pond by telling myself there are other fish in the pond too and I wouldn’t have to load my canoe and gear onto my truck or trailer my boat, just grab my ultra-light rod and a tray of lures, whatever bait I had left over and head out, which is exactly what I ended up doing. I finally get to the pond and walk entirely around it to discover that the golden trout is nowhere in sight. I had feared that this would happen and was disappointed but not surprised. But what else could I do besides cast. I tossed out a spinner and not long I was into a rainbow trout that took some drag out and gave me a couple of leaps, before I unhooked and tossed her back in. It was a small trout of about 10 inches or so, an average size rainbow for this pond. I hooked another one shortly after that lunged itself into the weeds, I only had 4 pound test and was afraid of braking my line. I reeled up the slack line and made a very slow but steady pump straight upward, slowly gliding the fish out of the salad with just enough pressure to avoid snapping the line and once the fish was free it gave me another run before I was able to bring it to shore. I kept looking around and kept a sharp eye out for the golden trout but still no sighting. I continued to catch more rainbows, including one that was surprisingly large for this pond, which measured 16.50 inches. After a couple of hours of fishing I spotted the golden out in the center of the pond. She was in a small open spot surround by weeds. The open spot was to small to run a spinner through it, so I cut it off and put on a small bobber and #10 hook baited with a meal worm and casted, hoping I’d be on target and not spook the golden. The cast was on target and the fish noticed the bait and headed right for it, it grabbed the meal worm and began to pull the bobber under the water, I waited for the bobber to completely submerge and when it did, I went to set the hook but it spit the bait out. I missed setting the hook on the fish by less than a second. I was completely disappointed. I casted again and she quickly came to investigate and when she got close to the baited hook she turned her nose at it. From my experience this is typical palomino trout behavior, my hope of a hungry golden eager to accept a meal within a couple of casts clearly diminished. The fish moved to another spot where she was surrounded yet again by weeds and lily pads but there was still another open patch I could cast into, so I followed and made another attempt but this time I threw out an earth worm hoping that a change in menu might help but again she came looked at the bait and then turned away again and moved on, but this time disappearing in the process. I looked around all over the pond but no luck finding her and kept hoping for reappearance. While waiting I went back to a spinner and continued casting in the open water next to the weed line and began catching more plain looking rainbows. Every time I felt a strike I had hoped it was she, the little golden trout that has been tormenting me all day but it never was. By the end of the trip I had landed 8 rainbow trout, a nice 2 lb plus largemouth and a bluegill. It was getting late but before leaving I scanned the water one last time but she was still hiding. I had some dinner plans and had no more time to wait her out. So I gave up, jumped in my pick up and headed home. I thought I did pretty good, landing a number of fish and on a very pleasant day, to boot. But part of me still felt a little disappointed. Overall a nice day, just with a slight bit of tarnish, all due to this little annoying golden fish. On this day the golden palomino trout won. Can’t win them all I suppose but always fun trying.

Dale sent me a couple of photos to share. One shows both Dale and son Shane holding a sample of some of the trout they caught over the spring period. With Shane holding the very first brown trout caught out on the camp lake. The other picture shows the little man Shane again but this time holding one of many largemouth caught during the course of the summer at their lake camp. Nice fish guys and keep it up. Enjoy the rest of your season and keep sharing.

