As I’m walking up the bank, I spot a beautiful big Carp rooting around a wood pile. His head is as big around as a football. I have a small white bead chain fly in front of a Lil Bugger. I make my first cast and it’s short, but the Carp doesn’t move. I make another cast, almost perfect, I feel a tug and set the hook. The next thing I know, a small Gill is flying past my face. The dink took the Bugger. I look back and the Carp still hasn’t left. I continue to watch him as I tie on a Backstabber. I make another cast and as I drag the fly past him, I snag a stick. As I pull it back in, the fish finally decides to move and swims along the bank right past me. I freeze and watch him swim out to mid-river and start feeding next to a large rock. I sneak over and make a cast but no take. Another cast no take. A third cast and I see him move toward the fly, I feel a tug and set the hook. A 3" SM comes flying past my face and I watch the big boy slide into deeper water never to be seen again.
SIGH!!!
Could be worse…I was targetting a big one in a pond I fish a lot. Cast well past him, and stripped line in sloooooowly. Eventually, the line goes tight and I lift to set the hook. Mr. Carp has taken the fly! He turns, dousing the shore with water and heads for the deepest part of the pond. My rod flexes deeply…
…and just like that, the pressure is gone. No line break, the fly comes back undamaged…the hook just came out…
I’m there with you man. I landed a 26 lb, 14 oz buff on the fly rod earlier in the season. I’m fishing the river when I see a mass that totally drawfs my little earlier fish. It reminds me of a big black lab with no legs. The fish is larger than any carp I have ever presented a fly to. It was like fishing for a man in a black wet suit. The current was stronger than I could control and my presentation went past him too fast. My mending wasn’t up to the task of the presentation. I tired a number of times with no success. That fish still haunts me.
While this is a fishing board, I have to use a hunting analogy. Big carp are as much different from small carp as huge whitetails bucks are different from yearly deer. They are truly bright, and they won’t let you make too many mistakes. Even if they don’t move off and stay there, they aren’t afraid of you, but believe me, you are busted and they won’t take your offerings.
I fished a pond a couple weeks back that has grass carp in it. That’s a species I wanna add to my fly-rod “list”. A number of fish were actively feed/tailing…I couldn’t get them to look at my flies. I start casting further away to some fish I knew where there from surface disturbance…but couldn’t actually see. I’m slowly swimming the fly in…and there’s a grass carp! Its moving straight towards me…following my fly line. OK…that is EXACTLY what it was doing…following the END of my fly line…not my fly. UGG! :rolleyes:
Nice to see that you are out there chasin’ the fish Dave. My partner and I took 18 carp this past Sat in 4 hours between the two of us. The fish were not monsters and ranged in size from 21 to 28". The 28" fish on a scale just went a tad over 5 pounds. Looking for those 35 and 36" monsters, just haven’t connected. Took my daughter out yesterday. Her first fish of the year:
To put it in a nutshell, I’ve cast to a WHOLE lot more carp than I’ve caught, but when it does happen, it seems to make up for all that casting and frustration:cool:
Nice! You’ve been doing well Rick! The 27"-28" carp I caught last summer were in the 8lb range, so those carp must be running thin right now? Maybe recently spawned out?
As much as I love catching carp on flies, I haven’t got one yet this year! I’d hoped to get my kayak out on the local reservoir and track some down last week, but the wind was substantial on all the days I’d planned to go.
Truth is Dave that I love to catch trout, bass and gills, but I just don’t have good close access to those fish and I happen to have a river that runs through town that is within 5 minutes that has literally thousands of carp in it. I know that you are a big gill fisherman and I wish I could go chase those with my 3 wt. I’m heading over to SW Wis this weekend to chase trout, but this time of the year I might as well be fly fishing in the amazon jungle because the streams are so thick with vegetation that a machette should be standard equipment along with the trout net.
The point is, that if I were you I would be chasin’ those panfish etc too. I did have a little guy on the 7 wt that was just ripping drag out and thought to myself: Never had a brook trout like this on the line. These fish are powerful this time of year. They are well fed and the water temps have their bodies at a peak and they are truly powerful. If you want a good bend in the rod, carp are it for me.
Out again yesterday - 7 fish. Have another outting with a friend tonight at 6 pm. Wish you were closer and we would put you on some action.
Rick
grass carp release chemicals when spooked to warn other fish in the area so be careful…for me its best to find a Mulberry tree or something dropping berries into the water and use a long leader…salmon egg flys work very well, almost too good…here there is always Iguanas in the tall trees and they always wake at sunrise and then take a dump off the branches overhanging the water…the carp are waiting for this to happen…whatever hits the water will be taken out of competition…I have even caught them on spoonflys…these carp are in the 40" range and up
Dave locally I find about a plump 31 or 32" fish goes 10 lbs on a scale. I am always amazed at by two kinds of fisherman. One is the guy who catches the 20" fish and declares it to wt 8 to 10 pounds and the other is a guy like John Montana who catches some of the biggest baddest carp I have even seen. That man landed more big fish than I ever see in a year. Would love to fish some of his water some time.
Have to find more big fish, but I am having so much fun with the little guys that it is all good.
BW, I always dream of grass carp even though I have never seen one. I would rather catch a 40" grass carp in Iowa than fly to Belize to catch bone fish.
I was out after carp this morning, lots of fish but couldn’t get a hook set. The last straw was having the biggest common carp I have ever seen swim to me look at me and then leave. They didn’t like what I had to offer today.
