I have fished Log Boom, Kenmore, for several seasons and find it to be quite productive for pan fish if you do it right. This season however, it has been kind of slow for me so I decided that I would try a chum recipe that I found on the internet to spice things up.

The water was choppy and not so clear, the sky was overcast and windy, so I wasn’t so sure how it was going to work as the directions for the chum tells you to float fish. I prepared the chum, threw some in the lake, and rigged my rod. I tried to fish over the chummed area but just couldn’t keep my bait close enough to the chummed area so I decided to bottom fish using a bass sinker; at this point I was noticing more bubbles around the chummed area and the appearance of bait fish.
Upon changing fishing techniques I immediately landed a small blue gill. I thought here we go and nothing much more happened for the next hour; however, I did begin to notice much larger bubbles appearing. Sometime during this point I decided to change my rigging again and attached a large split shot about six inches above my bait and let it sit on the bottom near the chum.

I was thinking about packing it up and going to spend some father’s day time with the kids when I saw the tip of my rod gently twitch. The rod I was using was an Okuma 6’ light, I had on 6lb trilene and a #10 circle hook. I waited for a firm tap and began to reel in as fast as possible. My rod instantly turned into a C and the fish immediately darted for the pier. I jumped up and began to wrestle him away from the pier while reeling and it was at this point he broke the water. I realized this was no little fish and that my line at any point could snap. I called down to a fellow fisherman to come and take a look. He came over and I remember saying to him “this is the biggest fish I’ve landed here” and he responded “well you haven’t landed him yet.”

Reality set in, and I thought crap how am I going to get him up on the pier. He suggested that he could reach down and try and grab him with a spare shirt he had. What I didn’t realize is that the other people on the dock had been watching this and someone from the other side of the dock came running down with a net, he had seen my pole and knew I wasn’t going to get the fish up. Bam, fish landed.

I had caught a Carp. I released him and watched him swim away along with the blue gill and went home to my kids. My internet chum, well the jury is still out on whether it is good for pan fish or not, but I do know it will bring in the carp. Thanks to all of those people who helped.