River Carping in Michigan

Rivers offer a wide variety of carp fishing opportunities. There are big rivers, small rivers and every size in between. Quick running rivers are more challenging for carp fishing. When the water runs fast, it's best to find a current break like a dike, a boat, a bridge, pier, etc. that might provide the fish some relief from the strong current.

As a general rule, the wider and deeper rivers are difficult because they are just so darned big. The potential for big carp is present in rivers like Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, St. Clair and Detroit, but the same benefits also make it difficult to find the fish. Sight fishing on those big rivers is nearly impossible without a boat. Smaller rivers like Saginaw, Huron, Rouge, Ecorse or Raisin make it easier, but success is often coupled with the specific time of year. Timing plays a big part. The ability to access the water is also important. There is a lot to be said for owning a pontoon boat, jon boat or kayak.

If the carp won't come to you, then you must go to the carp if you want to catch them.

Here are a few pictures from early in the fall of 2017.

I plan to spend some more time fishing the local rivers in 2018. Hopefully I can get on some fish on a more consistent basis.

Short Afternoon Carp Session

When I go carp fishing, I prefer to make a day out of it. It's been my experience that an hour or two is not enough time to catch carp and make it worthwhile to dig out all the equipment, drive to the spot, set up and fish. (There's something to be said for traveling light and I'm going to be working on a strategy for that over the winter months.) But yesterday I scheduled a vacation day in the afternoon and headed out anyway.

I got my first fish within 15 minutes of casting out and it took 3 1/2 hours to get 3 more (in a 20 minute span) for a total of 4 in a few minutes past 4 hours before I had to go and the rain rolled into the area. I would have stayed another 45 minutes or so, but I had an appointment and had to go.

Here are some pictures:

This one was kind of a blooper. A passer-by agreed to take some pictures for me, but the fish had other plans.

This is the same fish once I wrangled him into position.
I may have been the best dressed fisherman in America yesterday. As you can tell from my button down shirt, I came straight from work stopping just long enough to change shoes and pull on some rain pants to protect my pants.

The first fish caught me by surprise.
I hadn't finished setting up and as you can tell didn't have a good strategy for self-timer pictures yet either.

When fishing alone, sometimes you have to get creative with ways to take pictures.
I snapped this one in the net.

I'm not sure about the facial expression, but I enjoyed catching the fish.

Another fish; another picture in the net.

I am convinced that carp move around in shoals of 5 or 6 fish (maybe more). Many times I have waited hours for a fish and then caught multiple fish in short succession. When they do decide to move on the bait, it's game time.

Two of these fish never sounded the alarm, so it pays to watch the rods pretty close. Yesterday it may have made the difference between 2 fish and 4 fish. Sometimes it could mean the difference between no fish and a single fish. One's certainly better than none every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Overall it was a good day. I'll take days like this as the season turns colder. Fishing days are going to end in a week or two for me.

I don't have any spots where the water stays warm. A warm water discharge would be nice. Drop me a note in the comments if you know of any warm water spots that have open water year-round.

Autumn Carp Fishing in Michigan

We've definitely been spoiled with some fantastic carp fishing weather recently; with only an occasional exception here and there. And you can be sure that I have taken advantage of this cold weather hiatus to get out on the bank and do some fishing.

On Saturday I decided to head to my favorite spot on Lake Erie. Things started out quickly, but instead of carp, it was a 2 pound channel catfish. I barely had a chance to sit down in my chair after casting before the alarms were ringing with the alert. It didn't take long to figure it out - Mr. Whiskers was hungry. The familiar thump-thump-thump as I retrieved the line gave it away.

Those who regularly fish for carp know that carp are more likely to 1) bolt away-from-the-bank and keep on going, 2) swim straight-at-the-bank with hopes of finding shallow water and rid themselves of the hook, or 3) swim sideways with the same goal.

Likewise I can usually tell the size of the fish with general accuracy based on the speed that the carp takes the bait. A blazing run usually indicates a small, but scrappy fish; while a slow-roller or intermittent speed that rises and falls usually indicates a bigger fish or sometimes a small-mouth buffalo depending on the venue. (Catfish will also sometimes take the slow-roller approach, but in the places I fish I catch more catfish than carp 99% of the time.)

