When there is a heatwave and temperature of the water is above 25 Celsius, it is time for grass carp fishing. At this time of the year, the metabolism of grass carp speeds up and they eat large amounts of food. Because of their urge to feed grass carp become careless, so it’s easy to trick them.
In this year, I decided to exploit this period and pursue these grass eating torpedoes on the Danube. I had several places in mind, but finally I chose the middle part of the Danube, where two of my test anglers, Zoli Gál and his brother Gyuri, fish too. Answering Zoli’s invitation, I started fishing at his place. Gyuri had been feeding and fishing the swim for a week, therefore I didn’t have a difficult task. All I had to do was choose the right tackle and feed.
As at this time of the year grass carp fishing requires large amounts of feeding. I cooked and soured 40 kilos of dry corn according to my own recipe. The smell of the corn became slightly sour. First I woke up very early at 1 a.m. to find a place. It turned out that I was right to do so, because as soon as I unloaded my tackle, there were already a few anglers next to me. I took my favorite rods with me the Manta Evo-X 390 heavy feeder rods equipped with Shimano Bull’s Eye reels.
I spooled up my reels with braided lines and I put a 1-m-long fluorocarbon line at the end for various reasons. First, I didn’t want the braided main line to damage the fish during the fish playing. Secondly, I didn’t want the grass carp to notice anything in the clear water. Finally, I wanted my rig to be resistant to stones near the bank. When it comes to grass carp fishing, I always use giant, size 1 hooks. For bait I used 1 piece of corn on the hair with 1 or sometimes 2 FEEDERMANIA Lemon Dream 10 mm pop-up boilies.
When I put 2 pop-ups on the hook, my rig swung over to the side. However, with only 1 pop-up, only the waves made by bigger boats could move it to the side. Both versions appeared to be successful. To ensure secure holding, the smallest lead I used was 170 g. This was important because the grass carp has hard mouth.
Thanks to my drop off lead rig, all the fish I hooked came up to the surface immediately, so I didn’t have to worry about the snags. To prevent tangles, I’d made firm fluorocarbon hooklinks. I molded a big ball of the new corn based Lemon Dream groundbait around my lead before casting. The groundbait created a white, smoke like line in the water, which the grass carp could easily notice.
I was feeding with the help of a long baiting spoon, 15-20 meters from the shore. I put in approximately 30 liters of corn in each session at approximately 30-40-minute intervals.
I had 6 sessions on Gyuri’s swim usually from dawn until noon, and during this time, I caught 9 grass carp, some of them over 10 kilos.
All in all, it was great, but I really wanted to become successful in a swim that I discovered on my own. Therefore, I made a new feed a few hundred meters downstream where the water was calm. I started fishing right after the second feed and, as I expected, the new feed brought 4 grass carp among them the biggest one. In the previous swim I hadn’t caught this many fish. The next day I caught 4 more grass carp and broke my previous record. On the third day, I stayed for a bit longer, but it was worth it. I released 4 giant torpedoes to the Danube.
The grass carp is an invasive species, but fortunately in the middle part of the Danube it is compulsory to release specimens bigger than 80 cm, so I could let go these wonderful, silvery fish. My tenth, in my new place fourth, session brought me the greatest success. On this day I caught five grass carp and, when I was preparing to leave, I landed the biggest carp I had ever caught on the Danube. It weighed 14 kg!
During the 10 (mostly morning) sessions I managed to catch 26 grass carp and 1 carp. Thank you DANUBE!
It was an incredible fishing. I’ll never forget the bites of grass carp. Unlike on still water where the bites are a bit shy, on the Danube the tip of my rod straightened up (this is when the lead got off) and in the next moment the reel started screaming. Even the middle section of my rod bent. As I said earlier I managed to catch 27 fish all together. On Gyuri’s swim I caught 9 during 6 days, and when I was fishing the other swim I landed 17 specimens, some of them over 10 kilos and also a carp. Let me emphasize here that Gyuri had chosen a really good swim too, but after a while the fish got to know it and started feeding more cautiously around the area.
What’s more, I had to compete with local anglers for the swim, so I thought that there were more possibilities in a new feed and a carefully chosen spot. All the catches proved me right. Enjoy these magnificent fish and the bites in the latest episode of my FEEDERMANIA series, and don’t forget to go out fishing until the weather’s nice.
Written by Krisztián Jankovich
Translated by Mihály Köntös