Carp Eat Flies Too

[Troutnut69]

Just thought this topic needed a little bump. It's that time of year again to grab the flyrod and head out to your favorite creek or lake and chase your favorite "trash fish". Got out on Wednesday for a couple hours and found a few willing players but it's only gonna get better.

A few more pics on the blog.....Jeff

http://highplainsflyfisher.blogspot.com/

Catch and Release Wild Carp

[Outside Bend]

Wicked drum!

[Wayne SW/MO]

I've got to get busy and unlock the secret to my local carp.

[Troutnut69]

Wayne - if you're interested in catching them on the fly , really there's no secret to it. If you can see em...you can catch em. Carp aren't picky about their diet , they love crayfish , leeches , hellgramites and even small baitfish when readily available. A fly that imitates one of these food items and is presented well to a feeding carp without spooking the fish should elicit a strike , obviously not every time but at least often enough to make things interesting. The real key is to find feeding fish , lazy or spawning fish can be almost impossible to get to eat at times. This is probably all stuff you already knew but it might help someone that's interested....

[stinger160]

Sounds like you are sight fishing. Is this correct? I'm not having much luck seeing carp in shallow water anymore (spawn is over?). Could use some help . . .

[Troutnut69]

stinger160 - I can honestly say I've never caught a carp on the fly that I didn't see first. From my experience sightfishing is the only way to go , blind casting an area and hoping to catch one is futile at best. Those fish up shallow splashing around are spawners and in my experience you might as well forget about getting them to eat very often , one track mind I guess. When a carp is feeding they're usually pretty stealthy and just slowly cruising a feeding area , occassionally tipping their mouth down to hoover up a sighted item or to root around for a food source. My two favorite types of areas for feeding carp are rocky shorelines where they often hunt small crayfish (one of thier favorite food items) and the shallow mud flats. I guess my best advice would be to keep at it , finding the right fish is more than half the battle , once you do a well presented fly will often result in a hook-up or at least a take. That being said, these fish aren't pushovers , they're as spooky as any trout I've ever encountered and once you make your presence known they're history. Hope some of that info helps you out , I'm by no means an expert....just another squirrel looking for a nut.

[stinger160]

Thanks, I want to get into the backing this year!

[Geoff]

Just now starting on the carp? ive been catching em on the fly since march now. I need to go chase some pigs though, i have some ideas on where I may find them

[Wayne SW/MO]

The trouble is I seldom see them. I don't have flats available to me that are shallow enough to reveal them.

I think my efforts, when I get busy, will be a hybrid approach. flies fished over a field or sour corn.

[laker67]

The trouble is I seldom see them. I don't have flats available to me that are shallow enough to reveal them.

I think my efforts, when I get busy, will be a hybrid approach. flies fished over a field or sour corn.

You got the right approach for fishing bull or loz Wayne.