Fall Carp Fishing in Michigan

I fished for 7 1/2 hours today, but could have probably still been catching as I write this if I wasn't fishing alone.

This spot has a huge weed bed that runs from about 20 feet to 150 feet off shore. You have to cast out past the weeds and then fight the fish through the very thick weeds. It's a good workout. Of course you end up losing about 30% of the fish.

In the past I've pulled 25# and 31# carp from this spot including another 7 or 8 #'s of weeds.

I managed to land 10 fish (the most ever from here) ranging from about 3 pounds up to 20 pounds (18 pounds was the next largest). But perhaps best of all I landed a nice little mirror. It's my first mirror from here.

The bigger fish seem to head elsewhere in the afternoons, so it pays to be on your game from the jump. There is heavy, heavy boat traffic here in the traditional boating months. It's a spot I only fish a couple times a year if it's raining or too cold for comfortable boating.

It's also a good spot for blanking.

This session is a great example of the need to be prepared when you go carp fishing. You really need to be on your game to consistently land carp. It can make the difference between a great, enjoyable day and a day filled with frustration.

Recasting quickly can increase your catch rate dramatically. At one point the action was so fast that I literally couldn't keep rods in the water.  Fish move in shoals, so if you catch one there are likely others nearby.

You need a process for landing the fish, capturing the photo, releasing the fish and recasting without wasting time or energy. Doing this when fishing solo takes some pre-planning and preparation. Taking the time to do it can help you catch many more carp throughout the year. If you catch 200 carp and being organized helps improve your results by a 10% rate, that's 20 more chances to land your new personal best. 

Carp or Catfish Fishing Reel at Good Price

I have been looking for good prices on fishing reels, recently ran across a series of reels and found an extremely good value reel for carp fishing. 

Product Features

• 17 pounds of drag pressure
• CNC Aluminum High Strength Spool
• 5.0:1 High-Speed Gear Ratio Provides Quicker Retrieves
• CNC  Machined Aluminum Handle - Left/Right Interchangeable
• Graphite Body
• Graphite Rotor

I ordered the 7000 series of this reel today, so I should get it by this time next week. This may turn out to be one of the better reels for carp or catfish available.

Stay tuned for a detailed review once I have a chance to test it.

Disclosure: This post contains links to products sold by affiliate companies. If you decide to purchase a product, I may receive a small commission. The decision to purchase is entirely yours.

2nd Carp Fishing Trip to New River Spot

This time of year I schedule vacation time on Fridays to take advantage of the carp fishing conditions. The cool weather seems to spur the carp to "put on the feed". As the natural food sources begin to decrease, the carp seem to be more willing to feed on baits provided by fishermen.

This spot has only yielded 2 carp (and 7 catfish) so far, but this 19 pounder was a welcome addition to the tally.

I pixelated the background on this picture out of courtesy to a fellow fisherman. It's a spot I scouted 4 years ago with Linda while we were traveling, but never got around to fishing. I mentioned it to a friend last year, who fished it in October 2019. He absolutely killed it there with numerous fish greater than 20 pounds and a couple over 30 pounds. 

For the investigative types reading this post wondering where it is, I can tell you it's not the Rouge, Detroit or Raisin rivers that I have frequented in the past.

New River, New Carp Swim

Today I fished a new river and new swim for the first time. The fish were stingy with their bites, but I ended up with 3 catfish and a carp; landing one of each.

Here are some pictures:

I caught the catfish on a boilie hookbait and the carp on some flavored corn. The regular ground bait of panko, cream corn, bird seed, field corn, peanut suet and flavors did the trick.

Fish Art

This mural adorns the west side of the Schultz Outfitters location in Ypsilanti.

Go check it out the next time you're shopping for fly fishing items.

New Mirrorless Camera

Entry Level Sony Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

Deja Vu Carp Times 2

Fishing at the Detroit River today for carp, I had two catches at 15+ pounds each. To my surprise, it appeared to be the same fish.

It wasn't very easy to tell because the fish had a couple of missing scales on the side opposite the camera.

The first catch was at 10:15 and second at a little after Noon. We managed a better photo the second time around.

These catches demonstrate an important concept in carp fishing: consistency. Consistent casting and baiting will help you catch more fish.

