Dave Mercer and Gerald Swindell - Carp Master Classic Waddington New York - Facts of Fishing

“It’s always amazed me how certain species of fish are looked down upon by some people,” Mercer said. “I’m not a proud man. I just want something to pull on my line.”

Lake Erie July Session

It had not rained more than a few sprinkles in our area for 7 weeks...until last night. And that much needed and long awaited rain overnight affected the fishing today.

I did manage to catch a small catfish early on this morning, but that fish was followed by several hours of no fish, no bites, and no screamers coming from the BFS indicator carp alarms.

But I kept plugging away at it. Casting and re-baiting. Casting and re-baiting.

And the fishing gods rewarded those efforts with a nice mid-teens common carp, which is one of the cleanest, brightest, most vivid commons I have ever had the please of landing.

Mid teens carp

The picture of this particular fish illustrates some interesting things that I would like to expound on a little bit.

While I did manage to pose the fish in some good lighting to show off the nice scaling and coloring on the fish, I should have posed the head toward the camera more. In this shot the tail is pointing more toward the camera. If the head had been pointed toward the camera more effectively, the gill plate would display better.

Notice how my hands are placed under the fish to support it's weight, and notice how my fingers are tucked away and not placed inside the gill plate in any way. A carp's gill plate is very sensitive. If penetrated with a hand, pliers, grippers, etc. it's easy to damage the fish. Damage to the gill plate can cause bleeding and might even kill the fish. This is something to be avoided, which allows the fish to continue growing and hopefully be caught again someday by another angler. That is my goal with every carp I catch. Provide good care and release them back into the water.

I zoomed in closer on this picture using Microsoft Paint. I have to admit that
my fingers are really too close to the gills when posing this fish. While my index
finger is not technically penetrating the gills, it's a little too close for comfort.

It can take several years for carp to reach 15 or 20 pounds in weight. For trophy sized carp - those over 30 pounds - it can take up to 15 years to grow to that size. To catch a trophy sized, once in a lifetime fish; carp need to be treated with respect when being caught and released. And if we are lucky, they will reward us, a friend, or another cap fishing enthusiast with a new personal best in the future.

A few hours later another fish graced the landing net. Although somewhat smaller than the first, I was thrilled to see it after a very slow fishing day.

Single digits common carp

And here is another picture of the first fish being returned to the water.

I try to return the carp to the water gently, allow it a short time to revive, and then swim away on it's own.

A word of caution: Please do not "throw" or "drop" carp back into the water. Carp are heavy fish and dropping them from 3 or 4 feet above the water line can cause them to hit the lake or river bottom if the water is not deep enough to support their weight. This is hard on the carp and can cause injury or even death.

July Fourth Carp

I fished close to home today.

It's a lake that is very popular with pleasure boaters and jet skiers. I was the first person through the gate at 5:45 when the ranger opened up for the day. I figured I'd get in several hours of fishing before the hooligans arrived.

I put in 7 hours, but ended up with only 1 fish. I am happy to have caught it though because the jet skiers, water skiers, bass fishermen, jet boats, etc. were wearing me out at the end.

Here are some pictures.

Independence Day Weekend Near Lake Erie

The plan for this weekend was to fish a pier on Lake Erie that I have been looking forward to try for several weeks. The area is currently experiencing an algae bloom that has tinted the water in that area a very dark green color. Based on my experience in the past it's very tough to fish in those conditions, so we opted to try another location nearby.

I have been unable to fish for a couple of weeks due to a nasty battle with walking pneumonia the past 10 days or so. It started as an allergy, progressed to bronchitis and kept getting worse until it started affecting my breathing. Today was great therapy and I am feeling much better now.

The decision to switch locations paid off. Here are a few pictures of the fish I landed today.

A nice mid teens common carp

A nicely scaled 10 pounder

The second carp caught today with nice coloring

The first carp was landed shortly after lines in early this morning

This is only my 3rd or 4th mirror I have ever caught. It's very rare to catch a mirror carp at this particular location.

My streak catching small mouth buffaloes continues.
Despite handling the fish with great care, this time of year the small mouth buffaloes are always marked up quite a bit.
I am guessing it's left over from spawning activity.
To make this picture a little more palatable, I touched up a couple of the rough spots on this fish.

I also caught a small catfish, but can't seem to find a picture of the fish on my phone tonight. If I do, I'll post it up too.

