2014 Wooden Shoe Carp Classic – Holland, Michigan

We just returned from competing in the Wooden Shoe Carp Classic on May 17-18 on Lake Macatawa, which connects to Lake Michigan. The lake produced some common carp in the 27 pound range this weekend, which is a little lower than the upper 30’s range achieved in the 2013 event.

Koellen Park is a fabulous venue for fishing with plentiful bank space, good parking areas, good lighting and very clean rest rooms. Lake Macatawa flows from Lake Michigan toward downtown Holland, MI. Located in the southeast corner of the lake, Koellen park has a walkway spanning more than a quarter mile with direct access to the water. For landing larger carp or catfish, a substantial net with a long handle is a requirement. From the railing to the water is at least 4 feet depending on the lake levels.

Hotels are plentiful in Holland. Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Days Inn and others are within reasonable distance to the park. We stayed at the Days Inn for $99 a night. It was no frills accommodations, but the front desk staff were very friendly and efficient. The décor in the rooms was a little dated, but clean. We had two double beds, a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker.

On Saturday, I had the first pick in the peg draw. Since it was my first time at the event, I relied on input and advice from a few others as we gathered for the drawing. I picked peg 11. On Saturday that peg along with 12 and 13 were pretty poor producers. We fished from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. and my peg produced exactly zero fish, runs or even bites.

The weather was on the cool side for May with temperatures in the mid-30's when we arrived at 6 o'clock. At mid-day the wind picked up with 10 -15 mph gusts and conditions remained challenging for the remainder of the day. High temperatures on Saturday topped out in the mid-50's.

 



Peg 11 shortly after arrival.

Carp fishing can be a brutal mistress sometimes. Some days your catch so many carp you get tired fighting and landing them. And on other days (like Saturday), you wonder if all the carp in the lake went on vacation because bites and runs are no where to be found. That's just a part of fishing. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes your the bug.

My neighbor's pod at peg 12

On Sunday, I had the last pick and selected peg 21. My peg on Saturday was in a clump of other anglers so I had a change of strategy and picked a peg located away from the thick of things on the outer edge of the venue. My results improved significantly with 3 catfish and 4 common carp.

My first carp weighed in at 15 lbs.

Early morning carp

The second weighed 10 lbs.

Mid morning carp

The third weighed 8 lbs.

Afternoon carp

I hooked two other fish in the after that I lost due to hook pulls. The biggest was a real nice one that I fought for 2 or 3 minutes. I may have gotten a little aggressive playing the fish and as the fish surfaced I had a hook pull. The fish was looking right up at me and then…wham...that was it…gone. Over. Done.

My fourth fish weighed 12 lbs. (if I remember it correctly, give or take a few ounces). I had to turn in the score sheet, so I might be a little low or a few ounces too high. The rules allowed us to double the weigh on one fish upon landing it. Luckily I chose to double my first fish, so it scored 30 lbs. toward my total of 61 lbs. for the two day contest.

Last carp of the day

I did not win Big Fish or Total Weight awards, but had a lot of fun. I’m a competitive person so the challenge of proving I could actually catch and land fish on day two was fulfilling. With gusting winds, rough water with white caps and waves in the 1' - 2' range from time to time, peg 21 at the far end of the fishing area was intimidating at first but after I started catching fish my confidence improved.

 

My first 2 catfish and largest carp fell to a hair rig of pineapple maize and fake maize soaked in pineapple flavoring, but the other three carp were caught on a pineapple boilie topped with a piece of orange colored fake maize.

 

When fishing for carp, sometimes catfish find your bait and cause a little aggravation for anglers. After my drought on Saturday, the catfish didn't really bother me. I just wanted to catch fish at that point. Here are a few catfish pictures.

 

My first catfish weighed 9 lbs.

 

I caught two other smaller catfish at 5 - 6 lbs.