Lucky for me I had a slow-roller, a fast-and-furious and a couple of straight-at-the-bank fish during the session.

Here are some pictures:

This is the typical size we've been catching this year

This 22 pound 6 ounce fish is my biggest carp since May 2017.

The shadow on this fish is not an indication of a two-tone color, but is a shadow from the person taking
the picture as the sun was behind the cameraman.

A quality fish

Safe return for someone else to catch in the future after the fish packs on a few more pounds.

Labor Day Weekend Carp Fishing

I headed out on Saturday for some carp fishing to get the weekend started - carp fishing style.

The results were a little less than I hoped for but it wasn't for a lack of trying. I ended with 2 carp and two catfish.

The alarms were silent after 1 p.m. so I finally threw in the towel at 4:30. Hopefully with fall approaching the carp will start packing on the pounds for winter preparations and the fishing will improve.

This carp is the first I've caught in a while now, so it was a welcome site in the net

Small and scrappy, but I'll take it 

A nice looking catfish, but not what we're after

And if the carp fishing doesn't pick up pretty soon, I'm tempted to finish out the season fishing for sturgeon. If I'm going to "blank", why not blank bigger?

Secret Fishing Spots

When I started carp fishing, I was so enthusiastic and excited about it that I told everyone I met about it. My friends, family and co-workers knew about my new love of carp fishing; and anyone else who would listen to me talk about fishing got the spiel about how much fun I was having with it. For most people to step out of their comfort zone and try something new, they need to have some successes right out of the gate; so I helped point them in the right direction and sometimes took them out fishing just as others did for me when I started.

Periodically I hear conversations and read posts on social media pertaining to "secret" fishing spots. It reminds me of the excitement I felt when I started and how it made me feel as a newbie (and to this day) when others helped point me in the right direction. When I first started carp fishing, I was really surprised to find that people actually had "secret" spots. That was a new concept to me.

I later learned from carp fishermen with a little more experience that sometimes telling others about a "secret" spot can be undesirable.

Examples:

-- It becomes so popular with others that the "best" spots are seldom available and almost always occupied when  you want to fish in those specific locations.

-- Bow fishermen might go to the spot and shoot the biggest "trophy" carp purely for spite, meanness and thrill they get out of killing animals (kind of barbaric, but perfectly legal).

Four years later I have reached the conclusion that there are not really any "secret" spots on "public" waters. "Public" waters are open to the public. No one person has more rights to one "public" water than another person. Just as a boater has no more right to a lake or river than a shore fisherman. We have to share the water and share the fish too.

I have also learned that it's nice for new comers to find the honey holes early on. Catching fish helps build skill and leads to even more catches. Without success, many people will quit before they actually know enough to even begin experiencing the real possibilities. With success, new comers become "hooked" on carp fishing sooner and they stick with it longer term; which helps grow the sport. Growing the sport helps everyone involved because more carp fishermen leads to more vendors, manufacturers and purveyors of carp supplies, equipment, tackle, and gear. The increased competition helps reduce prices for fishermen and increased sales helps the businesses at the same time. It's a win, win.

We can attempt to disguise the photos when posting on social media (I've done it myself), but it really only keeps it "secret" for a short time. Someone always figures it out eventually.

As I have gained experience, I find myself venturing out more and more on my own to find new places to fish - my own "secret" spots if you will. And when I am out fishing those spots it never fails that I meet someone who see's me catching carp and tells me about how they also have caught carp there, that bow fishermen shoot fish there, their grandpa caught them with corn, grandma made bread balls wrapped in bacon to catch them (true story), and so on. So my "secret" is only a secret to me. Others have known there were carp to be caught in those spots long before I got there. But I still enjoy looking and finding these hidden treasures when I can. It just adds another element of enjoyment to my personal fishing journey. It's another aspect to the hobby that helps keep me interested.