Peter and I decided to explore a new pond that sounded like it could be promising. The hope was the pond receives light fishing pressure and contained some lunker largemouth bass. We had herd of a rumor of a monster fish being pulled out of there and decided to see for ourselves what kind of potential the water offered. We both got into plenty of small bass, fishing a whole assortment of standard artificial bass lures. But nothing large had been caught. Pete did catch a nice size yellow perch off a crank bait but still a far cry from the 5 lb or better largemouth we were seeking. Pete and I both had live bait we had caught ourselves in a holding tank, I decided to bring some. Toward the end of the trip and feeling mildly desperate I decided to cast live bait out and almost immediately had a 4 pound class fish become unbuttoned at boat side off a small fallfish. Followed by a couple of chases and a missed fish off the next piece of bait. I put another fallfish on and casted next to a sunken long and hooked and landed a largemouth around 2.5-3 lbs.  Not long after we called it quits and headed back. I asked Peter if he wanted to explore another spot or two but he had other things to do. I decided on my way home to pull over and check out a couple of small ponds I had occasionally driven by but never stopped at to see if they contained any largemouth. The first one was a bust. Lots of Lilly pads but very little water. If we don’t get rain soon this place would soon turn to a mud hole. There were no open spots allowing me to cast but I squeezed between a couple of trees on the bank for a couple of creative casts. After realizing how shallow the water was and what a small pocket of water I was dealing with I turned around and headed to my second spot also on the way home. A drainage pond that I hope was overlooked and contained some plump largemouth. I started with casting out rubber worms and working them off the bottom slowly but no bites. I was wondering if the pond even contained any fish. I figured in such a small pond the bass would probably not be all that picky. Then I noticed some bright orange silhouettes and among close inspection I realized they were gold fish. I started walking around the pond and noticed more and more of them. The water was muddy and stained but they were all bright orange and can be spotted when they were near the top of the surface. I also did finally spot a dink size largemouth finally but to small to make it worth casting too. Oddly I had not seen one bluegill, not even close to shore. The sunrays suddenly became stronger and I could see more schools of goldfish near the surface. Judging from the size of them and the numbers I could tell they have been in pond for while. I decided since there were barely any bass in the pond and since ironically I just got my second fish tank back up and running again with room for another fish to switch gears and try to catch a large goldfish. It wasn’t going to happen with my bass gear so I walked back to my truck and pulled out an ultra-light rod. I had some bread from a sandwich I had eaten yet. Threw out a few pieces over a small school of goldfish thinking they would gobble it up like piranha but they showed no interest in eating any of it and also seemed skittish if I got to close, clearly these fish had wilder instincts than I gave them credit for. I also had to assume they didn’t get fed much by people. I toyed around but no luck. I walked around the pond and spotted the largest one in a small school and rolled a bread ball baited the hook and casted it in front of the fish while trying not to be detected. I let the bread ball drop to the bottom and about a minute later my line started going out. I lightly set the hook and landed my new pet goldfish. I couldn't get over how fat and large it was. Anyway its mouth has healed and it’s doing well living in my 70-gallon aquarium. Not exactly what I had in mind that day of how I was going to end my day of largemouth bass hunting but interesting nonetheless.

Decided to hit a lake that Pete and me like to frequent for a few hours in the afternoon. We didn’t get into any quality largemouth bass but each got into about a handful of small largemouth but nothing worth reaching for the camera over. Later on we hit a corner of the lake and got into a small school of white perch. Hooking them on small hard baits and we kept at it until the bite died. Between the two of us we landed about six or so white perch. We both had plans that evening so we called it quits early. TIGHT LINES ALL!

It was back out on the ocean again. However things did not go as planned. The group (Henry, Willy, Billy, Angel and I) were supposed to fish for Striped Bass on Thursday, stay the night at the Cape and then jump on our friend Billy’s boat (The Tuna Nut) the next day and try our luck on Bluefin Tuna. After a long ride to Hyannis Thursday morning we get to the Marina at 5 AM but conditions were bad. We had heavy winds that would have made the trip a bit nasty, though I was still up for it if everyone else was too, but the captain had the sound judgment to cancel the charter (something I’m told he rarely does). He said he wanted to take us out for a good time and not have us get beat up and have a miserable time, which I respected. Later on in the morning we then received word that the turbo broke on our friends boat so we would also not be able to fish the following day either. What made matters worse is Henry’s friend Angel came all the way up from Miami to fish the Cape and now all our fishing plans fell through. Henry got on the horn and after a bunch of phone calls back and forth was able to scrape up some last minute plans for a striper trip the following day. It looked like our trip got saved. Thus far we were all disappointed at how things turned out but we made the best of it. We spent the first day hanging out at the marina, eating well and enjoying some laughs and drinks. I got better acquainted with Henry’s friend Angel. A great guy with a positive attitude and outlook on life and it wasn't long before I considered him a friend as well. Henry and Willy were (as usual) fun guys to hang out with, providing plenty of laughs. The next day we all woke up early with slight hangovers and on the way to the boat picked up our friend Bill (who’s boat broke down) he decided to join us on our striper trip. The charter was a last minute plan and was a boat none of us guys had fished before. We wanted our usual boat (the fish hawk) but the captain was out of town on vacation this day and could not accommodate us. We boarded the boat and everything seemed fine. The sea was a bit rough in the morning so we all stayed in the cabin in order to not trip over ourselves. After about a half hour I could smell some toxic like fumes that were making me feel light headed and gasping. Turned out the captain of the tub we were riding on, over the course of the winter installed an exhaust pipe in the cabin and apparently didn’t do it right. The white gel coat around the pipe was heating up after the motor ran a bit and caused some nasty fumes. I was gasping for clean air and got out of the cabin and hung out outside getting bounced around (with nothing to brace myself and cling onto) and getting soaked but at least I could breath some fresh air and started feeling better. Willy reached for the door and almost pulled it off, the screws were not secured. Did I mention the leak in the boat too...LOL. All the other guys did the same except for 80-year-old Bill who stayed seated in the cabin without complaining and who was clearly tougher than the rest of us. I think I lost 2 years of my life breathing in those vapors but at least I got to go fishing. After the 2 hour plus ride we finally began fishing, using small diamond jigs and speed jigging off the bottom, about 8-10 cranks up and dropping it back down quickly and repeat. This was a whole new method for me; I had never used jigs on stripers before. It almost shocks you when you get bit by a striper and once hooked there like runaway freight trains, a blast. The action was off and on, picking at them. Everyone caught stripers and the boat got its limit (but I still missed Joe’s boat and his special ability to putting us onto crazy numbers of fish). The Captain of the boat barely spoke to us and fished out of a sliding door next to his steering wheel and hooked into some stripers as well. Angel got to get a taste of his first striped bass action. Basically everyone caught stripers but the guy who took honors for the largest fish of the day (and probably the most numbers) was Billy, a real nice bass around 30 pounds. He seemed to have that magic touch (maybe it was those toxic vapors he breathed in that turned him into some sort of super fisherman.... LOL). I struggled a bit more but managed a limit of keepers, two large stripers (a couple of beauty's). Both fish fought hard and took plenty of drag. At the end we hit another pod of stripers but our time was up (boy did it go fast) and we had to bring up our lines and head back. The two-hour ride back (that felt more like four hours) was pretty miserable but it was either get wet and bounce around the back of the boat or breath in the toxic vapors. I chose the beating in the back of the boat. But would I do it again absolutely (Just probably not in the same boat...LOL).

