Swamp Kayak Carp Fishing YARPIN

Yarpin Kayak Carp Slip Rig Bottom Fishing

HIGH RIVER CARP

Tonight I fished the Fox River. I was Yarpin or Kayak Carpin behind an island. Since the CFS was 3330 or cubic feet per second after a recent rain, the main channel was out of the question for safe kayak angling.

Behind this island I was completely sheltered from the raging current on the other side. This backwater is usually only 1-2 feet but after heavy rains it rises to 2-4 feet. After a couple days of high water the carp and other species move in. My guess as to why is to get out of the current and feed. The water temp has been low but today it rose just a couple of degrees and with the warmer air temp the carp were on the feed.

I used two Bass pro shops 8'6 float and fly rods which are perfect for carp. Long enough to handle fish and manage line. These rods are flexible enough to have a good time. The are also priced right at 50-60 bucks any angler can afford one.

I fished large Thill slip floats, however I was fishing the bottom. I use the float as a strike indicator but this also leaves no tension on the line when the carp picks up the bait.

The bait I used today was flavored corn and a dough bait I call Tropical Fusion. I make these baits myself. I also use a hair rig which I also make myself.

I ended up up with six landed fish, two lost, and a few swing and misses. The largest fish being 26 inches.

If you want to give YARPIN a try contact www.dupagefishingguide.com

Mythic Gear Dry Suits and Safe Kayak Fishing

I am getting older and smarter and realized that I was pushing my luck kayak fishing in the spring, fall, and winter amidst the frigid waters. I now have the Mythic Gear ENKI Model Dry Suit. Named after a god in Sumerian mythology. He was the deity of crafts, mischief, water, seawater,lakewater, intelligence, and creation.

These are truly dry suits for the masses. Never has there been dry suits the average guy can afford on a tight budget. These are made like tanks, solid material, and awesome craftsmanship. The zippers are the toughest I have ever seen. When I put it on, the dry suit will puff up with air, that is how sealed my body is. I open the zipper to get the extra air out.  I was stepping over a guard rail with my yak to get to my put in and fell hard. The kind of hard you don't see coming over the rail and on my knees on a gravel covered bike path! The suit didn't have a scratch all though my ego was damaged.

The temperature has swung from 15 - 60 over the last few weeks and I have been Yarpin - Kayak Carpin. I have had 3 based layers underneath the suit and it has done the job nicely.  Actually with out the suit I would of had more bulky layers on and would of been uncomfortable and I do not think I would of toughed it out on these windy cold days with out Mythic Gear.

helpful articles:

Cold Water Danger Not Limited to Hypothermia

Wetsuits Versus Drysuits

DuPage Fishing Guide Service: Drift Fishing and Having Fun.

Keith met me in my drive way at o’dark thirty and I was immediately impressed when he pulled out a light weight custom steelhead rod from Xcalibur Rods. It was a little heavy for smallies but it was a beautiful rod.

The plan was to hit the DuPage River. We were at the most beautiful fishing spot I have on the river. The forest was a little spooky in the dark walking down to the river especially since we had just finished throwing wildlife stories around before we got there.

Quite a few of my clients want not only want to wade or smallie fish but they want to learn my bait drifting techniques for multiple species in rivers and streams. In a nutshell I use steelhead fishing concepts and tech to present live baits in at the most natural depth and speed. I mostly use Raven products for this. See this post for more detailed information. http://pondboyfishing.blogspot.com/2012/04/driftin-live-bait-for-dupage-river.html

I thought the trip was going to be easy peasy after Keith scored a couple quick fish. One was a gorgeous 17 inches, DuPage River Gold!! The spot got very slow after that. As the sun came up I just was not seeing the amounts of fish I usually do. Most trips I usually don’t have to change spots. One good stretch usually does it. Four spots total and five fish. Each spot produced fish however 20 fish in one stretch in a couple hours is not unheard of.

Keith’s day was open and so was mine so we decided on a round two and to not only switch rivers, but species as well. We headed to the Fox for carp. I love any opportunity to get a bass fisherman to try carp, the looks on their faces as they are hooked is awesome. I had him grab his steel-head rod which is perfect for fish of this size. We used the same drift rigs just bigger Raven floats. When drifting for carp you are not working seams in current like smallies but the slow, static, murky stuff. The drift needs to be much slower. We used size 4 hooks and good ol'corn. We hooked up right away and landed two awesome carp and some cats as well! We also had a couple fish show us the door.

