Hey guys, toorrow I’ll be fishing the lake I told you about on the other post, and the good news is that I met someone who actually knows and has seen were the carp feed!!! he is a photographer and he showed me some awesome pics of carp that might easily hit the 50lb mark!!! hope to get a shot at one of those monsters, well I’ll let you know on monday what happened
Tight lines and big smiles
Xavier
PS: I’ll be taking some cheerios and dog food just in case you know hehehe
for the cheerios and dog food you have to condition the fish over time…won’t work right from the get go…
Don’t keep us in suspense!!! Tell us how it went!
Lux
For cruising carp try the leaping nymph technique.cast well ahead of a cruiser,wait till he gets close and jerk the fly so it"leaps"off the bottom.obviously the fly shouldn’t move too far,just sort of dart off about a half inch or so.works well!
Hey guys, yesterday was a total mess, we arrived early at the lake and it was a little overcast,and I discoverd that I hve made a mistake I have picked up the 1 wt not the 5wt rod but anyway I put on my wader nd fins and started kicking the belly boat to the place I was indicated the carp have been seen feeding, I saw lots of carp, but most of them cruised just inches from my belly boat!!! and couldn’t cast to them, finally I saw one before it was too close, I cast a small PT nymph, guess a size 18 water was very clear and the fish saw the fly and took it on the fall, when I saw the fish fro the side I noticed a little problem it was about 20 or 30 lbs!!! and all I had was the 1wt and 6X tippet, the first run took almost half of my backing and the whole flyline, the fish just stood there for a while not moving in any direction, and then again it moved a little farther, but that almost eptied the spool, you can imagine the feeling… well after that I was able to recover some line, not bringing the fish in but using its weight to pull the BB towrds it hehehe that was a pretty funny sceene, well almos about 45 minutes after the fish took the fly I saw it again about 3 mt from me and then it started circling around me!!! and getting closer, I was really anxious and tired, but I really thought I was going to land the fish, but I was wrong during one of those laps, the fish dived beneath me and tangled the leader on one of those D-rings or zippers I really on’t know but the weight just disapeared along with the fly… after that I landed a couple of small carp the first about 3lbs and the other might have weighted 5 at most, the it started rainning like hell and had to head back to shore, and that was it cuz hte rain didn’t stop for hours. Well maybe next time.
Tight lines and big smiles
Xavier
Sounds like a blast to me! Next time I hope you grab either the 5wt or use some hevier leader material…and land that big one!
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
Bill
I would say the 5 weight is too light as well. I hooked into my first carp (a 29 incher) this spring) and the rod just did not have enough backbone to move the fish. Took me an hour and a half to tire the thing out enough to land it (don’t worry, it took off immediately after the release – what tough fish!!!)
From now on, I’m going with the 7 weight for carp fishing.
A five weight is more than enough rod for any size of common carp. You may need to learn how to more effectively fight fish.
It’s all about the size of your tippet, for carp fishing, I use 8 or 10 pounds and not an ounce less. They’re a lot of fun on a 2 weight.
–playin’ with my piscatorial pals–
[url=http://www.fedflyfishers.org/certified.php:3276b]FFF Certified Casting Instructor[/url:3276b]
[url=http://www.trashonthefly.com:3276b]http://www.trashonthefly.com[/url:3276b]
I’d have to agree that the 5wt is plenty of rod. Especially if the carp have decimated the foliage in the water. I caught the larger one in this image on my St. Croix Imperial 5wt. Took about 20 mins to land, and almost straightened out the hook, but no problems.
Don
Their a blast on 3wt equip. only ever been hooked into a train three times while useing my 3wt. but if deep nymping for trout and a carp takes…well there is no choice in what rod your going to use…same with tippet in some situations …I’ve not landed any on less than 4lb test…small stream, deep hole and 30 inch fish…made for a fun ten min…knowing the how to use equipment and the properties of such is a definite plus…when it happens to be my 7wt in hand it’s still a blast!!!
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
Bill
Maybe I just need to learn to trust the strength of the rod a bit more. I was down stream of the fish, and I still couln’t move it without putting almost a U-shaped bend in the rod.
I guess a 2wt or 5 wt rod is ok if you intend to kill the fish.
jsalkas, careful not to put the rod too high in the sky and break it. Point towards the fish, but not exactly straight at it, and you can move the bend down toward the butt section and get more power. Also with any rod and any fish you can always point the rod directly at the fish and pull on the line only.
Oldflyer said:
I guess a 2wt or 5 wt rod is ok if you intend to kill the fish.
And I respond:
You obviously haven’t met me and also have no idea how to fight fish. A 5 is more rod than you need to land any carp. I don’t kill fish. You’ll also never hear me talk about any 20 minute or 45 minute or hour and a half long battle, because I know how to fight fish. If I have a fish on for 5 minutes, that’s an extreme for me. Very very rare. Never for anywhere close to 10 minutes.
I usually let carp take the first run, bring them to me, they see me and take another, and then I bring them close and net them. Sometimes they’ll do a quick couple of head shakes and then I take control again.
LHD, you are right I have never met you. On the other hand you are dead wrong when you say I do not know how to fight fish.
OTH, if you bothered to actually read the thread you can see by the “fighting” times reported, that not everyone is nearly as adept as you report yourself to be. Most fishermen would fall into that category; and IHMNSHO they have no business overmatching their rod and fighting fish to exhaustion.
Oldflyer;
If you look at the picture, you will note that that fish was not intended for any sort of release back into the river. The both of them were filetted out, batterred and fried. I love to catch carp, but for me they do not go back into the water.
Don
Oldflyer; that’s why I try to bring this up instead of just burying my head in the mud whenever I see the topic.
You don’t have to be a genious to fight a fish to hand in a very quick manner. You just need someone to show you how. Since that is better seen than told; I bring up the subject so that hopefully some people will open their eyes and figure out they need to do a little learning.
When you said “I guess a 2wt or 5 wt rod is ok if you intend to kill the fish.” that leads the uninformed to think that a 2wt or 5wt rod is incapable of safely and humanely landing a large fish. That is simply not true. Comments like that perpetuate ignorance, not cure it.
–playin’ with my piscatorial pals–
[url=http://www.fedflyfishers.org/certified.php:b35f3]FFF Certified Casting Instructor[/url:b35f3]
[url=http://www.trashonthefly.com:b35f3]http://www.trashonthefly.com[/url:b35f3]
" I don’t kill fish. You’ll also never hear me talk about any 20 minute or 45 minute or hour and a half long battle, because I know how to fight fish. If I have a fish on for 5 minutes, that’s an extreme for me. Very very rare. Never for anywhere close to 10 minutes."
Dave, no disrepect, but would like to see and learn to land a 20 lb carp on 6X tippet and a 1 wt rod in less than 10 minutes, I have been fishing for this fish for the past 13 or 14 years and man I really don’t think I can land a 20 lb carp on that equipment in les than 10 minutes, on the 5 weight thats another story, I have landed fish up to 19 lbs in about 10 minutes using 8lb tippet.
Best regards
Xavier
Xavier; I don’t use 6x tippet. Fish aren’t afraid of monofilament-- they are afraid of unnatural sounds, shadows, movements, and yes, fly drag in some very limited circumstances.
Probably 99% of all non-trout fishing situations don’t call for anything smaller than 6 or 8 pound test. I only use 4 tippet sizes: 8#, 10#, 12#, and 15#. I used to use 10 for virtually everything and 15 for very special and rare circumstances. Now I usually either use 8 or 12 because I’m using a different brand of mono.