Fly Fishing

CORTES · Posted: Wed 08/05/09 3:13 pm Post subject: Carp On Dry Flies, What Fly Patterns?

BY MY MOTHER IN LAWS HOUSE THERE IS A BIG POND I FISH IT WHEN EVER IM THERE BUT THE OTHER DAY WAS DIFFERENT IWAS PULLING UP ONE OF THE HARD AND VERY MUCH WORKED FOR BASS IT HOLDS WHEN A HUGE GLOP AND BIG SWIRLL AROSE IV SEEN THIS HERE BEFORE BUT NEVER THAT BIG I ALWAYS DISMISS IT FOR PAN FISH OR CRAPPIE I STOPED FISHING AND OBSERVED IT TO BE A GRASS CARP DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHAT FLIES THE LIKE AND WHAT KIND OF PRESENTATION IS CALLED FOR . THAT NIGHT I FOUND ONE PATTERN ON THE INTERNET SISTER SOMETHINGS GRASS CARP FLY I DIDENT HAVE THE INGREDIENTS SO I IMPROVIZED WITH SOME OLIVE ANTRON YARN I RUBBED SOME GRASS ON IT AND GOT 1 STRIKE I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO HEAR WHAT U GUYS KNOW ABOUT CARP I HEARD THEY ARE GOOD FIGHTERS AND IM DIEIN TO GET ONE HOOKED UP.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Carp are very difficult fish to fool on a fly. Actually they have fairly poor eyesight so they get very close to whatever they are eating. They have extremely good sense of smell and use their barbels on the tip of their nose to smell their food. These two factors combined make them very difficult. They also are omnivores eating both plant and animal matter. Certain species like grass carp eat mostly vegetation. The key as in most fly fishing is to try and figure out exactly what they are eating and deliver the closest fly to that that you have. A lot of times carp will jump and swirl and make surface commotion when they aren't eating (frequently when spawning) so just because you see one explode on the surface doesn't necessarily mean they are eating. If they are eating, best thing to do is try to match the food source. There is some great information on this site about carp if you just search for past article in the forum.
Good Luck!

Joe_M · Location: Boston

I have a spot about a mile from my house where I found that the carp have been really keyed in on choke cherries, not kidding. They cruise around under the choke cherry trees and wait for them to drop in to the water. It's not dry fly action but still all sight fishing. I just flip my choke cherry fly (a purple glowbug) in front of a cruising fish and hold on. You kind of need to be able to see the fly to set the hook cause they spit out really quickly. Most of the fruit is gone now so I guess I'll have to find another tactic, but it was fun while it lasted.

I hear ya on having to work hard for your bass. While I have the carp dialed in at my spot, I can't seem to get the bass to take hold. I have tried a bunch of flies and and regularly get them to follow it back to shore but no takes.

hookmeup · Location: Willoughby, OH

Speaking of glow bugs, I haven't been able to try this yet, but I have wanting to try an egg pattern next time out, the same color and size as a piece of corn. Seems like it should work. I got a buddy who is strickly a bait fisherman that has pictures of some monsters he's caught. His arssenal is a can of corn.

I do think they will hit anything if it is placed in there face. I caught a 4/5 lb carp river fishing for smallies in a Lake Erie trib earlier this summer. Was dead drifting a crayfish pattern.

keeganite · Posted: Sat 11/27/10 3:24 pm Post subject:

I had no luck for 2 plus years casting to the large grass carp on my pond. Once in a while they would go for the sister carp fly and a berry looking fly but only a couple of times and then I didn't get the hook in them. I started feeding the bass and brim some fish food pellets and sure enough the large carp would consistently come up and sip the brown pellets off the surface. On the full moon in October I chummed them up one afternoon and cast a brown elk hair caddis fly amongst the chum and that week I ended up hooking 10 with a couple going 30 lbs. Best action I had in two plus years. I think chumming them first is the way to get them going. They would come up to the caddis and slowly inhale it. The caddis that were lighter in color did not produce the way the fly that matched the color of the fish pellet did. they also seemed to like one tied with a little orange in it, size 12 hooks. I've saltwater flyfished all my life and only target tarpon on fly in may, june and july. I am thoroughly impressed with the fighting ability of these bruisers. At first I used my 4 weight but was undergunned. Did manage to land one 25 pounder on the 4 weight but a few other bruisers were tough to stop. 6-9 weight for those bigger fish was the way to go. Good luck.

mazargreen · Posted: Wed 04/06/11 10:38 am Post subject: carpin chicago

I generally stick with yellow or orange hex nymphs, it's not worth your time unless the water clarity is good. I've even seen corn and berry imitation flys but that's not very sporting in my book. if you can't get them on a fly rod try the old peanut butter and stale bread with a little water and you will have one on the line in a matter of minutes.

snowkid17 · Location: central florida

Everytime I kayak on one of my local lakes I always see these huge swells that I believe to be carp. How do I recognize whether if they are carp or not? Usually I am bass fishing then so just out of interest I toss a leech in there and they spook off. There was one time that I got close enough to see that there was a dark top color of the fish and that the mouth and bottom was white. They also move in big schools very fast. How can I tell if they are really grass carp? If so what fly do I use, because in florida most of some of the lakes are very murky here?

MidwestChrome · Posted: Tue 07/05/11 12:07 am Post subject:

you really just have to look where they are. If there are bushes with berries on them, sometimes the carp will rise to the surface to eat the berries. for those a simple egg pattern will do the trick. Just match the egg color to the color of the berries. If you are close to a park where people feed the carp I have heard that they will rise to popcorn if it is a common food that is thrown to them. I will be chasing carp on "popcorn flies" later this summer for that I will just use a sucker spawn pattern. Sometimes when you see them splashing or making big swirls on the surface they aren't eating. I made that mistake when I first saw them doing it spending a few hours throwing all types of flies at them but no takes.

Patrick
http://flybible.blogspot.com/

Staff · Posted: Sun 08/07/11 11:46 am Post subject:

Hi, my name is Jorge and i am a fisher of carp and barbel to fly fishing, we in Spain the flies that we used are nymphs (prince, ver de vase)streamers(wooly burgers), and some terrestrial (beetles and ants).

If you have any questions about how fish do not hesitate to ask, see this link to see the tents that we fish in Spain.

http://www.youtube.com/user/staffbex?feature=mhee#p/a/f/0/9lXjs_ASCWU

Best resgards

Jorge