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.

Carp Anglers Group 2017 Battle of the States Midwest Regional

I really enjoyed this year's event (my 4th). The rules were changed a little for 2017 and the change proved to be very popular with anglers.

In prior years, pre-fishing was allowed on Friday with a peg draw on Saturday and then a peg change on Sunday. This year the peg draw was on Friday and then anglers were allowed to fish their swim on Friday afternoon, fish it for the contest on Saturday and then again on Sunday. This allowed anglers to "build" their swim and learn all the in's and out's over the duration of the weekend event.

My two largest fish weighed 23 pounds 14 ounces and 24 pounds (although our scales registered 25 pounds 12 ounces). The variation in the larger fish was likely attributable to the wind gusts up to 20 mph we were experiencing making it challenging to "tare" the scales.

Here are some more pictures:

Upper teens

20 pounds

Look at that big tail

25 pounds

23 pounds

Carp Fishing Social at New Venue

My friends David and Bill, members of the Carp Anglers Group, met up this morning with plans to spend the day at a local water that hasn't been fished heavily for carp (if at all by a C.A.G. member besides Bill and I).

Bill and I explored this spot on the Raisin River in the fall of 2015 as part of "Discovery Month". I caught a couple of mid-teens carp and Bill caught a catfish tipping the scales in low double digits. We vowed to come back and fish the venue again someday. With some of our other favorite carp fishing spots heavily inundated with spawning carp who aren't much interested in feeding on panko, chicken feed, and cream corn we decided to give this venue another shot to show us what carp it holds.

The fishing spot

I arrived at 6:30 a.m. with David and Bill joining me in short order. We had lines in the water a little before 7:15 and it didn't take long for the carp to start making the alarms sing the familiar tune that announces to the world, "Carp on."

The first couple of runs resulted in lost fish. But I finally hooked a small 2 pound channel catfish around 8:30 a.m. David caught a catfish and a carp during this same time frame.

I caught a couple of smaller carp a little while later. The carp were small enough to leave me wondering where the bigger fish might be hiding.

Small common

Slightly bigger small common

A little after lunch time a much bigger, crafty and veteran of carp of the Raisin River decided to feast on our panko ground bait offerings flavored with some peach flavoring.

19 pounds 6 ounces

The 19 pounder was a post-spawn fish and marked up quite a bit from the spawning activities being engaged in recently. But this fish proved to me that there could be 20 pounders (or maybe a little bigger) lurking in this new water.

The it got quiet for a while.

Then the rain came.

And then a few more carp decided to grace our net, weigh sling and pose for a Facebook picture.

This isn't the greatest picture because it was taken during a light rain. The lens on my camera phone fogged up.

David's wife caught a nice 16 pound carp to round out my day of fishing before heading home when the rain picked up even more.

I am sure David will post a copy of it on Facebook for those that are friends with him.

In the final analysis the day was a success. We caught fish in numbers and two with decent size. I caught 6 carp and a catfish. And that's good enough to bring me back again to fish here again.

North American Carp Angler Magazine

Yesterday the post man delivered a new North American Carp Angler Magazine - one of the benefits I receive from my membership in the Carp Anglers Group.

The magazine has a lot of wonderful carp fishing pictures and stories about carp fishing trips from 2015.

2016 Special Print Edition of the North American Carp Angler Magazine

The magazine and organization focuses primarily on catch and release carp fishing. I also enjoy catching small mouth buffalo, which are actually in the sucker family of fish. Interestingly enough, the common carp is in the minnow family. The average American fisherman may not realize that (I know I didn't until I started researching carp fishing in greater detail.)

If you are interested in a membership, simply click the banner link at the top of this website page and it will take you to their website so you can check it out. If you decide to become a member, please tell them your were referred by Brian Pearcy.

They also have electronic editions of the magazine available at the website as well.

If you have questions about membership benefits, please let me know.

Four Carp and a Catfish

Today I returned to a venue that has been very good to me lately. The carp are not consistently large and range in the vicinity of 5 to 20 pounds with most in the lower teens with a small and large thrown in occasionally.

A couple of weeks ago at this venue I caught 15 carp. I was absolutely on fire that day and left with blisters on my fingers from fighting and landing so many carp.

Today my luck wasn't quite as good, but I landed some good fish nonetheless. Here are some pictures.

