Marcin Szydlowski

Our Angler of the month for May is Marcin Szydlowski from Illinois…An all around great angler, advocate of the sport and friend and member of the American Carp Society. He recently took a trip to the famed Dale Hollow along with Paulo Nestor and Michas Gilksman. Facing some tough conditions, these anglers quickly adapted to make the very most of their time by the water and were rewarded for their efforts by some stunning fish! We loved the lighting on this particular shot and had to feature it for him. Congrats to Marcin…and a big thanks to Paulo for the great photography!

Check out their Youtube channel.

With the quality of photography rising amongst our members, we thought it only right to acknowledge some of the cool shots coming across our feed! Keep tagging us with the great lens work everyone! We love to see this from our members…Always leading the way in the US Carp World by pushing the boundaries of creativity and excellence!

NOTABLE CAPTURES

We’re fortunate that we get to see the best carpy pictures from all over the USA from our members and friends. These photos below certainly caught our attention in the month of April. Congratulations to everyone on the success of their angling sessions this past month…We appreciate all your tags and mentions, and can’t wait to see what you guys and gals catch this Spring season! Don’t forget to tag us #americancarpsociety #jointheguiltyones

• Arnaud Drouville

• Jake Downing

• Kevinn Miller

• Luis Miguel Angelo

• Richard De Oliveira

• Sam Hicks

SWEET SEPARATION by Don Low

A large percentage of my bottom bait fishing is with pack bait or PVA bags. My right of choice for this tactics is an inline lead and a simple hair rig. Here are a couple of decent results for Ryan Edwards and myself…

There are three factors that are critical to get right to maximize the hooking potential of the hair rig.

Firstly, the length of hook-link you use. I start with 3-5 inches depending on if I’m fishing a river (longer) or a pond (shorter).

Secondly, the hair and the hook link near the hook should be supple. This allows the hook to flip in the carp’s mouth. I usually use a supple braid for the entire rig.

Thirdly, the length of the hair needs to be balanced based on size of the hook size and type of bait. This allows bait to separate from the hook. If you’re using a couple of pieces of corn (or plastic) then a shorter hair still gives the hook room to turn. If you’re using boilies, then the hair needs to be longer. A distance of 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch from the bend of the hook to the bait, or at least half the bottom bait’s thickness, when the hair exits the hook opposite the barb is perfect in most situations.

It’s down to personal choice and what you have confidence in, but for me if the bait isn’t well clear of the bend and point of the hook, if it hasn’t got room to turn, then you’re potentially going to either get hook pulls or not get a run at all.

The easiest way to adjust the length f the hair without tying a new rig is to use extended hair stops. These come in a selection of lengths allowing you to change the hair to adjust of different circumstances or bait size.

Hope this quick tip helps your angling results.

-Don Low

NOTABLE CAPTURES

Our Carp on the fly members and friends have been anxious for the weather to get a bit warmer…and in some states it’s already happening! Congratulations to everyone on the success of their angling sessions this past month! We appreciate all your tags and mentions, and can’t wait to see what you guys and gals catch this Spring season! Don’t forget to tag us and spread the word! #americancarpsociety #jointheguiltyones

Big thanks to Carp Unlimited for all of your tags!

• Brett

• Daniel

• Glen Ueda

• Luke Annear

• Odom Wu

• Sunny Sundgaard

CARP BOATS: PART 3

By: Brandon Tourigny

The First part of this series I introduced the general characteristics of an ideal carp vessel. In part two I delved into what makes a great kayak to fly fish for carp out of. Today I am going to talk specifically about two types of boats that, in my own opinion, are the perfect boats to fly fish for carp out of.

First are the styles of boats encompassed by companies like Gheenoe and Riverhawk. These two companies manufacture affordable boats that blend a canoe and a flats skiff. The mold, and framework of these boats look almost identical to a large canoe. However, they are wider and far more stable to allow for ease of fishing while standing or sitting. They all come with mounts for you to put small motors on, and the larger models can be parried with 40HP motors. I’ve personally carp fished out of several Gheenoes and have seen anglers set their rigs up in variety of ways. Two common things carp anglers always add on to their boats though are polling platforms, and a casting platform in the front of the boat. For me and my college friends, the casting platform was usually just our beer cooler. A feature that makes these exceptional carp boats is that they can draft in as little as 5in. of water. This ability to draft in such shallow water allows you to go where most boats never would be able to.

This last boat is in my mind the ultimate carp boat anyone could spend their money on; The Towee. These skiffs take the ingenuity of what a Gheenoe style boat is and take it up a notch by building their boats as a fiberglass flats skiff. These boats offer you one of the most stable platforms anyone could fish out of, allowing for comfortable movement for casting or just moving around. What this means for you as a carp angler is that you don’t have to worry about creating ripples in the water as you cast, which routinely can spook carp. These boats draft an incredible 4-4 ½ in. allowing you to search carp flats worry free. Overall the reason I love these boats so much is it takes all the things I love about fishing from a Gheenoe, and does it in style and comfort!