Yeah, I know guys like that too. Guys that will show you a picture of a 12" crappie ON A TAPE MEASURE…and tell you its 14"! :rolleyes:
I usually go by length of fish, because I almost always carry a tape measure with me when fishing…but rarely take a scale. But last September I had taken my kayak out, and did have my scale with me as well. A 27" carp I caught on my fly rod weighed 8lbs 9oz., and the 27.5" carp weighed 8lbs 10oz. That assumes the digital scale was accurate…which I really haven’t bothered to verify.
Lately I’ve been catching smaller crappies (mostly 9" or less), and 8" or less bluegills. Haven’t really got into the decent fish, except for the odd catfish (a LOT of fun!). I’d take some small-to-medium sized carp…heck ANY size carp…if I could just find some worth casting to. Waters have been fairly stained lately. Hopefully it will clear up some soon.
I’ve been on the water more than most lately and having some success, but my trip last night with my fishing buddy was very frustrating. I starting throwing a size 14 soft hackle. I don’t know all of the names or even if they have a fancy name of the things that I throw together but it was like a partridge and green except it was a yellow body with pheasant for soft hackle. I can still see this at close range in the water and I have to see my fly so that I can position it, just infront of the fish. I call this force feeding and I rely on this approach most of the time. I absolutely hate to blind cast and most of the time, just flat out refuse to fish that way.
I had two fish take the fly right away. I literally pulled the fly out of their mouth with no hook up. I just jumped the trigger too early. The gap is so small on these hooks that they are not my first choice, but the picky fish were reacting well to the fly.
Another fish I literally presented the fly infront of it’s nose within 3 to 4" six times before it took the rubber leg pattern. I love the white legs tied in an X pattern on dubbed bodies of black, tan, olive. Again, I can see the white legs easily which aids in exacting presentations.
A couples hours last night and landed 3 smaller fish. Not my best outting, but fun never the less. My partner had a single fish on his 6 wt but was unable to land the fish before it pulled off. Remember that on this past Sat we landed 18 fish in the same area so quite a let down from just a few days earlier.
We had lots of rain yesterday, maybe that will help the fishing.
Steveks, if you are presenting the fly and literally getting it infront of the fish within inches and not swinging it too fast past them in the current but can hesitate that fly infront of the fish and you don’t get a response out of the fish in 3 or 4 of those offerings, change flies. Different size, different color, different pattern. But, if you have been busted and they know that you are there they sometimes just won’t eat and you have to find a different pod of fish to harrass. 
Dave, I would like to eat a couple of those nice 8" fish. Almost all of the trout are released so panfish taken responsibly are great table fair. I don’t like overharvesting those either, but a couple of nice meals would be a nice treat. I’m still jealous.
Rick
Rick
Thanks for the tips Clay. I think accuracy might be my problem. Went back this morning had better luck. I was sight fishing on a large clay point casting to the largest carp that I could see. Solid hookups, but they ended with getting wrapped up in weeds and broken off.
Glad to hear of your success! Accuracy is more key in carp fishing than bass, trout or brim since they just refuse to move very far to take a fly. I had a trout two weeks ago literally move 30 feet to take my fly, no carp will ever do that. That was far for a trout to move but very interesting to see standing atop a bridge and watching that water wolf charge across a pool to take the fly.
One of the other subtle points is to not bonk them on the head but rather cast beyond the fish and then brind the fly to the target area. This becomes more important as the fish get spookier and that happens with just a little fishing pressure.
Wear polaroid glass for some eye candy of watching them eat. That is my favorite way to chase them, in clear water or at least water that I can see them eat, not always gin clear but clear enough.
Rick
carp have a feeding zone of about 24 inches in front of their mouth and another 9 inches on either side of their head. When you are fishing for carp your fly must land in that area. Presentation of your fly is extremely important when fishing for carp. Carp will basically eat anything if they are feeding and it is well presented. I have taken carp on many trout flies, like nymphs, streamers, and dry flies. allow the fly to remain in the feeding zone without movement until the carp approaches your fly, then twitch the fly slightly. If the carp is interested in the fly it will take the fly. If the fly is not taken, try presenting it again. If a fly is refused several times, change flies. Carp are like any other fish on a given day they will target a profile, a color or a size.
carp are leaders shy, I like fluorocarbon tippet.
Bill
Tried the local reservoir for about 20minutes during lunch today. Conditions at this particular spot were NOT what I was expecting, unfortunately. Could have been worse though…because…HOORAY!!! Finally got my first fly-rod carp of 2009! Could not see the fish when it took the fly, but it held on long enough for me to detect the hit.
Clay, panfish ARE tasty. I have to admit I haven’t kept a fish to eat all year (except walleyes for our evening meals during our trip to Canada about a month ago). And I’ve already logged over 500 each of crappies and bluegills on flies this year!
I can’t tell you how EXCITED I am to have finally gotten a carp on flies this year! FINALLY!!! 
Nice fish but how were you able to post your picture? did you get it from an account like “photobucket” or directly from your computer?
Bill
PS: You realize that you are hooked for life. there is no thrill like the first run of a carp on a fly rod; absolutely nothing!
[). And I’ve already logged over 500 each of crappies and bluegills on flies this year!
I :D[/QUOTE]
500 crappies on flies! Awesome! Nice carp too!
sweet FishnDave…did you catch 500 panfish so far or did you just stop counting at 500?:lol: a nice panfish fry would be really great…almost looks like bonefish critter fly for the carp…pretty work…are you getting form down for possible bonefishing? I hear they are closest thing in fresh water to bonefishing