If you want to know where I fish - just ask me. If I know you well, I'll provide more details than if I don't. I meet a lot of people while carp fishing and many have become very close friends. So stick around and continue reading about my carp fishing efforts (and sturgeon adventures coming soon). Or better yet, come out and fish with me and my friends sometime. I think you'll enjoy it. :-)

Big River Carping

I spend a lot of time fishing lakes for carp. They are my preferred waters for carp fishing.

But occasionally I do enjoy fishing rivers. The fish are stronger, longer and tougher. Pound for pound they are more powerful overall. Detroit River is an obvious choice for big river carping here in southeast Michigan.

Saturday we headed out to a favorite Detroit River spot and settled in for a session.

It didn't take long for my fishing partner to land a couple of mid-teens carp. And a couple of hours later, some carp starting hitting my net.

Here are some pictures.

I loved the scale pattern on this nice muddler

Another small muddler

And I caught this sheepshead on a night crawler while trying my luck in my first attempt fishing for sturgeon (I have a sturgeon tag).

Although it only weighed a couple of pounds, it's still my personal best sheepshead (first and only sheepshead in fact)

This spot on the Detroit River has yielded several fish for me in the past year, but none have been larger than 19 pounds and change. I'd love to find some more productive spots because the potential in that river for big carp is significant.

Tough Day on Saturday

We headed out Saturday morning with high hopes. After success last Sunday with 12 carp and 3 catfish, I was hopeful that the winning streak would continue.

Alarm, bank stick and hanging bite indicator

The set-up I use for pier fishing

Unfortunately, the carp went the way of Elvis on Saturday - they had left the building - or at least weren't biting in the heat.

The water was very warm to the touch and unusual. I don't think I've ever felt water as warm as a bath tub in Lake Erie before.

Carp Fishing Action Video

As a Christmas gift to myself I purchased a GoPro Hero 5 Black the day after Thanksgiving in 2016. After a few trials and tribulations with the camera I took a few time lapse videos over the period of a few weeks.

The video below was taken last weekend during a fishing session my wife and I shared on the Raisin River. This video is a good example of some "hidden gems" that are hiding in plain site. Most people we talked to in the 7 or 8 hours had no idea they could catch fish weighing up to 18 pounds in this public park.

We met a lot of friendly people and made some new fishing friends and prospective future carp fishermen. Kids in particular, seem to enjoy watching the biggest fish they have ever seen be caught in the same water they catch bluegill using Spider-Man and Barbie fishing rods.

 

I formatted this video in black and white as an experiment. I like the way it turned out, but it's hard to argue with the original "full color" version straight from the GoPro.

My primary goal in purchasing the camera was to use it to take video of my carp fishing efforts. I have used it a few times this summer, but not as much as I hoped.

I definitely need to work on my editing skills, but I have found GoPro Studio, which has the more powerful editing tools, very difficult to use. I've had to download a few versions of the Studio software because my original copy had a "fatal error".

Here is the same video in full HD color:

If you have any GoPro carp fishing videos to share let me know and I will embed them on my carp fishing blog.

Small River Carp Fishing

I fished a spot on Sunday for the third time that I first fished back in October of 2015. I've previously landed a 20 pounder from this venue, which is the biggest fish I know of that has been caught in this location by any CAG member.

My wife has been encouraging me to try it again, so we did. I landed 12 carp and 3 catfish. The rain ruined our fun, or we likely would have caught even more. There is likely a mid twenty hiding in that river location and I'll be back someday trying to find it too.

From Bluegill and Bass, to Common Carp

When I was a young boy we had a farm pond on my family's property and I spent many afternoons there catching bluegill, bass and occasionally a catfish.

Fishing is inexpensive entertainment for people who had very little money to spent on traditional entertainment like movies, restaurants and traveling for family vacations. People now think nothing of $12 (per person) for stadium seats at the movie theatre, $25 for dinner (per person), $10 for a 6-pack of locally brewed craft beer, but for someone growing up in a farm family in the mid-1970's spending money on those things was unheard of...so we fished. We fished a lot.

The only direct cost to the 6 year old me involved the time spent getting a shovel from the shed, finding an old coffee can and asking my grandpa to join me in our favorite worm-digging bed behind the chicken house where the rain ran off the roof and the red wigglers were always plentiful. (A single hook would last all summer long.)