We met several guys who fish that spot for catfish on a regular basis. One guy told me that he had been fishing that spot for 8 years and never caught a carp after hundreds of casts. Hearing him say that, I groaned a little and had resigned myself to catching a lot of catfish to fill the time. Casts to the right of the red buoy yielded catfish and casts at the buoy or slightly left yielded carp. So I dialed in on a spot about 20 feet left of the buoy and 50 feet from the walkway.

 

I had trouble near the end of the day getting my panko to hold together during casts so fixing that with a firmer "pack" slowed the breakdown and delayed the bites. I am sure that a couple more hours of fishing time would have yielded at least a few more carp. If the event is held again next year, maybe I'll try that spot again.

 

Here is a link to some pictures taken by Dave Mull during the last hour of the event on Saturday:

 

Great Lakes Sport Fish

Two More Common Carp

Here are the first 2 fish from Sunday's session. These were caught relatively close to shore within 30 minutes. I made a strategy adjustment and found some bigger fish, but I enjoyed catching these just the same.

9 pounds

I caught this 9 pound common carp on pineapple maize and fake maize on a hair rig and glugged. The 10 pound below was also caught on the maize and glugged.

 



10 pounds

Okuma Coronado Baitfeeder Spinning Reel

After fighting a couple of 20 + pound sized fish this past weekend I am learning that a light duty reel might be affordable, but it's not always ideal for heavier duty work. After almost losing the catch of my lifetime on Sunday due to a broken handle on my reel, I have started shopping for something a little bigger and stronger.

Okuma Coronado Baitfeeder Spinning Reel

Landed Two New Personal Best Common Carps Today

Spring weather finally arrived in Michigan this weekend. With temperatures in the 70's and sunny, I could not resist heading out for some carp fishing. I had a nice session hooking 5, landing 4 and achieving 2 personal bests within 45 minutes. I probably would have improved my personal best a third time today, but we lost a very large 3rd fish a mere inch or 2 from the net.

My wife did a great job capturing these pictures.

Sterling State Park, 8 a.m.

Another view

Baiting up

The first cast

Resistance Tackle sling with our 3rd catch of the day...a new personal best for me



20 pounder caught on maize and fake maize

Landing this hog was quite an adventure. After the initial runs and fighting for about 4 minutes the crank knob of my reel broke off. I was determined to land the fish, because by this time I knew it was pretty big. I kept the rod tip up and cranked the best I could with the remaining handle on the reel. It was slow going, but steady as the fish tired a little.



Fighting a big common carp



Metallica Net with another personal best

Second personal best in 45 minutes at 24 pounds 11 ounces

I caught this fish on a pink double pop-up dumbbell. Pink has been very good to me recently. I want to make sure I have plenty of these dumbbells for the tournament next week in Holland, MI.

Releasing the big boy to grow even bigger for someone else to enjoy catching later on

This picture turned out very well. I enjoy catching these big freshwater carp, but it's even more satisfying to snap a few pictures and then release them back for someone else to catch again. Who knows...it might even grow a bit more!

I don't know what it is with me an northern pike recently, but there were at least 15 to 20 small ones darting back and forth in front of me today and knocking into my lines a lot. It was fun watching them. We've even got some decent pictures of them.

I have two more pictures from today of some smaller 9 and 10 pound fish. Somehow it just doesn't seem right to post them in comparison to these beauties.

My Favorite Carp Juice Flavoring

I learned to fish for carp by packing oatmeal or panko bread crumbs around an inline 2 or 3 oz. lead. 

I mix in some cream corn that is flavored with a concentrated flavoring to help attract the attention of the fish. 

Last year I used pineapple exclusively. This year I am using butternut exclusively. The year is still young, but the butternut is edging in front of pineapple as my favorite flavoring.

We used to have a local fishing store in Flat Rock that carried R & W Carp Juice, but since it closed last year I've been getting my flavoring from ShopBettys.com. They have a wide selection of flavorings for carp fishing and shipping is fast and easy.



