California Carpin comes to Clear Lake

California Carpin
Comes to Clear Lake

September 8, 2001

Keith's 14 pound 6 ounce carp

The "famous" British carpers now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Keith Thompson and Jules Campbell, owners and webmasters of Calcarpin.com along with their friend Jason showed up early this morning at M & M Campground in Clearlake Oaks. Keith gave me a phone call at about 6:30 this morning so Mary and I packed our gear and headed down there.

They did a little prebaiting and then we sat around waiting for the fish to go on the feed but unfortunately the only action for the first few hours was my 16 pound channel catfish that fell for a pop-up boilie that I got from Jules. Later on towards evening one of Keith's bite alarms started screaming and after a tough battle he brought a nice 14 pound 6 ounce carp to the bank.

Mary and I took off for home about an hour later but Keith, Jules and Jason fished all night.

Check below for an account of the fantastic action they experienced starting about 1:00AM on Sunday morning.

Sunday Morning September 9, 2001

Mary and I arrived at M & M Campground about 7:00AM and Mary noticed Keith playing a fish as we drove up. We talked to Keith while he was playing his fish and he informed us that he had caught 15 carp since 1:00AM and Jules and Jason had caught their share as well before they went to sleep. Keith was the only one awake and he was really into the fish.

Before Mary and I could get our lines in the water Keith was into another fish that pulled the scales to the 22 pound mark, unfortunately since we weren't familiar with Keith's camera we thought we had a couple of good shots but found out we had nothing after Keith had released the fish.

A little while later Jules sleepily came out of his Bivvy and started fishing. He and Keith started catching a fish every 5 minutes or so. Mary and I were hearing bite alarms going off so often it was almost unbelievable.

Mary's 14 pounder caught with
a bread ball on Sunday morning.

Finally Mary's rod started bouncing wildly as line was rapidly peeling off the spool and after a long and exciting battle she had a nice 14 pounder on the bank.

The action continued for Keith and Jules, then Jason finally woke up and climbed out of his Bivvy. Pretty soon we were all into fish and the action continued until around 10:30AM when it started to quiet down a bit.

Mary and I stayed till around 11:00AM and as we were about to leave Jules was into another fish, we waited until he banked his fish to walk up and say goodbye but before we could start the car to leave after shaking hands he was into yet another screamer.

The approximate total fish tally as of 11:00AM was: Keith; over 20 fish with the best being 22 pounds, Jules; close to 20 fish with the best being 20 pounds 6 ounces, Jason; close to 20 fish with the best being 17 pounds, myself; 3 fish the best being about 16 pounds and Mary 1 nice fish weighing 14 pounds.

Most of the fish were taken with prepared field corn on hair rigs buried in corn filled PVA bags.

It was a very rewarding and informative experience fishing with Keith, Jules and Jason, they are excellent carp anglers and very fine sportsmen. They were more than willing to share their knowledge, experience and even their bait with us. Mary and I are looking forward to their return in early October for a three day session.