B-I-G Fish = B-I-G Business

Reprinted from CarpAnglersGroup.com

Trophy fish of any species will attract anglers from far & wide. This means more license & tackle sales as well as travel, food and accommodation expenditure coming into the economy of the region. It is therefore vital to help educate more anglers toward the positive benefits of careful handling and the live release of trophy fish of ALL species.

This includes the catch and release of trophy common carp (Cyprinus carpio) that are increasingly sought after by top anglers visiting the St Lawrence river.  The presence of big trophy carp indicates a healthy environment that will also support trophy fish of other species. The killing of large carp (as well as native buffalo, muskie and gar) only serves to stimulate the rapid increase in smaller fish which can lead to negative impacts on the aquatic environment.

You cannot ‘un-kill’ a fish. The concept of catch & release, especially for trophy fish, is a win-win for everyone. When a trophy fish is killed anglers know that it is no longer there to be caught. But when a trophy fish is released it stands out as a beacon of hope for other anglers to come test their skills and maybe catch it at an even heavier weight.

The economic benefits that result from the ‘catch & release’ of trophy carp as well as other species will be a significant boost for the local community.

I wholeheartedly support the catch & release of trophy fish while allowing anglers to retain a limited number of smaller fish for the table.

Fourth of July Weekend Carp Fishing

I had Friday off from work and decided to head out early and spend the day carp fishing.

I took about 2 hours for the first one landed on my homemade habanero boilie and 2 more hours for the next one caught on two pieces of Trilogy Baits maize tipped with a piece of fluorescent pink plastic corn from Enterprise.

Got there early and set up in a spot that has produced commons, small mouth buffalo,
 mirror carp and s smattering of catfish

This one was a single digit fish

A little bit bigger

The biggest of the day in the mid teens

Second fish caught on the maize, my first caught on maize for several weeks

Lucky Seven Carp Today

I usually fish on Saturday's, but with the rain yesterday I had to wait for Sunday.

We got out early and fished until about 2 p.m. The fish weren't in a feeding frenzy by any means but the action was fairly steady all day. It would have been better if I'd figured out that the carp were only hungry for boilies today and not maize.

I caught all but one of the carp on my homemade habanero boilies.

I really like the colors on this fish

Fish from this lake are generally darker in color than some of the other lakes we fish

This 17 pounder had very light and very interesting scale patterns. It was the biggest fish I caught today.

 I got a new cell phone. So far I am liking the picture quality of these 21 megapixel photos.

One of these days I am going to learn to pose my fish pictures in the shade to prevent the glare seen on this nice fish.

This is the typical size for carp in this lake

A nice looking fish that came close to the session's end as I was beginning to pack up to leave

TUF Line XP Alternative to PowerPro

Courtesy Amazon.com

I have been using TUF Line XP braided fishing line this year instead of Power Pro. It's less expensive than Power Pro at times when buying 1,200 or 1,500 yards to spool up multiple reels.

Aerospace technololgy has been utilized to produce this high performance fishing line. Tension Lock Technology TUF Line XP is produced under high tensions allowing more compaction of the fibers during the finishing process. This line is more compact, smaller in diameter, packs better on reels, offers better knot performance, casts farther, reduces rod tip wraps, and has higher abrasion resistance. Available in green, red, yellow and white.

Amazon currently has 1,200 yards for $118. Power Pro typically sells for about $150 on Amazon although it's occasionally available for less. They also have 2,500 yards for $173, which I think is a real bargain. That's enough to spool up 8 or 9 reels, which for me is 3 or 4 years worth of carp fishing.

In my experience braided line does not deteriorate with age like monofilament does, so it does not bother me at all to stock pile some extra line.

Carp Care Doesn't Have to be Expensive

When I started carp fishing the last thing I was thinking about was a landing mat. Luckily I saw some others fishing for carp at my local lake and they were using landing mats so I just emulated them.

The mats come at a variety of price points from $8 to $100 or more for a "carp cradle" that suspends the fish above the ground.

For the budget conscious here is a medium price range solution that should work well.

Available for about $30 or less from Big Carp Tackle

Thoughts About Carp Fishing

To whom it may concern,

As a carp angler who enjoys traditional rod and reel angling at carp tournaments in Michigan and recreationally almost every weekend in spring, summer and fall in Southeastern Michigan, I encourage Catch and Release carp fishing for trophy sized carp. I've seen such great joy in faces, young and old, when a large 25 pound common carp or 20 pound small mouth buffalo carp are landed. Many people from neighboring states including Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois actually travel to Michigan to fish for these large fish providing significant economic impact to Michigan communities. 

Brian Pearcy
Belleville, MI

Homemade Habanero Boilies Strike Gold Again

Back in February when it was still too cold to fish I decided to make some homemade boilies to help scratch the fishing itch.

