Carp in the News

There is a nice article about carp fishing in the online magazine Outdoorhub.com written by Dave Mull. Yours truly is even mentioned in the article.

A nice example for how we use hair rigs to fish for common carp as seen at Outdoorhub.com (photo by Dave Mull).

This article was written about the Wooden Shoe Carp Classic in Holland, Michigan earlier this year.

Funny Commercial

Update on Lupus Fundraising Effort

I have caught hundreds of pounds of carp this season. My goal to raise a dollar per pound got off to a slow start, but it is picking up steam.

My Adsense advertising is also progressing.  The Amazon affiliate links are getting views. Any earnings from affiliates on my carp fishing blog will be donated to the Lupus Foundation.

If you can help with my efforts by purchasing an item that you would normally purchase on Amazon.com using one of my affiliate links, I would appreciate it.

Carp Fishing Guide Service

I have never used a guide service or been fly fishing, but if I decided to do either and could get time away from work to travel to Traverse City, Michigan I would seriously consider Jon's Guide Service.

From his web page:

Grand Traverse Bay and the Traverse city area located in Michgan provide some of the best carp fishing on a fly in the World! Thousands of carp enter the shallow flats of Grand Traverse Bays (East Bay / West Bay) to feed, sun, and spawn during the early months of summer. Golden bones are what carp have been nicknamed by those looking to try and fool this smart and shy fish.

 

A picture from JonsGuideService.com
providing a sampling of fly fishing for carp on Grand Traverse Bay.

 

A Sunday Fishing Session at Sterling State Park

I spent the day on the bank fishing for some carp.

Shorting after getting lines in the water at 6:45 a.m. I starting getting action. Lucky for me the action ranged from fast and furious to slow and steady throughout the day.

My first 3 carp were lost to hook pulls and a snag. The fourth fish was a catfish. Numbers five through fifteen were carp of small size. What they lacked in size they more than made up for in feistiness. I didn't weigh all the fish, so the pounds in the captions are estimates.

Here are some pictures from this very successful session.

3 pound catfish

8 pound common carp

9 pounds

8 pounds

Roughly 6 pounds

On Memorial Day I caught the end of the spawning season and the carp were much bigger and more impressive on camera.

A few of these fish surprised me because they fought a lot bigger than their actual size. One in particular just about dragged my entire rod, rod holder, and alarm into the lake. I caught it in the nick of time.

I christened the new carp rods in style! Small or big, I'll take them all.

My ultimate goal of catching my first buffalo wasn't recognized, but my fishing partners caught 3 (one was around 16 pounds.).

New Carp Fishing Rods

My new Resistance Tackle carp rods arrived this week. ResistanceTackle.com announced a buy-one-get-free sale on fishing rods in May and it was a deal too good to pass up.

I have been using Wychwood 2.75 and Black Widow 2.75 test curve rods, which work for carp fishing but were a little on the soft side for fighting some of the bigger carp I've been catching in recent weeks. I opted for the Resistance Tackle 12 ft. Hurricane 3.0 test curve rods. The Hurricanes were $275 for four rods. Compared to the 2.75 test curve rods, the additional stiffness should help.

Eventually I will be getting some new reels too, but those purchases will need to wait a while. Since I'm currently using Okuma Avengers I am hoping to upgrade to Okuma Epixor's or Coronado's.

Carp Fishing Pictures