I met another great fisherman and had a blast. If you would like a Angling Adventure of your own please contact me Daniel Pondboy Byrne at DupageFishingGuide.com

What would your first carp catch be like?

What would your first carp catch be like?

One of my regular clients after some prompting decided to try something new and attempt to catch his first carp. He brought his fishing partner along and they met me at 3:30. I prefer morning trips. I firmly believe the morning bite is better then the evening bites. There was blue bird skies, it was hot, and a 30 mph wind to deal with.

I called fellow DuPageAngler.com member Joshua Bennett for a little help. He is a carp angler and photographer. It was great to have the extra rods out for the guys and having awesome photos shots of the guys fishing!

http://www.sunshinephotography.net/Outdoor-Sports/2014-07-27-Fishing/

http://www.sunshinephotography.net/

The first spot we chose was a new but reliable spot plus it was sheltered by the wind. After and hour of soaking carp bait,I see my 14 year old client playing on his phone and I know it is time to move.

Joshua had been fly fishing carp at a new pond with some great results. It has a nice lawn, a parking lot close, and a good carp population. The problem was its next to a corn field so there was no escape from the pounding winds.

We set up on a small point when lady luck struck a corn rod. (We had both float rigs and bottom rigs setup using corn bread and boilies.)It was a nice fish! The kid was excited and the look on his face was awesome. Then it was George’s turn they both seemed surprised at the strength and bull runs the carp made. I think I was more excited then they were.

Joshua for some crazy reason brought an ultra light and of course it gets bit!! We handed the kid the rod and said good luck with smirks on our faces. He didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of landing that fish. He surprised us big time! He reeled against the drag for a moment then calmed down and settled in for the fight. Kid has his second carp ever on and he was fighting it better then most. We were both impressed as the fish was landed.

We were running out of light and George decided to call it. Just then one rod bent in half and he landed the biggest fish of the night!!

It was a fun evening. The guys had a great time and so did I. Joshua’s photography services will soon be available on any trip from shore! So please check out his site and his shots from the trip.

If you would like to have an Angling Adventure of your own just visit dupagefishingguide.com

Finding New Carp Spots In the Suburban Midwest

Finding New Carp Spots In the Suburban Midwest

Carp by far have had a bad rap in the US. Sure the big head and silvers need to go. But the common carp has been around for years and is not going anywhere. So since it is staying around you might as well swallow your carp suck state of mind and start fishing for the brutes. I am a multi-species fisherman and I can tell you that carp whether I like it or not fight harder than almost all of the other species. 

While I have been out bass fishing or crappie fishing I have seen carp, especially on those rainy days. I am sure that many of you have too. The majority of retention ponds in my area have some carp. Some lakes have more than others. The cool part about this is; is that most of these lakes the carp is completely un-pressured. So a little recon, prep, and planning and a lake you hardly fish can become a hard fighting carp battle arena!!

I wanted to prove this new carp spot theory so I went back to visit this corporate lake I had only caught a few bass in. This lake since I had never done well bass fishing was on my D list. However I did see carp there once.

The night before my first trip I walked the shoreline that had two pipes and chummed three cans of corn and about a quart bag of corn boilies. The second trip when I met some DupageAngler.com members I did about the same thing. 

I arrived armed with my Pivothead glasses, rods and net. We used float set-ups with Raven floats and some others as well as fished the bottom with a simple slip weight rig. I used supplies from Big Carp Tackle.com. I used hair-rigs some I purchased and some I made myself. One of the float rods I used high viz yellow Raven float line so I could see it in the low light before sunrise. The baits we used were bread, corn, and boilies. The boilies that worked best were the corn, pineapple, and strawberry flavors.

In these two trips to a lake I had never fish for carp before we landed and lost several big carp!! It was 
a blast!! Below is a video of those two sessions and a video where I catch a fish one the fish josh lost 
about a half hour later.