My fishing partner today, Erik Sevo, landed a nice 21 pound common carp that is a new personal best for him and also landed his first small mouth buffalo tipping the scales at 15 pounds 14 ounces.

Congratulations Erik!

Michigan DNR Bulletin - Know the Difference: Invasive versus common carp

The Michigan DNR published an informative bulletin titled "Know the Difference: Invasive versus common carp" on 6/30/16 featuring some very insightful information about "naturalized" carp aka "common carp" and "invasive" aka "big head", "silver", "black" or "grass" carp.

Common carp close up

From the article:

Common carp weighing in the mid teens

Because they have been widely distributed and their demand as a food source has diminished, common carp sometimes are referred to as a nuisance species. However, they are not considered invasive in Michigan.

I enjoyed the article because it helps explain some critical differences between what is actually "invasive" and what is not.

Michigan Out of Doors Carp Fishing Episode

 

 

I am proud to say that I fish with the guys featured in the carp fishing segment. They are some of the best carp fishermen in Michigan and the entire country.

Two Carp Fishing Videos Near Lake Erie

I returned to an old favorite spot today. It used to be a spot where you could count on several 20+ pounders every session, but due to commercial fishing the size has decreased significantly. I decided to give it a try again after a several month absence. I ended up with several small commons up to about 8 or 9 pounds. I am sorry I don't have a bunch of big fish to post, but I am a weekend warrior carp fisherman with limited time and resources I am willing to commit to the carp fishing obsession.
 

Here's another one I took later on. After a slow period earlier things kicked into high gear around 3 p.m. If I'd stayed longer I probably could have caught 10 of these smaller fish. I found a good sized pocket of them today, but I still had fun catching every one of them. I'm not picky.

Two Nice Pictures From Last Weekend

Friends of mine took these pictures while fishing together last weekend. They shared them out on Facebook today and I liked them so much I wanted to save them here as well.

Thanks David and Veronica for being great fishing partners last weekend. I look forward to joining you again soon on the bank.

Headshot close up

Traditional pose

Please don't be too worried about the two reddish scales. I did not damage the fish while landing it. The scales were like that before the fish was netted.

It's the middle of the spawning festivities at this particular fishing spot and several of the fish we caught, both large and small, had similar reddish spots. I can only assume that the spawning activities caused some of the scrapes.

Carp Fishing Social at New Venue

My friends David and Bill, members of the Carp Anglers Group, met up this morning with plans to spend the day at a local water that hasn't been fished heavily for carp (if at all by a C.A.G. member besides Bill and I).

Bill and I explored this spot on the Raisin River in the fall of 2015 as part of "Discovery Month". I caught a couple of mid-teens carp and Bill caught a catfish tipping the scales in low double digits. We vowed to come back and fish the venue again someday. With some of our other favorite carp fishing spots heavily inundated with spawning carp who aren't much interested in feeding on panko, chicken feed, and cream corn we decided to give this venue another shot to show us what carp it holds.

The fishing spot

I arrived at 6:30 a.m. with David and Bill joining me in short order. We had lines in the water a little before 7:15 and it didn't take long for the carp to start making the alarms sing the familiar tune that announces to the world, "Carp on."

The first couple of runs resulted in lost fish. But I finally hooked a small 2 pound channel catfish around 8:30 a.m. David caught a catfish and a carp during this same time frame.

I caught a couple of smaller carp a little while later. The carp were small enough to leave me wondering where the bigger fish might be hiding.

Small common

Slightly bigger small common

A little after lunch time a much bigger, crafty and veteran of carp of the Raisin River decided to feast on our panko ground bait offerings flavored with some peach flavoring.

19 pounds 6 ounces

The 19 pounder was a post-spawn fish and marked up quite a bit from the spawning activities being engaged in recently. But this fish proved to me that there could be 20 pounders (or maybe a little bigger) lurking in this new water.

The it got quiet for a while.

Then the rain came.

And then a few more carp decided to grace our net, weigh sling and pose for a Facebook picture.

This isn't the greatest picture because it was taken during a light rain. The lens on my camera phone fogged up.

David's wife caught a nice 16 pound carp to round out my day of fishing before heading home when the rain picked up even more.

I am sure David will post a copy of it on Facebook for those that are friends with him.

In the final analysis the day was a success. We caught fish in numbers and two with decent size. I caught 6 carp and a catfish. And that's good enough to bring me back again to fish here again.

