CARP!

[ryguyfi]

Reading an article in a recent magazine stating carp as a "golden bonefish". They stated that they are spookier, less predictable, harder fighting than steelhead, and harder to catch. Wondering if anyone has fished for them before and had any success in doing so. They talked alot about doing it on flats down south. I know for a fact there are some LARGE carp in my local lake that I see spawn every year. Once I get a larger rod and reel setup I would love to hook up a few of the monsters. Any advice is always welcome :-D

 

[Maurice]

While my contribution is more novelty than advice, It was fun none the less.

I was fishing once on the Conewago north of York for bass with a fly rod in late June. Usually I use spinning gear there...anyway. After doing a lot of walking and little fishing/catching. I was coming upstream and noticed a muddy streak coming downstream. I circled around it and found a large ( $10-12#) carp mudding on the bottom on a flat area. I got above it, stayed low and dumped a crayfish pattern out in front of it and twitch ed it downstream until the two lines converged. The carp picked it up and took off, before I realized I was hooked up, and out of reaction, I picked up the rod tip. As I picked up, he picked up line and it broke off before it even started. It was quite a rush...and the highlight of the day. But since then...I have not even tried to target them.

Being trapped in the house for nearly a month with this weather...I'd take a carp on the fly right about now.

 

[jayL]

Every now and then on the tulpehocken, I'll let them get to my globug before I cast again. Usually I hang on for a run or two before I pop them off.

I've heard alot of stories about how fun it can be... i always had a blast catching them on spinning gear as a kid. If I get my boat in the water this year, maybe i'll go stalk em on the flats at hopewell. I've seen some BEASTS there.

The guy who taught me how to fly fish used to talk about catching them on dries. I never gave it a try.

 

[ryguyfi]

In the article they talked about a carp's feeding activity. They basically suck up anything they can get (you can tell feeding, kind of like a bonefish by the nose being down and tail extended out of the water) and then spitting out anything that isnt food. This, the pro's say, is why they are so hard to catch. It requires stealth and quick hook setting reactions. They have the ability to detect smells and have the ability to taste. They do feed on dries as well as crayfish, nymphs, worms etc. Which means it is still necessary to match the hatch. The article inspired me, but I don't think my 5wt will hold up to the 20#+ monsters I know are in my lake.

 

[Bruno]

I fish them all summer. I live very near downtown Pittsburgh and go one or two nights a week for bass and carp at hienz filed or the mon warf. They will tear line like crazy. A foxy clouser minnow or a bugger does the trick. I also tie a couple of " bread flies" when I go to my buddy's marina. White foam on on a hook. I chum the water to get'em close. I get two cans of of corn. Open one and toss the corn in. Poke holes in the other and tie a string on it and toss it in. Wait a 1/2 hour and start catching. Pull your can out and go home. I also get the occasional catfish. They put up a heck of a fight as well.

 

[Padraic]

Here's my "one that got away" story. It happened in my second year of fly fishing, so I guess about 8 or 9 yrs ago.

One July day, I was absolutely sweltering. It was brutal hot! And I figured wet wading the river would be one way to cool off. Well the Suskie was bath-tub warm and almost worse than before. Still, here I am, might as well see what I can do. So I was working my way down a bank tossing a clouser crayfish to the little bass that were scooping up crayfish. I was at Falmouth, and anyone who has fished there knows how thick the crayfish are. I'm catching a 9 or 10 inch bass every now and again, but the action is not fast or exciting or anything. All the while the heat is really getting to me.

So when I came up to a little "cove" area, I thought this might be the last spot before I turn around and get something cold. When I say cove, I mean that rocks had formed a little "bathtub" area along the shore with a break in the rocks for a little entrance. But for the most part it's a nice protected pool along the shore. And down at the end of it is a big golden tail sticking up out of the water. I tossed the crayfish above it maybe three feet or so, mended and let the fly drift. Pretty soon I saw the leader going up stream at the same rate as the tip of that tail. So, I set the hook, more or less without thinking. Then I thought... I thought, "Oh shoot, how I am I going to land that thing on a 5wt?"

Well, the carp didn't seem to take much notice of the hook. He continued finning upstream until he got in line with the entrance to the cove. Then he turned out to the river and I found out what a drag sounded like. I was into the backing in no time at all. So off I go chasing after this fish. We played tug of war for a while until I was about a quarter of the way across the river, but I could see my leader. Well, when I saw the leader, the carp must have seen me. Now the drag is screaming again and I am wondering if I am going to get to keep the flyline. Another tug of war ensues. I am halfway across the river a football field downstream of where this whole thing started. But I again can see the leader and the carp again sees me. Off he goes! "Forget this" I say, and clap my hand down on the reel. The line went tight and my fly shot back over my head.

