8 Tips for Detroit River Carp Fishing

After a slow outing last weekend fishing from shore on the Detroit River, at a different spot, my expectations for today were hopeful but realistic. Luckily, things improved. 

On the hottest day of the year, so far, the carp bite also heated up. I ended a 7 hour session early with 13 fish and a new Detroit River personal best at 26 pounds. The better fish were in the first 45 minutes and they got smaller as the temps heated up.

The fish above is my new personal best from the Detroit River. At 26 pounds, I am very grateful to catch such an out-of-the-ordinary large carp from this river spot.

The fish had obvious signs of recent spawning activity with some redness, minor injuries and two missing scales. This river warrior was very leery of being netted as well and is one of the most difficult to net I have seen in several years of carp fishing.

The Detroit River provides many options for catching some large lifetime best sized fish from walleye, sturgeon, muskie, carp, sheephead, pike and more.

I'll also add some 8 tips and observations about fishing the Detroit River for carp to help make your carp fishing efforts more enjoyable and successful:

• Average size of Detroit River carp are not very large. 
• Based on my catches the past 6 years, 12 to 14 pounds is the average size for this area. 
• The river fish in this area will wreck you pretty quick if you're not paying attention. 
• There are snags and some decent current in this particular park. 
• Fishing the river requires an acknowledgement that some tackle will be lost and some hook pulls will occur.
• Some rookie fishermen will snag you because they try using 1/2 ounce leads and don't police their lines very well.
• I'd budget 15 bucks a session on lost hooks, leads, swivels, fake corn, etc.
• You use twice as much pack because to catch numbers you need to recast fresh pack every 25 to 30 minutes.

Less is More When Packing

I spent some time yesterday reorganizing my carp wagon. 

My gear lives in the carp wagon 24x7 during the fishing months. (I do refrigerate l0eft over field corn, boilies and bird seed used in my packbait.)

Summer time river carping a couple of years ago

I was able to remove about 12 pounds of unnecessary  weight from my tackle backpack. I also removed another 6 pounds in miscellaneous items that are "nice to haves" but not critical for fishing (ex. 7 cans of cream corn).

I will keep the extra items in my vehicle so they are available, but there is no need to haul it all to the site every time. Example - I was carrying 6 oz, 5 oz and 4 1/2 oz leads to my calm lake spots every time I went fishing. I organized the leads by size in my carp closet, so when I go to the river I'll grab a handful as needed.

Traveling lighter will help make the long walk back to the parking lot a little easier after those all day sessions this summer. 

Urban River Carp Fishing

Saturday started off with great promise, but it didn't last.

An hour after casting the first time, a drop back indication and short battle of wills later this nice common carp landed in the net.

I was talking to my fishing partner and facing in the opposite direction when my partner told me I had a fish on the line. 

The alarm did not sound at all, but the bite indicator was hanging low without tension indicating that the fish hooked himself and then swam towards the bank.

This river fish did not give up easily. Diving deep into mid-river he had no intention of being caught. 

A few minutes later he made a last ditch effort at freeing the hook from the bottom lip by swimming directly toward the bank at speed. 

I've noticed in the past that some bigger (e.g. older) carp and buffalo often charge the shoreline indicating to me that they've probably been hooked before. And, sometimes charging the bank works, but not this time, as the picture and video below will attest.

I enjoy release videos a lot. This nice common carp swam away in slow motion to live on and potentially be caught again by another urban carp angler.

Michigan Carp Fishing in May

What a difference a day makes (or a cast can make, or a specific cast location in my case). 

I started out fishing the shallower water, thinking it would warm faster in the overcast skies. Casting in close to shore wasn't producing any bites, so I started trying different locations in the swim - near, far, middle.

We had a very slow morning until about 1:30 p.m. By that time I'd worked all three rods toward a seawall and it paid off. I caught a single small fish and packed up all but the rods and bank sticks. While organizing the trunk, the welcome familar  sound of the alarms pierced the silence. I caught a second fish!

I actually packed up to leave again and caught 5 more carp (had to drag it all back out). It was very worth it. 

I also got a new Personal Best catfish that actually fought much like a common carp. 

Total haul: 5 carp and 1 catfish.

A 4 year old boy at the park was admiring my catches. In the park with his mom, he came closer to see the fish each time we landed one. 

His mom went to the car and retrieved a Snoopy rod. He was actually pretty good at casting it. I think we recruited a future carp fisherman. I hope I'm around when he hooks his first carp!

I made this carp and catfish collage with Pixlr

Update 6/11: I learned recently that my digital scale needed new batteries. That first fish registered 19 pounds. It seemed bigger than that at the time. After seeing my scale needed batteries, it seems to confirm my suspicion was correct. I am guessing it was around 23 to 24 pounds. We will never know for sure.

Michigan Rouge River Carp Fishing

I love fishing local Michigan Rivers. Some of the urban rivers around Detroit are my favorites.  Thousands of people drive by these locations daily unsuspecting of the monster sized fish that swim there. 

There are several rivers that feed into Michigan's St. Clair - Detroit River - Lake Erie chain. All of them are home to a healthy common carp population.

