Jake Downing
Our angler of the month for December is Jake Downing, from Oklahoma! Big congrats Jake for all of your dedication and support of the sport here in the USA. Having won the Mill Creek Cup in 2019, and again walking away with the top team weight in 2021 with his partner Jeff Olinger, Jake is a very dedicated Carp angler who never fails to produce. He is always working on the swim and looking for the fish, and will make the necessary changes needed to get onto the fish…especially in a tournament.
Well done Jake on another great year! We’re looking forward to seeing what 2022 brings for you!
Every now and again something comes along to change things and move the bar…This has to be one of those occasions. We wanted to shine a spotlight this month on our friends up in Canada who have recently documented an incredible session into the most beautiful full-length Carp film that we have seen in North America/Canada. Many of us document our captures with phones, photography and snippets of info that is shared onto social media. With technology that is now available to everyone, it is a quick process and many anglers don’t give it a second thought. Undertaking the task of not only pre-bating a massive lake and documenting the entire process with three anglers is taking things to a complete different level. It takes a great deal of dedication, time and talent to turn these types of projects around.
We would like to congratulate Paul Cioca, Ryan Ginter and Anthony Russell on their epic sessions together in Canada…a truly once in a lifetime session. It was a team effort with Ryan pre-baiting the swim for everyone and hand-making the bait weeks in advance, but we won’t give it all away and suggest that everyone watches the full-length film on YouTube which can be found here:
Paul is an American Carp Society member as well, which shows massive dedication…living in Canada. We have a number of Canadian brothers that are also ACS members and are very happy for them now that the Canadian Carp Society has been launched. To our Canadian brothers and sisters…keep flying the flag, keep doing what you’re doing and sharing this sport with as many people as you can!
Thank you to Paul for these incredible shots…
Last knockings : DON LOW
I enjoy watching the sun rise as much as the next man, but as it rapidly gets to the time of year when my local ponds become frozen solid, it’s my experience that bite times change. Late afternoon and into the first couple hours of darkness seem much more productive that dawn. It’s at these times that the water temperatures are at their highest due to having sun shining on the surface all day. The surface will of course warm up fastest, so look to fish into the wind, especially if it’s not the kind that makes your fingers numb.
I have found that the deeper ponds tend to fish better for longer than the shallow venues. They just hold temperature for longer. If there is an inflow of water from a shallower source anywhere on the pond (or river for that matter), then this is also an area to checkout as it helps to keep the temperatures the tiniest bit higher. Even 1 degree can make the difference.
You don’t need a lot of bait at this time of year. Small 12mm popups or a couple of grains of plastic corn with a small PVA mesh bag of crumbed boilie, bread, or stick mix is plenty. I like to give my hook baits a good dousing with one of the flavor sprays that many companies offer. You can also try soaking for a short while in a flavored liquor. Whatever you use just make sure its thin so it can disperse quickly in the cold water. Now isn’t the time for heavy oils or thick glugs in my opinion.
If you keep a little bait going into your winter spots on a regular basis, just a pound or less, perhaps twice per week, you can catch at the right time of day well into late December.
Sunny Sundgaard is not only an avid Carp on the fly angler and an American Carp Society member, he’s also an incredible artist. If you have a memorable fish that you want to take to another level of documentation, then Sunny is someone that we recommend you contact! His drawings are spectacular and have a distinct personality to them. American Carp Society member, Adam Tomlin, recently won a raffle for supporting Colorado Carp Slam fly tournament, and was pleased with the incredible work that Sunny did for him on his epic capture!
Check out Sunny’s Insta page here: @sunnysundgaard and drop him a line for custom artwork.
We wanted to take some time in this last newsletter of 2021 to personally thank all of you for your incredible support and encouragement over the last few years. Both 2020 and 2021 have been very tough on everyone and your positive feedback, encouragement and interaction together, both with new members and lifelong friends on the FB page, goes into continuing the community and awareness of this great fish.
We often get asked by non-members…”What do I get out of it?’…An understandable question when finances are involved and it’s something that you have to pay for.
Our honest response to this very common question is “What do you WANT to get out of it?”
You see ‘The American Carp Society’ is a blank sheet for any angler coming into it and it can be anything that you want it to be for you…yes, there are the yearly membership packages, tackle items, stickers and merchandise that are included that make it worth the monetary cost of $29 per year alone worth consideration…but it can also be much more.
Every angler in the USA that has a passion for catching Carp has one thing in common…that magic that keeps us coming back to the lake to try to outwit these stunning fish again and again. Your passion that had you pick up a rod in the first place is something that can be shared with someone else…whether you do it through posting your captures on your social media outlets, writing an article or a blog, creating short films or movies for YouTube or being involved in a podcast…there are massive opportunities here in the USA that are completely untouched.
Learning from other anglers to improve your catch rate is something that we really encourage and it’s amazing to see the great responses to a new member asking questions in the FB group, by many of the veterans, with both sound advice and encouragement. As we continue to see the interest in the fish and sport growing, we continue to see new anglers with new talents and skills coming into the picture and coming to the forefront.
We want to take this time to encourage each and every one of you to write a blog, document your experience, make a short film or take someone else fishing…We’ll support your efforts in any way that we can here at The American Carp Society. We’ll promote your efforts and we will continue to help all of you that reach out and ask for that support…Remember this is YOUR American Carp Society…we’re just here to help.
You will be surprised what ‘you’ get out of ‘giving back’ to ‘someone else’…so in 2022 take some time to improve your catch rate, learn from others, improve on the quality of your photography or your film making…You’ll be glad that you did.
As part of the ‘giving back’ aspect of our membership, please consider organizing a local American Carp Society fishing event in your area and invite not only your Carp fishing friends but also others that may not be aware of our great sport and we will support you in your efforts. Remember the more folks we can collectively introduce to the sport, the more ability we will have when interacting with State and Federal authorities on the subject.
We continue to do much work in the background with both State and Game departments around the country, along with ‘local’ communities to further help with the awareness of the species and its positive attributes as a sport fish…it’s always a work in progress and we are feeling positive about the results we are seeing.
Here’s wishing every one of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season…with love and best wishes from us all here at The American Carp Society…and remember, enjoy those precious moments on the bank by the water’s edge in this New Year!