Saginaw River C.A.G. Midwest Regional

Preparing for a Sunday session tomorrow near Lake Erie I pulled out my digital camera and video recorder today for charging. I the process I discovered some pictures on the digital camera that my wife took that I had forgotten about. I have attached a few of them below.

Bigelow Park near downtown Bay City, MI

A view from the gazebo at the rowing club

 

My rod pod at the water's edge

 

Baiting up the hair rig

We  needed the rain gear for most of the morning, but it did clear off later in the day



I hooked my first common carp a little before 9 a.m.

My first fish of the day and the 2nd fish our team caught in the tournament

Carp Fishing at Saginaw River



Last weekend we competed in the Carp Anglers Group Midwest Regional event on the Saginaw River. Michigan can not seem to jump into spring, so conditions at the event were tough to say the least. With wind gusts nearing 40 mph in the afternoons, sporadic rain and rough water, it was a challenging event. The fishing zone assignments were given at 6 a.m. daily and first cast at 7 a.m. so there was plenty of fishing.

We arrived in Bay City on Friday evening and stayed at the Doubletree Hotel. The route to the morning meeting was a short 6 or 7 miles from the hotel max.

On the first day, the Michigan Team drew Bigelow Park. The park is an island in the Saginaw River with plenty of bank space. We had part of the team near the rowing club and distributed at various locations nearer the "point".

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My bank mate for the day, landed a fish nearby and I was helping him with the landing net. As we moved from water's edge to the upper bank and headed toward the weighing station, I got a run on my left rod.  Depositing his net and fish in the grass I almost decapitated myself with his rod as I sprinted to my rod pod.  Luckily I made it to the rod in one piece and had an early success.  Here's a picture taken after the catch at 7:45 a.m.

Saginaw River, Bigelow Park

This event was a "Biggest 10 Fish" format, so my fish was caught early enough in the day to actually make it on the leaderboard for a few hours. At 13 1/2 pounds, it was a fat fish that weighed in a little less than I anticipated based on the thickness.  I caught him using a World Classic Bait pink pop-up dumbbell. These dumbbells have been my "go to" bait this spring.

It's hard to make out in the background, but Saturday morning arrived with a lot of rain showers that were very heavy at times. Luckily the rowing club had quite a bit of available shelter. The guys were very friendly and didn't mind us using the area to stay dry. They even gave some of the team a quick tour of the facility. I missed the tour unfortunately, but it was full of sculls. One bit of trivia I do recall is the $250 price tag for an oar.

Yikes.

We fished until 6 p.m. and then headed to Krzysiak's for dinner. The buffet had an extensive variety of choices including about 6 kinds of fish, salad and dessert bar. It was all you-can-eat and I think I ate my entire $19.95 on in my first plate full. The lemon crème pie was a very good choice for dessert.

After dinner we headed back to the Doubletree and I feel asleep in the chair, happy to "chill out" for a while. We were in bed by 10 p.m. and up again at 4:30 a.m. for another day of fishing.

Our zone for day 2 was near the boat docks on M-13 south of the airport.

Here's a wonderful picture of our spot on the bank following an early morning rain.

Our view for day 2 of the Saginaw event

I had my first run at 7:20 a.m. or so, but after a couple of minutes, the fish escaped to parts unknown. By all indications, it was a good sized fish. It was peeling off line to beat the band. It was katy-bar-the-door-type stuff. I have a bad habit of keeping my drag a little on the loose side -  ever afraid of pulling hooks. In this case I wish I'd kept the drag a little bit tighter.

The water remained calm early on, but by mid-morning the winds picked up and so did the white caps. Fortunately the sun also made an appearance occasionally and the reeds helped to make a bit of a windbreak.

We fished for 7 more hours without so much as a mini-run.

But as is usually the case persistence paid off and we started getting multiple runs shortly before 3 p.m.

Day 2, first fish

Close-up of the first fish

This fish was caught on World Classic Bait's pineapple flavored maize and a piece of orange "fake" maize.