Headed out on another cod trip with the guys from the Tuna Nut and as usual had a blast. Unfortunately on this trip we couldn’t get into any real large fish, tons of undersized cod and some dogfish thrown in the mix, was the story of the day. But between all of us there were still enough legal size fish boated to fill a cooler and enough fillets for an upcoming fish fry with the boys. Most of the fish were caught jigging between 300-350 feet of water. I also experimented with some clam bait and found I was getting more dogfish on it and rat sized cod than with the jigs. So I switched back over to the cod jig. In the beginning of the trip Mark seemed to be on a tear and brought up some nice keepers while I struggled to get something in the icebox. Later on though everyone was hooking up and we all brought up plenty of codfish. Joe landed a real nice sized haddock, which was probably the best fish of the trip. Another bonus to the trip was the great conditions we had, another sunny and calm day on the ocean with a west wind. We also got to see some whales pushing water out of their spouts and a couple of tails splashing the surface, some cool sights for sure. Who needs a whale watch cruise when your a fisherman....right! Cant wait to head back out to the sea again for the next adventure. Tight Lines All!

Above a Spring 2011 collage of Video and Pictures of fishing for put and take hatchery stocked Rainbow Trout and Broodstock Atlantic Salmon in Massachusetts. Click the arrow button in the center to play the video.

Above video and still shots of contributor Mike & sons brook trout fishing in New Hampshire during the spring of 2010 & 2011. Click the arrow button in the center to play the video.

