My original plan today was to take a short drive to Ann Arbor to fish at the Huron River Bridge Park off of Barton Drive, but I got a better offer.
So I decided to join my friend Bill and headed down to Monroe and spent the day fishing at Sterling State Park.
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| Today had the best fishing weather in Michigan so far in 2014. I couldn't wait to get everything set up and start fishing. |
I arrived at 7:30 a.m. and picked my spot near the parking lot. I like Sterling because you can fish 10 feet away from your vehicle. Instead of unpacking all the equipment, you can leave it in the vehicle until it's needed.
I started getting activity on the rods within about 90 minutes. They were mini runs for awhile and then there was a screamer that starting ripping off line! I had the drag very loose so when I started reeling, the fish kept gaining. But a small adjustment to tighten the drag evened everything out quite nicely and I started gaining ground.
Bill helped with netting and we snapped a couple of pictures before returning the fish to the water.
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| First common carp in 2014 |
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| And I wasn't even wearing my lucky shirt! |
I didn't weigh the fish, but I'd estimate it would have weighed in the 11 - 12 pound range. In my experience at Sterling, that is a smallish sized common carp. There have been a lot of 17 - 20 pound carp landed from that location.