This fish weighed just over 20 pounds and was my big fish of the day

This was my fourth fish of the day and weighed in at a few ounces under 15 pounds

The second fish of the day was a scrapper

I even caught a nice sized catfish weighing somewhere between 5 and 6 pounds

I like the golden tint on the scales of this fish

I don't often catch silver colored carp at my normal venues so seeing this one hit the net was a real treat

The first two fish came early with the 20 pounder caught shortly after sunrise in the early morning. You can probably tell from the shadows and sunlight on the fish scales that the sun was still a very deep reddish orange, which brings out the nice golden shades on the fish.

My third fish was a unique silver color. The scales were nearly perfect and the silver shades are not that common in the waters I normally fish. Although I've caught much bigger fish here and other places I was pleased with the fish because it's not common to catch common carp with the lighter shades of green and silver.

B-I-G Fish = B-I-G Business

Reprinted from CarpAnglersGroup.com

Trophy fish of any species will attract anglers from far & wide. This means more license & tackle sales as well as travel, food and accommodation expenditure coming into the economy of the region. It is therefore vital to help educate more anglers toward the positive benefits of careful handling and the live release of trophy fish of ALL species.

This includes the catch and release of trophy common carp (Cyprinus carpio) that are increasingly sought after by top anglers visiting the St Lawrence river.  The presence of big trophy carp indicates a healthy environment that will also support trophy fish of other species. The killing of large carp (as well as native buffalo, muskie and gar) only serves to stimulate the rapid increase in smaller fish which can lead to negative impacts on the aquatic environment.

You cannot ‘un-kill’ a fish. The concept of catch & release, especially for trophy fish, is a win-win for everyone. When a trophy fish is killed anglers know that it is no longer there to be caught. But when a trophy fish is released it stands out as a beacon of hope for other anglers to come test their skills and maybe catch it at an even heavier weight.

The economic benefits that result from the ‘catch & release’ of trophy carp as well as other species will be a significant boost for the local community.

I wholeheartedly support the catch & release of trophy fish while allowing anglers to retain a limited number of smaller fish for the table.

Saginaw River 2015 Midwest Regional Carp Anglers Group Event

We headed up to Bay City on Friday afternoon. Arriving at 3 p.m., it was a little too late to fish so Linda and I headed to the hotel for check-in; and then to downtown Bay City. We walked around downtown checking out the shops and visited 5 or 6 different antique shops.

After eating at the buffet at Bay City's most popular Polish buffet restaurant, we turned in early.

Saturday morning we headed to the peg draw and the to Veteran's Park for day #1 of the tournament. I spent the morning passing time by watching my rods. In the early afternoon the alarm on my middle rod screamed.



13 pounder



 

Then it got very quiet for 5 hours. Until shortly before time ran out my right rod screamed.

 

Carp fighting pose

 

 



17 pounds 14 ounces

It was a long time coming, but this fish was worth the wait. I landed the fish and snapped this picture with less than 15 minutes remaining in the Saturday session.

Day two on Sunday was not very productive for me except for a small channel catfish. I had a good spot on the bank that held a lot of fish just a few weeks ago at the pre-tournament fish-in, but someone forgot to tell the fish.

The fish were AWOL from near shore and those to the right and left of me were catching fish farther out near the main channel. I was unable to cast the 100 yards out to the channel and did not catch any carp. There is nothing worse in carp fishing than your friends and neighbors catching loads and loads of carp; and you not catching any.

Carp Fishing at Saginaw River



Last weekend we competed in the Carp Anglers Group Midwest Regional event on the Saginaw River. Michigan can not seem to jump into spring, so conditions at the event were tough to say the least. With wind gusts nearing 40 mph in the afternoons, sporadic rain and rough water, it was a challenging event. The fishing zone assignments were given at 6 a.m. daily and first cast at 7 a.m. so there was plenty of fishing.

We arrived in Bay City on Friday evening and stayed at the Doubletree Hotel. The route to the morning meeting was a short 6 or 7 miles from the hotel max.

On the first day, the Michigan Team drew Bigelow Park. The park is an island in the Saginaw River with plenty of bank space. We had part of the team near the rowing club and distributed at various locations nearer the "point".

