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I noticed grass carp were feeding on items on the surface. When I made a cast within a pie plate's distance from a grass carp, it would turn on the fly. Sometimes it would follow & sometimes it'd spook. I cast a pink San Juan worm, and this grassy came to investigate. After a few small strips, I saw the eat & the fight was on! This one fought hard.
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That's so awesome, Eric....and I'm SOOO jealous! Tell me more about your San Juan worm. Do you tie it with the typical micro chenille, or something a bit bigger?
Well done. I have caught two, but it wa because of junk on the fly.
Rick
@FishnDave The San Juan worm I tie are definitely not works of beauty. To me, they're guide flies, that you can crank out many in minimal time. On the package it says standard ultra chenille. I've also the micro chenilles.
I normally tie SJW's in a size 8, but this season I've been going down to size 10's. I like the curved shank hooks, but whatever you have is fine. The lead/non-lead wire is .025, but weight according to your needs. I wrap the lead in first, and leave it exposed. My theory is the fish sees the glint of the lead as it's passing by or when settled on the bottom, and the fish just have to investigate. I used to have longer SJW's but sometimes the excess would wrap around the hookpoint. Now, I've just been using the width of the chenille card, the chenille is wrapped around as my guide. It's consistent, plus no measuring involved. I anchor the chenille at 3 points, starting from the rear, ending at the head. Then I singe all the worms after tying session is done.
I've been following a guy's page/instagram/FB page, called LooknFishy. He targets mainly grass carp on fly. Good info. What he mentioned has been working.
If I can get my cast within a pie plate's distance around the grassy's head, it'll either turn to investigate and eat or it'll spook. I was seeing more grassies yesterday, so I did alot of casting to them. The theory has proven true so far. They didn't like too much movement. But a natural sink, and tiny strips were irristable. I hooked a bigger grassy earlier than the one landed, but it threw the hook. I'm going to say because I was casting from a higher position than the fish.
LooknFishy uses modified bream poppers. He just tied the popper on a more stronger hook. What I saw on both hookups was the grass carp had more violent head-shaking to throw the hook.
I have a design in mind for a modified popper, that'll sink slowly with lots of movement. Hopefully it'll work. I think our fishing days here in NE, are numbered. I'm hoping it can be extended by fishing an oxbow we found, just north of where the Papio Creek flows into the Missouri River.
I keep looking for classes to take at Camp Dodge, so I can fish Saylorville Lake. When I scouted it out, I found a cove on the east side, and saw a huge grassy tailing, just like a bonefish near a mangrove.
Any carp in Beaver Creek?
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Thanks @Rick Z. Junk is good on the fly, as long as the fish eats it. Vegitation?
Ah interesting. That's weighted pretty heavily...which is probably perfect for current or deeper water and getting it to the bottom for common carp. Did these grassies hit while it was sinking or mid-depth? Or twitched on the bottom? Thanks for taking the time to explain/show the fly, I really appreciate it.
Yeah..Drew (LooknFishy) does really great on Grass Carp. I still struggle with the grass carp. Either the water is really clear and the fish are spooky, or the water is muddy and I almost never see them. I've hooked at least a couple this year, but have not landed them. One fight lasted a long time and the fish was tired, but I pulled the hook out of its lip as I was trying to drag the fish close enough to shore to land it. The water was too shallow, and the fish was too deep. ;o) I've only landed 5 since I first started catching them on flies back in 2009.
I'm not aware of any grass carp in Saylorville, unless they washed in from a lake or pond upstream somewhere. Its possible, I just have never personally seen one. Plenty of Common Carp there, though. There are a number of dams on the Des Moines River between Saylorville Lake and the Mississippi River, and as far as we can tell, the naturally-reproducing population that is in the Mississippi & Missouri rivers hasn't made it upstream to Saylorville yet. The fish we have locally in the ponds and lakes are the stocked triploid grass carp, that seem to behave differently and feed much less aggressively than some other populations. Saylorville has not been intentionally stocked with them, as there is no vegetation to speak of.
Right now some largemouth, smallmouth, white bass and hybrid striped bass are being caught at Saylorville, mainly by folks tossing lures. An occasional catfish and walleye as well. Sometimes they get close enough to shore that you can get them on flies, too...especially early in the morning....like between 6:30am and 8 or 9am.
As for Beaver Creek, there are some smallmouth bass and largemouth bass there, mostly pretty small, and some channel catfish and a variety of suckers, maybe a few Freshwater Drum. There should be carp in it, since they are definitely in the Des Moines river that it flows into. I haven't fished Beaver Creek in many years, but I have a fishing friend that has been flyfishing it recently during his lunch hours.
Both grassies hit while the fly was sinking, but with the current & small strips, it's more likely the fly was moving on a slope vs straight down or horizontal. The first grassy was landed on a modified Crackberry fly. From what I've experienced, if the fly is on the bottom, they don't want any movement.
I can attest to the spooky part in clear water. The presentation probably has to be perfect. Yesterday the water was semi-clear. I was able to see the shadow first, then it moved to a clearer area. when it ate, I saw a slight pause and the mouth open. The crackberry was tied on a Gamakatsu B10S. I was worried about the thinner diameter wire, but it did good. You're lucky if you have water, where the surroundings are relatively flat. Here, it's more like steep banks. To prevent spooking carp, I do the majority of my casting from the top of the bank. If a fish is hooked, you walk it to the nearest place where you can climb/slide down the bank to fight/net the fish. Both grassies were caught from a current diverter, which is basically a metal frame, filled in with dirt/rocks. After a good rain, grass & common carp can be seen stacked up waiting for food items to come to them. There is about a 4-5 ft drop. I use an extendable net, and basically guided the grassy into the net, using the current as a guide.
You're doing good with 5 landed. Now I'm going after consistency
Saylorville was nice and big. I didn't care for the boat traffic though. Next time I get to a class at Camp Dodge, hopefully I can do a little more exploring. I'll message you to see if you're available.
If I ever get off my butt to tie some pike flies, I'm hoping to close out the fishing season by checking that off my wish list.
I did a search for Crackberry fly...didn't find anything. What's that look like?
I got it from the article below. The only thing I modified were the legs. Instead of using fine rubber legs, I used Spanflex/Lifeflex rubber legs. These legs quiver at the slightest movement, so less is more. Also, instead of tying the rubber legs in like in the picture, I tied the legs in Bully's Bluegill Spider style. For the first grassy, I guided the fly in front of it, and started some small strips, until I saw the mouth open.
http://www.kneedeepexpeditions.com/cin/KDEFeature.pdf
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I will qualify this by saying I haven't tried it and realize some may not like putting scent on flies, but I have heard tomato juice on your fly will attract grass carp. Unlike scent for plastic worms you can drink the left over, with or without additional ingredients.