Sterling State Park Carp Fishing - 121 Pounds of Fish!

I had a great day of carp fishing at Sterling State Park today. The carp starting biting early and often. I arrived shortly after 6 a.m. and had lines in by 6:45. It didn't take long after that to land my first carp.

Sunrise near Lake Erie, 6 a.m

Here are some pictures from today's session. I caught 13 common carp and a catfish. I was holding out hope for a small mouth buffalo too, but luck was not with me today for that goal.



16 pounds



13 pounds

At one point, I had a double run. My #2 rod had a run and as I picked it up for retrieval, my #3 rod took off on a screaming run as well. This is the first time in the year or so that I've been fishing for carp that I experienced a double run.

I looked over at my wife sitting in a chair to my right and said, "You're going to need to grab that one." She goes fishing with me a lot, but yesterday was the first time she ever tried to land a fish. We did get her a fishing license earlier this year for just this type of scenario. When the bit is fast and furious, having an extra pair of hands available helps out a lot. (It also helps provide time for using the restroom if that is necessary. Previously I had to pull the rods out of the water.)



13 pounds

13 pounds

My wife helps with the netting and at one point I just couldn't seem to get the fish close enough to the bank and into the net. I tried moving right. I moved left. I walked backward up the bank, but the fish was determined to stay out of the net at all costs. And as expected, the length of time for netting resulted in the fish becoming unhooked.

It's easy to second guess that process of course and easy to blame the person doing the netting. In the end I just chalk it up to carp being strong fish and pretty smart too. They have strategies for "escape".  If they can't get away running north and south; they switch to east and west. Some will even try to fool you by running straight at you. More than once carp have fooled me into thinking the fish got away, but no sooner than I relax and continue the retrieve the action starts again.

16 pounds

16 pounds

A young kid nearby us was fishing with dead minnows and landed a very good sized gar pike. He and his grandfather stopped by to talk for a while wanting to learn how I was landing all those fish. They didn't stay around quite long enough though because my plan was to let them fight a fish or two to get the feel for fighting a carp.

18 pounds

When this fish hit the net I was sure it was the largest of the day, but after weighing the fish tipped the scales at 18 pounds. Those scales don't lie, but my eyesight sometimes does.

My largest fish today was 19 pounds

Judging from this picture, I must have had the fish tilted slightly backwards and away from the camera because it clearly weighed more than the other fish and ended up being my largest catch.

It's not a carp! Fishing for carp provides a few surprises from time to time.

 Some people I know would call this a "big" catfish, but fighting this catfish was a piece of cake compared to those mid-and-high-teens common carp.

 

Each and every carp caught today was released back into the water gently
 so that someone else has a chance to catch them again some day.

I call this one "Little Guy". Compared to the 16, 18 and 19 pounders, he was indeed "little".
He weighed in at 10 pounds.