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Lonnie (CA)'s Profile > Stories > Carp Tournament - Finale
 Carp Competition – FinaleHere’s the last instalment of the series of posts developed around my participation in one of the CARP Tournament Series (www.carptournamentseries.com) events which took place in Baldswinville, New York on May 13-16, 2009. This event is billed as the Iron-Man event of carp fishing, and having now fished one, I can understand why. Not only does the event run for 50 straight hours, but this particular venue; the Seneca River; is so full of fish that you could quite conceivably catch fish from start to finish with barely any down time. If you stop to sleep, you would invariably be missing out on potential fish. I personally stayed awake for the entire 50 hours. I didn’t even know it was possible; just one of many things learned during the event. Our team was representing Wychwood Carp Rods, Reels and equipment and included Andrzej Tyminiewski, myself, and our team captain Paul Almanza. We were one of two teams from Canada.  For me this was a tremendously positive experience. The event was extremely well run, and I have nothing but positive things to say about the organizers, the venue, and the people of Baldwinsville. Even the local Major is a strong supporter, and he and his brother actually participate in the event each year. The people in the area were among the friendliest I have met anywhere. Throughout the event we regularly had people come by and watch us fish, ask questions and occasionally offer us some coffee and at one point even a couple of pizzas! The tournament format allows two anglers to fish and a third person can be on site to help with weighing fish, retying rods, preparing food, setting up tents, and about a million other things that needed attending to. My hats off to anyone who fished without a third person because I think our runner did the most work of anyone on our team. Although we didn’t win the event we did take home the prize for the Biggest 4 fish. This category is based on the total combined weight of your 4 biggest fish. Throughout the event we caught 124 fish for a total weight of 1836 lbs. Only fish over 10 lbs are allowed to be weighed in, so if you added in all the smaller carp we caught we could have easily boosted our weight by another 4 or 5 hundred pounds.    For a complete breakdown of the result check out the Carp Tournament Series website. Forty two teams competed, catching a total of 2210 carp for a combined weight of 33,283 lbs. Needless to say the Seneca River is a phenomenal carp fishery. In these types of events there are three primary factors which determine success. You need a strong team, a good peg and the right equipment. When managing your fishing area, you have to be very aware of how it will effect your team mates ability to catch fish, and particularly when your fishing under such intense conditions with no sleep it is essential to be able to work through any differences of opinion that invariably arise. As for the Peg, we drew a spot which had never been fished before, but like most competitors it didn’t take us long to map out the area and pull together a working strategy. Our team was actually leading the event after day 1, but them struggled to keep a sustained, steady bite going into Day 2. Our months of preparation leading up to the tournament were also part of our success. We had been refining our presentation and practicing approaches which we thought would be important. Long distance casting was one of these areas we came prepared for. We relied on standard carp outfits, which consisted of long, heavy action carp rods and oversized reels capable of holding hundreds of yards of line. Together, these enable you to cast heavy leads and feeders packed with bait at long range. Heavy braided line can be a real asset when targeting big carp, due to it’s remarkable abrasion resistance. I experimented a lot with different types of lines leading up to the event, in search of a line that offered superior abrasion resistance while still striving the thinnest diameter possible to maximize casting distance. Ultimately I settled on Suffix performance braid in 50 and 65 lb test. Throughout the event I never had a single wind knot, or broke off a single fish using the Suffix. This says a lot considering the entire area was blanketed with zebra mussels.  We were lucky to have Wychwood as a team sponsor because is allowed us access to various other equipment to use, including bivys, rod pods, baits etc. I would strongly recommend that anyone interested in learning more about carp fishing consider participating in, or at the very least be a spectator at, one of these events. Much like what bass tournaments have done for the sport of bass fishing, the future techniques and equipment available for carp anglers are being tested and refined through events such as these. It’s truly an exciting time for carp fishing here in North America. More and more retailers are catching onto the North American carp craze, making quality equipment more readily available. It will be exciting to see where this sport will be in another 5 or 10 years, especially considering the positive influence of such well organized events as those being organized by the Carp Tournament Series. Cheers Lonnie King Team Name: Wychwood Team Captain: Paul Almanza Team Members: Andrzej Tyminiewski & Lonnie King Team Support provided by: Wychwood (Carp Rods, Reels and Accessories) and Top Mix Groundbaits (www.anglersinternational.com)   (7 comments)
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