More Saginaw River Pictures from 2017

I found a few more pictures on another camera from the Saginaw River trip. Between phones, cameras and Go Pro I sometimes forget to download them all.

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

Mirror Carp

I was lucky enough to catch this very nice mirror carp this past weekend in the Saginaw River.

Mirror carp

I am going to post some other pictures from the Carp Anglers Group Midwest Regional tournament in the following days.

The 2017 event is definitely my favorite so far.

2017 champions

2nd Common Carp in 2017 - Lake Erie

It's been a strange spring this year. We had upper 60 degrees in February and 6 degrees in March. It's rained a bunch in April too, which has made fishing challenging.

I got my first fish in February, but didn't get the second until today. It was worth the wait I guess because it was a quality common weighing 22 lbs. 11 oz.

My 2nd carp for 2017

The fish was caught with panko pack bait with cream corn, chicken feed, peanut suet, a few chopped up homemade boilies with habernero and jalapeno and a couple of Hungarian paprika boilies, with anise hook bait, tipped with a pink piece of Enterprise fake corn.

Catch and release carp fishing

Pictures of Carp Caught in 2015

Here are a few of my favorite fish caught in 2015.

Photo Filters to Improve Carp Fishing Pictures

I have been playing around with a photo filter app I found on Google Play Store. Here are a few of my first attempts with it.

Small mouth buffalo with the lighting improved significantly compared to the original cell phone picture.

The filters allowed me to remove most of the green from my John Deere sweatshirt and highlight the fish to a greater degree.

My current personal best common carp at 29 pounds and a few ounces

I will always love it when I catch multiples

Those pictures were some of the photos I experimented with when learning to use the tools available via Photo Filters in Google Play Store.

I have continued to use the application the past few days on various photos with mixed results. I have noticed that photos which look great in the smaller format provided on a mobile device (e.g. cell phone and tablet) tend to distort when viewed on my laptop.

I will keep using the Photo Filter app to "clean up" photos I post on Facebook, but I think editing those photos posted to the carp fishing blog need to be edited in a larger format on the laptop.

Another point worth noting about the free app is that from time to time when you open your cell phone to use it, Photo Filters sometimes displays unprompted advertisements that require me to "exit" them in order to use my phone. I don't really mind it at this point, because the "pro's" do seem to outweigh the "con's". I will, however; continue to be on the look out for a photo filtering app that works even better.

25 Pound Common Carp and 2 pound Wild Feral Goldfish

As we get deeper into autumn I fully realize that every fishing session I plan might be the last one for 2016. After water temperatures fall into the 40's fish activity will fall off considerably and fewer fish will be caught. The chances of catching carp in those cooler temperatures drop off too. But the weather on Friday was quite good with sunshine, few clouds and temperatures in the upper 50's to keep the water temperatures in check.

I caught 11 carp and a catfish with weights ranging from 25 pounds on the high side to 2 pounds on the low side.

Here are my two favorite pictures from the session:

25 pounds



Wild goldfish, 2 pounds

That is the first goldfish I have caught since I started targeting carp several years ago. The scale pattern and metallic coloring were very cool.

Here are some other pictures from the same session:

25 pounder in the carry sling being released



Swim away of the 25 pounder

1 set of two double runs I had (and landed successfully)

The first set of double gold I landed. The fat fish weighs in the mid teens for a reference point on the smaller one.

This was my first fish of the day and I didn't get the lighting quite right for the photo.

I used a carry sling and landing mat for all of my catches. This helps protect the fish from inadvertent injury.

Thanks for stopping by the website and looking around. I hope you enjoyed your visit and I hope you come back for a visit again in the future.

Carp Release

First Triple Catch: 2 Carp and 1 Small Mouth Buffalo

In the 3 years I have been fishing for carp I have had a lot of exciting days. Few have measured up to the days I have been fortunate enough to catch to catch multiple carp at nearly the same time.

 

The video below documents a triple catch I had this past fall near Lake Erie. I was running around like a one-legged man for a few minutes, but I landed all three fish successfully.

 



New Personal Best Common Carp: 29 Pounds 2 Ounces

I have been fishing a lot this fall season. Beginning in late September when the temperatures started to cool down a little, I started thinking it might be possible to catch a new personal best common carp.

My previous best was 26 pounds and change. I caught that fish a short time after I started targeting carp exclusively almost 4 years ago.

I am lucky to work for a great company with fantastic benefits, which includes a generous number of vacation days. I scheduled a vacation day yesterday and headed out to one of my favorite fishing spots.

I ended up with 7 fish (6 carp and 1 catfish) overall, but one fish stood out above the rest - a 29 pound 2 ounce "monster" on Halloween.

While reeling in the fish I remember commenting to my friend Bill who was fishing nearby that the fish was kind of lazy and meandering. I carefully adjust the drag on my Sonik reels to ensure I had just the right amount of tension while keeping the drag lose enough to guard against the dread hook pull.

I wasn't making a lot of progress at first, but slowly and steadily the fish drew nearer the bank. And then the fish was safely secured in the net, I knew it was something special.

And the weigh scales confirmed it - 29 lbs. 2 oz.

I hope you enjoy pictures of that fish and the others.

Big carp, big mouth

This fish was not easy to pose properly. I am always surprised at the dead weight of fish weighing more than 25 pounds.

This is my favorite picture of the 29 lb. 2 oz. that has become my new personal best common carp.

Upper teens

This fish has been eating very well lately it seems.

This fish is on the way to bigger and better things. It's getting thick in the head, which is a sign of future possibilities.

Another mid teens

Look at that gut

Another quality Halloween carp

Another one

In case you are wondering, here is a picture of my previous personal best 26 pounder:

Caught in October 2014

Pictures of Recent Carp Catches

Here are some pictures of various catches from a recent session. I ended up with 8 carp and a small-mouth buffalo. I also have a pretty funny video I will be posting later on. I was using panko, chicken feed, peanut bird pellets crumbled up, and cream corn with peach or butternut flavor and hook bait dipped in 3D powder. These fish were all caught within 20 minutes of recasting fresh pack bait. Waiting longer than that yesterday did not produce results.