Rhode Island River Gems
by
Austin Crawford
Hi, my name is Austin Crawford and I enjoy most of my fishing time in my home state of Rhode Island. RI has so much potential for truly wild unique Carp! That’s why I really love fishing here because you really never know what’s on the other end of you’re line after the alarm screams. The fish here fight hard and are truly unique, every single one has its own scale pattern and battle scares that help tell the story of living in the wild river.
I have fished ever since I was a little boy, it all started with my dad taking me out for Blue Gill over at the local pond. Once I got my bike, that was it…Freedom! After school I would head down to the river targeting Trout or Bass until a little before the street lights came on as many nights as was possible.... Not before too long, I ended up going to a meeting of the “Friends of the Blackstone” group where I met local legend, Dave Pickering who was doing a quick fishing presentation. At the end of the meeting, Dave told us about take a kid carp fishing. It was all so impactful, I remember the exact date too, it was Saturday June 23rd, 2012…
I’ve been hooked on carp fishing ever since that day. Yeah, huge shout out to Dave Pickering for getting me on my first fish, without him I wouldn’t be where I am today. I know the term gets thrown around a lot these days but he is a local legend in the carp fishing community and I couldn’t have asked for a better person/teacher/mentor to get me going. When I heard my first ever Alarm screaming and my heart was racing so fast! That was it for me, I new I would have a passion for these awesome fish and be on the hunt for wild carp forever…
I get a lot of anglers here asking me “why do you target these fish Austin?” I say because they’re the most hard fighting, smart and beautiful freshwater fish in the state. Of course, there is really more to that answer; Carp fishing can be a escape from whatever is going on in you’re busy life too. Nothing beats hitting the bank on a nice crisp morning to relax the mind and get peace while you wait with anticipation for the “mystery” that will hopefully await you in the landing net after a good battle.
Some don’t understand this but once they see one of these beauties on the unhooking mat, their eyes get big and can’t believe what they seeing every time. This is especially the case with young Anglers! They can’t believe it and I more often than not see the curiosity and excitement in them that I had when I caught my first Carp… It always makes me feel so happy to have hopefully inspired them to go outside and pursue these fish.
That’s why I love what the American Carp Society is doing for the fish and this sport… Its great for the carp fishing community to have more & more people understand more how amazing these fish are each and every year...
Carp fishing is so much fun for me because you can go from a calm state of mind, enjoying nature and hearing the birds in the background to pure adrenaline pumping action in a few seconds…hoping there is a beautiful mirror on the other end. I mostly enjoy fishing the BlackStone River because it has some truly unique fish of all sizes, they can go from a 5 pounder right up to a 25-30 pound fish! Ya just never know…
Like this huge fully scaled mirror I caught last year! This fish was caught on no pack bait just a simple in line rig with a yellow pop up from American Carp society with a light amount of chum thrown in the water on top.
I guess my biggest tip when fishing rivers like the size of the BlackStone is to find the biggest, deepest pool you can, that’s where the fish tend to hold up. You’ll want to read the water level too, a lot of times after floods they can change and go to different pool in that section of the river.
Try to keep a simple approach to your rigs, big benefit to this is you can tie an effective rig fast right on the bank. I usually I go 5 to 6 inches for the hook length, a size 6 hook popped up Ronnie rig with an anti tangle sleeve. I use a split shot sinker wrapped in putty because believe it or not, it does make a difference especially with the bigger & smarter fish when you make your rig more “camouflaged.”
I don’t like to use Lead clip rigs because I personally think inline is more “camouflaged” rig and simpler. One time I had rigs side bye side in the water, the rig with the lead clip kept getting passed over but when I went to the inline with putty around the split shot, it got picked up right away from multiple fish. Confidence is everything in this sport, right!
Sometimes free lining bread can be a really, really deadly technique too if there heavily on the feed, especially after a heavy rain storm, this type of fishing can be very exciting to do…similar to top water bass fishing when you get that top-water explosion!
Some pre-baiting tips I have is corn and pellets mixed with strawberry jello which is a solid base to go with for your method mix/chum. I find that this tends to keep the fish in you’re swim longer. Although this can change depending on the time of year tho; Winter/Fall less pre-baiting is better where in the Summer/Spring, more pre-baiting is better. Yeah, during Winter/Fall time there’s definitely less smaller fish like Sun fish and the carp are less hungry too due to the colder water temperatures, so no need to over feed as much. Sometimes just a pop up and a little PVA mesh full of bait can be the winning combination.
On the other hand as I mentioned above, during Summer/Spring when the water temps are higher, there are a lot of bait fish and the carp are on the feed so I recommend chumming heavily.
Summer/Spring pre baiting the day before can really, really up you’re changes on catching the next morning. Usually I go with a pack bait around my in-line lead but if I see the fish or the bubbles from them actively feeding, then I won’t always do this, you can scare the fish and make them move to another area very easily this way, better off going with just a lite lead and your hook length.
The biggest problem I have is snapping turtles in the river, during the warmer months they can really be a pain!!
One time I caught the same turtle two times in a row, 5 mins from each other with the previous rig still in its mouth. Carp fishing is on the rise slowly thanks to great anglers sharing some amazing pictures, I feel honored to get this chance to share my catches along with a few tips, stories and the reason why I love catching these fish.
I look forward to seeing this sport continue to grow and prosper in in the coming years… I would like to sincerely thank all the crew at the American Carp Society for what they’re doing for the Carp angling community and for this opportunity to share a few of my experiences and thoughts!
Hope enjoyed this blog and that this also inspires some new and upcoming Anglers no matter what age you may be to pursue these wonderful fish, trust me you won’t regret it.
Until next time, Austin…