(While carping was difficult...) Just as I was puzzling over this dilemma, out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement, about 7 feet from shore, there was a bowfin trying to bury itself into the algae clump. At first I though it was digging out a worm from the mud...but then I realized that the fish was trying to hide itself so it could ambush some of the spawning sunfish. The fish was clearly in a hunting mode...and I immediate realized I brought nothing to target bowfin. Darn! But still, I rummage through my backpack hoping for a forgotten plastic lure somewhere in the three pockets. I have a habit of tossing used plastic lures into my backpack to keep them separate from the new plastics. I couldn't find any plastics...but as I look through my carp rig box, I found a small little spoon! This spoon was "rescued" on my last trip with my bud and his friend. Someone might have unknowingly dropped the lure on the ground. The lure looked like it might have been abandoned for a while since it was muddy and rusty when we found it. I never thought much of the lure until now. At least I have a spoon! I quickly clipped off my line and tie on the spoon. In the time I was looking for a lure and tied on the spoon, the bowfin had moved off 15 feet. It was again hiding itself in the algae clumps to ambush another sunfish. I pulled out some line from the reel. With my 9' rod, all I had to do was just lowered the spoon quietly into the water about a foot from the bowfin. The bowfin was still finding a good area to hide...and it swam right past my spoon. Once it sat down again, all I could see of the bowfin was the ribbon like dorsal fin and the tip of the tail. I estimate where the head of the fish would be located and lowered the spoon 6" to the side and 12" in front of the fish. I began a slight jiggle and hop to imitate a feeding minnow. After the second jig, I saw the dorsal fin rose and started a slow, deliberate undulation. The fish slowly inched forward so I gave the spoon another tiny twitch. The head approached the lure, the jaws opened, the gills flared...and SNAP!!! I could see that the fish grabbed the lure...but the hook were still hanging outside of the mouth. So I waited for the fish to make the second gulp. As my entire lure disappeared, I set the hook...and the WRANGLING BEGINS! Since I dropped the spoon to the fish, there was very little line between the fish and my rod tip. It was basically a hold on and move the rod to accommodate to the fish's movement. But soon, the fish made a run and pulled out 30 feet of line. It then jumped twice trying to shake the lure, got back into the water, and did a few gator rolls. These fish fought downright dirty! But in the end, it was no match for this experience angler...and I had the fish in the net on the second scoop. Bowfin are unpredictable even on land. With a jaw full of teeth and they are known to pull out some lightning speed acrobatics, I approached the fish carefully... After getting the lip grip on a secure spot, I was going to cradle the fish for a picture...but as my left hand reach under the belly for the cradle, the fish tried to jump. I had to get up quickly, hold the fish way out from me, and pull my other hand back. I think this picture (below) summed up the moment best. But finally, the fish settled down and it got is mug shot taken. After I released the fish, I took a picture of the little spoon. I'm going to switch out the hooks and put it back into commission.

My friend Del went bass fishing today and was surprised when after fighting what he thought was a good fish discovered on the same lure was a largemouth bass which had been attached to one of the two treble hooks on his lure, while the other treble hook had a yellow perch attached to it. A first for Del.

Had some yard projects I started yesterday and wanted to finish up today. So I spent the morning working and finally finished up by early afternoon. So for the remainder of the day I decided to head out and wet a line. I started off shore fishing a (semi local) pond for largemouth bass, casting into shady spots behind vegetation, trees and any other structure I could find in the shade. Rigging rubber worms wacky style. I had landed about ten or so largemouth bass, most fish caught were close in from shore in about 1-3.5 feet of water. Most fish ran with the bait on the fall. Allot of fun but none were very big and only averaged a pound through a pound and three quarters. I wrapped up and while heading back to my truck I decided to head to another pond at a crack at some larger bass, with plans of launching my canoe at the next spot but my friend Steve had called and mentioned he would be fishing a river near by for carp for the remainder of the afternoon and until dark and if I wanted to join him. Not what I had planned for the day but it beat fishing solo so I decided to join him on the bank and give it a go. This was Steve's 2nd trip to the river today, early morning he landed his largest carp to date; a 14 lb 10 oz specimen and he wanted more. We each set up 2 rods fishing sweet corn off the bottom. It was real slow at first, Steve's wife Angela came by and joined us. It was still slow but we continued to play the waiting game. One of my rods looked like something small was playing with my bait (a bait stealer); I set the hook and had a battle on my hands. It was a decent carp FINALLY. I didn’t start off all that excited about carp fishing but when I had a loaded rod and could hear the drag working I suddenly became excited and was glad of the change of plan. The fish fought well for a bit then Steve finally slipped her in the net. A nice mirror carp. When I let her go she made some heavy splashes with her tail kicking up lots of mud and speckled my clothes with mud in the process, of which Steve and Angela got a good chuckle out of (me not so much). Not long after releasing the first fish and getting the rod back out, I got hit again.  This time I got hit hard, the rod in the sand spike holder was twitching erratically with a nice bend. I set it and game on again, the fish played hard and made some great runs but once again she got slipped in the net. I was little more careful with the next release in order to avoid more mud thrown at me. Things settled down and then one of Steve's rods went off. Steve set it and handed it to Angela who kept the pressure on the fish and took her time fighting it. The fish made lots of runs and it got to the point where Angela was getting tired of fighting this fish and just wanted the thing in the net already. Steve finally slipped the fish into the net and I think Angela finally felt relieved. The carp ended up being Angela's personal best. Later on I got hit again and I set the hook, it felt like a scrappy carp but I could tell that there was not much size to it. It ended up being the smallest carp I have ever caught. A football shaped mirror carp about 12” or so. Angela left and Steve and I stuck around until close to dark and then called it a day. Tight Lines All!