 

I didn't get a picture of my second fish on Sunday. It took longer than expected to remove the hook and after getting a weight I returned the fish to the water quickly. It turned out to be my biggest fish I landed that day at 12 pounds.

 



Day 2, third fish

Within a matter of 3 or 4 minutes, we landed a third fish also on the pineapple flavored maize and "fake" maize.

 

Northern Pike

Nearing 4 p.m. and the end of the event I hooked my last carp. It managed to snag on a nearby good sized branch in the water I'd been trying to dodge all day, but on the retrieve this Northern Pike attacked my hair rig and hooked itself cleanly through the snout. It was a nice fish and the first pike I've caught. Although it was an accidental catch, I'll count it just the same. For anyone reading this story who attributes it to just another fish tale, I had witnesses who can vouch for it occurring exactly as described.

I can't wait to get back out on the bank.

Saginaw Carp Fishing This Weekend

This is a big week for my carp fishing hobby. On Friday we leave for a weekend trip to Saginaw, Michigan for the Midwest Regional carp fishing tournament on Saturday and Sunday. But perhaps best of all for me...is a chance to break my personal best! I have never fished the Saginaw River, but I have it on good authority that there are some B-I-G carp in there. And, I've seen the pictures to prove it.

So this week is all about preparing hooks, rigs, leads, method supplies, etc. for the trip. In a typical day, I use 3 lbs. of panko for my ground bait, but I am prepared to use 9 lbs. a day this weekend. I picked up an 18 lb. case from Gordon Food Service today.

I don't usually lose a lot of tackle here locally anymore, but I have pre-tied 18 hair rigs for this weekend in various hook sizes from 4 to 7 in several lengths.

I picked up a new collapsible wagon to transport gear from the vehicle to the fishing spot. It's got a 150 lb. payload and should work well for me.

My list for this week also includes picking up a case of cream corn and a 2 gallon plastic bucket with lid for mixing my ground bait.

Hines Park Drive - Wayne County Michigan

Although I am relatively new to the pursuit, I enjoy fishing for carp. I also enjoy searching for new spots to fish for carp.

Today I headed out to Newburgh Lake on Hines Park Drive near Livonia, MI.

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We arrived at 8:15 a.m. and picked our spot at Sumac Point. The sun was rising and everything was looking up. But it didn't last long. Before long a couple of white ducks decided to enter the water near where we'd set up. It was kind of cute actually. They wouldn't go into the water more than a few feet, but deep enough to take a quick bath.

Then a few more white ducks appeared and headed toward the water. Before long it was a full on white duck party. There was frolic, havoc, and every other kind of duck-party-time right in front of my rod pod. It didn't take long for several of the ducks to wrap themselves in my braided fishing line. I was able to untangle things very quickly, but I had to recast all three rods.

Our spot at Newburgh Lake

My fishing partner thought it was pretty cold Sunday morning

Then the Canadian geese decided to join the party. They were dive bombing the water right in front the rod pod and managed to tangle themselves as well. Again, I had to untangle them and recast.

After this happened a third time, I had had more than enough. We left Newburgh Lake and headed to Nankin Lake a short distance away.

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Water levels on Nankin Lake are very low currently. Overall it's a smaller lake than Newburgh and not as deep. There are points on Nankin that I could have walked across with ease. I found some deeper water toward the spillway and cast all 3 rods.

It didn't take long for the first activity. Within 10 minutes the middle line alarm went off. I headed toward the rod pod to pick up the rod and fight my first Nankin Lake carp. But just as quickly, the alarm went silent - no fish.

I don't know for sure whether it was a carp, a catfish or something else, but it was definitely something. A fish thing.

Our set-up at Nankin Lake

We stayed at Nankin for another 3 hours. The sun hid behind the clouds for most of the time and wind blew at what seemed like supersonic speeds (well maybe not that fast) - enough to freeze my buns off. We decided to throw in the towel and call it a day.

