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

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!

Back to Perch in Chicago

Mike C (www.Dupageangler.com member mcalla) Called me and asked if I would like to join him on a guided trip to Chicago on Lake Michigan for jumbo perch. His partner had to cancel so I quickly jumped at the chance.

Thinking on perch fishing, I was brought back to my youth powerlining www.powerlining.com for perch on the lakefront with my friends. We would wade creeks the day before catching crawfish and walk the tracks looking for railroad spikes to use as weights. We would arrive at the water in the dark and catch perch all day then go home and clean perch all night.

This was my first time back since I was a kid. We used Captain Ralph Steiger. http://captainsteiger.com/ We left the dock with high expectations for a quick limit.

When we started trolling our spinner rigs tipped with crawfish, we realized that it was not going to be an easy day.

We trolled near Navy Pier at around 1.3 – 2 miles per hour just tapping the tops of the weeds. The fish were there we just had to keep at it. Slowly but surely the fish started coming in. The sight of my first perch over 9 inches in years made me very happy. We caught a pile of dinky fish that had to be released. Capt Ralph said “we are staying out here until we get them.”  These words I was impressed to hear and this showed me that he was a good choice as our guide today. We trolled, talked, laughed, and caught fish. We grinded it out and left the lake with 20 in the box and day full of memories.

THIS WEEK'S Podcast!!

THIS WEEK'S Podcast!!! Click HERE

AVAILABLE ON ITUNES

CLICK HERE