River Carping in Michigan

Rivers offer a wide variety of carp fishing opportunities. There are big rivers, small rivers and every size in between. Quick running rivers are more challenging for carp fishing. When the water runs fast, it's best to find a current break like a dike, a boat, a bridge, pier, etc. that might provide the fish some relief from the strong current.

As a general rule, the wider and deeper rivers are difficult because they are just so darned big. The potential for big carp is present in rivers like Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, St. Clair and Detroit, but the same benefits also make it difficult to find the fish. Sight fishing on those big rivers is nearly impossible without a boat. Smaller rivers like Saginaw, Huron, Rouge, Ecorse or Raisin make it easier, but success is often coupled with the specific time of year. Timing plays a big part. The ability to access the water is also important. There is a lot to be said for owning a pontoon boat, jon boat or kayak.

If the carp won't come to you, then you must go to the carp if you want to catch them.

Here are a few pictures from early in the fall of 2017.

I plan to spend some more time fishing the local rivers in 2018. Hopefully I can get on some fish on a more consistent basis.

Carp Fishing Action Video

As a Christmas gift to myself I purchased a GoPro Hero 5 Black the day after Thanksgiving in 2016. After a few trials and tribulations with the camera I took a few time lapse videos over the period of a few weeks.

The video below was taken last weekend during a fishing session my wife and I shared on the Raisin River. This video is a good example of some "hidden gems" that are hiding in plain site. Most people we talked to in the 7 or 8 hours had no idea they could catch fish weighing up to 18 pounds in this public park.

We met a lot of friendly people and made some new fishing friends and prospective future carp fishermen. Kids in particular, seem to enjoy watching the biggest fish they have ever seen be caught in the same water they catch bluegill using Spider-Man and Barbie fishing rods.

 

I formatted this video in black and white as an experiment. I like the way it turned out, but it's hard to argue with the original "full color" version straight from the GoPro.

My primary goal in purchasing the camera was to use it to take video of my carp fishing efforts. I have used it a few times this summer, but not as much as I hoped.

I definitely need to work on my editing skills, but I have found GoPro Studio, which has the more powerful editing tools, very difficult to use. I've had to download a few versions of the Studio software because my original copy had a "fatal error".

Here is the same video in full HD color:

If you have any GoPro carp fishing videos to share let me know and I will embed them on my carp fishing blog.

Scouting a New Spot

A couple of weeks ago I headed out to a new spot with high hopes. It was a river location that feeds into Lake Erie near the park where I decided to fish.

With the warmer weather and relatively shallow waters, the moss and weeds were very heavy. Although much heavier than I like, recent reports regarding state record fish being captured in this location convinced me that it was probably worth overlooking the weeds and giving a shot.

I started the day with rods casted near, far and medium distance. After an hour of no bites, I tried 3 in close. Then I followed that with two at far distance and one medium. Although I could see fish, the bites were non-existent. As luck would have it, I was seeing spawning fish just a few feet from the bank. They apparently had other things on their mind than eating my panko, field corn and butternut offerings.

Just I had almost packed up everything to leave, I had a nice run on my right rod. It also happened to be the rod farthest out in the river just past what I believe was the edge of a big bed of weeds.

I was rewarded with a fish weighing just under 20 pounds.

Caught on three pieces of flavored corn and a piece of fake orange maize.

I cropped this one a little tighter to show the size of the mouth a little better

I was casted out at least 70 - 80 yards in the river and although there was no current to speak of it still took quite a while to land this fish. An audience developed on shore consisting of several others who always hoped to catch a carp there, but never had the luck or skill. At least now they know there are some higher quality fish to be had from that river spot.

There was zero boat traffic while I was there. It probably had something to do with the 3 feet depths, which is pretty shallow for any motorized boats of size. I do think this spot is pretty popular with kayakers at various times of the year.

Two Nice Pictures From Last Weekend

Friends of mine took these pictures while fishing together last weekend. They shared them out on Facebook today and I liked them so much I wanted to save them here as well.

Thanks David and Veronica for being great fishing partners last weekend. I look forward to joining you again soon on the bank.

Headshot close up

Traditional pose

Please don't be too worried about the two reddish scales. I did not damage the fish while landing it. The scales were like that before the fish was netted.

It's the middle of the spawning festivities at this particular fishing spot and several of the fish we caught, both large and small, had similar reddish spots. I can only assume that the spawning activities caused some of the scrapes.

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.

What Carp Does This New Spot Hold?

I will have to wait for spring to find out, but there is ample food as evidenced by some other large gamefish caught at this location.

My new secret carp fishing spot (LOL)

Michigan Small River Carp Fishing

Since I started catching carp in 2013 I have been wondering about the possibilities for catching carp in a local river (really more like a creek compared to rivers where I grew up in Missouri), so I decided today was "the day" to try it out.

My day of carp pursuit started at 6:30 a.m. When I was in the U.S. Army my Sergeant Major had a saying for days like today - O Dark Thirty. Hey, that would make a nice title for a novel wouldn't it? If I ever give up carp fishing, maybe I'll give that a try (probably not).

The area of town has a shortage of street lights so I had to scout out the area in the dark and picked a spot. I got set up and rods out, but after sunrise doubt set in.



The spot was weedy, shallow and generally a "downer", but I stuck with it for awhile. I ended up catching a small catfish before deciding to try another spot 14 miles down the road to the west.



After a short drive to the second venue it didn't take long to put a fish on the bank. My fishing partner, Bill "Buffalo" Wazelle landed a nice 9 pound 11 ounce catfish.



A few minutes later I landed a nice fighting carp, which confirmed the decision to move had indeed been "wise".



It took a while to land the second one; so long in fact that my fishing partner had to leave before the "screamer" occurred. I landed the second fish and couldn't have been happier.



The fish hit the bait hard and headed for the hills before the drag got him under control and in the net. I didn't notice it until looking at the picture later on, but the fish had an interesting tail "notch".



I called it a day around 4 p.m., but regret it for not staying a little longer. I am confident I could have caught at least one more (if not two).

I am happy with my "discovery" today. It's a spot with good average size (so far) and I'll definitely go back there to fish another day.

Scouting Fishing Spots Near Monroe

I developed a small case of "cabin fever" this afternoon and decided to get out and scout some potential fishing spots.

I found this one in downtown Monroe:

Veteran's Park

I had high hopes for finding an access point to the River Raisin from the shoreline, but not being familiar with the area I did not achieve that goal today.

There is a campground directly on the river off of Front Street, but it was closed today so we couldn't get close enough to tell whether it would fit the bill or not.

There is also a pier near the Edison Plant but it is closed from November through March apparently.