Saturday brought sunshine and common carp. I ended up with 8 fish, but one skeedaddled before I got a photo. 

The biggest fish was a mid-teener (16-17# or so). There was a very active bite until the cold front arrived.

It was a good time, netting, baiting, photoing, releasing. Once or twice I actually hoped the fish would slow down a bit. I love days like that.

16# common carp

This fish will grow much larger and eventually
fill out it's bulk and size to match that long tail fin.

I'm not quite sure why I was making that silly face.
While posing the fish, it tried to wiggle itself free.

Lake Erie Season Opener Fish In

Here are some pictures from this past weekend's carp fishing event hosted by the Michigan Carp Anglers. The cold temperatures and overcast skies slowed down the bite a lot. More periods of sunshine throughout the day would have definitely added to the total fish count. 

I feel very fortunate to have caught the lone fish during the event.

Thanks to the carp fishermen who participated and others who stopped by the say hello. It's always good to put a face and meet our fishing friends from the Michigan Carp Anglers Facebook group.

Lake Erie Metro Park Carp Fishing

Lake Erie is a great carp fishing resource. Although commercial fishing for carp has impacted the numbers of large fish being caught, the Metro Park is still a nice place to catch a few common carp.

Access to the shoreline is tricky at the Metro Park. The efforts to prevent shoreline erosion have made it challenging to land fish. It's a little dangerous in fact. The big boulders provide very few level footholds. If you do fish there, be careful.

I caught a nice fish with near perfect scales there recently. 

It took awhile to turn on a bite, but I got two before the cold front turned it back off quickly.

I had an hook pull in the early afternoon that I chalked up to being a little rusty from not fishing over the winter. The fish ran like freight train and in an effort to slow him down I over tightened the drag one click too many.

Easter Carp Fishing

On Good Friday, the kick-off to Easter weekend, it was 34 degrees. I was hoping for a balmy 70 degree week culminating in a great weekend of carp fishing. Saturday wasn't much better, so I waited to fish until Sunday. The weather forecast promised good weather and it delivered. 

Sunday was the best weekend day weather we've had YTD 2021 with the temperature topping out at 55 degrees, a light flowing breeze, blue sky, no clouds and sunshine all day long.

I caught this lone fish at 11:30 when it was still in the low 40's. I will take the weather at this point. The fish is a bonus, but I always hope for more.

Tips for Better Fish Photos

 

Taking better fish photos is possible with a little foresight and planning.

Looking back through my carp and catfish photos for the past several years, I have noticed that most of the best photos were taken on cloudy days. The softer light on cloudy days makes it easier to take great fish photos.

On sunny days finding a bit of shade near a tree, building, or other structure can help lessen the effects of too much light that creates unsightly and undesirable glare and highlights on our photo subjects. This is easier at some fishing venues than others of course. 

On a river bank, there are often no trees, no buildings and no shade to be found. In those conditions it helps to increase shutter speed to something like 1/500ths or 1/1000ths or  use a higher F-Stop. These settings are easily identifiable on a digital camera, but can be illusive when using a cell phone camera. 

Experiment with your cell phone's settings and find the menu for adjusting exposure. In bright sunlight, less exposure (higher F-Stop) is helpful. In bright sun, F16 or F22 works well with ISO 200 or ISO 100. Since fish are stationary when we hold them, we get greater detail at lower ISO. Higher F stop enables lower ISO.

Some additional tips:

• Position the sun behind you when taking the photo
• If it's really bright, experiment with taking the photo with the sun to one side
• Avoid standing too close to your fish and creating a shadow
• Iron all of this our before you catch your first fish, experiment for different times of day
• And of course, it's much easier if you have a tree nearby for shade
• If you end up with glare in your photo, experiment with filters to reduce glare and highlights
• Having a plan before you catch the fish-of-a-lifetime can help capture a better photo
• Sometimes using a vehicle as background works out well too (dark colored vehicles work best)

Here's a link that is helpful: Digital Photo Tips

Carp Graphics

Habanero Boilies Catch Carp

Homemade habanero boilies simply work. Catching common carp, buffalo and catfish with something you make at home, is rewarding and fun. The boilie recipe below is one I've used for a few years to catch fish in Michigan. 

With spring just around the corner, it's the time of year that I begin preparing baits for my first round of carp fishing sessions in April and May. Having a good supply and selection on hand helps with pre-baiting campaigns. I also use these boilies year-round in my panko pack bait mix.




Don't worry if they aren't perfectly round. The carp don't care.

Habanero Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup soya flour
2 cups semolina flour
1 cup milk powder
1 cup protein powder
1 tbsp salt
5 eggs
2 tbsp condensed milk
1 1/2 tbsp fish oil
6 habaneros
3 jalapenos
Add a little food coloring of your choice.

Directions:

• Cook the peppers in a small amount of olive oil first, then blend with a hand blender.
• Mix in eggs and food coloring. Then add to dry mix.
• Form boilies and boil for 2 minutes.
• Let dry on a cooking drying rack. Freeze.

When it's time to go carp fishing, I pull a a bag from freezer, empty from the plastic bag into a cotton bag or simple brown paper bag. The boilies will thaw quickly at room temperature. By the time I reach my fishing spot, they are usually reading to use. Even it they are still a little frozen, they will thaw in the water anyway.