After you have identified a likely location that holds fish, recasting to the same spot does three things:

1) Holds fish already there in the location for a longer period
2) Draws more fish into the spot
3) Increases the odds you may catch one or more fish

You can't catch what's not in front of you. So its a smart strategy to hold what's there and bring more in. More fish for longer periods translates into more fish selfies! Yay!

Link to more info about carp fishing on the Detroit River: The Strait

Update: Upon closer inspection of these photos it is apparent these are two different fish.

Deeper Pro+: A Useful Tool for Carp Fishing

I have had the Deeper Pro+ for two years. It is a useful tool for carp fishing.

I have used the tool when scouting new spots more than for identifying actual fish location, but it is useful for both tasks.

The set up and synching with my SmartPhone was very easy. Using the Deeper, fishing or scouting for carp is pretty  straightforward.

Here are some examples of the capabilities:

Courtesy Deeper

Courtesy Deeper

Courtesy Deeper

The brown signals the contour and green signals vegetation. A fish is signaled by an unmistakable fish symbol.

During my first attempt at fishing a new spot on the Detroit River, the Deeper helped me decide where to make my first casts. The depth finder capabilities signaled that my spot ranged from 5 feet to 11 feet deep all within a 50 foot cast. It also helped identify an area relatively free of snags.


I should use it more and more, but it does draw battery power so when fishing alone I tend to conserve battery use in case I need to make an emergency phone call.

We Need More Fishermen to Start Carp Blogs

It's no secret. Facebook and Instagram are taking over the world of photography.

They have just about cornered the market on carp fishing communications also. And I don't think that's a good thing.

I get it. It's easy to post on Facebook and Instagram. It requires no special knowledge, programming or skills. It's as simple as snap, crop (if needed) and share using our phone.

The "likes" on Facebook and Instagram provide an instant dopamine rush. The feedback is quick and nearly immediate.

Why is that not so good?

We have ceded control to Mark Zuckerberg. We are building his empire and adding to his net worth. We are granting Facebook permission to use our fish photos, likenesses and fishing experiences to sell advertising to companies and products to our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc.

Having a personal website is a possible way to begin taking some of that control back. Developing our own platforms to share our carp fishing adventures is a way to regain some amounts of control and build something of our own that builds our own worth.

If you have always wanted to have a blog, website, discussion board, etc. of your very own...why not do it now? Why not today?

If you have a carp fishing website and would like to have it listed here, please let me know.

We can build a network of carp fishing information outside of Facebook and Instagram. I'm a big fan of that.

If you have a website and want to work on improving Search Engine Optimization here's a link that may help.

If you want to start a side hustle but need to build your skill set, free online courses on sites like Coursera or Codecademy are a great place to start.

If you're looking for blogging options Blogger, Wix, and WordPress provide a few options for consideration. All offer free options, but for more customization the paid WordPress platform is the better choice. Blogger is the easiest for a web programming novice.

When you start your blog, you may find the post I wrote about choosing a niche useful.

Koi/Carp Hybrid Catch

Two years ago today I caught this koi. It is an ogon variant of some type that has likely hybridized with common carp. It's the first and only koi for me.

Zen and the Art of Carp Fishing

Carp fishing isn't always easy. Blanking, aka not catching fish, happens sometimes. And it is frustrating.

• My first inclination is to start re-casting more frequently
• Second, I change packbait ingredients
• Then I change hookbait flavor or types
• If all else fails to work, I typically pray for bites :-)
• I also try different spots within a swim starting medium, near and far distances to find the shoals of fish

Any time a new area is being fished for the first time, a blank is always a possibility. It's the nature of exploration. 

It takes a while to find all the ins and outs of a venue. I fish two swims that produce fish in very defined areas spanning 10 to 20 feet square. One is a small opening in the thick weed bed and the other is a drop off immediately beyond a flat "shelf". Those characteristics take time to locate and understand in any new spot.

I have learned that blanking becomes easier on my ego if I place less emphasis on catching fish and more emphasis on enjoying the process and being mindful of "not being mindful".

Here's the formal definition from Wikipedia:

Zen is an expression meaning mind without mind - and a state of no-mindedness. The mind is not occupied by thought or emotion.

With the "zen" approach, it becomes less about disappointment and more about enjoying being outside in nature.

May you find your zen during the next fishing session.

Or, to put it another way (in the words of famed philosopher Immanuel Kant), find your "purposeless purpose", meaning "to escape the rat race."

Fishing for "no purpose" is the best kind of meditation (and medicine for the mind).

