schaef

The last 2 years I started fishing for carp pretty seriously. I started out using my 9' 8wt but then switched to my 10' 7wt steelhead setup and had a much better hookup and landing ratio. If you are serious about getting a new setup for carp I highly recommend going with a longer rod. You can apply more leverage and still have the shock absorption to protect light tippet. You’ll also want a reel with good drag system that has very smooth start up. For reference my setup is a 10' 7wt TFO BVK with a Lamson Guru 3.5 reel (my wife is awesome!). It's not a cheap setup but man does it perform, absolutely love it. I fish a lot of clear rivers and streams for carp so I use 6lb flouro for tippet on a 12’ leader. These fish spook easily so the name of the game is stealth. You need to sneak into a casting position and deliver a soft accurate cast because you may only get one shot. Once you hook up its like trying to stop a dump truck, they don’t have blazing speed but they do have power and endurance. You need to apply side pressure and constantly change the side you’re pulling from to wear them down. If you play a big one like a bass it’s going to take all week to bring it in. Happy hunting!

I live on the east side of Cleveland myself and I can relate to your pain. From September through early may I chase steelhead on the Erie tribs. After mid may I switch over to smallmouth and carp. River carp are not easy to catch at all, quite challenging in fact. Smallmouths however, are all over the place in Ohio. My favorite river is the Grand River for all of the above. For trout in Ohio you have 2 choices, as mentioned clear fork, and the other is the mad river near Columbus. I haven’t fished either so I can’t give any advice. IMO you are better off going to PA. I also kayak a lot so that opens up a few more fly fishing opportunities as well. Inland lakes for bass, walleye, perch, crappy, gills, pike and carp. Standing in a kayak fishing flats for Ohio “golden bonefish” is just an awesome experience, nothing like fighting a 15 lb carp on a fly rod from a yak!

Emerald shiner patterns are deadly early in the season. Don't forget about the simple wooly bugger either, olive and black seem to produce best in size 8. I usually swing them through the current when the water temps are above 40 but they can drifted also.

Well I don't believe I've posted on here yet, just a lurker, but since you asked.. 28.5" carp, I don't weigh them so just a guess but around 15lbs or so. The second is a 30" Steelhead, again don't know the weight but she was rather skinny, caught a few heavier ones but not longer.

I live in the east suburbs of Cleveland and lake Erie is loaded with them. I use a 6wt when I target them and the biggest I've landed was a little over 10 lbs. Those things can rip line with the best of them. Nobody really targets them around here but they are quite a common catch when targeting walleye, smallmouth and perch. They eat pretty much anything, but in the big lake there main diet is crayfish, gobies, minnows, zebra muscles and anything crawling around on the bottom. Top fly would be a size 6 olive woolybugger slowly stripped on the bottom but I've taken them frequently stripping clousers fast as well when targeting whitebass. Anything you'd catch smallies on you'll catch drum (sheephead) on.