Silly carp, youre not a salmon

[mute]

Just a little video observation i took. Wanted to get other fishermans opinions and thoughts. Every year around this time at my local carp fishing spot this happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6AWPgh_9Fs&hd=1


Basically if you look about midway out theres carp trying to swim up the dam, every now and then one makes it. Whats troubling is it seems theyre more interested in doing this then feeding. Ive witnessed some 40inches and 20lbs easy. Years ago i would hook up with a carp every 20-30 minutes. 3 or 4 carp in an hour wasnt unheard of on super good days. Im not sure whats changed since then but since 2012 the fishing has been slow. Since ive went out twice this year starting a week ago id get a fish on around 5PM within 10-15 minutes, and then nothing for the next 2 hours. I believe alot of fish went down stream \ up stream since we had that flood 2 years ago. They used to be lined up by the hundreds all the way across this thing, now days id guess id spot 50 or so at any given time.

Id think maybe theyre too occupied with spawning, buit theyre not in the shallows thrashing around, they just all sit at the end of the dam there and occasionally all start trying to go up, then dissapear for 20 minutes, then all at once try again, etc.

 

[STREAMWISE]

mute, is that the schuykill at norristown dam? Iused to fish there 50 years ago and caught lots of smallmouths channel cats carp suckers and numerous varieties of panfish .None of that structure was there back then except the concrete square structure right at the top of the dam brings back memories

 

[lv2nymph]

Yes, I've seen that before. My father used to take me fishing at Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna river when I lived in Md I was about 10. There is a pretty good size ledge at the bottom of the dam when it's shut off and the water flowing down is a couple of inches deep and the carp would jump up on to that and swim like they were going upstream, I used to run around and try and catch them by hand that was a lot of fun. My father didn't know why they did it I really didn't care at the time. I haven't thought about that for a long time thank you for jogging that for me.

 

[troutbert]

You are probably seeing spawning behavior. They spawn around this time of year.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've often been fooled into fishing to what I thought were rising trout at this time of year. Only to find out that they were carp doing their thing. They jump and splash around pretty good

 

[phiendWMD]

Earlier this week I saw a bunch of carp trying to jump up a ledge, that goes to a tunnel, which goes under the road then up to a lock. A few made it to onto the ledge, but as they approached the tunnel, which is mostly covered with a huge metal lid, they would get washed back down. A couple weeks ago the same spot was full of shad.

Interestingly enough, in the same spot a couple weeks before that, around mid April, they were stocking trout in the water with the lock. The tunnel was clogged up. So they opened the lock, less than 100 feet from where they were putting the trout. They were trying to blast the branches and all out of the tunnel. I sort of jokingly told the borough guy they were gonna let all the trout escape. A day or two later, I saw a rainbow trying to jump back up the ledge. The water was lower then and it couldn't quite make it.