This week's Podcast Fishing Spring 2014

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

Return of the Grass Carp Nemesis The Sequel

After my last carp experience I have gotten carp fever. I have been making new flavors of dough baits and have started to use a hair rig with boilies as well. I have been fishing in the evenings, the last two hours before sunset. It seems the fish lately have become very active during this time when the wind lays down.
The past few days I have caught and lost some nice cats and common carp. I have been chumming the bottom with banana scented corn and the surface with different kinds of bread, I fish the boilie on the bottom and the different dough baits near the surface. I have a third rod sitting on the side with a bread ball set 1 foot under a float. Once I see any surface activity I pull the dough rod out and quickly cast the bread rod.

Last night fishing with chunsum it was this bread rod that hooked yet another grass carp!!! I could not believe I have hooked two within a week of each other since they are few in number in the waters I fish. My guess is that they are feeding more heavily before much of the vegetation dies before winter. To see what happened you will just have to watch for yourself!

My Nemesis The Grass Carp

This story starts quite a few years ago when we had just moved in a new neighborhood. I had my son with autism with me as we fished for bluegills at a local pond. At the time he was still using sign language and hardly talked at all. He might say maybe cookie or juice. So we were sitting there when he stands up points and says SHARK! First I was shocked that he spoke and second I was shocked at what I saw. There was this dorsal fin out of the water and three feet behind that a tail!!!! That means there was about three more feet to the head of the beast. This really got my attention and started my quest to fair hook and land a Grass Carp.

Each year I go out at least twice to carp fish and the grass carp has been the unicorn that has evaded me. Now the ponds in which I fish they are very few in number but they are giants. I try standard American carp fishing for them bread, corn, dough baits, and cherry tomatoes.  In all my trips I have only fair hooked two grass carp until now and lost both. It seems my best chance at success is when they can be spotted and stalked. They also have to be feeding. One of these days I will to learn to catch them without seeing them. If anyone across the pond could point me in the right direction that would be great.

On this day it had just rained and I was looking for common carp by pipes feeding off the fresh food being delivered via the rain run-off. I did not see any movement. I was about to leave when a saw a huge tail pop up out of the water!! I quickly took some bread and threw a few pieces to chum and see if it would react. It quickly sucked down two large pieces. With my hands shaking uncontrollably I could hardly form a bread ball. I set the bait one foot down under a Thill float. I was using a bass pro 8-foot float and fly rod and a Shimano reel. The first cast the float went down quickly and I have a big swing and a miss. Man I missed another one I thought to myself. Even shakier I baited again. This time when it slowly started to swim away I nailed it!!! The next couple of minutes were shear terror and I watch my reel scream and line leaving the spool.

At about the five-minute mark I realize that I have no net, camera, and I am fishing off a 3-foot ledge!!! I franticly call my wife with one hand while fighting the white whale with the other. JUST DON’T LOOSE IT JUST DON’T LOOSE IT was playing over and over again in my brain. After about another 5 minutes my wonderful wife comes running with a net. The fish is soooo big I actually have to get in the water to land the behemoth.

YES!!! I have finally landed my first grass carp. I could not be happier. I conservative guess would be that it was 40+ inches and well over 20 pounds!! What a fantastic moment in my fishing career. Now of course since I have a bad case of fishing pox I am researching how to increase my numbers landed per year. It was awesome, my legs shook when it was all over and I had to catch my breath. What a great memory this will be.

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!!!!

Quick Trip August 17 2012

I managed to get out for 1.5 hours. Had some strawberry dough left. I got these two by sneaking up on them as they cruised the shoreline for food!

nice carp from Daniel Byrne on Vimeo.

Carp Love Strawberry Dough Dessert

I have made two carp baits myself for a few years now. I make a pure Wheaties and vanilla dough bait and a strawberry dough bait.

Pondboys Strawberry Dough Bait:
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sugar
1.5 cups corn meal
1.25 cups of flour
1/2 package of strawberry jello
1/4 cup of Wheaties crushed to powder

Combine these ingredients chill then roll into balls. Keep refrigerated. This last batch I made was perfect! Not too hard, not too soft, and it sticks to a treble very nicely.

I got a chance to try the baits after a light rain and scored 3 fish in an hour. I missed one as well.

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!

This weeks PODCAST!!!!! DuPage Angler Marty Rogers and Pond Boy (Dan Byrne) talk about carp fishing.

This weeks PODCAST!!!!! DuPage Angler Marty Rogers and Pond Boy (Dan Byrne) talk about carp fishing. 
http://www.dupageangler.com/images/audio/shows/081012-DuPage-Angler-Carp-1B.mp3

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!!!