I never really hear of people fishing dry flies for carp. I have seen carp eat bugs off the surface I can imagining a 25 LB carp taking a dry flie could induce a cardiac arrest. Im not going to ask what type of flies to use, because thats like asking what is the best bait in the world, But what is the best way to retrieve fry flies for carp. Should I just let them sit, or should I strip them in? This is still water by the way
Let them sit. BTW, the dries I’ve seen all have tended to look a lot like cottonwood seed. Carp love them. And it is an easy fly to tie.
Those cotton wood seed flies will be the first fly I tie. THey are all over this one pond and I have seen the carp crash to the surface and eat them
Anthony,
Try nothing more than a white CDC Oiler Puff or a clump of white CDC barbs tied to the hook. Can’t tell it from the cottonwood seed on the water.
Joe
Anthony; I have sorted quite a few Carp using a Parachute Madam X #14. have fun. Jax
Getting Old has it’s advantages. It slows you down just enough to get your timing for tightening into a trout Just Right.
I caught my largest carp as a kid, using my dad’s bamboo rod near the mouth of the AuSable River in Michigan. The fly was a Royal Coachman. My dad smoked the fish and it was great!
LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL
I’ve caught carp on grasshopper patterns in Yellowtail reservoir in Montana (feeds the Bighorn).
I’ve also stung, but never landed, huge grass carp on deer hair poppers.
LF,
If you liked smoked carp, try and find a real Jewish deli. Smoked carp is marketed as “sable.”
-Steven
Here’s a link to Brad Befus’ Cottonwood Seed Fly with CDC.
[url=http://www.nkyflyfishers.org/Docs/CDC%20Cottonwood%20Seed.pdf:6fa07]http://www.nkyflyfishers.org/Docs/CDC%20Cottonwood%20Seed.pdf[/url:6fa07]
If cottonwood seeds are on the water, this is deadly.
Joe
Being new to this, what is CDC?
Randy de Jong, rank beginner but willing to learn
I caught my first carp on the surface with a dry fly in a large canal near Phoenix. There was an algae bloom late in the day, and the algae was rising to the surface like yeast in a cup when you are proofing it for bread. It was coming up in clumps and the carp were rising to it like trout to a mayfly hatch. I greased a medium olive mohair woolly worm, got below a nice one and made the cast. He rose and took just like a trout except much larger than most trout.
This winter I observed the carp in a nearby lake swimming around on the surface with their mouths open scooping in something off the surface. I never did deterine what they were eating. I tried to intercept their line of “scooping” with nondescript dry flies, but was unsucessful. I’m pretty sure it was vegtable but they were very selective and spooky.
I have my best luck with a hair nymph when they are tipped up and have their noses in the mud.
I am on a golf course that have lakes with grass eating carp in them. When the mowers go by and spray the grass clipping into the lake you can see the crap cruising and slurping the grass like trout do spinners.
Randy,
CDC states for “Cul de canard” and they are the feathers close to the oil gland in birds, the ducks and goose have great CDC. They float like cork
I cought my only carp in a fly with an olive wooly buger in the Huron River in Ann Arbor, Mi.The beast fight hard for about 15 min. My 5 wt almost crashed!!!
Malevo
“It is not our differences that divide us; it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences” Audre Lorde
[This message has been edited by malevo (edited 10 March 2006).]
dejonster:
CDC is cul de canard (a type of feather)
I’ve also seen cottonwood seed patterns using closed cell white foam with white maribou for the fluff. It floats well.
Thanks everyone. Carp fishing is way underated. If you are fishing in hin clear water to bright koi(they are more wary) it take IMO more stealh than most trout.
Your right on with that advice. Corn is a very instant and versitle bait for carp. It is the staple bait of most carpers. Chumming in the same spot repeatadly will definetly establish a feeding pattern. Last summer I would constantly chum into one spot for like a month.
I am far from a fancy carper but I like to flavor my bait with a little almond extract.
Koi are awesome on the fly rod and despite popular belief, are the same exact species of carp (cyprinus carpio). They are more weary, but this is not a genetic difference, but a leanred behavior since they are such easy targets for large birds and fish.
I go to this pond in a cemetary with five koi, a few more than 20 pounds. The only catch is, you can come within 40 feet of these things: on land. They are very easily spooked
I now understand the term “poor man’s bonefish.” I hooked my first grass carp today on my ultra light spinning rod with 6lb. test. Thought I had it three times but it splashed me and took another run. It took pobly 6-9 runs with my drag as tight as I could risk witch is pretty tight. Finaly got it in and was trying to figure out how on earth to grab it when I pulled to much on the line in my hand. Broke off at the swivel. So some where in one of my local lakes is a grass carp between 7-10lbs. with a bright green bobber trailing from its mouth.
“Just when I’ve caught a nice trout and feeling very proud of my fly fishing ability, my feet fly out from under me and there I sit, wet, flustered and properly humiliated by the Fly Fishing gods.”
Jimmy Moore, “Taken Down a Notch or Two”
If you fish for carp, there is no alternative to using a landing net.
Anthony,
I had a net with me and stupid me didn’t think to use it.
Steven
I know what you mean. I make 99% of my stupid mistakes in the exitment of battling a fish, which unfortunetly, is a time where I cannot afford to make mistakes.