Less is More When Packing

I spent some time yesterday reorganizing my carp wagon. 

My gear lives in the carp wagon 24x7 during the fishing months. (I do refrigerate l0eft over field corn, boilies and bird seed used in my packbait.)

Summer time river carping a couple of years ago

I was able to remove about 12 pounds of unnecessary  weight from my tackle backpack. I also removed another 6 pounds in miscellaneous items that are "nice to haves" but not critical for fishing (ex. 7 cans of cream corn).

I will keep the extra items in my vehicle so they are available, but there is no need to haul it all to the site every time. Example - I was carrying 6 oz, 5 oz and 4 1/2 oz leads to my calm lake spots every time I went fishing. I organized the leads by size in my carp closet, so when I go to the river I'll grab a handful as needed.

Traveling lighter will help make the long walk back to the parking lot a little easier after those all day sessions this summer. 

Urban River Carp Fishing

Saturday started off with great promise, but it didn't last.

An hour after casting the first time, a drop back indication and short battle of wills later this nice common carp landed in the net.

I was talking to my fishing partner and facing in the opposite direction when my partner told me I had a fish on the line. 

The alarm did not sound at all, but the bite indicator was hanging low without tension indicating that the fish hooked himself and then swam towards the bank.

This river fish did not give up easily. Diving deep into mid-river he had no intention of being caught. 

A few minutes later he made a last ditch effort at freeing the hook from the bottom lip by swimming directly toward the bank at speed. 

I've noticed in the past that some bigger (e.g. older) carp and buffalo often charge the shoreline indicating to me that they've probably been hooked before. And, sometimes charging the bank works, but not this time, as the picture and video below will attest.

I enjoy release videos a lot. This nice common carp swam away in slow motion to live on and potentially be caught again by another urban carp angler.

Michigan Carp Fishing in May

What a difference a day makes (or a cast can make, or a specific cast location in my case). 

I started out fishing the shallower water, thinking it would warm faster in the overcast skies. Casting in close to shore wasn't producing any bites, so I started trying different locations in the swim - near, far, middle.

We had a very slow morning until about 1:30 p.m. By that time I'd worked all three rods toward a seawall and it paid off. I caught a single small fish and packed up all but the rods and bank sticks. While organizing the trunk, the welcome familar  sound of the alarms pierced the silence. I caught a second fish!

I actually packed up to leave again and caught 5 more carp (had to drag it all back out). It was very worth it. 

I also got a new Personal Best catfish that actually fought much like a common carp. 

Total haul: 5 carp and 1 catfish.

A 4 year old boy at the park was admiring my catches. In the park with his mom, he came closer to see the fish each time we landed one. 

His mom went to the car and retrieved a Snoopy rod. He was actually pretty good at casting it. I think we recruited a future carp fisherman. I hope I'm around when he hooks his first carp!

I made this carp and catfish collage with Pixlr

Update 6/11: I learned recently that my digital scale needed new batteries. That first fish registered 19 pounds. It seemed bigger than that at the time. After seeing my scale needed batteries, it seems to confirm my suspicion was correct. I am guessing it was around 23 to 24 pounds. We will never know for sure.

Michigan Rouge River Carp Fishing

I love fishing local Michigan Rivers. Some of the urban rivers around Detroit are my favorites.  Thousands of people drive by these locations daily unsuspecting of the monster sized fish that swim there. 

There are several rivers that feed into Michigan's St. Clair - Detroit River - Lake Erie chain. All of them are home to a healthy common carp population.

Saturday brought sunshine and common carp. I ended up with 8 fish, but one skeedaddled before I got a photo. 

The biggest fish was a mid-teener (16-17# or so). There was a very active bite until the cold front arrived.

It was a good time, netting, baiting, photoing, releasing. Once or twice I actually hoped the fish would slow down a bit. I love days like that.

16# common carp

This fish will grow much larger and eventually
fill out it's bulk and size to match that long tail fin.

I'm not quite sure why I was making that silly face.
While posing the fish, it tried to wiggle itself free.