Carp Fishing Beginner

My first carp

When I started fishing exclusively for carp I must have performed 30 or 40 Internet searches for “how to carp fish” and “catching carp”. Many of those searches on Google.com, Yahoo.com and YouTube.com returned very informative videos, blogs, and discussion forums about how to fish for and catch carp. Many of those resources helped me tremendously and shortened my learning curve and helped me catch carp sooner versus later. I skipped over a lot of the trial and error experimentation that would have occurred without those resources.

I caught my first carp July 21, 2013. My wife and I headed out to Ford Lake in Ypsilanti, MI after work for a few hours of fishing. Totaling 975 acres, Ford Lake was created by Ford Motor Company to generate hydroelectric power for their manufacturing plants in the 1930’s. It’s just a few miles from my home in the nearby Belleville/Van Buren Township area, so there will be many, many more trips to the lake which is one of the best known lakes in Michigan for carp sport fishing.

During my second visit to Ford Lake specifically for the purpose of catching carp, I hooked a large carp within 90 seconds or so of the first cast. It was so fast that I hadn’t even set up my fish net yet. As you might imagine there were a few anxious moments trying to reel in the fish and grab the net, which wasn’t even unfolded yet. It was definitely a Bad News Bears fishing moment, but predictable I guess since it was my first time fishing for carp.

Lucky Fishing Shirt

A moderate sized common carp caught in August 2013 during a trip to Bandemer Park
located on the Huron River in Ann Arbor, MI

I started fishing for carp in July 2013. As my friends on Facebook will attest in those first few weeks of fishing, my fishing wardrobe consisted of shorts, a t-shirt and my Australian made Brahma hat. I wore the shorts and t-shirts for comfort and the Brahma hat to protect my bald head from sunburn.

Gaining the knowledge needed to begin catching carp was not an easy process for me. I did a lot of Google searches; and a lot of trial and error experimentation before I hit on a combination that enabled me to start catching carp with some relative consistency. After all, if you're not catching carp at all, how much success do you really need to be considered successful even if only a very, very minor one? In my case...catching one or two fish would do.

Things were so bad at one point that I started believing in various superstitions. Things like, using 3 specific baits in case fishing preferred 1 more than the other 2; casting at various distances from the shoreline to simulate various fishing depths; leaving the lines in the water while packing up the car to allow for a few more minutes to get a bite and hopefully catch carp; and any time I actually did catch a fish or two during a session I tried to emulate all of the details from the prior session to a "T" to hopefully duplicate those minor successes.

And, predictably, my superstitions applied to my clothing as well. For 90% of my first 10 or 12 fishing sessions, I wore the same faded reddish t-shirt purchased during a vacation trip to the Grand Canyon in 2010. Some friends on Facebook pointed out that I needed a new shirt since that Grand Canyon shirt was apparently the only one remaining in my dresser drawer.

Eventually the weather turned cooler and I started catching more and more carp, so the t-shirt had now been relegated to the bottom dresser drawer. But don't think for a second that I won't pull it back out if I ever have a fishing slump again!

Fishing for Carp

I started fishing for carp in July of 2013. I had never tried it before, seen it done before, or even thought about it before seeing some YouTube videos about it earlier in the spring.

After watching a few of the videos, I got excited about giving it a try. If you haven't fished for carp before or are just beginning to learn about the possibilities, maybe these videos will help you gain confidence and encourage you to move forward with a carp fishing plan.

Here are three videos from catfishmania, Bill Wazelle and fitzz1971.



I had fished for bass, bluegill, perch and catfish before, but I had never seen fish of the average sized carp landed from the shoreline. So I headed out to Ford Lake on a Sunday morning in July to give it a try for the first time.

I had a very vague idea about how to carp fish using a hair rig. I learned how to tie a hair rig by watching other YouTube videos.

As luck would have it, Bill Wazelle was at the lake that morning and gave me several pointers that helped a lot. I didn't catch anything the first time out on my own rig, but Bill let me reel one of his in to get a feel for it. It happened to be a 16 pound mirror! From then on, I've been hooked on carp fishing.