Grass Carp on fly

[BilletHead]

                   Why yes they are fun

[Quillback]

They stock grass carp here in the Bella Vista lakes for weed control purposes.  I accidentally snag one every once in a while, certainly would be fun on the fly.

In the winter sometimes I'll see one on it's side or belly up acting real sluggish almost like they are dying but as far as I can tell they are healthy, dunno what is up with that, maybe you guys do.  Anyway I like to sneak up on them when they are like that and whack them with my rod tip, talk about an explosion, LOL.

[FishnDave]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

                   Why yes they are fun

That's a healthy one!

[FishnDave]

2 hours ago, Quillback said:

They stock grass carp here in the Bella Vista lakes for weed control purposes.  I accidentally snag one every once in a while, certainly would be fun on the fly.

In the winter sometimes I'll see one on it's side or belly up acting real sluggish almost like they are dying but as far as I can tell they are healthy, dunno what is up with that, maybe you guys do.  Anyway I like to sneak up on them when they are like that and whack them with my rod tip, talk about an explosion, LOL.

I've seen them do that before.  I think that fish IS dying...slowly.  Seems like one I saw do that was dead a few days later. 

[MOPanfisher]

MANY years ago when I was a teenager a friend had a 7 acre private lake we had helped stock with grass carp (which is a whole nother story) I caught one on a jointed rapala minnow.  The owner happened to be there when I did it, that thing was all I culd do to lift all hold it, he guessed all not 50#s.  Those things hung around the edge of that lake allndtnd would spook like a giant submarine crossed with a funny car.  If you weren't expecting it, and even if you were it would scare the dickens out of you, sort of like a covey of quail getting up. we used to actually rake up grass clippings and feed them, also old green bean vines, anything green they ate.  They also completely ruined a pretty nice little bass fishing lake by eating every single green thing.  But they were WAY over stocked which is part of the nother story.  The one I caught was a good fight but not nearly the fight I would have expected from a common carp of that size.  Now I am sound MOCARP guy.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, FishnDave said:

That's a healthy one!

                     Was stripping some streamers looking for hybrids. There was a pod of grass carp. I noticed them actually tracking and even moving at the big streamer. I then decided to give one something size appropriate. Put on a Clouser swimming nymph. Tossed it in front of them. It was a race to see which one got there first and attacked it! What a hoot. Not my first and hopefully not my last on the fly. 

[FishnDave]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

                     Was stripping some streamers looking for hybrids. There was a pod of grass carp. I noticed them actually tracking and even moving at the big streamer. I then decided to give one something size appropriate. Put on a Clouser swimming nymph. Tossed it in front of them. It was a race to see which one got there first and attacked it! What a hoot. Not my first and hopefully not my last on the fly. 

I wonder why they were feeding that way....and why they don't do that more often?  Imagine if they were always that easy to catch?  That would be SO MUCH FUN!

All the ones I've caught have given a good accounting of themselves...they just never seem to want to give up!  As one guy described it, he thinks the only way to land them is the grass carp doesnt get tired, but eventually gets BORED of the fight.  When my big one hit, it was like 3 big explosions....like a beaver slapping its tail on the water when spooked.  Then it took off and porpoised the top 1/2 of its body out of the water a couple times as it head for the middle of the pond.  Then it went deeper and bulldogged.  Back and forth, back and forth. Each time I'd get it close to shore, it would surge away again.  Over and over.  I didn't have a net, and I knew my line was crap, so I couldn't horse the fish at all.  Dang that was fun!

[moguy1973]

My in-laws have a couple of them in their pond that would go over 40" I'd bet.  Massive fish.  Can see their dorsal fin cruising the surface.  Look like little sharks out there.

[Johnsfolly]

13 hours ago, FishnDave said:

Then it took off and porpoised the top 1/2 of its body out of the water a couple times as it head for the middle of the pond.  Then it went deeper and bulldogged.  Back and forth, back and forth. Each time I'd get it close to shore, it would surge away again.  Over and over.  I didn't have a net, and I knew my line was crap, so I couldn't horse the fish at all.  Dang that was fun!

Thats  awesome and what fishing is about IMO! You know it's  memorable if you get the same thrill telling the story over again.

[FishnDave]

4 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Thats  awesome and what fishing is about IMO! You know it's  memorable if you get the same thrill telling the story over again.

Yes, lots of good memories.  I would have loved to have had a video of that whole sequence.  It was very dramatic.  That big one was from a public pond with a walking trail around it, and a public swimming pool, library, track, practice football fields, and skateboard park right next to it.  There had been LOTS of people walking around on the trail...and when the big grass carp did those 3 loud tail-slaps on the water, I was sure it would get a lot of people's attention.  I looked to see who had seen it...NOBODY WAS AROUND!  And then once I'd landed it, I was hoping someone would be around to help take my picture with the fish.  But the place had completely cleared out...nobody was around at all. 

Most good fish have a good story about the catching.  Sometimes you don't even need a fish in the story.  And some stories were, at the time, scary!  Like when I lived in northern Illinois and was wading back upstream in a smallmouth bass river after dark to get back to my car...then hearing some crashing in the trees and brush along shore to my left, and then a big splash in the water just ahead of me.  My mind processes that the sound would be exactly what an alligator would sound like entering the water to attack me.  Because, what else would do that??  That feeling of fear, and then realizing "alligators don't live around here."  Unless somebody released a pet?  Now, I've seen alligators before...they don't scare me, especially if I can SEE them.  But the thought of being in the dark with them around is a different situation.   Calming down, then hearing another giant splash to the right.  And this is happening in nearly complete darkness, couldn't really see anything except the outline of the tops of trees against the sky.  More fear.  Then I finally figured out what what it MUST have been.  Dang beaver!  That's a good memory too.