KCcarp

Nice fish! I can't wait till i get to catch my next pike... I live too far away to fish for them often enough

just like mack, I would say longish(4"+) streamers will be your best bet. Pickerel are a predatory fish, so give them something that looks like prey! Tight lines!

Not too shabby!! I wish i could fish for pike more often! I need to fish more patterns like this to bass around where I live... They'll be starting to bulk up on baitfish right about now...

Well, I put my entry down too soon!!! I caught this beast of a river grass carp a couple days ago!!! The fish taped in at 45", and i would guess to weigh 22-24lbs. This fish put up an amazing fight for a grass carp, it took me almost 40 minutes to land even with an 8wt. and 10lb. flouro!!! The fish was caught on an olive sz.8 rough dub craw that i tied only hours before the outing!!! I do love carp....

I'm seeing some nice fish here!!! Mine would have to be this 34" common carp, caught on a crayfish fly of mine. I really love carp, fly fishing for them gets to be an obsession... There's just nothing like sight fishing to a fish as long as your arm and as finicky as a 1st. grader about what it eats. Tight lines all!!! -KCcarp

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

God I love carp!!! I'm going to have to give this fly a try!!! Here's a fly I've that is really good for turbid water. This thing works woneders for drum!!

Crayfish!!! some sort of crayfish fly is always my first choice to fish to carp. I fly fish for them almost exslusivley (not much time for trout here)it gets to be an obsession!!! Nothing gets my heart going like sight-fishing to a 20lb. fish @60ft. in 10" of water!! The keys to a succesfull carp fly seem to be 1. low splash rate. 2. It must ride hook point up.(for sinking flies) 3. you must make it look appetizing, not scary! carp are extremely spooky and even Krysal flash can scare them at times ... If fishing a subsurface fly make frequent pauses and bring the fly to a complete stop once the carp makes a move towards it. If the carp seems to loose track of the fly, twitch it an inch or so. When fishing to carp try to cast slightly past the fish and bring the fly back towards the fish. Ideally get the fly into a dinner plate sized piece of water in front of the carp's nose. Carp can be extremely lazy, and usually won't move more than a foot for a fly. Ideally look for fish that are 'tailing' with their nose down on the bottom and tail sticking straight up in the air. These fish are the best targets you can hope for, get the fly into thier "dinner plate" and are most likely to eat! The next best fish are those eating seeds or mullberries off the top. It's almost like trout here, Cast an imitation into their feeding path, and delay the hookset just a milisecond! Some great crayfish flies are: Whitlock's near' nuff; olive, rust Rough dub craw; brown, olive, grey missouriflies.com Zimmerman's backstabber; black, rust, olive Roughfisher's Carp crack; any colorroughfisher.com McTage's Carp stew; olive, yellow, rust Flycarpin.com Some other good carp flies; Indian creek headstand(my own fly); rust, tan, olive Mullberry fly;purple and unwieghted. SLOW sinking! Cottonseed fly; White marabou in a dubbing loop with foam underbody. Hope you have fun!!! good luck! -Ben

I really like using deer mask hair, or microfibbets. They both provide decent "flotation" however, the microfibbets work much better for tiny flies (sz22-) as they are smaller in diameter. Also, microfibbets seem to be much more durable. The deer mask works quite well and is stiffer than deer body hair but still provides some flotation, as well as adding some realisim with the dark dips of the hairs. It can be a little on the brittle side though... Hope this helps ya a bit! -Ben