Spring carp bite is on in Minnesota

Dig out your crappie tackle. This is the time of the year that early carp take crappie plastics.

My fishing partner and I took 4 out of 5 hookups in about 2 1/2 hours last evening after work right in the mouth of a slowly running street drain. All of them were on inch and a half twisters on 1/32nd oz jig heads slowly moved up and down a couple of inches at the bottom on 4 pound line. My partner's was the biggest at just over 30". My three were more like 3-4 pounds, much smaller, but the one that was lost was the largest of all with the hook pulling out after some 15 minutes of contest. The 5' St Croix Triumph rod and the 4 pound line on it were put to about as much stress as they could take!

All the fish we caught were returned to the water.

This is a regular spring carp pattern for us and really works to get the blood flowing after a winter of cold. Carp around here will continue to take the little crappie plastics all summer but not so readily as they do in the early spring.

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Originally Posted by no1son

The 5' St Croix Triumph rod and the 4 pound line on it were put to about as much stress as they could take!

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They are incredible fighters. My carp fishing will start very soon.

Ice is finally off the lakes here in Minneapolis. Both catfish and carp bite is on, too. Last Sunday it was white twisters fished right on the bottom for carp and sheephead for my fishing partner. I joined him for more of the same Monday afternoon. The plastic bite slacked off past 6:00 pm, but the doughball (instant oatmeal) bite took over then.

One of the bigger carp ran back into the water drain under the wall at least 20 to 25 feet and I couldn't reach far enough down to clear the four pound GAMMA line from the lip of the outflow. It rubbed back and forth but didn't break until the fish gave a final thrash right at the net some time later. That GAMMA is amazingly able to stand up against abrasion.

The party next to us landed a channel cat that ran right about 15# and we had several carp close to that. Total outing was about three hours, with pretty constant action. We still haven't even seen a crappie nor a sunnie of any kind though. They are not in their normal spots yet for some reason.

I got my first carp of the year last weekend, a nine-pounder and a sixteen-pounder. Both came on bolt rigs. The big boy really gave me a workout.

Carp really are an under utlilized fishery. Right now we are fishing in the Mississippi right here inside Minneapolis.

Out of curiosity what shape are the carp you catch? In the river we have two forms, one more longer, rounder and torpedo like (like a koi) and the other shorter and deeper bodied, more like what you traditionally think of for a carp. Same coloration on both. They run together here at least in the river, they do. It is my impression that we see fewer of the longer type in our lakes.

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Originally Posted by no1son

Carp really are an under utlilized fishery.

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Yes, amazingly so. People don't know what they're missing.

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Originally Posted by no1son

Out of curiosity what shape are the carp you catch?

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All torpedo-shaped.

I went "carping on the long pole" this weekend. I only got a few, but they were fun.

I'm not much of a "picture taker", but I need to post some pics sometime.

Got them all on a very light float rig with a single grain of corn for bait.

Not much of a picture taker myself, certainly not in the Metro. Far too many folks wanna play follow the leader and then we get crowded off fishing spots.

The spring crappie bite is now on, too, and we are finding the bonus big eaters (muskies, pike, walleyes and bass) and stray carp joining the party, all on crappie size plastics. Game fish seasons are not open yet; and we aren't targeting them anyway; but if they join the party on their own we will dance with em. In the past week I have been hooked up to a pair of full sized muskies and a friend caught a 23" largemouth on the little plastics last evening. Crappies to 14" that I have seen and reported to over 15" all deep in the Metro, mostly smaller of course, but there are quite a few 10" fish in the mix along with the dinks. Still coots and grebes all over the lakes that have not moved out north. Last evening a bald eagle tried to hunt the coots, but a pair of crows interfered and eventually the whole crow family was involved. The eagle eventually gave up and moved off.

Now if it would just warm up a bit. We are barely making 60 degrees in the daytime and its Mother's Day already. Definitely not fit to set out one's peppers or tomatoes, and way too cold for sweet potatoes.