Spring Carping in Pennsylvania
By
Jake Hoy
Hi there, my name is Jake Hoy. I am from the beautiful state of Pennsylvania. I have only been carp fishing for three years now and two years seriously. Living in this state gives me the opportunity to catch some giants. I fish euro style and I have fallen in love with it!
It has changed my life for the better. I started off with my buddies, Ryan Curran, Aidan Fioravanti & Jessica Day. We started by using corn directly on the hook and as the months went by and our carp fishing knowledge grew we learned euro style carping from ‘fishing with Carl’ over in the UK.
It is because of these three friends that my love for carp fishing exploded and I can’t thank them enough!
I then started to do some fishing on my own; working 40 plus hours a week is stressful enough in my line of work so some alone time is very much so needed. Late last year when me and my family where doing our annul camping trip to Colonial Woods, I kept getting the itch to carp fish but I didn’t know of any venues in the area except Lake Nockamixon. So, I went on the maps and Fishbrain to try and find some intel on the area.
I stumbled across another lake called Lake Towhee, it’s a much smaller venue than Nockamixon, roughly 50 acres total for the lake. The 1st time I visited, I went to bass and chain pickerel fish it so I could study the lake and see if there were carp in there too. Low and behold during that 1st Bass session there I saw carp jumping like crazy within minutes of arriving. I went back a few times after that to see where they fed most of the time but by the time I found the feeding areas, “old man winter” had rolled around.
This last winter in Pennsylvania was one of the worst we have had in a few years. Usually we are able to fish and its been generally mild but this year, it got so cold that everything finally froze over. I kept checking the lake often to see if it was fishable but it just wouldn’t unfreeze. The ice finally broke around mid-March and once it did, I had my fist session there. I only did a few hours but landed two nice commons of 12 lb and 14 lb.
My hopes of larger carp being in these waters came true and I couldn’t of been more excited.
I quickly planned to go the next day for a little morning session with Ryan because 40mph wind gusts were due to start at 12 that afternoon. I ended up with a beautiful 10lb carp before the wind really started...
After my first successful weekend there with three carp, I couldn’t wait for the work week to go fast. I went back the following weekend but ended up with only one that came in at 11lb.
The weather during the next two week’s fishing only saw a high of 48F, so it’s been a rough spring so far to say the least…
I spent the following weekend at another venue, landed a 17 lb which is my biggest this year up to that point and that was using a boilie!
The following weekend I was in Mexico for my cousin’s wedding, had a great time but couldn’t wait to get back to Towhee. The moment I came home, I went to Towhee and pre-baited. A tactic that was taught to me by Kenny Mac who has been nothing short of amazing. I truly couldn’t thank him enough for everything he has taught me. I can’t wait to get out to Dale Hollow with him in the beginning of May and hope to learn a lot more about this awesome sport!
While i was pre-baiting at Towhee, there was a couple other carp anglers there and I could tell they were newer and I had to ask if they didn’t mind if I pre-baited my swim, luckily they didn’t mind at all. They were only fishing 20 yards out but I was putting my bait 50-60 yards out. My Kaizen Platinum does a fantastic job getting out there. I put out roughly 300 spods over a large area of my swim.
I came back 5 days later and tossed out roughly 150 spods. I was planning to fish it the following day so I didn’t want to go too crazy.
Needless to say it paid off big time. I ended up landing 5 carp in total of over an 8 hour span and lost four! My old lake PB was 14lb and around 11am I got an 18lb common.
I convinced Aidan, Jess and Ryan to come and they got there at 12 ish and I kept the 18lb carp in the keepsack to show them and so Jess could take good quality photos with her new camera she had recently purchased. Right after we took the pictures and put him back, the same rod using a radical white boilie landed me a 20lb common out of Towhee.
I broke my PB for this lake in back-to-back cast. I was so stoked about accomplishing this! The radical white boilie ended up catching me four out of five carp, two of them were my back to back PBs.
My rig of choice for all this is a hair rig. I used a snowman presentation but I didn’t use two boilies. I prefer a 20mm boilie and a tiger nut below it.
My tiger nut of choice is pineapple fusion. This is because I put pineapple fusion glug in my mix, I pre-bait and then use it in my solid bags when actually fishing it. My mix of choice is soaked bird seed, supra fruit pellets, tutti frutti 15mm boilies, sweet ground bait, pineapple fusion glug. This approach alone landed me 5 fish in one session and it has become my new favorite. I used to use your traditional pack bait. But fell off that trend.
I can’t wait for this upcoming year. I have had so much success so far and its only going to get better.
From joining the American Carp Society, to expanding my knowledge with my growing friendships within the sport, it’s truly going to be my best carp fishing year yet.
I only have three goals for this year: First one was get more involved in this community, beat my PB which is 20LB, and to catch the rumored 30-40lb mirror carp that is residing in Lake Towhee. One major thing I think keeps all carp anglers excited about this sport fish, is the unknown in the wild waters. That alone is what brings me to the bank excited for every session, short or long.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.
Jake Hoy @jakehoy111 on instagram
Photo credits to Jessica Day.