smackthatforhead
Senior Member
I had the pleasure to go down to Phenix City to spend Thanksgiving with all of my family this year.
As usual my Aunt cooked up a huge and delicious spread for 25 of us.
The turkey and dressing was so good, didn't even bother to add the gravy. Yummy!
She also sent me home with my very own Red Velvet cake for my birthday,
lets just say that I had a piece with breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Despite the cold weather I also decided to try to land a big ole Turkey of a Carp, at Lake Harding.
I ran out of time and was not able to prepare as Ol Captain and Tim "Cool Dad" had instructed at the Hooch,
but I was able to soak a bag of field corn overnight for my chum.
I chummed my 2 favorite corners of the fishing dock for about 3 days, and would squeeze in a hour of fishing,
usually landing at least 1 carp each day.
But it was not until the last morning I was able to spend some real time fishing.
It was a slow start, but as soon as the morning fog burned off the lines started running.
Started out with my normal 5 pounder to get me warmed up,
sat back down and was feeling good about landing it on my trusty ole Zebco 33.
Then I see the big bend hit my other Zebco and quickly grab it before it gets yanked into the water.
5 year old Zebcos don't exactly free-line smoothly,
so its always a guess if the Zebco is going to pull in the Carp or the Carp pull in the Zebco.
With a quick set of the hook it was on, and let me tell you it was on, like never before.
This one went straight for deep water pulling drag as it went.
I finally got his head turned and started taking back line.
But of course this guy was no spring turkey of a carp, he had another trick up his sleeve...
He found a deep water limb to get under, and I thought it was over.
Light action rod, 10 pound testline and a carp wrapped around a deep water limb.
Not looking good at all.
I decided to try something that I'm not known for...I threw some patience at him.
I gave him free spool and just waited.
When I saw a change of direction in the line, I gave it to him again and was rewarded for my patience.
He had come out from under the limb and was going deep again.
I worked him slowly taking back line when I could and giving line as needed.
Finally had him within eye sight of the dock and could tell he was a biggun, but also knew I had a dilema to solve.
How to wrangle this big guy into my net with 1 hand without breaking my line and letting him loose.
One pass, not even close, 2nd pass ooh just missed, 3rd pass this ain't going to work.
Man where is everyone surely someone getting hungry and is awake inside by now, but nope the kitchen window was empty.
Desperate times, desperate measures, so I called Pappy's cell phone to force him out of bed to man the net for me.
"Ring, Ring, Ring Hello this is Pappy, I'm still sound asleep and this is my voicemail"
Oops and there goes big boy again heading for deep....
And that is when it happened, Pappy came to save the day.
He came circling around from the front of the house, asking if I needed help.
Said he had been watching through the bedroom window ever since the hook set.
I got ole Mr Carp's head turned again and back to the dock.
Still took us a couple of passes, but Pappy finally netted him for me.
This biggun was a lot of fun, and also ended up being my personal best carp at 11 pounds, all off of my Zebco 33.
Morning ended up very good, landing three 5 pounders, one 9 pounder, and the 11 pounder.
Pappy also pulled in a 5 pounder, to assure me that if push came to shove he could Carp too.
The first couple of pictures are of the 5 pounders early in the weekend.
The last 3 picures are of the 9 pounder.
You'll also notice my larger rod in the background, but of course the big boys new not to test that hook!
They wanted to try to snap my smaller rods.
The pictures of the 11 pounder are trapped on my cell phone, until I figure out how to download them.
As usual my Aunt cooked up a huge and delicious spread for 25 of us.
The turkey and dressing was so good, didn't even bother to add the gravy. Yummy!
She also sent me home with my very own Red Velvet cake for my birthday,
lets just say that I had a piece with breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Despite the cold weather I also decided to try to land a big ole Turkey of a Carp, at Lake Harding.
I ran out of time and was not able to prepare as Ol Captain and Tim "Cool Dad" had instructed at the Hooch,
but I was able to soak a bag of field corn overnight for my chum.
I chummed my 2 favorite corners of the fishing dock for about 3 days, and would squeeze in a hour of fishing,
usually landing at least 1 carp each day.
But it was not until the last morning I was able to spend some real time fishing.
It was a slow start, but as soon as the morning fog burned off the lines started running.
Started out with my normal 5 pounder to get me warmed up,
sat back down and was feeling good about landing it on my trusty ole Zebco 33.
Then I see the big bend hit my other Zebco and quickly grab it before it gets yanked into the water.
5 year old Zebcos don't exactly free-line smoothly,
so its always a guess if the Zebco is going to pull in the Carp or the Carp pull in the Zebco.
With a quick set of the hook it was on, and let me tell you it was on, like never before.
This one went straight for deep water pulling drag as it went.
I finally got his head turned and started taking back line.
But of course this guy was no spring turkey of a carp, he had another trick up his sleeve...
He found a deep water limb to get under, and I thought it was over.
Light action rod, 10 pound testline and a carp wrapped around a deep water limb.
Not looking good at all.
I decided to try something that I'm not known for...I threw some patience at him.
I gave him free spool and just waited.
When I saw a change of direction in the line, I gave it to him again and was rewarded for my patience.
He had come out from under the limb and was going deep again.
I worked him slowly taking back line when I could and giving line as needed.
Finally had him within eye sight of the dock and could tell he was a biggun, but also knew I had a dilema to solve.
How to wrangle this big guy into my net with 1 hand without breaking my line and letting him loose.
One pass, not even close, 2nd pass ooh just missed, 3rd pass this ain't going to work.
Man where is everyone surely someone getting hungry and is awake inside by now, but nope the kitchen window was empty.
Desperate times, desperate measures, so I called Pappy's cell phone to force him out of bed to man the net for me.
"Ring, Ring, Ring Hello this is Pappy, I'm still sound asleep and this is my voicemail"
Oops and there goes big boy again heading for deep....
And that is when it happened, Pappy came to save the day.
He came circling around from the front of the house, asking if I needed help.
Said he had been watching through the bedroom window ever since the hook set.
I got ole Mr Carp's head turned again and back to the dock.
Still took us a couple of passes, but Pappy finally netted him for me.
This biggun was a lot of fun, and also ended up being my personal best carp at 11 pounds, all off of my Zebco 33.
Morning ended up very good, landing three 5 pounders, one 9 pounder, and the 11 pounder.
Pappy also pulled in a 5 pounder, to assure me that if push came to shove he could Carp too.
The first couple of pictures are of the 5 pounders early in the weekend.
The last 3 picures are of the 9 pounder.
You'll also notice my larger rod in the background, but of course the big boys new not to test that hook!
They wanted to try to snap my smaller rods.
The pictures of the 11 pounder are trapped on my cell phone, until I figure out how to download them.
