A Carp Fishing Tale (or should I say tail?)

Before traveling to the 2018 Carp Anglers Group Midwest Regional event this year I followed the weather forecast closely for several days. With 2018 being my 5th annual trip to the event, it's something I look forward to for several months. But nothing could have prepared me for the 65 mph wind gusts and 2-3 foot waves rivaling the Gulf of Mexico in Bay City, Michigan on Friday during the afternoon "pre-fish" portion of the event.

I prepared two kinds of homemade boilies, flavored corn and birdseed with intentions of using it to pre-bait heavily on Friday in preparation for the Saturday morning starting time. I planned to pre-bait again on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. in preparation for the Sunday morning starting time.With the winds on Friday and the heavy boat traffic on Saturday afternoon/evening I changed plans; and there would be not pre-baiting. With the conditions on the river at the time, I considered it a waste of time, energy and resources.

Saturday's weather was nearly perfect to start and the river conditions correlated closely behind. The water had barely a ripple anywhere and as close to a "mirror" that a river likely ever gets in springtime. The wind and waves were only a memory.

I set-up and cast 3 rods at short distance. I noticed a small carp surface at first to the right side of my swim and a little while later I noticed my left rod was flickering. Experience told me that a carp or possibly a catfish was bumping my pack bait, which is a promising indicator of feeding carp and a reliable predictor of a future bite and a high probability of catching a fish in the near future.

The indicator would rise a little bit, and then fall. It was moving very slowly, but very deliberately. I kept watching and within a few minutes, I had a fish on the line.

I've noticed a trend locally that larger fish sometimes end up being lazy fish. As an example, my recent 37 pound personal best from a local lake made a couple of bob's and weave's at first when hooked, but ultimately gave up the fight early and was "dead weight" on 90% of the retrieve. But this river carp had other plans.

This fish made several runs straight away, but tired and I gained some line. Then as it neared the shoreline it darted hard to the right and after a while darted hard back to the left and toward the bank. There was a bunch of fallen tree limbs and submerged roots nearby. Ultimately, my adherence to patience and persistence corralled the 33 pound fish in the net with some assistance from Vinny in the swim to my left. (Thanks Vinny.)

33 pounds 2 ounces

I love it when careful planning, experience and luck join forces and result in catching fish. It's even better when the fish is the second largest fish you have ever caught.

In another "first" for me this year, this fish bent a size 4 hook at a 45 degree angle. In the end I was fortunate that I did not loose her to a hook pull. I've bent hooks on snags before, but never on a fish.

More Saginaw River Pictures from 2017

I found a few more pictures on another camera from the Saginaw River trip. Between phones, cameras and Go Pro I sometimes forget to download them all.

Pictures from the CAG Midwestern Regional at Saginaw River

I look forward to attending the Carp Anglers Group Midwestern Regional each year. I have been making plans to attend the 2016 event since late 2015, so Friday morning I headed out early for the trip to Saginaw as a member of Team Michigan.

On Friday I fished a new area of the river (for me) and within 30 minutes of casting out I landed the first fish – a small 10 pounder.

It took several more hours to land a second fish, at 15 pounds, which was unfortunately my last fish for the day.

 

10 pounds

15 pounds and then some

Saturday morning we arrived at the peg draw anticipating a day filled with carp fishing and hoping for high quantities of high quality fish topping the 20 pound mark, which on the Saginaw River is fairly common.

I landed a 13 pounder very early on and a nice channel catfish later in the day, but unfortunately carp were regretfully absent from my swim the remainder of the day on Saturday.

13.1 pounds



Team Michigan was in second place heading into Sunday. My teammates started landing fish early in the day, but unfortunately my luck was running cold for the first few hours. I was fishing my particular spot in Bigelow Park peg for the first time. Heavy winds impacted my casting and prevented me from putting the bait in the proper zone. Teammates were landing fish closer to shore, so I tried that awhile. But I kept trying my preferred spot off and on with little success.

The winds subsided in the late afternoon. Casting and current improved substantially as a weather front approached. The skies turned dark blue and it looked like rain was imminent. I commented to my wife that all heck was going to break loose at any minute. Sitting back in the sport umbrella out of the wind, she asked why and I explained that it was likely to start raining hard soon and I had a feeling the fish were about to start feeding heavily.

14 pounder

16 pounder

18 pounder

25 pounds 9 ounces

It turns out I was incorrect about the weather, but right about the fish. After a tough day playing the waiting game on Saturday afternoon, these fish were a welcome arrival. Just when it seemed like they'd never come, things turned around.

This was my third time fishing the regional. I think this year's conditions offered the biggest challenges (at least for me), but a tweak here and there; and suffering through a pity party or two paid off with some nice fish at long last.

4th consecutive Team Michigan victory

CAG Midwestern Regional - Saginaw River - Near Bay City

I just signed up for the CAG Midwestern Regional today. I enjoyed this team event last year. I hope the weather is a little better this time around.

We stayed in Bay City last year at the Doubletree and we plan to stay there again. It's a nice hotel within walking distance to downtown Bay City (as long as it's warm). Last year we had raging wind gusts of 30 - 35 mph for much of the weekend, but we still caught carp. For anyone who is planning to go in 2015 I'd encourage you to bring plenty of warm clothes along. You may not need them, but you'll be glad to have them if you do.

Here are a few pictures from last year's event:

Baiting up

My spot on day 1

This was the first fish caught in the tournament by the Michigan Team in 2014.
It only weighed 13 pounds, but at least I was on the board for a short time.

Our spot for day 2 of the event

I caught 4 fish on day 2, but for some off reason I didn't take a picture of the largest carp I caught all weekend. It only weighed a little over 15 pounds. By that time it took a 17 pounder to make it onto the team board.

My 4 fish on the second day, including the pike in the picture above, were caught in the last 90 minutes of fishing. It was quiet all day long and then bam, bam, bam, bam. It was an onslaught of small carp.

This is my favorite picture of the weekend taken on Linda's cell phone and featured in CAG's online magazine. Linda wasn't given credit for taking the photo in the magazine, but I'll give her credit here again.

The calm morning turned into a very, very windy afternoon on day 2.

Saginaw River C.A.G. Midwest Regional

Preparing for a Sunday session tomorrow near Lake Erie I pulled out my digital camera and video recorder today for charging. I the process I discovered some pictures on the digital camera that my wife took that I had forgotten about. I have attached a few of them below.

Bigelow Park near downtown Bay City, MI

A view from the gazebo at the rowing club

 

My rod pod at the water's edge

 

Baiting up the hair rig

We  needed the rain gear for most of the morning, but it did clear off later in the day



I hooked my first common carp a little before 9 a.m.

My first fish of the day and the 2nd fish our team caught in the tournament