Fly Fishing Forum banner

Carp Success!

2K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  pmflyfisher 
#1 ·
I can now report with complete confidence that carp WILL eat a #6 unweighted brown wooly bugger. No bait or scent required! On one day I had two followers and then a taker that promptly snapped my leader and swam off with my only brown bugger. I tied up a few more that night, and the next day I tried them at another lake where I eventually hooked and landed a nice 8 - 10 pound mirror carp that took me right down to the backing on my 9 wt!

A little sight fishing, Berkshire County style:



Carp on!



Getting tired now:



And the release:



Persistence pays!

Q
 
See less See more
4
#4 ·
Q, it's nice to see that you can get those fish on! I still haven't caught one intentionally yet; they always take a nymph in a current seam when I'm fishing for something else. Perhaps I'll try the wooly bugger approach in my local pond.

Contrary to what's stated above, if you catch enough stripers you'll eventually come across one that comes out of the water. It's rare, but it happens. :eyecrazy: :)

Good job Q!
 
#7 ·
JD, I only got one of the small ones and it was quite a bulldozer. Can't wait to get one of the big ones. I saw several that were probably over 25 pounds! And, believe it or not, I have had a carp jump after being hooked (while bait fishing :tsk_tsk: ). It was just a little one, but it porpoised right out of the water on the first run!

Thanks Juro! You should see all the "dud" shots. I really need a digital camera!

Mark, if they eat nymphs in the river they may eat them in the pond too. Whatever you use, you just have to keep trying! I probably casted to more than a hundred fish before I finally got one.

John, on the first day I was using a floating line and retrieving slowly with some pauses to let the fly sink down a little. The carp were cruising in a couple of feet of murky water that had a lot of weed cover so they weren't too spooky. At first I wasn't sure if they were really following the fly or just happened to be swimming in the same direction, and then one of them actually ate the fly! On the second day I was fishing in clearer water. Some of the fish were cruising but some were grubbing on the bottom and making "muds". The fish ignored the fly or got spooked every time I thought I'd made a good presentation, so I switched to an intermediate line to get the fly closer to the bottom and used a single piece of fluoro for a leader so there wouldn't be any knots near the fly. The fish I caught was grubbing on the bottom in about 2 feet of water. I casted just beyond the fish, let the fly sink to the bottom and dragged it slowly through the stirred up mud right in front of the fish.
 
#8 ·
Quentin, good pictures, that water looks clear which is not the standard situation for carp, yes they will take flies wooly worms are known to work, have to find the right color for pond/lake/river brown or olive I would start with. Also would try various nymphs, like a Zug Bug or scuds. You may like these better than stripers. They do jump at times.

Some of the biggest river fish I have hooked while fly fishing for trout and bass have been big carp. Biggest was about 25 lbs from lake michigan on a streamer at night, thought it was a big brown or steelhead, had about 20 people watch me fight that thing for 20+ minutes. You should have seen the crowds face and laughter when I got it up to the pier for the netting. Glad I moved from Indiana to Chicago so these people cannot kid me about that one anymore.

I was just wondering if stripers jump,did not think they would , which is what it seems from the comments above.

Start tying those carp patterns will be good practice for salt water flats fishing and experience with fighting big fish on the bug rod.

Hal
 
#9 ·
Quinten,

You got lucky when you cast beyond the Carp and retrieved the fly back towards him. Probably only worked because he had stirred up enough mud that he couldn't really tell where the fly was coming from. It was just there. Remember prey does not move towards the predator! Always try to place the fly in front of the fish or a little to the near side. That way when you strip the fly, it will be moving away from the fish, like it is trying to get away.

In really clear water, they even spook away from a clear line. I have had them swim right up to the line, turn and follow the line, both towards me or away from me, but they will not swim under the line.

Watch for the cat tails or reeds to dance as they navigate through them. Cast into the cuts and pockets. Also watch for them to poke their snouts up through thick algie as they cruise along beneath it and take a little bite now and then.

BTW cruisers in a group are usually moving from one place to the next and will not eat but it's hard to resist not throwing a fly at them anyway. Try for the last one of the bunch.

If you really want to get serious about this, read the book "Carp on the Fly"
 
#11 ·
Nice work Juro! Can you make it look like a 40"er?

JD, thanks for the tips. I'll try to put them to good use! I did notice that the carp seemed to be wary of the leader and fly line, which is part of the reason I switched to the intermediate line and fluoro leader. I thought it would help keep the shadow of the line from crossing over the fish and that it would prevent the fly from rising upwards when I stripped the line, which also seemed to spook the fish. The carp that were mudding were completely oblivious to me unless I got very close to them or slapped the line on the water right over them. The tough part was getting them to notice the fly. I got lucky on the "successful" cast because the leader curved towards the fish as it landed, so even though the cast was beyond the fish, the fly moved away from the fish when I started stripping line. Unfortunately, I can't claim that I planned it that way!
 
#12 ·
pmflyfisher said:
Some of the biggest river fish I have hooked while fly fishing for trout and bass have been big carp. Biggest was about 25 lbs from lake michigan on a streamer at night, thought it was a big brown or steelhead, had about 20 people watch me fight that thing for 20+ minutes. You should have seen the crowds face and laughter when I got it up to the pier for the netting. Glad I moved from Indiana to Chicago so these people cannot kid me about that one anymore.

Hal
That must have been quite a show. At least it was a fish! I saw someone battle one of those plastic shopping bags for more than five minutes on a big surf rod. The guy was so excited! As it got close everyone thought it was a big ray. Then we saw what it was and the whole pier exploded with laughter!
 
#14 ·
Quentin,

Yes and I am glad it was at night when mine happened so I could slip away into the dark. Any way I was with a bunch of guys from work, as I recall my big carp was the top fish of that night so I had bragging and comedy rights. Glad I moved from that area and job a year later otherwise I would be hearing about it to this day.

Hal
 
#15 ·
Carp sightings

Did my normal 3 mile run at lunch time today through some corporate office parks that have ponds, an lo and behold what do I see, but about 7 nice 5-10 lb carp sunning them selves.

Perhaps I should bring the bug rod with me on my runs, since this is an untouched fishery.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top