CARP FISHING!!

SAVE THE DATE! Saturday, June 6th the Rock River Rescue is holding our annual "Cash for Carp" tournament at Riverside Park in Watertown. We pay $2 for every carp caught, as well as $25 for the largest and smallest carp of the day by length. There is no cost to enter, just register before you start fishing. Registration begins at 7 A.M. The tournament ends at 3 P.M.
We'll also have a brat fry, so there's no need to pack a lunch.
Message me if you have any questions. Come on out and help us thin the population!

I always seem to find the permanent residents in the lakes. The're such a blast to ice

Where I fish the fishing is just fine with the carp in the lake.  But I just fish mostly Mendota.  Some lakes the carp have taken ​over and wrecked the lake.  I don't fish those mostly because they are smaller lakes and I can't drive because I had a stroke a few years back so whatever I can walk to is what I fish
I have actually gotten bigger fish now than what I used to LOL.

I always fish the 'Common' or 'Eurasian' Carp (same species, but they recently changed the name). If it was ever illegal to return them alive after being caught, it was many, many decades ago. There is no law against returning a Common/Eurasian Carp to the water you caught it in, alive. It's more illegal to dispose of them improperly (littering) or leave them on the bank to die (animal cruelty). You can eat them, and some do. If people are around when I catch them, I always ask if they'd like to take them. Most say no, but not always. Some places have special disposal barrels for them, but I see less of that these days, as I'm sure the municipal governments don't much care for the task of maintaining them. They're excellent for fertilizer. Bury one at the base of a tree, it'll be a strong tree. The farm kids that used to take them with bows on Waubesa chop them up for their fields, or use them to bait Coyote. They have their uses. But, nothing wrong with catch and release. They are very tough, hearty fish, and can be caught/released without injury. Some giant Mirrors in European private lakes have been caught dozens, if not hundreds of time, and they continue to grow, and seem perfectly healthy.

The more recent invasives (Silver Carp, Bighead Carp) are a different story. I never target them, so I don't know the laws around those. I've never found them in the waters I fish.

What do you carp guys do with the ones you catch? Just kill them, smoke them, pickle them, etc? I think it's illegal to release them, correct? I remember as a teenager (I'm 77 now) fishing in a small river and I caught some carp; boy they really fought hard!

BG25

Most of my carp were in the low teens but I set my own PB with a carp that was one ounce short of thirty pounds, shattering my record.  That one was actually caught with a nightcrawler rather than corn
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Last year I rarely fished with corn and the few times that I did was too late In the ​year and nothing but weeds.

I'm actually tempted to get a rake on a rope or something but I don't know how legal that would be so I don't bother.  Plus it would just get caught on the bottom anyways.

The lowering of the lakes has really screwed up my fishing from shore around ​Madison if it isn't right around spring.

I have noticed that the catfish that I catch are at least fourteen pounds and I caught my most over twenty the last few years.

I caught one last year that was almost thirty-four pounds ​on Lake Mendota using a cut up bluegill 

I used to catch 5-10 catfish in a night but now if I can catch two shorefishing that is a good night for me.

Sent my email thanks

Sure do. I keep each year in an excel file. Been really helpful on the Carp front. Establishing trends as far as which baits/colors/presentations are most effective under certain conditions. Temperatures, time of year, and all that. Send me a message with your email, happy to send it to you. 

Caught 126 fewer pounds in 2025, than 2024 :-(. But 45 more fish. Small fish were a problem this season. My average weight was 0.6 LB lower. Some of that was from when Roger and I crushed it at the Watertown tourney :-). That was so much fun. Absolutely perfect conditions. Average fish was only 5.0 LB, and the biggest we caught was only 8.9. But, the non-stop action was really fun. Never did get a good bite going anywhere in late Summer or Fall. After the heat set in, the season kind of fell apart. I'll try some new things this year.  

Herbsuperb....

Do ​you have a logbook that you enter your fish into?  Or do you just enter them into your phone like I have seen you do at Tenney.

I just finished logging all of my fish onto a single file on my old computer that I thing uses Windows 2000 or ME into.

So I can start writing this stuff down in books again.

I had about seven years since 2002 that I didn't record any fish.

I noticed that ​i have not caught a catfish under ​fourteen pounds in at least ten years except in the Wisconsin River and I have not caught a carp under eight pounds in the same situation.

If ​you have a logbook would love a link to it or maybe a message.


One thing that I have noticed throughout the years at least ​catfishing is that I do better when the water is higher ​for shorefishing

Clam #3 for the year this morning.   

Same area I caught one a week ago, there must just be a lot of them in there. Both of them got hooked on a floating maize/corn popup that is meant to sit on top of a pile of pack bait/method lead. How that's happening I simply cannot say.

Carp bite wasn't near as good as I'd hoped, with water temps stabilizing after plunging 10 degrees. 12 on the bank, and only 3 were over 10 LB. Biting on a mix of Pop ups of varying size/color combinations. Nothing really stood out. Gonna try the Sconnie or the Yahara tomorrow. See if it's any better.