Last night I had a few dozen carp laugh and point at my feeble attempt at fishing for them. I'm here to admit I have no idea how to catch carp and past success at it was purely dumb luck. I am planning a rematch and need help on a game plan. I was fishing Lake Tapps which is still very low. There's a channel on one side of my dad's property that's now has 1-2.5 feet of water in any given place. There were actively feeding carp everywhere in this channel. I threw buggers of many different colors as well as damsel nymphs with a intermediate sinking like so that my fly would pass in front of them as they were moving in/out of the channel. They weren't at all interested in what I had or how I presented it. What should I try next time? Small bead head nymph under an indicator?
were they feeding or spawning? i fished yesterday and 90% of the fish were spawning. If i found a single fish I could catch it, but fish in pairs/groups were impossible. if they were tailing and feeding, I would really focus on the fish. when they feed, the pattern is less important than getting the fly right onto their dinner plate. watch the fish for any movement when the fly is in position, and set the hook if they do anything differently than they had been doing. good luck!
A piece of corn will do wonders for your hookups! Although this may not be your idea of fly fishing, it's guaranteed to get a take. Now if only I could figure out how to tie the elusive 'Del Monte Corn Fly"... Regards, S Miller
Seems like I saw a corn fly on some fly tying sight but I can't remember where. Happens when you get old. A friend told me to use the same scud pattern I use for trout at RF. I haven't tried carp yet, but it is on my list.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/11297fotw.html I've had great success with this pattern on the Columbia and inland reservoirs, especially in olive. Weight it according to how deep you need to fish. I tie them in 8's and 10's. good luck
I've never had much luck with corn. Carp are in full spawn mode in most of the pacific northwest right now. Those moving/school fishing are almost impossible to get to catch. I would offer then a larger fly such as a realistic looking crayfish, and give it a little movement. You want to distract them from the spawn, which is not really an easy task. Try to find single fish that are not moving, with their heads on the bottom feeding. Go work on these fishing, trying to get the fly as close to their face with little movement. If they want it, they will stop feeding and suck it in.
Wrench (Keith Meyers) has a good carp article here on the forum. Also take a look at the Spring 2007 issue of Flyfishing & Tying Journal for my article. Andy is right about the difficulty of catching carp when they have sex on the mind. The good carpers like Darc Knobel, Mike Huffer and Greg Mills are tending to use softer, more wiggly patterns tied with marabou, rabbit and rubber legs, then getting the fly in front of a willing fish. I hooked a mondo carp last Tuesday on a Chocolate Banana (size 2 6xl) while fishing for smallmouth but all the other carp just slid off the shallows into deeper water before I could get the fly down to their level. The key is getting the fly down to their level, then watching very carefully for the take as carp can reject a fly ever so quickly. That's why the carpers are moving to softer flies--they believe the fish hold the fly longer. They also swear by flourocarbon tippets.
Thanks guys, I'm definitely learning some better tactics than my flogging the water with streamers hoping that they'll chase it like a trout might. I think I'm going to rig up a couple rods with different setups, stand on a stump and watch for feeders. I'm pretty sure they aren't spawning. My reasoning is that Tapps is being filled right now and the water is coming directly out of the White River- lots of very cold runoff. I didn't take a reading but I think temp was maybe 55 degrees (this is at the outlet of the lake). 55 seems pretty low for spawning?
Carp on the Fly by Beefus & Reynolds, or something like that, is the bible. Spawning carp, forget it. Come back next week. They'll be hungry after the spawn. Make sure your hooks are razor sharp. Dull hooks won't penetrate rubber lips. Carp will eat darn near anything. Part of why they can survive in less that perfect environments. So they are not fussy about the fly. Nymphs work, wholly buggers work, even moss flies work. Presentation is the key. Trash fish? Maybe. Stupid? Not! Pull like a Mack truck? Definitely!
I've had some luck by casting in front of them with a San Juan worm. Let it sit a bit and then give it a small twitch. One or two twitches usually does it. Fred
C-Dub, just returned from a week in Kennewick. Fished everyday for carp using a black beadhead woollybugger, size 6. Caught two, lost two. They're not in a feeding mood right now. I was surrounded by them to the point where I could dangle a fly in front of their noses and absolutely no interest. I'd give them a couple of weeks... Did get into some nice smallies near the mouth of the Yakima on the same fly.
Fished the Snake where the Palouse dumps into it the last two weekends. Had stellar day's. Nothing better than catching alot of 10lb+ Carp on a six weight....Most carp on the flats were in spawning...but if you hit the rocks, they were eager to take a fly. In our waters around here I only use a Wooly Worm...black chenille for the body....grizzly hackel palmered along the body and a bead head to get it down and 10lb flo-carbon line. Any carp that you see "tailin" is you best bet and their "spook-ablility" will determind how close you can/need to get you fly. When you put your fly in front of the carp and the carp appears to angle down...... count to 3 or 5 and set.....while the cruiser's are hard to catch do not disregard them just because they are cruising..just means your fly placement/sink rate has to be right on...you won't catch many but if they are your only choice......the more you fish for them the more the carp will tell you how and when to fish...:beer2:
http://www.flyfisherman.com/midwest/dwcarp/ Has a lot of hints and tips as do a couple of other articles there by Dave Whitlock. I've been fishing for them with the fly rod since the 50s and here are a few quick observations. When you see them primarily up in the weeds, wallowing around, splashing, etc --they are indeed, spawning and almost uncatchable. When you see them out and about but jumping into the air and in general swimming around in large schools, you might catch one but it's hard. Here a San Juan worm, hung from a strike indicator or a spider imitation such as a Turk's Tarantula are two suggestions. When you see them glooping on the surface, look for what they are feeding on. Cottonwood fluff and spent midges or mayflies cause this behavior and cottonwood fluff flies work here as does many of the spent caddis, midge/mayfly patterns. When you see tails up, then they are actively bottom feeding and it's Carp sight fishing at it's best. Determine the direction they are feeding, what they are feeding on if at all possible and drop your fly about two feet in front of them. When the reach the flies vicinity, look for a stop, look for a white mouth flashing or anything, like a turn away, etc that indicates the fish has just ate your fly. Have a box of flies from floaters to fast sink that resemble buggy critters to target them when feeding at different depths. The fly has to be right in front of them as the water and their sight combine to make this a short range sight thing.:beer2:
if they're spawning you aren't going to catch them, unless you can find an unpaired fish. those will basically be the only ones you'll have a chance at getting a take...spawning or not, i like to fish patterns that swim upside down like bonefish flies...up-side down craws are my go to flies when it gets tough...go onto rainy's flies website and look at their carp fly selection
