Prepping for the Upcoming Year of Carp Fishing

A nice 17 pounder from the fall

I like this time of year. It's still much too cold to fish here locally with temperatures at 2 degrees this morning. But this is the perfect time of the year to begin preparing for what's to come. I love the anticipation and expectations for bigger and better fish when spring finally arrives.

I use this time to scout new spots via Google Maps/Earth and talk to friends about potential new fishing spots. I found a spot on the River Raisin today using that technique.

I also use this time to tie up a bunch of hair rigs. With 14 weeks until warm weather here, if I tie 5 or 6 hair rigs each weekend, I'll have more than 70 pre-tied rigs ready to go. That will keep me fishing for quite a while once the weather breaks. Preparing hair rigs bankside is a highly inefficient use of valuable and what's becoming scare fishing time for me. I prefer to keep 15 to 20 in my Korda rig box safe ready-to-go.

I plan to hit it hard in the spring because starting in mid-summer my time will need to be focused more on my day job responsibilities for several weeks (and possibly months). My time will be limited to weekends and holidays exclusively for a while, but hopefully things will free up toward fall when the bigger fish return.

For anyone trying to build up their supplies for the season, it's a great time to take advantage of a fantastic sale going on at ResistanceTackle.com. I ordered leads, hooks and baiting needles there myself last weekend. When the season gets a little closer I'll pick up some flavored maize, dips and a few dumbbell pop up boilies to round out my carp fishing supplies.