Looking For Some Carp Near St. Louis

[trizkid]

hey guys I have been seriously wanting to get out and catch some carp on my fly rod....I am just wondering if anyone knows he reasonably close and easily accessable areas to try my hand at this...its seems like theyd be a blast to fight on the fly

[snagged in outlet 3]

I've posted this before. Creve Coeur Lake. Not the main lake but the canal under the Page Ext. There is road to the Lakeside Bar I think you can park along to get there. It is absolutely loaded with carp. I've seen it covered in carp sipping cottonwood fluffs.

Report your success.

SIO3

[ksbass]

Triz,

What technique/flies do you typically use for carp in your area? The crazy carp spawning season is almost upon us and they are very active the weeks prior to the spawn. We have found that they congregate in large numbers in the shallows and are near the surface clooping on nothing in particular. Atleast nothing big like fluff or seed pods, etc. More of a social gathering thing it seems. Last year this behaviour peaked on Mother's day weekend. We did very well fishing for them using a #10 dark olive leech fished 8" below a very small indicator. Stealth is important! We would manuveur the canoe close to them and cast ahead of their general direction of travel. The carp would approach the indicator, sometimes sucking it in and spit it out, then dive. Most of the time they

would grab the leech. High odds even that this would result in a hook up. Don't do a heavy hookset though as you're likely to pull it out too soon. Just raise the rod. The carp will turn sharply as if hit with a cattle

prod and you have a fish on. Later, like late May to mid June, when the fluff and berries start falling you can catch them on top with the cottonwood seed flies and the mulberries. We did well on the berry flies even two weeks before they were actually ripe and falling. Carp seem to know the "plop" sound of a tasty berry and respond to the fly. Carp on a "dry" fly are very challenging and very slow on the take. Later in the season once they get into the tailing only mode, catching them becomes more challenging. We haven't got that totally figured out yet. Here's some of the flies we use for carp in the KC area. The leech and mulberry are the primary flies for us.

Goodluck,

ksbass