Ford Lake Carp Fishing With Bass Hooks

If you know me, then you know I love fishing under any circumstances, for any species.  So, when I get the call to go carp fishing during the spawn, I jump at the chance. Last night, that call came in a text, "Carp spawning... Let's go in the morning."  My reply, "See you at 7."   I quickly packed up my noodle rod, a Shakespeare outback rod I'm putting through the paces, a ziploc bag full of corn, and my terminal tackle for the morning.

This morning, I got up and set up rods for carp fishing.  My rig is a little different from what many people use for carp. In fact, I've been told several times that it wouldn't work for carp because they are line shy and shy of large hooks.  The rig I use is a slip rig tied on a 7+ foot noodle rod rigged with a 1/2 ounce egg sinker on 10lb monofilament and a 12 to 18 inch  8 or 10 lb flourocarbon leader tipped with a large worm hook or a Matzuo Rip-N Roll swivel hook.  I personally prefer the death roll hook because it has a swivel attached too it, which for me has resulted in less breaks at the tie in point.  In fact, it is the very same set up I use for large catfish (minus the noodle rod) which tend to barrel roll when being fought.   I cast my rods out and set the drag so it's pretty loose but just tight enough to keep constant tension on the line.  When the drags starts screaming, hang on and enjoy the ride.

I fished this morning for  about 2 hours with a couple of friends and we all had a blast. We ended up catching 12 fish.  We had a blast, especially my buddy who had never chased carp before.  Below are a few pictures from this morning and hopefully, the next carp fishing adventure you see from me will either be from a float tube or a kayak.

Thanks for reading! Tight lines...

Beautiful Day for Silver Bass

This morning was an absolutely beautiful day to get in some fishing for silver bass.  As you can see from the picture above the 6am sunrise was well worth waking up and driving to Elizabeth park at 5:30.  While the sunrise was well worth the drive that wasn't the reason why I was there so I started casting a basspro 2 inch XTS Vibrator in the tilapia color.  First cast and fish on, a decent sized silver bass but not quite the size I fish for.  This went on for two hours with me catching fish after fish totaling a little over 65 fish.  On the whole I only kept 12 white bass and released all of the rest.

What's funny is while I was fishing I noticed the other anglers were catching a few fish but not the numbers I was catching. I think it's because the bass have been getting fished pretty hard over the last few weeks and they've gotten used to seeing white and chartreuse jigs with twister tails and have become a bit skittish on non-moving minnows.

At one point I had a gentleman walk up to fish along side me but he wasn't getting any bites either. So I offered to let him use my other lipless crankbait but he refused and only ended up with two fish in the time he was there with me.

My setup today was pretty simple.  I used a shakespeare outback spinning rod with a quantum triax reel spooled with 10lb monofilament baited with  basspro 2 1/2 inch XTS Vibrator.  As well I fished with a berkley cherrywood ultralight spooled with 4lb monofilament baited with a 2 1/2 inch Rebel Red Eye Minnow  The red eye minnow didn't produce as well as the lipless crankbait mostly because the fish were holding close to the bottom and the bait couldn't quite get deep enough consistently.

Here are the fish I kept.

Product Review: Strike King Bitsy Bug

Company Description:  The Bitsy Bug Jig has a snagless/weedless head design that helps to prevent the jig from getting wedged in the rocky bottom. The Bitsy Bug also features an inverted line tie on top of the jig head to protect your line from getting chewed up by rocks and other obstructions.

• Premium silicone skirt gives more action than a soft plastic body. 
• Fiber weedguard helps prevent line from being cut like it can on wire guards.
• Inverted line tie on the upper part of head helps keep line from being frayed on rocks. 
• Snagless/weedless head design helps prevent jig from getting wedged in rocks. 
• Quality construction and premium hooks 

Review:  The Bitsy Bug is one of those baits that I keep in my tackle bag.  I have them in every color and multiples in every size.  I've been lucky enough to catch so many fish on them that They've proven their worth to me in a big way.  The fact that they're very pretty snagless is what made me
start using them a few springs ago. But what I learned that made me keep buying them is that as the bass beat them up making them look less uniform the more bites I get.  The hooks are stout and sharp as a result they don't require you to set the hook with extreme force in order to catch a fish.  I personally don't even use any special equipment when using bitsy bugs.  My preference is just an 6 foot ugly stick (because I'm usually fishing from a float tube or kayak) paired with a low gear ratio spinning reel.

Pros: Comes in weights ranging from 1/16 oz to 1/4 oz as well as having a decent range of colors.  The best thing about this jig is the price.  

Cons: None

Price: 1.99