Showing posts with label channel catfish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label channel catfish. Show all posts

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Labor Day Weekend Carp Fishing

I headed out on Saturday for some carp fishing to get the weekend started - carp fishing style.

The results were a little less than I hoped for but it wasn't for a lack of trying. I ended with 2 carp and two catfish.

The alarms were silent after 1 p.m. so I finally threw in the towel at 4:30. Hopefully with fall approaching the carp will start packing on the pounds for winter preparations and the fishing will improve.

This carp is the first I've caught in a while now, so it was a welcome site in the net

Small and scrappy, but I'll take it 

A nice looking catfish, but not what we're after
And if the carp fishing doesn't pick up pretty soon, I'm tempted to finish out the season fishing for sturgeon. If I'm going to "blank", why not blank bigger?

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Small Mouth Buffalo, Channel Catfish, Bullhead Catfish and Common Carp

After blanking for 7 hours on Friday I decided to return to an old venue with mixed emotions. The old venue isn't what it used to be, but it's definitely better than blanking at a new spot.

I was targeting common carp obviously but I caught a little bit of several different species. The buffalo are cool, simply because they are relatively rare in the venues I have fished in Michigan. I have been fortunate enough to catch quite a few in the last couple of years. They rarely set off a bite alarm, but if you watch your rods closely and see the indicators bounce a couple of times chances are it's a small mouth buffalo at this venue. I've probably missed several others because if you are not watching your rods you may not know you need to set the hook.

I caught a total of 12 fish and at one point in the day just keeping 3 rods in the water was a challenge since I was fishing alone and trying to take a few pictures. My right arm is sore this morning from carrying fish in the net, but it's a good soreness for sure.

I'll rest up this week, pop a few Aleve and hope that my fishing sessions next weekend turn out well too.


















None of these fish broke a personal best for any of these species, but almost all were high quality. When I saw the buffalo jump and splash as it neared the net I hoped briefly that it would be a new personal best but it missed that mark by about 15%.

The bite stopped after about 3 p.m. and I only managed a couple of runs (and hook pulls unfortunately) until 5 p.m. so I headed home.