Report 04/17/2016

Fished a small unnamed tributary just above the mouth at the Mississippi. Went looking for pickling fodder (suckers) and struck out. The smallies would have likely ended up in hot grease but season is closed on them and they were promptly released after the photos. I love some fried smallie, maybe later in the year. Nothing like their nasty big mouthed cousins. Broke a bunch of carp off in logs in the creek before I could get them turned on the initial run. Creek is about 20ft across and may get waste deep in places.

Shoutouts to @mplspug and @nhamm for their tips. No suckers but I had a blast regardless. Had one carp straighten the hook. Love those little hooks though!

Equipment:
No name (Cape Fear brand seconds?) ML rod cut to about 6.5ft that I built.

Shimano Sahara 1500

8lb Trilene XL

Owner #6 mosquito hooks

Carolina rig with 1/8oz bell weight (doesn’t roll like an egg sinker and doesn’t cost as much as pancake weights), 12-16″ leader

1/3 of a crawler, head end seemed preferred and they wanted them fresh.

Wow that looks like a good time. Glad ya found some fish.

Those carp can be buggers. Haven’t established to much of a pattern on sucker/carp relationships, but I do know some of the hottest sucker bites there were no carp to be had in the area. Not sure if/how/why they find different creeks to run but IMO if you want to target sucker, and catch a few carp, move.

I’ve always had really good sucker bites North of the CR dam, lots of carp South of it with some natives mixed in. Don’t forget the Rum, and especially the crow tribs now as well.

I almost moved north a ways, but held off. I was having too much fun with the carp. Going to be a long work week, but I’ll likely try again later this week.

Will they bite near dusk?

They will, but for the most part they shutdown. Not sure if they retreat back to deeper holes, or just stop biting.

With that said they do bite into the dark so stick around. This was April 8 last year on the Rum.

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Only reason I ask is that I likely won’t be off til 6:30-7:00 most every day this week, so won’t be fishing until 7:30 probably.

Looks like fun! Did you keep the carp, or what’s with the stringer?

Yes I kept the carp. Using them in crawfish traps.