Drift Fishing Small-mouth and Catfish using Raven Tackle with DuPage Angler

I got a chance to go fishing with Marty Rogers founder of DupageAngler.com. I was excited because he is always crazy busy and fishing with him is always full of laughter.

We met way before sunlight and headed out west to a small creek that was finally not running high from all the spring rain. Our plan was to wade and drift fish for catfish and smallmouth using Raven floats, live bait and long rods. For more information on how we drift fish click HERE. The one thing I can say about Raven Tackle as it has dialed in our technique and our catch numbers has sky-rocketed.

We had the holy trinity of live bait crawlers, leeches, and minnows. For some reason the minnows just were not getting hit but the leeches were. Usually it is the other way around and in a hurry we will pass on the leeches.

This creek is very dynamic and spring rains design a new creek each year. Most years holes that are filled in by flooding are replaced by some new ones. This year there was only one new hole but many old holes were gone for good. We got on fish but had to fish twice as far as we usually do. This broke my heart a bit as three of my favorite holes were either half the size or non existent.

Marty and I fished and laughed and caught a ton of fish most small and not picture worthy, but great just the same. It definitely was a fun angling adventure.

Kayak + Carp = Yarpin 3 Days of Great Yarpin

Kayak + Carp = Yarpin 3 Days of Great Yarpin

Usually in the spring I am bassing and bassing it hard. But with the longer winter, weird spring, and constant rains I have turned my sights to carp. I have been fishing them harder and longer then most seasons. I have introduced the art of hair rig fishing, new chumming techniques, and help from BigCarpTackle.com

After several sessions of shore fishing successfully for carp this season, DuPage Angler JC Crappies (Chunsum, co-owner of Aurora Lure Company) and I decide to try something we had never done before and that was kayaking for carp.

We picked an un-assuming muddy farm pond we have bass fished and that I had carp fished from shore once and got a few fish. Each night at dusk I would arrive at the lake and chum with corn and handfuls of boilies before fishing the next morning.

The cool thing about Yarpin is I do not have as much tackle as if I when I am bass fishing. We carried a couple rods, floats (both Raven and others), rigs, pliers, and the very important net. Armed with a pile of offerings and our Pivothead glasses we went to work.

JC Crappies(Chunsum) is awesome to fish with. We met on DuPageAngler.com and through my guide service and became fast friends. He is a fisherman, photographer, blogger, coach, pro-staffer, and a programmer. He is also a giant smartass.

Early when the fish would approach the surface into the chum line of floating bread we would only be fishing a foot down. When they backed off we went to 3 feet down. The lion’s share of fish came on a break that came from a large 2 foot deep flat into a 7 foot hole. The boilies played a larger role at this time. Although I had a half dozen flavors corn, pineapple, and strawberry worked best.

Chunsum did a great job of capturing video of this awesome carp fishing from a kayak (Yarpin). He composed this in 3 episodes please watch and enjoy. 

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

Late Fall Live Bait Walleyes

 Every year in the Midwest there is this awkward time between open water and ice. Many anglers put the rods away and park on the couch.

Fish can be caught during this time, especially walleyes. Around the dams of the Fox River each fall are walleyes. The best approach is having an industrial pair of neoprene and getting out there with them. If  the conditions are right they can also be caught from shore.

We started fishing in the dark to make sure we had the top shore spots. I would have preferred to wade however it is time to retire my old Hodgemens. This pair is more Shoe Goo then neoprene at this point and it is always a gamble if they are going to leak each time out.

Since it was in the teens when we arrived a layered dress approach was needed. I had 3 bottom layers four top layers, two pairs of gloves, hand warmers, and of course a Beard Head.

We used our live bait drift rigs. These rigs consist of a Raven float, Raven shot or similar, Raven specialist hooks.(octopus hooks size four or six) The rod I used was a Bass Pro Shop 8.5ft Float and Fly rod paired with a Shimano Reel. For more details on this rig  click here.

HeadHead

We managed to catch about 15 fish between us. That sure beat sitting on the couch. The walleyes were small but we had continuous action for a couple hours. When you find yourself stuck in angler’s purgatory grab your longest spinning rod some quality floats and some live bait and get yourself some late fall live bait walleyes.