Missouri Vacation Carping

We spent last week in Missouri after traveling there to attend my niece's high school graduation.

During the 9 day trip I did manage to find time for carp fishing. It was a new spot I had never fished before, so I didn't really know what to expect. Luckily the carp didn't know that and cooperated anyway.

9 pounder

13 pounder

Missouri River view

Carp fishing lake

Interesting clouds rolling in just prior to a short lived storm

Someday I hope to get back there to fish again.

I am confident there are some monster sized carp in the Missouri River, but it's tough to find a spot to fish out of the very strong current.

I'm Not a Mailman, But I Do Qualify as a Carp Man

We made plans last to fish a "numbers" venue today. The location is near my house and with rain showers and high winds in the forecast I thought staying closer to home was a smart move.

When I arrived at the venue about 6:15 I was greeted with a rowing regatta and hundreds of people. There was a long line of vehicles waiting for the park gates to open and there were hundreds of pedestrians, students, rowing teams, etc. We decided to go with plan B at an alternative location about 25 miles to the south.

Arriving at the alternate location about 7:00 and greeted by sunshine, calm winds and blue skies things were looking up. But unfortunately, the clouds, rain showers and high winds caught up to us at the new location.

Fishing started out very slow as the wind and rain settled in for a bit, but when conditions changed to sunny, but still windy the fishing picked up a little. A familiar pattern developed. When there was sunshine, there were bites. When the sunshine hid behind a cloud bank, we had no fish.

It was a "grind it out" kind of day, but ultimately the patience paid some nice dividends.

Here are some of the 11 fish landed by me with the largest weighing almost 19 pounds. Neither rain, wind, clouds or catfish can keep us from landing a few carp every now and then.

 

Small mouth buffalo

Carp release

 

How to Tie a Hair Rig for Carp Fishing

Here is a "how to" video from Carl and Alex to help you learn how to catch carp using a basic "hair rig".

18 Pound Common Carp Video

This video of an 18 pound common carp landed in Bigelow Park on the Saginaw River was taken by my wife during the 2016 Carp Anglers Group Midwestern Regional fishing tournament.

Carp Fishing Video from Saginaw

 

 

A little video my wife filmed last Friday. This fish weighed 15 pounds and was my second fish that day.

Pictures from the CAG Midwestern Regional at Saginaw River

I look forward to attending the Carp Anglers Group Midwestern Regional each year. I have been making plans to attend the 2016 event since late 2015, so Friday morning I headed out early for the trip to Saginaw as a member of Team Michigan.

On Friday I fished a new area of the river (for me) and within 30 minutes of casting out I landed the first fish – a small 10 pounder.

It took several more hours to land a second fish, at 15 pounds, which was unfortunately my last fish for the day.

 

10 pounds

15 pounds and then some

Saturday morning we arrived at the peg draw anticipating a day filled with carp fishing and hoping for high quantities of high quality fish topping the 20 pound mark, which on the Saginaw River is fairly common.

I landed a 13 pounder very early on and a nice channel catfish later in the day, but unfortunately carp were regretfully absent from my swim the remainder of the day on Saturday.

13.1 pounds



Team Michigan was in second place heading into Sunday. My teammates started landing fish early in the day, but unfortunately my luck was running cold for the first few hours. I was fishing my particular spot in Bigelow Park peg for the first time. Heavy winds impacted my casting and prevented me from putting the bait in the proper zone. Teammates were landing fish closer to shore, so I tried that awhile. But I kept trying my preferred spot off and on with little success.

The winds subsided in the late afternoon. Casting and current improved substantially as a weather front approached. The skies turned dark blue and it looked like rain was imminent. I commented to my wife that all heck was going to break loose at any minute. Sitting back in the sport umbrella out of the wind, she asked why and I explained that it was likely to start raining hard soon and I had a feeling the fish were about to start feeding heavily.

14 pounder

16 pounder

18 pounder

25 pounds 9 ounces

It turns out I was incorrect about the weather, but right about the fish. After a tough day playing the waiting game on Saturday afternoon, these fish were a welcome arrival. Just when it seemed like they'd never come, things turned around.

This was my third time fishing the regional. I think this year's conditions offered the biggest challenges (at least for me), but a tweak here and there; and suffering through a pity party or two paid off with some nice fish at long last.

4th consecutive Team Michigan victory