New to the GTA

[Nfish]

Hi my name is Neil

I have just moved to Whitby, living here with my girlfriend, I am from England. I did a lot of fishing at home, mostly for carp and pike.

I thought I would join a forum to try and get any information on where to fish around the Whitby area and any helpful tips and just meet some new people. My girl's family have some property up in the Haliburton area so have been doing some fishing there and caught my first freshwater bass and splake. Now that everything is frozen I'm struggling to catch anything, but I keep persevering. I can't work at the moment (visa pending etc) so have a lot of spare time and want to get fishing and maybe catch my first fish though an ice hole. haha

 

[hamiltonangler94]

Welcome to the forum and Canada Neil! Great fishing opportunities up in Haliburton!

 

[mcfly]

I did a lot of fishing at home, mostly for carp and pike.

I can't work at the moment (visa pending etc) so have a lot of spare time and want to get fishing and maybe catch my first fish though an ice hole. haha

I was thinking of trying to catch a carp THROUGH the ice if you want to give it a try with me. More rods in the water the better! (We can use 2 each). The spot I want to try ice carping is a pond where I average 6-12 carp per day in the summer time. They are all under 15lbs though, so no monsters, but it's our best bet at carp through the ice.

 

[Nfish]

Hey Mcfly

I would love to give that a try. I was reading an article in a fishing mag the other day about that. I think it may be hard going but I am up for that. Would be great to get a carp. It's funny they are prize fish at home and i think they are pests here?!

 

[Alfiegee]

Hey Mcfly

I would love to give that a try. I was reading an article in a fishing mag the other day about that. I think it may be hard going but I am up for that. Would be great to get a carp. It's funny they are prize fish at home and i think they are pests here?!

Hey Neil. Carp are not necessarily a pest here. They are not native to N America and do, do some damage, but they have been here so long they might as well be considered native by now.
Many desirable fish in Ont are also not native to the province. Steelhead (Rainbow) Trout, Brown Trout and all Pacific Salmon come to mind.
I don't know exactly when Carp were introduced, but I can tell you 45 years ago as a youngster the chance at catching a 30 lb fish within a bike ride from home, and the 20 minute, give or take fight was great fun for my friends and I.
I would also point out that I remember when Salmon were first introduced to a certain western trib. The Carp were there long before, I caught my first Carp at age 6. The Salmon weren't even stocked there until I was about 16.
There are those that target Carp, I am not really one of those as I am not up on the techniques, most Carp I catch are incidental catches which makes it even more exciting as I am usually fishing on light spinning gear.
Good luck on your quest Neil. If you are ever in the Hamilton area I know where there are lots of huge Carp, approaching 40 lbs. Maybe you can teach me a thing or 2.

Alfie.

 

[usernamehere]

welcome.

Tons of carps here. Do you use a rod and reel, or one of those carp fishing "poles" ?

Also, do people in the UK do precision chumming with these?

 

[Nfish]

Hey Alfie

Thanks for the background information. I would love to catch some carp especially 30lb plus. Biggest I've ever got at home is only about 20lb. I'm not just all about carp fishing though, it was just the easiest to access at home. I also fish for trout and did a lot of sea fishing. I've tried fly fishing a couple of times and tried it for the pink salmon over on the west coast in Squarmish. I just wanna get out there and do whatever, and see what this awesome country has to offer. :razz: And I wouldn't mind making the trip over to Hamilton some time and we can see what we can do with those carp. :mrgreen:

Hi Usernamehere....haha, I do have a short pole at home, but I don't really use it. I'm a rod and reel man. They do have their benefits though. They are almost always used by what we call "match fisherman" (competition anglers). As you have shown in the picture they are super accurate for ground baiting (chumming) but for getting you bait in the right place too.
You can just change the end section of the pole. So you can have different end sections ready before you fish, that are made up with different rigs (for fishing) and cups (for ground baiting). The pole has an elastic that runs down the middle that is used to play the fish and take the strain and you rig attaches to the end of that. Once mastered match fisherman can catch 100s of lbs of fish in a 4-6 hour match. They fish on ponds that are stocked to the top with carp and silver fish in the 1lb to 6lb range.

 

[usernamehere]

The pole has an elastic that runs down the middle that is used to play the fish and take the strain and you rig attaches to the end of that. Once mastered match fisherman can catch 100s of lbs of fish in a 4-6 hour match. They fish on ponds that are stocked to the top with carp and silver fish in the 1lb to 6lb range.

I see........never used a proper carp pole before. Done tons of fishing on long bamboo poles. Not the most versatile or easy to set up.