New World Classic Baits Website

As you may know, I am a field tester for the World Classic Baits company which provides a range of carp fishing baits.  Whether you're looking for popups, hook bait boilies, feeder boilies, base mixes, dips, sprays, flavored maize, or bait additives, you'll find it all at the new World Classic Baits. Recently, World Classic Baits relaunched their new website which is a winner if you ask me.  You can see my write up and the field tester page here.

I've personally tried a range of WCB products and can testify to their ability to catch fish.  While I've tried many flavors, the 4 Seasons flavor is definitely my favorite.  Don't believe me? Check out the video below of 2013 catches on WCB baits.  I hope you'll consider them for your next bait order.  You can view their online store here.
 

2014 Wild Carp Club of Houston Introduction

 Introduction

OK people, so here is a secondary place to put information about the Wild Carp Club of Houston's 2014 season. The Wild Carp Club is a core group of dedicated carp anglers who practice the sport of catch and release carp fishing in Houston. First formed in 2012, we're heading into our third season with the mission to increase the popularity of carp fishing as a sport.

Schedule

We will hold several free fish-ins this year in two different formats. The first format is a learn and catch format, where we'll be fishing lakes that are known to be good producers of large quantities of fish. I will be prebaiting ahead of time for these sessions to increase our catch rate.  The focus of these sessions is to introduce new anglers to different methods of catching carp as well as some of the carp specific gear that is available today. 

The second format will be two overnight "sessions" from Friday evening to Sunday morning. These will be at locations further away from Houston where larger fish roam.  These camping/fishing sessions really allow the angler to test their skills of setting up a swim and attracting and keeping schools of feeding fish in front of them.  Not to mention the camaraderie and camping that goes along with it!

Lastly, the season will be broken up into two separate parts.  The first part from March to May and the second from August to October.  There will be one event each month on a Sunday with the exception of the over night events.  March, April, August, and September will be day sessions while May and October will be overnight sessions with hopefully cooler weather.

View the Wild Carp Club of Houston 2014 Schedule Here (click)

If you're interested in fishing a session, please confirm your attendance with me in advance so I can ensure adequate bank space by emailing me at nick@wildcarpcompanies.com.

Prizes

 There will be prizes to the anglers who catch the most weight each session, all season, and to those who break any of our club records.

View the 2014 Prize Schedule (click)

View our Club Records (click)

Rules

All anglers who come to fish with us are expected to follow the club rules.

View the Club Rules (click)

Pictures

Here's a slide show of some of our past catches, because who doesn't like pictures?

The Ultimate Rig Guide for Carp Fishing

Recently I stumbled across this page while surfing the internet.  I think this is one of the most comprehensive rig guides I've seen yet and wanted to share.  I hope you agree.

How To: Carp Fishing - Basic Hair Rig

There are many variations on the carp hair rig.  The following tutorial will show you how to tie your basic hair rig.  This is the very "bare bones" hair rig without any fancy twists to it.

To make your basic hair rig, you will need a hook link material, hook, and swivel.  In this case I have 50lb Powerpro, a Daiichi 2571 Boss Steelhead Hook size 6 and a size 12 swivel. 

Double over one end of the line.

Tie an overhand knot leaving a small loop at the end.

Leave a small loop at the end.  This is a little big actually for my taste.

Go to the other side of the line and thread it through the hook eye from the back to the front.

Slide the hook all the way down and hold it so the bend of the hook is towards the hair/loop you just made.

Starting away from the break in the hook eye, wrap around the shank of the hook 5+ times

Push the line back through the back of the hook eye and out the front

This is how the finished product should look on the hook side.  Notice the line coming through the hook eye comes in through the back and out through the front of the eye.  This is the most important part!

Double over the other side of the line and pass through one eye of the swivel to start the palomar knot.

Tie an over hand knot with the line that you just stuck through the loop.

Take the loop coming out of the overhand knot you just tied and pass it completely over the entire swivel

Pull both the tag end and the hook link end tight to cinch the knot tight.

Here is a picture of the finished rig before you put bait on.

Now that you've got the rig, you will need a bait needle, bait stoppers, and bait. Bait stoppers can be found at many of the carp fishing stores in my links section.  The bait in this case is two pieces of Enterprise fake maize for illustrative purposes.

Pierce through your selected bait with your bait needle.

  Use the hook in the end of the bait needle to hook the loop of the hair and push your bait down towards the hook.  Then unhook the hair from the bait needle.

Next you insert the bait stopper.  In this case they come in a section with several on a string.  Insert one section and then cut to fit. 

Slide the bait down to the bait stop to lock everything in place.

Here is the finished rig with the bait attached.  Normally I would look to have a little less room between the hook and the bait by adding a third piece of fake maize.  But you get the idea.

WCC Houston Event #1: Buffalo Run Park 9-29-12

9-29-12 The last few weeks I have been busy organizing the Wild Carp Club of Houston.  This is a club dedicated to the promotion of common carp and smallmouth buffalo angling in the Houston metro area.  I am the Club Director of the inaugural season.  We decided to organize under the Wild Carp Companies and you can view our own page by clicking here.  We have a great group of core members and are actively recruiting for our club.  It's a great way to win prizes and introduce others to the sport.  To be affiliated with the Wild Carp Companies, I organized a six-session fishing tournament where the best five sessions count towards overall score.  This is for both availability of anglers and to make up for a tough day if you attend all of the sessions.

Rainy day at the lake

September 29th was our first session that we held.  It was at Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City, TX.  Click here for a map of the park.  Fishing rules are that you can have a baited line in the water from 8AM - 4PM and start baiting at 7AM.  As such, we all arrived at 7AM.  Before heading out, I was greeted by a 90% chance of rain!  I'm glad I checked ahead and took my full body rain suit.  Upon arrival, it truly was a wet and wild first day.  Luckily, we have a hardy group of guys so we had 5 attend the event.  However, the weather did force us to choose some swims we would not normally have chosen.  No matter, we were up for the challenge.  

6 lb 3 oz common carp

We had high hopes for this lake.  It is a bunch of old sand pits connected together.  The water clarity is generally good and it can get quite deep in spots.  We all spread out along the bank, and Jason B caught the first fish, a 6 lb 3 oz common.  He kept it in his keep sack, sand bagging so we wouldn't all get our hopes up about catching in such tough conditions.  This put Jason into the lead with roughly 30 minutes to go in the event.  Everyone was having a slow day, despite seeing fish crash.  We estimate the largest fish to be roughly 15-20 lbs at this lake.  We did see some good fish crashing.  

Nick J with his event winning 6lb 6 oz grasser

At 3:45, Nick J decided to hook up on a nice 6lb 6 oz grasser and stormed into the lead.  He would never look back, landing that one fish while the rest of us couldn't manage to scratch out a fish.  Nick won a couple issues of North American Carp Angler for his catch.  This event also helped put him in the running for some other great prizes!  

It was a very tough day of fishing, but was one of the best days.  The Club was up and running.  If we could fish through the rain, we can make it on any of the other days easily.  Unfortunately the fish weren't cooperating, but oh well, it happens!  We know there are some decent fish in this lake and we'll give it a shot again on another trip.  

Here's the final results:

The current standings: 

1st - Nick James - 102 oz
2nd - Jason Black - 99 oz 
3rd - Nick Davis, Justin Mary, Brian Sherwood

Biggest Common sponsored by Neil Stern and CAG - Jason Black 99 oz 

Biggest Buff - Open

Justin with a 6lb common caught after time was up

Big 4 - Nick James 102 oz