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Carp on the fly? (minnesota)

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Well so far my goal of setting a fly hook into a carp this year has been bunk. Not only have I not gotten a carp hooked, I haven't even seen one tailing.

 

I officially need any kind of help possible. I've scouted, canoed, and walked the edge of a dozen lakes in the minneapolis metro area. Other than some jumpers, I haven't had much of a chance at all to figure out these guys.

 

I've got some carp-y flies. I've got a soft presentation. How the heck do I go about finding tailing carp?

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Whole books have been written in UK on this subject so hard to condense into a quick reply.

Main points I would look for

1) if the water holds carp they WILL have a patrol route. If you spend enough time on one water you will notice it. Fishing for other species shouldn't put off the carp so you can spend your time doing both.

2) Dusk and Dawn are probably best times to spot them. Get some polarised shades on.

3) If the majority of a water is over 10ft deep then I would expect the patrol route to be along margins where the depth shallows up to 3-4ft. On silty waters the fish may also patrol around in-lake gravel bars. These are harder to find without a boat or a heavy weight you can drag back and 'feel' weed, mud, hard gravel as it comes back.

4) If you see fish leaping that is often where they will then be eating. If it was the UK on a big water the bait boys would cast toward crashers. A fly fished around these areas is more likely to have a hook up than anywhere else.

5) If there are large numbers of flies hatching or terrestials blown onto water, especially crane flies, the carp won't be far and a nymph or dry should work.

 

6) Carp won't chase down a bait over a large area so you need to fish slow and allow the fish time to suck it in. Carp are great at sucking in a bait and spitting out again without the float or rod ever showing any indication so keep a tight line to the wet fly.

7) If the water has a silty bottom, on a still day you will sometimes see the water discolour as the silt is stirred up but this may not be carp, could be any bottom feeder. Carp will also 'fizz' the water as they release the gas trapped in the silt the bubbles rise the surface giving away their position. Clusters of tiny, dime size bubbles are generally fish. Large dollar+ size bubbles often just natural gas rising and not due to fish.

 

Hope that helps. PM me if you want any more.

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I'm thinking I may be just a victim of bad luck, that between less than ideal weather for carp fly fishing (lots of rain and lots of hot sunny days makes for poor visibility and high water) and some health issues that kept me off the water more than I'd like, it's just not happened yet. I even tried two new spots today. The first looked good but was too difficult to fish more than a small section. The second had to be a good spot, since when I was leaving after a few hours a couple of bow-fishers showed up and said it's a good spot for carp but that this year had been poor for them. I know that the lakes and creeks I've been hitting are supposed to have carp, but I just am not able to find any visibly that are feeding.

 

The only carp I've caught this year have been in deep pools in the mississippi a long bomb cast with a heavy sinker away from shore.. not fly fishable :(

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Don't be put off, wild carp are not the greedy pellet feed goldfish you will find in a stocked water. The challenge is finding where they will naturally be and then it can be like shelling peas but those days are the 1 in 1000 that keep us at the water.

Baiting up an area will certainly help your chances and sweetcorn or maize is a cheap option. Can you get Vitalin dog cereal in the states? This is real cheap in UK and just soak it in warm water with some fish oil added ( about 10mls per kilo ) and the fish will come to you. Normally takes about week of baiting everyday with 1 to 2 kgs of feed to really increase your chances of having a shoal in front of you. Just don't let the other folk see you or they'll reap the rewards.

 

You say that the waters been high, the fish may be backed into side streams especially if the main water gets too silty or too much flow.

Keep at it.

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Carp are pretty hard to catch on a fly, i only really started targeting them this year and it takes patience and experimentation. My luck has come when i have seen them pausing and putting their heads down to feed, cruising fish seem to not be interested much but you never know.

 

Not sure if there is a magic fly or not, the ones i use are tan to brown using small tungsten hourglass eyes, in water with less flow small beadchain suffices.

 

Not sure if you need to go as far as chum and bait, just keep chucking the fly at them, make sure it is on the bottom and keep a tight line, they can slurp a fly in and spit it out rather quickly. For some reason this almost reminds me of permit fishing.

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Not sure if you need to go as far as chum and bait, just keep chucking the fly at them, make sure it is on the bottom and keep a tight line, they can slurp a fly in and spit it out rather quickly. For some reason this almost reminds me of permit fishing.

 

Flyfishin jam is spot on. Don't fish too long a leader if your fishing wet. When I did a lot of bait fishing one river I fished was crystal clear and the fish would feed within an arms reach. I used to fish 3grains of sweetcorn on a piece of mono hanging off the hook bend (a hair rig). One fish around 20lb came and took the grains in its mouth with the hook still on the outside and backed away until the line pulled tight against my weight, dropped the hookbait and then calmly finished eating all the free bait. Never did catch that one. But the point is I caught a fish by leaving a bait with no weight attached and this was sucked in. Maybe try letting your fly sit on the bottom among feeding fish with just occasional twitches. The carp I have taken on nymphs have all come to the fly at rest on bottom between twitches. Never hooked one on a pulled wet. Although a friend catches on small bait fish imitations in the spring and I have found a daddy longlegs pulled across the top works really well. A small popper fished slow rather than sharp pops should work too.