A word of caution is in order...

If you have never used habanero in a recipe, be careful. You should probably wear some plastic gloves when handing them and, whatever you do, don't rub your eyes after handline these hot peppers. Also, be aware of whatever you touch may end up with residual capsicum and a transfer can easily occur to skin, eyes, ears, nose, lips, and other sensitive areas that you definitely want to avoid. 

Cooking habaneros in a ventilate room is also recommended. Turn on a fan. Open a window. You will thank me later, I promise.

Muskie Fishing from Shore

I have developed a new interest to learn how to catch musky fish from the shoreline this year.

I started out watching muskie fishing videos on YouTube. WinCity Outdoors has some great videos of fishermen catching muskie from the shoreline at Lake St. Clair and Detroit River.

I thought carp fishing was expensive, but compared to carp fishing it's very affordable.

To make a long story short, I bought an Okuma Komodo reel and a 9' Chaos SWAT XtraHeavy muskie rod. Then I bought some rubber lures. Musky lures can range in price from about $8 to $200 each. They can range from 2 oz to 16 oz (or more).

Okuma Komodo SS 364

Fishing for muskie requires a good reel. I selected a 300 series reel with stainless gears. Casting big baits, sometimes double bladed, requires a very durable reel. Top musky reels sell for $400 and even more.

Getting fish landed and released is key to good fish care, so a rod with backbone is a necessity.

I ordered the Chaos 9' SWOT Xtra Heavy telescopic muskie rod. It's a much stiffer rod than I use carp fishing.

My New Bank Fishing Tackle Facebook Group

I have recently created a Facebook Group for Bank Fishing Tackle. 

There are many fishing groups on the internet ranging from discussion boards, traditional WordPress and Blogger pages, micro blogs on Instagram, and more, but in those groups I see a lot of posts from people who fish from boats, kayaks, canoes, etc. 

Bank fishermen and fisherwomen need their own fishing group, so I am hosting one.

The group will welcome posts, pictures, photos and discussions about bank fishing for all species. If it's a fish that can be caught from shore, this is the page for it. Those who catch, or desire to catch, freshwater or salt water fish without a boat are welcome in the Bank Fishing Tackle Facebook group.

I have been learning how to target pike, muskie and small-mouth bass, which are all on the fishing agenda for 2021.

How to Attach Fluorocarbon to Braid

The Alberto knot makes it easier to reliably and securely tie fluorocarbon fishing line to braid. If it looks like an Albright knot, that's because it's pretty similar with an "improvement" making it even more effective.

I've always tied braid directly to the swivel and also tied braid directly to my carp hooks. But I'm seeing more and more discussion on fishing discussion boards and websites advocating presentation of fluorocarbon as a leader for carp fishing. The theory is that braid is detectable by fish, and fluorocarbon provides anglers a slight edge. Fish find fluorocarbon more difficult to detect, which should translate to a higher catch rate.

I haven't tried this knot yet, but I definitely will. I found this on a "how to catch pike" web page, but you can never learn to many fishing - can you?

I only use two good fishing knots for all of my carp fishing exploits: 

• Palomar knot link
• Knotless knot aka "hair rig" link

And know I'll add the Alberto knot to my repertoire, which will prove useful for more of my bank fishing efforts to catch some pike and sturgeon in 2021. 

How to Catch More Michigan Catfish

Catfish are sometimes a nuisance when fishing for carp. The photos show some of the larger Mr. Whiskers I have landed in Michigan.

Ninety-five percent of the time I fish with 3 pieces of corn on a hair rig fished with pack bait and bolt-rig. It catches carp effectively and also attracts catfish occasionally. 

Catfish Pictures

When I am carp fishing, catfish are sometimes an unwelcome but necessary frustrating side effect. This collage includes some of the largest catfish I have landed in the past few years. Size ranges from about 5 pounds up to 13 pounds with one of the largest coming from a local city park pond.

The next largest was hooked in a large impoundment near the Michigan / Ohio state line that is known for very good musky fishing. Most of the remaining photos come from various rivers in Michigan.

Best Bait for Catfish

Natural baits work the best. Worms are good choices. 

• Night crawlers
• Red wigglers

Growing up my uncles used a variety of other baits with good results as well.

• Chicken liver
• Beef liver
• Beef tongue

A variety of other baits are also used successfully.

• Bread balls
• Corn
• Hominy
• Stink baits

Catfish are sometimes caught on artificial baits as well, but natural baits increase the odds significantly.

Trophy Sized Catfish 

Catfish in the 12 to 15 pound range are frequently caught in Michigan. A personal best in that weight range is a reasonable goal. But for the trophy sized specimen tipping the scales at 50 pounds or more, I would head to the Missouri or Mississippi River systems. Even some of the larger reservoirs like Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, Lake Barkley in Kentucky, Pickwick Lake in Tennessee are some other good alternatives for some very large specimens.  

Recording Setting Catfish

In Michigan, a Niles man caught a 49 pound catfish in the St. Joseph River back in 2012. The fish was 45 inches in length.