Kurt Marks went big on catching big carp from the Chicago River.
Carp have a curious place in Chicago fishing. In the 1990s the Chicago Carp Classic drew international fame downtown, now carp are viewed as a reminder of the waterway’s sordid past.
Yet, reality is that common carp remain the biggest fish in the system.
Earlier this month, Marks emailed about a string of carp catches topping 20 pounds, the biggest 25.
His methods have evolved.
“I started out using a few plastic fake corn pieces on a hair rig, which was placed inside a ball of pack bait (made from canned whole kernel sweet corn, oats, corn meal, flour, egg, molasses, and Kool-Aid mix) with great success,” he emailed. “I then switched over to using pre-made boilies that are popular in Europe for carp anglers. The boilies on a hair rig seem to lead to better hookups and I’ve noticed the bigger the boilie size the bigger the carp, as smaller fish won’t take the bigger sized boilies.”
The American Carp Society describes boilies as “hard-boiled baits that were originally introduced to carp angling in the UK during the late Seventies with the sole purpose of keeping ‘nuisance’ fish from eating away the bait being presented to the carp.”
Nuisance fish here doesn’t mean carp.
Marks noted, “Some flavors I’ve had success with are pineapple, fruity flavors, and corn-flavored boilies.”