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Once you get a nice 30lb one on the end of your line you'll be "hooked". Here in western New York I like to toss a lot of worm patterns. Sometimes I'll go a week without any luck, I'll see the jumpers you're talking about, or I'll see them in the shallows "bathing" but not be interested in any fly thrown at them. Sunrise and Sunset are some of the best times around here. At night when I cannot see signs of them feeding (bubbles or silt), I use sweet corn on my spinning rod.

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I would cruise the shoreline from a boat or walk it on foot, looking for flats. Look for shallower water with plenty of gravel or sand with interspersed larger rocks. Think crayfish habitat! Also check out any kind of creek inlet or bay. Carp will be particularly active in these shallow areas around sunrise and sunset. Under the lowlight conditions carp seem to be less wary, but harder to see. Look for any mud flumes or distortions in the waters surface, these are usually caused by feeding carp. Also if fishing from a boat or wading a river, look for mullberry trees, carp will sometimes congregate under these to feed on falling berries.

I suggest more than anything looking for crayfishy looking flats where a carp can root around on the bottom somewhat easily. But sometimes the only way you can find fish is by just walking the shores searching for signs of a carp... This pic is of a the kind of water you look for. Maybe a little more mud though....

 

Hope this helps!

Tight lines man!!!

-Ben

post-45336-0-78535000-1349287354_thumb.jpg

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I carped the same water (Lake St.Clair Flats MI) all summer fine tuning my skills.

 

-Tailing carp are like tailing Redfish, when it happens and you're on the water it's hard to even contain your excitement. 30+ complete days fishing for carp this summer and I was lucky to see them tailing maybe ten times and it only happened for a short period of time. Sight fishing tailing carp is the ideal situation but from my experience seldom happens. Instead learn to look for the very subtle signs of a feeding carp in water that is a tad deeper. Carp nosing through the slit will toss bubbles, especially if they are in the weeds. Small swirls from a tail just below the surface while tough to see, especially at water level or wading, is a more common indicator of a feeding fish.

 

Blind casting is the biggest time waster. The very subtle takes of these fish and the method of presentation makes blind casting counter-productive. I spent more time "watching" the water this summer than casting. I learned the movements of the fish and most importantly the feeding times. I found that the fish in my water were most actively feeding from 11:00-1:00 in the afternoon. Mornings early were also productive and late evening just after dusk. The mid-afternoon feeding habit seemed to be an anomaly from what I have read about carp fishing, it could be attributed to the abnormally high temperatures this summer or the habits and activities of the local forage.

 

If they are cruising you're losing,

 

If you wait around for tailing carp-good luck.

 

Patients grass-hopper.

 

I fished mostly from the water wading once I found fish but used a kayak to cover a ton of water. I learned that the carp weren't feeding until, while in my kayak, I began seeing the carp before spooking them. Those cows really turn off the outside world once the feed bag is strapped on, so cruising in the kayak in water 1-3' deep I could get within about 10' of a feeding carp before it took off, but when not feeding the only evidence I saw of carp in the areas I was cruising through was a muddy cloud.

 

I would suggest picking a body of water that is known to hold carp that has flats. Stay on that water until things become predictable to you. Once you know where they are and when they are feeding, your next frustration in the pursuit of crap on the fly will start to consume you-Feeling the take and setting the hook. I missed more fish than I got to hand this summer, but all I could think about were those Golden Ghosts.

 

Tight Lines,

 

Addicted Carp Fisherman.

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great summary of the joy and frustration that is carp fishing. If you stick with one area you can target specific fish as they will stay in the same areas for a while. although river carp in the uk are known to move several miles. why? we dont know but tracking the big uns is a lot harder on rivers.

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I'm not sure in what types of water you are looking for carp, but for me in SE Ohio, I find them easiest in what I call "mud flats." Most of our lakes around here have areas with very shallow water and a silty bottom with little vegetation. That's a guaranteed carp feeding area for me. I am fishing from a kayak, so spotting fish is not always the easiest. You need fairly calm water (little/no wind chop) and a good pair of polarized glasses. Sure, sometimes you see a tail out of the water and it's easy to find them, but usually it's more subtle than that. Sometimes it's a few bubbles coming to the surface that gives them away, sometimes a small area with more stirred-up water, sometimes you just see the fish's back. The trickiest thing for me fishing in dirtier water is that you have to figure out how the fish is laying, meaning, where is the fish's head? If you can't clearly see one end, it's truly a guessing game! You have to get the fly right in the fish's face to get strikes most of the time, so I usually have to watch for a minute or so and determine exactly where the fly needs to be before I even think about casting. Cast beyond the fish, strip up to it's face, and let the fly fall or "die." If the fish sees it, I usually get a take. Here is that info in video format:

 

https://vimeo.com/49626903

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