http://www.wintercarpleague.com

October 20 at Milwaukee
Pre-fishing the Midwest Winter League Venue
By Frank Rink and Larry Hemmens

Larry Hemmens and I traveled to Milwaukee on Wednesday, October 20 to check out the venue for the upcoming winter league. We were pleased with the October 16 report submitted by Ernest and Adam, and we hoped to do well on October 20.

Water temperature was 67° and the weather was windy but pleasant with temperatures nearing or at the low 60s for most of the session.

Our intention was not to catch a lot of fish but to test 7 or 8 different method mixes and 7 or 8 different hook baits. I have always felt that if the fish are hungry, they will bite on anything, but Larry proved me wrong. He hit a hot streak during the day with one special hook bait and one special method mix. In fact we offered some method mixes and hookbaits that the fish didn’t even touch. Consequently, it was a productive day in that we have an idea about what might work when it counts. Conditions and the time of year may change things when the league begins, but we now have a good idea about which baits we might use at the start of the league.
Larry fished about half a day and I fished 3-4 hours longer than he did. We moved around to different peg locations throughout our session. Although I did not spend a lot of time at peg 4, I thought it interesting that only 5 fish came out of that peg. The vast majority of our fish came out of the middle peg area, although we are not sure exactly how that area will be pegged.
By the way, we did manage to capture and release 29 fish between the two of us. Only two of those 29 weighed under 8 pounds, so that bodes well for the league. The 29 carp weighed 358 pounds, so our average was 12-13 pounds. Many of the fish were in that 12-13 pound range. Larry caught the heaviest fish at 19-11. He also caught a pb mirror at 14-8. Other notable catches were 17-7, 17-4, 16-3, and 15-5.

We look forward to participation in the league, and we thank Ernest and Magda for their organizational skills and for the opportunity!

Frank Rink, Larry Hemmens