Urban Pond Carp

Fishing can be an expensive and technical sport. One statistic that I am afraid to learn is how many funds I’ve put into this hobby. I could write books describing how expensive fishing is. In addition, every fishing trip has lots of travel and setup time. I definitely don’t mind doing so but it definitely takes a physical and mental toll. Often times after a long day of fishing, I do the bare minimum of unloading and often go straight to bed with all my equipment left in the house foyer.

However not every trip has to be expensive and time consuming. In the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, there are quite a few retention ponds in the newer neighborhoods. They collect rainwater and runoff from the streets to eventually drain into the rivers. Most of them are quite shallow, filled with weeds and algae. Manitoba’s harsh winter kills any fish that manage to get into those ponds. Often these ponds are devoid of fish except in special circumstances.

I personally have a guilty pleasure of trying unusual bodies of water to see if fish could be caught. I love having houses, streets and stores in the background as opposed to the traditional forest, rocks and other typical fishing scenery. The curiosity of ordinary people passing by is also something I enjoy seeing. Most have no exposure to the sport of fishing and I’m happy to share about my passion with them.

It was late spring day and I finished a day at my boring corporate job. I decided to simply drive around the ponds near my house with a rod and see if I could catch something. It took a few ponds before I came upon one with fish. Most of the ponds were so thick with weeds that fishing would not have been very practical. The pond that I settled on was drained by a small creek to the river. In most years the creek had a sharp set of rapids that prevented fish from swimming into the pond. However that spring had very high levels of water and I knew that fish could make it there this year.

This pond was in a park with townhouses around the perimeter. A McDonalds and an Esso were in might sight range. As soon as I walked up to the pond I could see carp swimming in the shallows. I am far from an experienced carp angler and even today I still don’t know how to catch them consistently. I had set up a slip bobber with worms. My plan was to place a worm in front of a carp’s face. Although there were many carp in the pond, many simply swam past or ignored my offering. I spotted one that was rooting around in the mud and placed the bobber rig right in front of its face.

After a few seconds the bobber went down and the drag instantly peeled line. I was using a light action rod so these carp put up quite the fight. A jogger came by to watch the fight. After a 5 minute fight, I beached the carp on the shore. The jogger helped me take a picture and ran off.

The carp was released as I don’t eat carp as well as retention ponds accumulating lots of pollutants. I went back to fishing trying to coax more carp. I managed to land another one with the worm and bobber method.

Darkness eventually settled in and I went home for dinner.

Overall it was one of the most satisfying trips I did that year. These carp are definitely far from the biggest I’ve caught and definitely not the easiest fish to catch. However I just felt good about being able to do a simple trip with very few expenses near home. It was like being a kid again and made me realize that fishing doesn’t have to be a hardcore activity. I encourage everyone to try finding a fishing spot near home in an unusual location. Sometimes there can be absolute gems right under our noses.