Last month I took a trip out to Beaver Island on northern Lake Michigan to chase after some carp and I've finally gotten around to going through the pictures and doing a quick write up. For those of you who follow my carp blog, District Carp, I'll be posting a full write up there in the next few days.
-- We fished for 2 and a half days, and I have to say it was a really unique experience. First, it's incredible how clear the water is thanks to the zebra mussels. You can see bottom in 60+ feet of water. In fact, if someone blindfolded you and dropped you off on the flats, you'd be certain you were in the Caribbean.
The fishing has apparently changed a lot over the past few years. The water level has been inexplicably rising on the lake which has pushed carp from flooding the flats (but they're still there) to going into the brush. It has certainly reduced the number of tailing fish you find on the flats.
Day 1, I think I had 80 shots at fish. I turned a few and got exactly zero takes. Our best shots were the second we got to our first stop. I jumped onto the bow as we expected to row into the shallows to look for mudding/tailing fish in 2-4 feet of water. Of course, we look down, and they're mudding everywhere in 10+ feet of water which was completely unexpected. I tried my best to fish them with my 7 foot leader and lighter weighted fly, so you can imagine how well that worked. We quick swapped out a heavy fly which could get it down, but was difficult to cast accurately since the rig wasn't balanced right. By the time my guide frantically finished rigging up a spare rod correctly for the conditions, the fish moved out. Figures.
Day 2, I got a few shots at cruising fish, no takes. We moved on to wade through some brush to try "dapping" for carp. It's exactly how it sounds. You sneak up on carp and literally dap the fly in front of them. I broke 2 or 3 fish off and didn't land any carp. We switched to fish for smallmouth later in the day and the fishing was absolutely insane. I caught a ton of fish, including two "a little above average" fish that were likely my two biggest smallies of my life, both breaking the 5 lb mark. I also caught my first pike ever, which was cool and unexpected to get a new species on this trip. It became a bit of a joke because I was the most experienced and enthusiastic carp fisherman in the group and I was the only one who hadn't landed one yet.
Day 3 is where this trip turns from a trip about not getting fish to eat to simply not getting them to the hand. It was too windy and rough to get on the boats, so we waded some flats and brush. Let me preface this next statement with the fish here are not small. I hooked about 10 carp in the half day. I landed one. Yes, one. I had two fish straighten a size 2 gamakatzu saltwater hook. I had three fish snap 30 lb test line, including one that was on a freshly checked leader (a.k.a. definitely no damage) and ran straight into open water with no opportunity to rub the leader. That boy was easily 40+ lbs. Reason why it broke off? I was careless and the 2 feet of extra line managed to wrap around my reel. Oh well.
I took a ton of video, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet. If I got any cool footage, I'll share.
Jeff
http://www.tpfr.org
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