North Hydro Park

I fished Hydro Park in Ypsilanti today for a few hours. Since inland season for walleye also opened today, that turned out to be a bad idea. There was way too much boat traffic for my tastes. Two boats actually snagged my lines. Several other boats had absolutely no concern for barreling up the river right over my lines. I am amazed that one boater in particular didn't snag me and pull all 3 of my rods in the river right along with the rod pod.

If you are a boater, please try to be aware of bank fisherman. We all need to share the water. A boat fisherman and a shore fisherman have an equal right to fish in my opinion.

After dodging the boaters for 3 hours I had to pack it in and live to fish for another day. Tomorrow I'm heading out the Nankin and/or Newburgh Lake. I think boaters will be few and far between in those locations (I hope).

Milan, Michigan - Nature Park and Wilson Park

All week long I planned to fish for carp in Milan. The Saline River forms Ford Lake near downtown Milan and it looks like a nice carp habitat above the dam. The downside though is that there is precious little bank space for fishing. The best place to fish I could find was nearly on the sidewalk. Besides that the best spots are in the VFW front yard, but I am sure that it out of bounds unless maybe you are a member. (and that may be stretching it).

Below the dam (in front of the police station) there is Wilson Park. I did not get out and walk around, but it does appear there is some open bank space for fishing. I didn't give it a try today, but I might make a trip back to Milan sometime in the upcoming weeks.

Tomorrow I've decided to try Nankin Lake or Newburgh Lake in the Rouge River chain of lakes. Wish me luck.

Milan Nature Park

I like to visit new areas and new places to fish. I'm putting Milan Nature Park on my list of future venues. I haven't been to this park, but based on the map there appears to be plenty of shoreline.

I have fished the Saline River in Saline, so I know there are carp here. I'm definitely going to be finding out. I'll let you know how it turns out.

View Larger Map

The Saline River has a reputation for having a higher than typical concentration of mirror carp. Since the lake in Milan was formed from constructing a dam on the river, there is a pretty good chance that Ford Lake in Milan Nature Park has it's share of mirror carp as well.

If things progress according to plan, I may find out this weekend.

Interesting fact about Milan and the lake:

Part of its present City Hall is the former Ford Power Plant used for the Village industries. Henry Ford built the power plant in 1937 when he dredged Ford Lake. He also used a former lumber yard garage as a factory to make engine ignition coils. Ford intended his factory to depend upon hydraulic power, which is why he built a very fine dam to power his plant. However, the water power was inadequate, and his "Ford Industries" actually ran on steam engines depending on coal.

Fly Fishing

 

I'm not a fly fisherman, but after watching videos like this one I am getting more and more interested.

Big Northeastern Carp

 

 

It's not Michigan, but the carp are big. I have in-law's relatives in this area. I need to take a fishing vacation to this area sometime.

Carp on the Fly Blog

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs on the internet. Some of them are better than others. Many of their authors started with the best of intentions, but later lost interest in writing articles on a regular basis. Some contain a lot of pictures and others are exclusively text on a white background. Some are personal blogs about one family, a profession, or a hobby. Others are a simply diary of whatever happened that day.

Blogs about fishing are a smaller subset and again, some are better (or worse) than others. One of my favorites that falls into the better - and some might argue best - category is Carp on the Fly.

As the name suggests, it's a blog about fly fishing for carp. Until I started fishing for carp, I never dreamed that someone would target carp exclusively with a fly rod, but after spending time reading Carp on the Fly I fully understand the allure.

The blog dates back to 2006 and is loaded with fly fishing tips and tons and tons of carp pictures. The photography has improved dramatically in more recent years.

Readers that visit the blog with hopes that the author might divulge actual locations for pursuing the fish - don't say I didn't warn you. The actual locations are a closely guarded secret. (The author lives in Oregon, so the Columbia River is obvious. It's a long river, so put on your walking shoes, boots...and waders.)

I'd like to try fly fishing for carp on the Huron River some day, but I've had surgery on both knees and walking the river presents a problem. For now, I'll just live vicariously by reading Carp on the Fly.