This week's Podcast Fishing Spring 2014

Post Rain Chum Keeps Big Carp Around with Some Great Results

It seems as if winter just has not wanted to leave the party and he has been finally cut off and a friend has driven him home to sleep it off. It has been a long spring, still in the forties first week of May. We got some decent rain steady of a couple of days and went to check the local pond’s pipes for fish. 

After a rain water coming in and out of pipes brings manna from heaven to different species of fish. This includes bass, crappie, bluegills, and carp.  After a hard fast rain some carp are programmed to check the pipes for food, so much so that they can visibly be seen. This was not the cases this time. There is a large grate that brings water from one lake to the other. I wondered if even I could not see carp, was there still a small few that swam in the area anyway checking for rain candy. I decided to chum with boilies and cans of corn on my way to and from work.

I am a busy dad like many with a job kids and responsibilities and during the week days getting out is tricky. My awesome wife let me get each day for a hour to two hours a session.  Over about 5 sessions I was only skunked twice and one of those days I had one on and lost it.

I discovered that the chum kept these fish in the area a few days longer then if no chum were present. They were not stacked in the area, but there was always some there. Most sessions I got 1-3 fish! 

Most small lakes and ponds in the Chicago suburbs have carp and they are hardly fished. Most of these carp just don’t get European BIG. A ten pound fish is very respectable for a common carp. Many of these ponds also have grass carp stocked to control weed growth. They are usually low in number and extremely hard to catch.

The awesome part about this chum-post rain carparama was I never caught on fish under 20 inches long. The longest common carp being 31x20! It was a great feeling to catch these on my own boilies. I tried lots of flavors like strawberry, blueberry, grape, spicy orange, corn, and pineapple.

Corn, Pineapple,  and bread balls received the lion’s share of hits. I was caught by surprise and hooked a 41 inch 30 pound grass carp!! (footage below) in these short sessions I ended up with 11 fish totally with misses or loses of at least another 5. Grass carp and I have a little history. Last year I landed one and a second swam right through my old net. If you watch the second video you can see the next chapter in this story.

I plan to try to repeat this post rain pipe chumming for carp on other lakes after our set of good storms!

PART 1

PART 2

Homemade Strawberry Dough Bait For Late Spring Carp

The good thing about a four year old is they love making strawberry dough bait since it is very much like Playdough. My son and I happily made strawberry dough bait the night before I went out fishing. The bait includes strawberry Jello, corn meal, flour, vanilla, sugar, and Wheaties.

I rigged up with some larger Raven floats, Raven #4 octopus hook, some shot, and Raven 10lb green mono-filament.

The night before I also chummed the area with corn at the private lake I was going to fish. My hope was that the chum and over night rain would get the fish on the feed.

I sat there for what seemed like forever before my first float shot down. I rolled up the slack and with a mighty swing I set the hook into nothing. A big swing and a miss!!! Another bite and another whiff! Grrrrr son-of-a….

My nerves are getting the better of me. Now completely off my game my float goes under yet again. This time I do it right. There it a huge swirl and the sound of drag. My first fish is at hand.

I manage to catch two more each fish bigger then the next. There are so many fishermen here in the US. That still look down and refuse to even try to fish for carp. I grew up fishing carp and I still have an absolute blast battling these brutes.

So you fishing snobs out there, drop your trout and bass stuff for a day, make some homemade bait with the kids, get up early and trash your nerves playing tug of war with

Some shiny monster carp!!!!

Corn Chum Pond Carp

If you listened to our last podcast, carp has been on my mind. I chummed a pond with corn I started fishing right away. I fished for a couple hours until dark as Darkstar tried for bass.This lake has a smaller population of carp but the size can be very nice. I did not get hit. But before I left I chummed the area one last time. 

I went back this evening and fish the chum line from the night before. I fished two lines with floats one with corn and one with bread. I had a big hit on the bread. On the hook set there was a splash and the hooked popped. After some time I managed to get two great pond fish on corn! The powerful runs were a blast on 6 pound line!

Post Rain Pond Carp

When ever it rains I rush out once it has stopped to see if my bass pipe bite is on. Sometimes there is no water, no bass, or both. What I do see more often is that the carp in these small ponds just need a little run off to go on the feed. I have seen hundreds at times after a good rain, fish large and small. On this day I was not planning on carp fishing or I would have made a Wheaties or strawberry dough bait. Heck at minimum I would of had a can of corn. I had bread. I grew up in Glendale Heights Illinois and the only body of water was Mill Pond. Its inhabitants were carp and bullhead. I spent many days fishing carp. We always had good ol wonder bread in the pantry and it always caught the pond carp. The Carp after a rain sit in front of pipes or  will sit with their noses pressed up to shore getting the newly fallen goodies the rain has delivered. My favorite rod for slipping them a wonder bread micky is my 10 Browning noodle rod. It allows me to drop the bread ball which is only 6 inches under my float just past them away from shore without being seen. Rain+Bread+Small Hooks+floats= fun with carp!!!