So that is the one fish that fought me and won. I think of him every once in a while with a profound respect.

I've tried to catch carp from time to time since then, and it is definately a challenge. There are some huge ones in the stream that I bass fish. I was never able to get those. One day during the Green Drake hatch on Penns I saw some carp taking the nymphs along a sandbar. I got a half dozen of them out of that spot and it was one of the proudest moments of my angling career. I have a picture of one here on the site.

Bob Clouser's new book Flyfishing for Smallmouth in Rivers and Streams discusses carp fishing. I believe that Flyfisherman magazine has run a couple articles on them in the past as well. And there is a book about flyfishing for carp on Amazon.com.

 

[Fishidiot]

I've had some luck on carp with a fly but it is tough. I am more confident throwing a fly at a big bonefish in "Downtown Islamorada" than a carp in the Susquehanna. Most of the fish I have hooked have been on small, bright nymphs although others have done well on crayfish patterns. I think a major key to success is seeing the carp when they're actively foraging. When you see a mud trail with the fish feeding they are much more vulnerable to a fly. When you see a carp mud trail sometimes it pays to throw a fly toward the rear of the mud because smallmouths will piggyback on foraging carp. When the carp are just cruising around I have found it almost impossible to get 'em to eat a fly.

 

[troutbert]

I'm no expert at carp fly fishing by any means, but I've dabbled around at it a little. They are extremely spooky, i.e. line shy. Trout aren't even close.

They will sometimes rise to insects, particularly when there are real concentrations of bugs, such as at backwaters along the bank.
I caught one on an elkhair caddis that way, and saw another guy catch one on an elkhair caddis on a different stream. I've also hooked some on green inchworms (Green Weenies), and I think I might have even landed one or two of those, most broke me off. I've also had them take San Juan Worms.

The most carp I've ever seen was below the dam on West Branch Susquehanna at Williamsport. A writhing mass of them. I didn't catch a single one there though even though I went through my nymph and streamer boxes.

 

[MKern]

My first season fly fishing I caught and landed a 20 incher (abut 5 lbs.) He was feeding in a shallow area and would only spook if I made quick movements, but after 5 min. he would show back up. After 5 or 6 tries I hooked him on a olive wooly worm. He only swam about twenty feet and pointed his nose straight down. The stream was probably low on oxygen and led to teh five minute fight (easy catch).

On another note, my good buddy hooked one and it took him down the 1 wrap of backing. He was wet wading and had to follow the fish around to regain line. He often had to place his reel in the water to cool it down from all of the friction of teh line screaming off. Needless to say, after 20 minutes the fish tangled the line up in root and broke off. What a trophy that would have been.

 

[afishinado]

When trout or bass fishing is slow, I'll try for carp. I have had the same experience as Fish Idiot – the cruisers never seem to hit. I have some success when I see the fish grubbing for food on the bottom. I try to stay as far away as possible and as quietly drop in a cast in front of them. Many times I spook them. If I don’t, when they swim near the fly, I strip it slowly or jiggled the tip. I watch the fish closely and also watch my line for movement if I can’t see the fish well.

I like to use flies that land with the hook point up so they can make contact with the bottom without getting hung up. Small clousers, small wool buggers weighted like a clouser, weighted BHHE tied on scud hooks (they ride hook point up) all have worked for me. In my experience, the pattern doesn’t seem to matter much. If they’re hungry they’ll eat, if not forget it.

As Troutbert said, carp are spookier than wild trout, he’s certainly right; but furthermore, wild trout usually eat your fly if you don’t spook them. Carp seem to feed when and if they want to. Good luck.

 

[RLeeP]

I haven't had such good luck with carp on flies. When I was a kid, they used to queue up under the sycamores in the first big pool below Lake LeBoeuf on the outlet. All though the last half of June, there'd be a dozen or more sitting there sucking up inchworms. I was 11 or 12 and had just stated tying, so I took a bunch of green chenille worms up there and had at them. The first one I hooked snapped my new 8 1/2' Revelation (Western Auto) fly rod about halfway down the tip section.

A good many years later, I ran into a pod of carp on the Allegheny above Tidioute and I threw an olive bugger in the middle of them. One sucked it in, headed down river into what little backing I had (who messes around with a lot of backing? Not me..). He popped that and took it all, including my new Ultra 3 line and made for P-Burgh.

I have landed a few though. They aren't very imaginative. Like hooking a school bus. Lots of power, though...