Budget Carp Rods and Reels

I caught 10 carp today using what is probably the most economical combination of carp rod and baitrunner reel available on the market - the NGT Carp Stalker rod and Okuma Carbonite baitrunner. 

I haven't priced them specifically for purchase but after a couple of Google searches it appears you can get the combo brand new for $60-$65 not including shipping costs. 

The rod's 2.0 test curve is fine casting 2 oz. leads and packbait up to 40 yds. The reels were spooled with 30# braid and were able to do the job okay-ish. The reels are rated at 12#s of drag pressure I believe, which might be enough in clear, weedless, and snagless lakes and small rivers/creeks. The reels show their weaknesses quickly with heavy weed and/snags such as submerged tree branches. I had to apply manual drag with my hand to help compensate while fighting several fish today. 

I would rate the rods as "good" for an economical price. They are decent stalking rods. I would rate the reels as "fair", due to lack of drag pressure while fishing in heavy weed beds.

This combination is a decent option for a kids' setup or quick hit and go sessions.

How to Catch Carp Fast Fishing Video

Almost anyone can learn to catch carp FAST with a little effort and planning.

Kentucky Afield recently featured a segment about carp fishing. Carp fishing guru Erik Taylor hosted the filming crew from the TV show at his home lake.

Erik demonstrates pack baits, hair rigs, fighting, and landing common carp, which are gaining notoriety as a worthy sport fish.

Check out the video online. It's a very good representation of modern day European-style carp fishing.

Steps to catching carp:

1. Get a suitable rod and reel: Almost any medium action bass fishing rod 7' or longer will work to get you started.

2. Find a body of water with carp: Spend some time reading the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website. There is a section that allows you to search by water and by species. While you're there read the fishing regulations.

3. Do a web search for "how to make method mix for carp fishing"

4. Search YouTube for "how to tie a hair rig"

5. Mold your method mix around a  2 oz lead. 

6. Cast your bait into a spot close to shore that is at least 5 feet deep with signs of carp. I like to cast out about 30 to 40 feet.

7. Loosen your drag completely so it free spools allowing fish to run with the bait.

8. When you hook a carp gradually tighten the drag as you reel in the fish.

How to Avoid Fishing Frustration

Frustration and fishing go together like baseball and apple pie. They are joined at the hip. You can't have fishing without frustration; otherwise, they would call it "catching". 

In my 8 years of carp fishing I have developed some techniques that help prevent that frustration from getting to the point that I don't enjoy fishing any more. 

For me, I try to focus most on getting out of the house during months of nice weather, meeting new people, enjoying time with friends, seeing new places, traveling a little, exploring, visiting new cities, fishing in new locations, etc. 

In my first couple of years of carp fishing, I focused a lot on fish size and less on those other things that help make the process more enjoyable.

Although it is certainly difficult, I try to focus less on catching my new personal best, a koi, a fantail, a mirror, etc. But I am certainly happy if it happens. 

I spend all week at work dealing with a level of stress that melts away for 8 or 9 hours when I get to do some fishing on Saturday morning and afternoon.

As an example, I took the photo above while fishing. Photography and fishing make good companion hobbies. Fishing takes us to various urban, rural and city environments where we see unusual things like this bulk container vessel that is 600' long.

Ducks, geese, frogs, dogs, bobcats, dear, squirrels, etc. also make interesting photographs.  I recently watched a squirrel swim across the small river where I was fishing. I didn't know squirrels could swim so well.

City Fishing in Ohio

Four years ago Linda and I were in Toledo exploring downtown and I scoped out some fishing spots.

It took 3 years, but last fall I fished in Toledo a couple of times catching about 12 catfish and 3 carp. 

Today I headed back and in 8 hours caught a fourth carp. It's making its way down my list of spots to fish, but I still love downtown, catching a Mud Hens game, the restaurants and the fireworks on the 4th.

Making Carp Photos More Interesting

I used to post a lot of carp fishing photos on my personal social media pages. It became inevitable that one of non-fishing friends would comment or tease me about the poses and pictures all looking alike. Now I mainly post the photos in a fishing group page where the readers/viewers have a bigger interest in seeing them, which has helped reduce those type of comments. 

But, I do still share carp photos on my personal page if its an unusual fish that has unique size, color, location, weight, etc. I have also tried to add variety to them to help appease my friends and family. 

An easy way to do that is with Google's color pop feature via Google Photos.

Here are are a few color pop photo conversions from the past couple of years:

This mid teens carp is from the Rouge River in suburban Detroit.

I caught this fish at Elizabeth Park in Trenton.

And here's one from the Huron River in Ypsilanti.

I've been surprised at the attention to detail people pay when viewing my fishing photos. I receive a lot of comments about my hat choices. So, that's another easy way to add some variety and fun for friends and family.

I'm a Cardinals fan and Ford employee, so those hats are my "go to" head gear for many of my photos.

My good friends in Tennessee are big fans of Mississippi State football, so they sent me a MSU hat that I have also worn in the past for something fun. They actually loved it.

Carp Fishing Mat Shots

Sooner or later us carp fishermen often find ourselves fishing alone without anyone to take a photo of our catches and we have to settle for an improvised photo.

Who says mat shots can't be cool in moderation? Sometimes they kind of break up the predictability of our regular "standard" poses when we present our catches.

Having something available to offer a sense of the fish's overall size is helpful. In this photo I used my Ranger landing net.

You can keep the photos interesting by featuring a particular fish feature like the mouth, fin, scale pattern, etc. In this photo I featured the magnificent golden tail.

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