The boilies have been successful catching fish so far. I headed out today and started with traditional carp bait on my hair rigs - flavored maize.

After a couple hours with no bites I switched over to my habanero boilies and wham bam boozzle we had 3 fish on the bank in less than 30 minutes. I think I need to make some more habanero boilies!

Early June Carp Fishing

Here a few pictures from a recent Saturday carp fishing session near Lake Erie. Commons, buffalo and catfish were caught. I hooked two very nice fish that weren't landed due a snag directly to the front of my swim.

Low teens

Nice colors on this catfish

Small mouth buffalo

15 pounds 9 ounces for this small mouth buffalo

Low teens

Low teens

Mid teen

My photographer had to leave so those last few pictures were the best I could do with my cell phone.

Why Isn't Carp Fishing More Popular?

I am in one of those moods tonight. The kind where I start wondering about things that most people could care less about. Tonight I am pondering why carp fishing hasn't gained much traction here in the United States compared to fishing for bass, crappie, bluegill, perch or even catfish.

Catch and release fishing has been in vogue for quite a while now. If I recall correctly, catch and release was made popular by the rise of bass fishing and bass fishing was made popular by the creation of BASS Masters and BASS Masters' success was fueled by sponsorships from boat manufacturers like Ranger, Stratos and Tracker.

A top of the line Stratos bass boat with a 200 hp outboard motor that is 3 or 4 years old sells on the used market for $25,000 to $40,000 depending on the way it's outfitted, accessorized, and the trailer it comes with. And then they need something to tow it with that totals another $15,000 for a reliable used tow vehicle and $40,000 or more for a new pick-up truck.

So there are literally tens of thousands of guys spending big bucks on used boats, burning gas running up and down the lake, catching fish that average 4 or 5 pounds (or even less) when they could have spent less than $500 fishing from the bank, and catch fish that average 15 - 18 pounds (or even more) depending on the specific fishing venue.

I don't know about you, but I'll keep the $80,000 in my retirement account and fish for carp!

Results of Boilie Making

Caught on a homemade boilie

I wrote a previous post about my first attempt at boilie making several weeks ago. I tried them out in early March at a local venue, but water temps were still pretty cold and it wasn't really a good time to test them. This past weekend I finally got around to testing them out thoroughly and was pleasantly surprised with the results.

I fish with corn 95% of the time, but occasionally I will use commercial pop up dumbbells if fishing is slow.

The weekend was typical and I baited up with corn. I fished for 4 hours with no catches, so I decided to switch over to my homemade boilies. Guess what happened? I caught a new personal best small mouth buffalo near Lake Erie within 30 minutes!

You're probably wondering about the recipe. You can access it here via my previous post or simply keep reading.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup corn meal

1 1/4 cup wheat flour

6 jalapenos

3 habaneros

2 TBSP cayenne powder

1 TBSP white pepper powder

2 whole eggs

2 TBSP sesame oil

2 TBSP Southern Comfort

It's probably not a conventional recipe that most people would use, but I had to improvise a conventional recipe with ingredients I actually had on hand.

I am pleased with the results.

Small Mouth Buffalo and Common Carp Catches

I caught my first buffalo a few short weeks ago at 11 pounds. I broke my personal best twice in about 30 minutes on Monday afternoon.

One of these fish was caught on a WCB pink pop-up dumbbell and the other was caught on a homemade habanero boilie. In fact I caught 5 fish on my homemade boilies.

The first buffalo weighed # 20.4 and the second one # 21.11. I really enjoyed catching these fish.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.


20 pounds 4 ounces

The colors on this fish were very unusual



21 pounds 11 ounces

 

Profile picture?

Small Mouth Buffalo close-up

I caught 8 others ranging from # 20 down to # 7 for a total of 12 fish (2 catfish and 10 carp).



13 pounds



10 pounds

Catfish

8 pounds

7 pounds

9 pounds

8 pounds

11 pounds

Saginaw River Carp Tournament

Some pictures from Saginaw River.

My view at the event on day one

My spot on day one of the event

Day one, first cast

A view on day two

Getting set up on Sunday

My spot on day 2 of the event

Memorial Day Weekend

I headed out early on Saturday to my favorite local lake for carp fishing.

The day started off with several catfish. I ended the day with 3 catfish in total.

9 pounder

3 pounder

The carp weren't far behind.



13 pounder

Big common carp in the net

Nice 20 pound 6 ounce common carp

Just prior to release this lunker back into the water

Here are a few more pictures from today's activities.

A shot of my Sonic bait runners

3rd carp of the day

4th carp of the day

I had another fish on that I lost. It was a good day to be sure. Bill was with me and landed the first fish of the session weighing 30 pounds 11 ounces. That gave me something to shoot for today, but I didn't catch anything nearing that size.

We'll back out on Monday to try again.