View Larger Map

My bank mate for the day, landed a fish nearby and I was helping him with the landing net. As we moved from water's edge to the upper bank and headed toward the weighing station, I got a run on my left rod.  Depositing his net and fish in the grass I almost decapitated myself with his rod as I sprinted to my rod pod.  Luckily I made it to the rod in one piece and had an early success.  Here's a picture taken after the catch at 7:45 a.m.

Saginaw River, Bigelow Park

This event was a "Biggest 10 Fish" format, so my fish was caught early enough in the day to actually make it on the leaderboard for a few hours. At 13 1/2 pounds, it was a fat fish that weighed in a little less than I anticipated based on the thickness.  I caught him using a World Classic Bait pink pop-up dumbbell. These dumbbells have been my "go to" bait this spring.

It's hard to make out in the background, but Saturday morning arrived with a lot of rain showers that were very heavy at times. Luckily the rowing club had quite a bit of available shelter. The guys were very friendly and didn't mind us using the area to stay dry. They even gave some of the team a quick tour of the facility. I missed the tour unfortunately, but it was full of sculls. One bit of trivia I do recall is the $250 price tag for an oar.

Yikes.

We fished until 6 p.m. and then headed to Krzysiak's for dinner. The buffet had an extensive variety of choices including about 6 kinds of fish, salad and dessert bar. It was all you-can-eat and I think I ate my entire $19.95 on in my first plate full. The lemon crème pie was a very good choice for dessert.

After dinner we headed back to the Doubletree and I feel asleep in the chair, happy to "chill out" for a while. We were in bed by 10 p.m. and up again at 4:30 a.m. for another day of fishing.

Our zone for day 2 was near the boat docks on M-13 south of the airport.

Here's a wonderful picture of our spot on the bank following an early morning rain.

Our view for day 2 of the Saginaw event

I had my first run at 7:20 a.m. or so, but after a couple of minutes, the fish escaped to parts unknown. By all indications, it was a good sized fish. It was peeling off line to beat the band. It was katy-bar-the-door-type stuff. I have a bad habit of keeping my drag a little on the loose side -  ever afraid of pulling hooks. In this case I wish I'd kept the drag a little bit tighter.

The water remained calm early on, but by mid-morning the winds picked up and so did the white caps. Fortunately the sun also made an appearance occasionally and the reeds helped to make a bit of a windbreak.

We fished for 7 more hours without so much as a mini-run.

But as is usually the case persistence paid off and we started getting multiple runs shortly before 3 p.m.

Day 2, first fish

Close-up of the first fish

This fish was caught on World Classic Bait's pineapple flavored maize and a piece of orange "fake" maize.

 

I didn't get a picture of my second fish on Sunday. It took longer than expected to remove the hook and after getting a weight I returned the fish to the water quickly. It turned out to be my biggest fish I landed that day at 12 pounds.

 



Day 2, third fish

Within a matter of 3 or 4 minutes, we landed a third fish also on the pineapple flavored maize and "fake" maize.

 

Northern Pike

Nearing 4 p.m. and the end of the event I hooked my last carp. It managed to snag on a nearby good sized branch in the water I'd been trying to dodge all day, but on the retrieve this Northern Pike attacked my hair rig and hooked itself cleanly through the snout. It was a nice fish and the first pike I've caught. Although it was an accidental catch, I'll count it just the same. For anyone reading this story who attributes it to just another fish tale, I had witnesses who can vouch for it occurring exactly as described.

I can't wait to get back out on the bank.

Carp Anglers Group

When I started researching "how to fish for carp" on Google, it didn't take long to find the CAG website. CAG stands for Carp Anglers Group. It's a membership organization that promotes carp fishing and information. There is a forum for beginners and also a members section.


I started posting on the beginner forum and within a few hours I had established several local contacts in the Detroit area to help answer my questions about equipment, bait, tackle, rigs, etc. There is also a section on the forum specific to Michigan carp fishing information with sources of information about local fishing spots, social gathering aka "fish ins", etc.

I have met many local carp fisherman via the CAG website and have fished with the group having learned lots and lots just by observing. I have found everyone to be very friendly and willing to help. I'd recommend the site to anyone who is interested in carp fishing.

Here's a link to the Michigan section of the CAG forum:
Michigan Meet Greet & Questions, Fish-ins, and Social Events

Here's a link to the Facebook page:
CAG on Facebook