In my situation, I work 5 and ahalf days a week every week. This only leaves me Saturday evening to go fishing and with a wife and 6 year old son, not many of those come around. I prefer fishing for trout, but where I live it is at least 45 minutes to the nearest trout stream. That is an hour and a half round trip. So last saturday I went practicing for trout.
There is a local creek about 10 minutes from my house where there are plenty of creek chubs and a few carp. The carp aren’t big like you find in a pond, but I’d say anywhere from 2 to 3 pound range. The important thing for me, is it is in a stream, where I practice casting and presentation. The water is also perfectly clear and the fish can see me as well as I can see them. I caught several creek chub, and 2 carp. One about 10 inches long. Which I caught on a bee pattern sent to me by my secret santa last Christmas. thanks santa
Now you know my situation, here is my question. The carp held in the water perfectly still, then all at once they would just go every which away. I think there must have been a hatch going on, but I couldn’t figure out what they were eating. i picked up a big rock and found 2 critters underneath. I don’t know what they were, but i had a fly that was roughly the same shape size and color. But they wouldn’t hit it for anything. So my question is, do you need to match the hatch on carp? All I caught were the smaller ones, which made me wonder if I was catching the less experienced fish? I’m not sure what they were doing, i wondered briefly if they were mating, but I don’t think so. Any help at all would be appreciated. i’d like to go back this week and practice some more. I want to catch a fish big enough to play. That way when i hook a big ole brown someday, i’ll know what to do.
thanks in advance,
hNt
PS The carp on the bee pattern wasn’t caught on top of the water. The water was swift enough it put the bee under water, just like a real drowned terrestrial would be. I really didn’t think it would work, but it did.
The folks who catch carp swear by nymphs, fished on the bottom. Really. Hit the SEARCH feature on the front page and type in carp or go to the Canada Archives and look for the articles on fishing for carp by Chris Marshall.
Carp are notorious for feeding on midges so I’d suspect that for starters and next time try about a size 18 midge :idea:for starts then adjust the size up or down. One of my favorites when they are not tailing but are feeding as you describe is a larva lace Midge tied with a smidgen of white foam on it’s head, fished either in the film or bead headed and under an indicator set at the depth which the fish seem to be keying in on and oh by the way, I do exactly the opposite and fish for trout at times keeping my game refined for Carp!
I have a warm water river 400 yards from my front door, with lots of big carp in it. I use small nymphs, midges, scuds and crayfish most of the time, but they will take streamers in the early spring (white zonkers work well for me) . I usually don’t find I need to go smaller than a 16 with the nymphs. Woolly Buggers work well too. If they are hanging around where people feed ducks bread, a Puke fly works really well.
By the sound of what you are describing, your carp are either mating OR you spooked them. I don’t bother casting to carp unless I see them actively feeding. You’ll see them tail up, head down and little clouds of mud puffing up. OR you’ll see them sipping off the surface just like a big trout does. (not as common as bottom feeding) . When carp are spawning, it’s useless to cast to them. They will be swarming in clusters, pushing the female into the shallows. Lots of splashing is usually seen.
You may have also spooked them. If they saw you or heard your approach, they will stop feeding, then any movement from you will usually send them in ten different directions. Sight fishing for carp is a lot of fun but it will also test you. It will teach you a lot about the real art of fishing.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/ianjames/carp.html (If you go here, make sure to take the time to read through the site, especially the Tips and Tricks part if you want some good laughs.)
Thanks so much for the link to that video on carp fishing! It was absolutely wonderful to watch! Those fly rods looked like they may have been fiberglass. They had to be strong because they were sure put through the “ringer”!
I consider trout fishing OK practice for carp.
Let’s be honest about this…what’s harder: nymphing a bubble line for trout or sight fishing to carp?
I know a couple of guys who guide the Bighorn. They love it when a sport asks to go up to Yellowtail reservoir and sight fish dries to carp. To them it’s an indicator that the client knows how to fish.
Chub are OK practice for trout. Chub tend to live in slower water though (at least that’s my impression).
there are times and places where catching trout on a fly rod is stupefyingly easy, there are times and places where catching carp is simple, and also the opposite situations happen. As kids we used to catch carp on wet flies and nymphs whenever we couldn’t catch anything else… my only regret is that I didn’t seen the future and think people would someday look to carp as being the equal to bonefish and guides would charge more to take people after carp than they do for trout!!!
Really want to catch carp on your fly rod? use a #10 brown or olive woolly worm with a squirt of crawfish scent on it. Put it somewhere upcurrent of a carp and hold on. Carp are as much scent feeders as they are sight feeders, probably moreso. IMO fly fishermen in general need to get over themselves and use scent when appropriate, like all the other kinds of fishermen.
Love that video and I’m looking forward to fly fishing for carp oneday. I have a few friends which fish for carp around the year and they say as a fighting fish on a fly rod, in fresh water nothing beats them down here. I would certainly like to try and see for myself