Quillback or Carpsucker

Ninety-five percent of my catches are common carp with an occasional mirror, catfish or buffalo. Yesterday I caught something different that I first thought was a smallmouth buffalo. Upon further examination I realized it was a new species for me.

The final determination may never be made, but 90% of those seeing the picture favor a quillback and the remainder lean toward it being a carpsucker variety. Either way I win, because it's my first catch of either species.

I had some time this afternoon and experimented with Snapseed and Pixlr to create several black and white versions of my favorite picture. Versions 1 and 2 have more tonal contrast dialed up than version 3. I favor #3 myself, but I can see that changing based on my mood. 

2 Tips for Taking Better Carp Photos

Here are two simple ways to ensure the hard work, sweat and money you spend carp fishing pays off with a good quality photo of you favorite captures.

• When taking self-posed carp pictures, remember to present the fish square to the camera. 
• If you really want to be conservative and ensure a nice photo, tilt the head slightly closer to the phone camera than the tail.  

For a good example of what happens when you don't follow that guidance, refer to the photo below. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity for an average photo to be a really good one.

Fishing alone can be challenging, and in this example I was getting so many runs that it cut the time for photos shorter than I would have preferred.

9 Carp Caught in Detroit River After a Rain

It's Saturday, so I went fishing. I caught lots of fish and caught my new Detroit River carp personal best and my new Detroit River carpsucker personal best (either a River or a Highline). That's the first carpsucker I have caught in the river.

These are pictures of most of them, but not all. The river was on fire today after the rain.

Update: It appears the sucker could also be a quillback. Whatever it is, it's a first for me.

22 pounds

Release picture of my new Detroit River
personal best.

I used chocolate hazelnut flavoring in my cream corn, with Beet Crush Deer minerals and peanut suet in the packbait mix.

This one took his time navigating through the thick weed cover in this location that becomes very thick at summer's end.

Another of the numerous common carp I caught

Sometimes the action is fast and furious and there's only time for a quick mat picture.

Definitely a surprise catch that was completely unexpected

"You can call me quillback, or you can call me carpsucker, just don't call me a quillback carpsucker."

In my experience, this is a typical size for Detroit River common carp.

I ended the day tired and wore out. Days like this make me appreciate having someone to help with netting and taking pictures. I kept getting runs while trying to get the pictures captured.

One of numerous catfish I caught

The first catch of the day turned to be a catfish

In a prior post, I suggested using the smallest possible size lead weight when carp fishing in the Detroit River. For these fish, I used a 2 oz leads.

This day of fast and furious fishing also required using the voice activated picture capability of my Galaxy S9 SmartPhone.

Carp Photo Tip: When taking self-posed carp pictures, remember to present the fish square to the camera. If you really want to be conservative and ensure a nice photo, tilt the head slightly closer to the phone camera than the tail.  For a good example of what happens when you don't follow that guidance, refer to the first photo above. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity for an average photo to be a great one.

5 Mat Shots, Better Than Nothing

When fishing alone, it's not always possible to get desired photos of our fish using a proper pose. In those cases, a mat shot of your carp is better than nothing.

Rather than a straight above picture orientation, try taking the photo from a lower level or at different angles. It can help create some drama and interest in an otherwise mundane photo.

Instead of straight above with the fish square in the frame I took this one above at an angle.

Here's one from a lower level and angle to add some more interest to the photo.

Most modern Smart Phone's have a camera and many of those phone cameras allow for voice activated photo captures. It's as simple as activating the phone camera and propping the phone against a can of corn on top of a bench (or 5 gallon bucket in my case), or something similar. Then, pose the fish and (on my Galaxy S9) give the command "cheese".  It works like a charm.

If your phone doesn't have built in voice activation for the camera try searching for a voice activated camera application in the app store. There are many free ones that will do the job very well. Alternatively, try taking a video of you posing the fish. You can always take a screen capture of the fish later on.

Sometimes the fishing is so good, you don't have time to be creative and you just take whatever photo you can get at the time. This "triple" run tested my carp fishing abilities to the max. If my wife hadn't been standing there on a lark, the 3rd fish would have certainly spooled me.

I like to take tail shots. It really gives an unusual perspective for just how large the fish is.

This mat photo gives perspective for how long this fish was. The mat is 36" and the fish was at least 41" or possibly 42" based on how the tail extended past the edge of the mat. This fish weighed 37#.