Carp Fishing Beginner

My first carp

When I started fishing exclusively for carp I must have performed 30 or 40 Internet searches for “how to carp fish” and “catching carp”. Many of those searches on Google.com, Yahoo.com and YouTube.com returned very informative videos, blogs, and discussion forums about how to fish for and catch carp. Many of those resources helped me tremendously and shortened my learning curve and helped me catch carp sooner versus later. I skipped over a lot of the trial and error experimentation that would have occurred without those resources.

I caught my first carp July 21, 2013. My wife and I headed out to Ford Lake in Ypsilanti, MI after work for a few hours of fishing. Totaling 975 acres, Ford Lake was created by Ford Motor Company to generate hydroelectric power for their manufacturing plants in the 1930’s. It’s just a few miles from my home in the nearby Belleville/Van Buren Township area, so there will be many, many more trips to the lake which is one of the best known lakes in Michigan for carp sport fishing.

During my second visit to Ford Lake specifically for the purpose of catching carp, I hooked a large carp within 90 seconds or so of the first cast. It was so fast that I hadn’t even set up my fish net yet. As you might imagine there were a few anxious moments trying to reel in the fish and grab the net, which wasn’t even unfolded yet. It was definitely a Bad News Bears fishing moment, but predictable I guess since it was my first time fishing for carp.