ok it is spawing season for carp in east texas they are in every cove and small pocket of the lakes i fish i can see them hear them but for the life of me i cant catch one and sure would like to catch my first one on a fly rod. this is the first year i have tried with a fly so do any of you have any suggestions what i am doing wrong, have thrown small nymps, crawdads wolly buggers just to name a few but no luck.
robin:(
Spawning fish have more important things on their mind than eating. Your better off looking for feeding fish rooting around on the bottom and casting to them. My best luck with carp has been putting a weighted fly on the bottom right in front of them or swimming it up to them and dropping it in front of them. If they don’t see it at first, hop it a little bit to get their attention. My carp fishing so far has been limited to rivers so far though, so people with more experience will give you more advice.
There’s also a book I got for Christmas, Carp on the Fly, that is a great resource if your just getting started carp fishing and are serious about learning more about it. I haven’t read through the whole thing yet, but its where I turn when I can’t figure them out.
When the fish are shallow, it’s time to sight fish for them. Preferably by wading. Creep along slowly and look for feeding fish. When you see a fish, sneak up on them as quietly as possible and put a fly in front of their face. Usually anything brown or green and mossy looking will do the trick.
This video will give you an idea of how we do it:
What he said 
Last year put over 100 carp in the net on the fly. It is more about presentation than what exact fly. Sometimes they are picky and you do have to change flies, but most put too much emphasis on what pattern instead of thinking about what presentation.
Think 3 things: location, put the fly in the zone, and learn to tell signal from noise.
Location, you think that you have that down pat, but as Joe mentioned you found spawning fish, you need to find feeding fish. You are looking for fish called tailers. Head down, tail up is the tell tale sign of feeding fish. Spend time finding these before you wet your line.
Fly in the zone. As Joe Cool also mentioned, I cast beyond the fish, bring it within their VERY SHORT strike zone and let it fall to the bottom. We are talking about fish in shallow water here. Off of the point of their nose take a 45 degree left and right and this 90 degree window is where I try to put the fly. They are not bass and will not chase a fly a great distance. The fly needs to be close, within 8" of the nose or so. 2’ away isn’t close enough.
Now the third leg of the three legged table is to tell signal from noise. What I mean by this is that you have to be able to distinguish a bite from no bite. It isn’t bass fishing again. If you are waiting for a strike you will be waiting a long time. Most times I don’t feel a bite or even see the line move at all. You must wear polaroid lens. You know where you dropped your fly, you see the fish MOVE the short 8" to the fly and reposition - head down tail up. Count to 2 and hook set! Seriously, out of well over 100 fish in the net in my log, I can’t count the number of fish that I felt bite on one hand.
Find 'em
put the fly in the zone
Signal from noise
Then hang on, 'cause you gonna have fun!
Rick
What he said
After watching Patrick in the video this brings up another point. I have taken more fishing inside of 15" than I have at over 40’. If you fish with a 9’ rod many times I have only a foot of fly line out of the last guide and leader. We call it dappling, almost using the fly rod like a cane pole. I know it isn’t like throwing those 60’ casts with pretty loops, but it gives you the control to make point number 2 work - put it in the zone. You just have a lot of control doing it this way. Good point Poke 'em.
Hi Pokem,
Your video showed me something very important about carp fishing that I didn’t know. Sneak more and cast less. Your fishing style looks almost like Czech nymphing without current. Great video! 8T 
Thanks Eight Thumbs! When the water gets warm and the fish are actively feeding, it can be a lot of fun. I’ve had 20-25 fish days that way.
I would really like to catch my first carp this year. While I have made a few casts to them before, I haven’t seriously targeted them. Is there a water temp where they start to actively feed in the shallows?
That’s funny. You posted that while I was typing.
Can you tell me what you mean by “warm”? I’m north of you a little ways in Kansas City, and am trying to figure out when I need to start trying to target them. I’ve been monitoring the water temps, and we’re still hovering around 49 deg up here.
This guy was caught this year on Feb 10th in Wisconsin in water temps in the mid 30s. They eat all year and can be caught all year, but are more active in the summer months. In other words, grab your rod and go now instead of waiting. Seriously my best time in still in the summer months. I move to chasing them when the vegetation on the trout streams gets over my head and it just becomes ugly to chase trout in July and August. I fish almost exclusively for carp then.
Perhaps we should work on a FAOL carp and bluegill festival! Something roughly the social equivalent of a monster truck rally for the fly fishing community. LOL! 
Seriously, though, I’d like to do something in that area myself. I’ve been kicking around trying to set up a bluegill fish-in of some sort if there was enough interest. It would be easy to add carp on it and broaden our horizons.
I haven’t really actively targeted carp, but have managed to hook into one or 2, including one on my 2 weight. They are fun!
Once the water temps hit about 60, I would say, the fish start getting more active. Once it hits 70-75 it can get really good.
But like Clay posted, you can definitely catch carp in lower temps. I didn’t have a thermometer with me, but I’d say the water we fished on Saturday (see the fishing reports forum) was probably mid to upper 50’s and we caught 10 or so between 4 of us.
Were you sight fishing in these conditions? Or were you blind casting to likely spots? After rereading what you wrote earlier, I guess I can answer my own question. You must have been sight fishing. The places I fish the most, the water is not real clear, especially this time of year. Some of the places I go, “clear” would be about 1 ft visibility. Others places are better.
I will definitely start looking for carp at the very next opportunity.
Sign me up, blue. You had me at bluegill. A nice carp would be icing on the cake. When you set this up, make sure I don’t miss it.
Tim! How’s it going?
I tried for carp on the fly rod for the first time last summer. After the first successful attempt, I tried it several more times.
I ended up landing 10, up to 32" & 16 lbs. Lost a few others that simply over-powered my 8wt gear! Or…“user-error”. :rolleyes:
Its addictive! Big fish, big fights, long powerful runs…they just never seem to give up! I can’t wait to get into some more this year. :tieone:
Step number one…fish were you know the carp are. They tend to bunch up below dams on rivers, or if you know some gravel flats on your area lakes…those are good spots to start.
Hi Dave. Thanks for chiming in.
I don’t have too many options for rivers around KC that I know of. They’re either too little or in the case of the big MO, too big.
I’ve got a couple of area lakes in mind to check out. Don’t know if they have “gravel flats” but I think they may have some good flats to investigate. Thanks for the tips.
The place in that video has the same kind of clarity you’re talking about. A lot of times all you can see is something in the water that looks “different.” Half the time, it seems, the hardest part if figuring out which end is the head and which is the tail.
Right on, I watched the video, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. I guess one of the things I need to learn is how to read the water. Just like learning to see trout swimming in a stream. Took me a while to be able to see them too.
I suppose that when you learn to see them, the lack of water clarity may help more than it hurts? If the water was crystal clear, then they could see you too and might spook more easily? Would they not?
I’ve got a couple places I’m going to stop at on the way home tonight.
Very true.
One thing to look for when searching for feeding fish. If you can find some aquatic vegetation that extends above the surface of the water (like cattails, for example), look for a “bouncing” piece of vegetation. You might not be able to see the fish right off, but if you see a piece of cattail or other “grass” moving in a strange way, that’s often going to be a fish feeding at its base.