We were happy to get a call from Zack McGlothern with the great news of his filming of our beloved fish with Cody Herman on NBC sports! Coming out in the near future, we want to make sure that all of our members are aware so that they can tune into the show when it airs! Here are a few words from Zack with some stills from the show…Well done guys on some great exposure for the fish!

Zack:

‘As anglers, we always have someone we look up to. Whether it’s our granddad or father who used to take us out to the bank, or a professional angler with a large following. It’s also not very often one of the anglers that you look up to approaches you and asks you to take them out on a trip!

A few months ago, Cody Heman from Day One Outdoors sent me a message on Facebook stating his love for carp and how it was ingrained in his fishing DNA from a young age. We worked out some details and set aside a couple days for Cody to come up and fish with us. Not only was I getting to share my knowledge and passion with one of the people that I look up to, we were also filming a couple of episodes for Cody’s hit TV show. The show is broadcast to a wide variety of Northwest anglers and will work as a great platform to help shine the light on the amazing sport fishery that European style carp angling provides.

We had two awesome days on the water, lots of laughter and good times. Richard, Malissa and August were kind enough to take some time out of their busy weekly schedules and come visit with me. The first day we hit a smaller Urban lake in downtown Seattle. I had pre-fished it for several days before and had it patterned out pretty good, but it surprised me with some better than expected fishing. We hit several carp in the high teens, and had steady fishing throughout the day. One of my favorite parts was showcasing our style of fishing to a fisherman that had never really done it before… and having a great success with the American Carp Society’s - ‘Barnaby’s Revenge’ line of baits.

On day two we moved to a much larger body of water. We got to explain the benefits of using distant sticks and baiting up a spot that you’re going to fish. And while the weather was gorgeous, and the times on the band were very memorable, the fish didn’t cooperate and we came up empty-handed for the day.

This was truly a life-changing experience for all of us. and I think properly showcasing carp care, and proper angling techniques to a large audience of people who seem to regard these as trash fish is going to have a positive impact on the sport. The show will be available on NBC Sports and Amazon Prime sometime during the Fall. We had a ton of fun making it…and I hope you guys all tune in and give it a look!’

Coming up in May we have some wonderful interviews on The American Carper Podcast!

Jake Downing

Jake Downing, the most ‘interesting’ man in Carp fishing in the USA Today, sits down and discusses his approach to his passion…looking at his roots and how he and partner, Frank Kessler, took the Mill Creek Cup win in 2019 with an aggressive work ethic and consistent baiting campaign throughout the tournament. A laugh a minute, Jake never fails to disappoint!

Dan ketterman

What do you think goes through the mind of a reformed bowhunter when they see that trophy fish on the flats? Probably the most in-depth and personal interview that we have ever done…Sean sits down with Dan Ketterman and looks at his journey of redemption, from bowhunter to ambassador for the sport of catch and release Carp angling in the USA. Baring his soul and taking us through the moment that changed everything for him, Dan does an incredible job of explaining the journey that he has taken to become the catch and release angler that he is today. Taking immense courage, honesty and a willingness to help as many anglers as he can, whilst learning from everyone he can, this is a podcast that everyone should listen to and can learn from.

A big thanks to all of our listeners for downloading and listening to the American Carper Podcast! We are increasing the audience size each and every month, which can only be good for the profile of the fish and the sport here in the USA! If you have ideas for any guests that you would like to have us interview on the show, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any suggestions or comments that you may have…and thanks again for your continued support! Spread the word…and share with your friends!

THE PODCAST

MANDALA GOLD…

A big thanks for all of your support on the Barnaby’s Revenge Mandala Gold bait release! We have been receiving wonderful feedback from everyone and will be doing a fresh roll of bait in the coming weeks ahead. We are out on the store at the moment, of pretty much all of the Barnaby’s Revenge bait range products, both Asterbury Creme and Mandala Gold…but we will be adding more One Shot, boosted grubs and other products soon! We appreciate all of your patience as we try to keep up with demand!

now available on the store!

stickers!

SQUATCH is back…with a new ‘SPEY SQUATCH’ sticker especially for our Fly brothers and sisters!

We have also added more of the TERMINATOR CARP and WULLF FLY stickers, and have had some GUILTY ONES circle stickers made up for our members!

The ACS Hoorag!

Back in stock, we have a limited number of our American Carp Society Hoorag’s available for members! With the Summer just around the corner, these SPF 30, moisture wicking hoorays sport our logos and are ideal for protecting your skin against the sun…and talk about versatility for wearing!

on sale!

We are having a sale on our maroon Member’s Mug from $7.99 to $5.99 and Guilty Ball Cap from $19.95 to just $12.99! With just a few left…these will go fast!

And for our Fly Anglers…these awesome nippers from $4.99 - $2.99!