Whenever I find time to go into the city, I try to squeeze in a carp trip. There is one lake in Flushing Meadows Park (Meadow Lake), the home of 1939's NY World's Fair, that holds a fair number of carp and goldfish (and recently, snakehead).

Although I'm not targeting monsters this time of year (I do that in the Spring in a secret fishing hole with rod-and-reel), I try my luck with an old form of Asian fishing pronounced "dae-nok-shee" in Korean, which literally translates to Cane Pole Fishing. One fancy float, a little dough, and a reel-less rod later, I caught my personal best on this set-up this past weekend. Not a big one, but sure put up a fight on a rod without a reel (I'll post a picture of this set-up in a reply).

=)

Also, thanks guys for all the positive comments on my eel post!

The setup:

That looks like fun! How long is the rod?

believe it or not, about 13 ft.

How do you land the fish? Do you have to disassemble the rod?

What's the strategy for dae-nok-shee? Where do you find the poles?

I just caught a In-Fisherman show where they were using crappie cane poles for channel catfish in small streams. That looked like combat, I couldn't amagine what a carp would be like on one. That first run must be a doozie. I would love to hear more on this technique.

On youtube there is a video of a guy who uses something similar from Europe that is 40 feet. When the fish is hooked you pull the rod back onto a roller and pull the fish to you. There is a bungee cord like thing that gives a shock effect I assume to reduce snapping of line. He was using it for Panfish.

Very neat style of fishing.....Thanks for sharing it with us!

That's what we call "vaste hengel" in the Netherlands. Literally, that means "fixed rod." It's a whole scene over here, with people using poles of up to 15 metres (45 feet) like Aaron said. Mostly though, it's old guys fishing for Bream (Abramis brama), which put up about as much of a fight as a dishrag (which is actually the nickname for them over here).

Catching a carp on it is a whole other story! Some dudes can land 20 pounders with a length of elastic between the rod tip and the line acting as drag. Biggest I've ever caught on my 13 ft pole was a little carp of maybe 1.5 pounds. Even that was pretty darn exciting!

By the way, Corey, you guessed right. With the long (really long) poles, you gradually take back sections off as you play the fish in, until you can reach it with the net. With the shorter poles, up to 15 ft or so, the line out is usually about as long as the rod, so you don't have to take it apart.

But correct me if I'm wrong, Ppark!

Hengelaar- you are absolutely correct!

I never used the giant rods, my 13-15 footers are long enough to land a fish without taking back sections. Those giant rods sound like something I would love to try!

The whole dae-nok-shee technique is quite elegant. You have a float that rests above the water, but it is not a float in the tradional sense. It is more of an indicator, as the sinker and bait are on the ground and the float rests up to indicate a bite (you adjust the hieght of the float according to depth at bottom).
The back of the rod is tied to a string, in case you get an unsuspected bite and the fish decides to run off with your rod!

When a fish strikes, the float (see pic) either sinks quick or floats up at which point you set the hook by pulling back on the rod with a quick snap of the arm. Then, you lift up---> if it's a carp, the first run is a giveaway. If it's big, you got the turn the fish so it doesn't run out away from you. The trick is to make the fish swim in figure 8's until it tires. The bursts of speed are countered by a quick turn of its intended direction.

Cool stuff ppark. Drop me a PM if you're planning a day out with the long rods, i'd love to check out the techniques. I'm 20 minutes (depending on traffic of course) from the gwb just across the river.
Have you been hitting the surf lately? Theres loads of bait in the wash and some cocktail blues have been around. Cow stripers shouldnt be far behind. I caught my lifer horse-eyed jack (didnt have my camera so no pics, doh) this week in raritan bay while fishing for snapper blues. I really want to get over to jamaica bay at some point this fall.

Snakeheads in flushing meadows?!?! Wonder if they eat tennis balls.