If you have ever watched any of my videos you will notice I have a tendency to change the lyrics of some of my favorite songs to be about fishing while I fish. So I made one on fishing Advice, it is a parody of Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen. I have to say it is my favorite thus far.
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.
Shark fishing in Islamorada Florida Keys with Captain Steve Murray at www.tarponheadquarters.com Steve is a great guy and friend of mine.I miss fishing with him terribly. Steve and Eddie Gad owner of Sure Set Tackle taught me everything I know about salmon and steelhead. Years back Steve moved to Florida and has been rocking the guide scene down there ever since. Below are some of his experiences. (written by Captain Steven Murray) This next one is getting better on the edit. It's two days worth of footage. The audio isn't the greatest. These guys come to the Keys and fish with me every year. They are from Michigan. This is a typical days fishing in Islamorada Florida with Captain Steve Murray. A mixed bag of fishing for Mangrove Snapper, Speckled Sea Trout, Snook, Redfish and Shark. We hooked up on the Stingray while shark fishing and we hooked up on the Goliath Grouper in a Snook spot. It just goes to show you the diverse fishery we have. When you are targeting one species there are a number of "other fish" you usually encounter.
This next one is my best edit "so far". The audio problem solved. Two days of fishing.
These are two of my regular clients. This is a typical afternoon/evening charter. (3pm-10pm) with Captain Steve Murray in Islamorada Florida. This trip is very popular during tarpon season (April through June). Tarpon are nocturnal feeders...so I run evening charters for them. These tarpon average 100-150 pounds this time of year. We start out getting some "eating fish" for the guys to bring back for dinner (trout and snapper), then a little shark fishing and then transition into the evening tarpon fishing. You notice while we are trout and snapper fishing we encounter several ladyfish and jack creval.
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!
Jason and I arrived at a private lake in the darkness just
before dawn.
Jason’s ION electric auger was the perfect choice for a lake
surrounded by house at 5:30 am. We drilled in 5ft, 6ft, and 8. we expected the
fish in the 8 foot hole the only one on the lake. But the fish were in 6 around
the outside of the hole.
DupageAngler.com member Dark Star (Jason) caught a gill in
the 6ft, so we set up shop.
The fish came in waves and we caught fish at a steady pace.
The day started at 3 degrees and ended in 20. Fishing was nice and comfortable
once the sun came out.
We caught the trifecta of this lake, Bluegills all big as
or hand, crappie all 10 inches or better and a couple bass! Changing
presentations was the key for me. Fish were caught on Swedish Pimples, Slender
Spoons, jigs of all sorts, Little Atom Plastics, Aurora Lure Maggies, wax worms
and spikes.
It was a great day until a nice but concerned homeowner came
out to check our permission. We talked everything was fine and discussed fishing
for a while. Another homeowner thought we were out there arguing and called the
cops. Thank god we were talking to the family I know when two cops showed up
thinking were fighting with an home owner were trespassing!! Then we talked
fishing with them as the admired Jason’s equipment
All in all it was a great especially after some great fishing and meeting the local law enforcement!
