Last Day of Summer Carp Fishing

     On my last day of summer break (yesterday) I decided to spend the entire day targeting the carp I had seen at a swimming hole on the rivanna river. They had always been spawning when I was around this summer so I didn't bother fishing for them, but with the recent rains and cooling water temperatures, things were looking good. I spent the previous night really doing my research on carp fishing, as I always like to do before trying a new style of fishing.
   Here is a detailed overview of the gear we took... Rods/Reels: 2 Shimano Sahara 1500s spooled with 4 pound line on ultralight rods, a Shimano Sedona 2500 with 8 pound line on a light action rod, a Shimano Symetre 3000 with 8 pound line on a light action rod, and a Roi Star (european reel) CB 4000 with 8 pound line on a medium light rod. Rigs: Carolina rigs with weights varying from 1/8 to 1/2 an ounce with 6 pound mono leaders (about 3 feet long) with #6 Eagle Claw baitholder hooks. We also brought 3 cans of corn to use for chum and bait.
    We arrived at the river around 7:30 am, the spot we fished was about 20-30 yards wide, maybe 7 or 8 feet deep max, and we could easily see the bottom. We began chumming with cream corn and kernel corn, and I baited up the first rod with 6 kernels and cast it out. I propped up the rod on a forked stick and set the drag super light to serve as a bait runner and a bite alarm. Literally seconds later I began baiting up the next rod when I was shocked to hear the sound of the drag ripping off the reel. I picked up the rod, held the spool and set the hook, I tightened the drag and the fight was on. I fought the fish for around 5 minutes and as soon as he neared the beach, the hook pulled. We set out all 5 rods and within 10 minutes, we got another run, I set the hook and this time was able to bring in a 27" carp.
        I thought that now it was going to be an awesome day filled with fish, untill we broke off in a fallen tree they kept running into or pulled the hook on the next 13 carp, landing only one out of the bunch! We knew our tackle couldn't stop them from hanging up, so we moved down stream in an attempt to bring the fish  away from the tree, we only had 3 more runs for the rest of the day and landed all 3 carp, 1 at 24", one at 25", and I also caught a fish that I had snagged earlier in the summer, we could tell from the distinctive hole in his dorsal fin and he measured 27" like he did last time.  '

    So now I have been bitten, by the carp fishing bug. I will probably be doing a ton of carp fishing this year, because I absolutely loved our day at the rivanna, and I know that there are much better places to catch carp in the area. So plan on seeeing more carp fishing posts from me, thanks for reading!