As a kid who counted everything from the number of fence posts in a particular field as we drove by, the number of tractors I saw between our house and grandma's on the way to Sunday dinner, to the number of airplanes I saw on a Saturday afternoon and yes the total number of worms dug with grandpa on Sunday after church; I was serious about worm hunting. Our record worm find was 105 in about 15 minutes. My grandpa made worm digging much easier. There is something to be said for his bigger boots, bigger biceps and stronger back compared to my smaller size and strength that made the search so much better.

I didn't worry so much about the size of the fish we caught, but of course I always wanted to catch the biggest possible. We ate the fish we caught. Mom had a rule, "You catch it, you clean it." The bigger fish were much easier for me to clean. By big, I'm talking adult palm-sized bluegill and 2 pound catfish. Big from a farm pond, but not big by a river size at all.

My bus driver liked to talk about fishing. Catherine, and her husband, Clyde, spent most Sunday afternoons creek fishing in various local spots. She talked about perch, catfish and carp. Hearing her stories were the first time I knew there was fish called carp.

She caught carp with hominy, corn, grubs and even worms. And from the sounds of it, carp were pretty big fish. I remember asking my mom and dad once if we could try creek fishing for carp, but they were not supportive. To them, the farm pond was fine.

It was almost 40 years later before I actually saw my first carp. I was fishing alone when another local fisherman had a fish on and asked if I wanted to reel it in.

I ended up landing a 16 pound mirror carp. The biggest fish I'd every caught by at least 13 pounds!

I took the information I learned that day and headed back out on my own 2 days later. Within a few minutes of arriving to the spot and casting out, I had another carp on the line. That fish weighed in at about 14 pounds.

My first carp

 And from that day forward I have been a carp fishing fool! I have always had a love for fishing, but catching carp is much more exciting.

Carp are pretty smart. They don't fall for plastic lures, or for worms on a hook and bobber float set-up very often. They are leery fish and seem to spook easily so the tactics required offer a challenge that goes farther than the "flip and rip" style of fishing used to catch bass.

Landing a carp on rod and reel takes some finesse. A double digit pound fish doesn't give in easily. They will go left, go right and every other way looking for an escape. Snags are popular destinations and if one is close by they will find it, resulting in a break off or "hook pull" that is a common frustration for carp fishermen.

I used to watch a lot of fishing shows on ESPN. They would be fishing for tarpon near Fort Myers, peacock bass in Costa Rica, bonefish in the Florida Keys, or redfish in the flats of Tampa Bay; and I was so, so jealous. "Some day" I'd say, "I'm going to do that." With carp, someday came a lot sooner.

I've heard some people refer to carp as "fresh water bonefish" and since fresh water is everywhere, that means I don't have to drive to Florida or fly to Costa Rica to catch exciting sport fish. You can catch carp in a large variety of states, rivers, creeks, lakes, reservoirs and even ponds.

Here are some more pictures of my "red neck bonefish" catches.

20 pounds

12 pounds



24 pounds

Carp Fishing Near Lake Erie

After the fiasco in Davison MI on Friday, I headed back out on Saturday to drown my sorrows with some carp fishing at a local spot I know very well.

Here are some pictures:

My spot on Saturday taken about 8 a.m.

The first cap I landed at about 2:30 p.m.

I really liked the scales on this fish. The picture definitely do them justice.

An perfectly scale pattern on this fish

Two heads close-up (better than one)

The first fish on Saturday was a small catfish

The second fish on Sunday was another slightly bigger catfish

I hadn't been "finned" by a catfish in more than 20 years, but this one got me when I tried to hold him for a picture. I guess I got a little too familiar with holding him for the shot with one hand and snapping the picture with the other. Needless to say, I didn't end up getting a picture after all.

I did clean the puncture with some anti-bacterial wipes I keep on hand while fishing and my hand was fine in about 90 minutes. I didn't get any swelling or numbness at all. Cleaning the wound was a great idea, because the last time I got finned I remember my entire hand swelling up and it being sore for several days.