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Year of the carp

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So this year I've decided I want to fish for carp on the fly rod. I live in a warm water area of the state so carp are plentiful. I've seen them, I've stood still and fasted to them for hours without spooking them but never had one even take a sniff of my offering. I've been frustrated twice by such ill mannered carp. Now when I have stopped and fished for them I did not set out to go carp fishing but rather happened to run into them while SMB fishing. This year I want to go out armed specifically for carp.

 

My question is, what flies do you carp guys like? What size and style of hooks do you like and what weight rod do you fish for them. The carp I see are on the bigger size on 24". Any help would be welcomed appreciated.

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I've heard topwater sometimes work. But normally you woulden't fly fish for them. They are really smart. but i woulld use a 10 wt because they are also strong

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I've never specifically fished for them. I've hooked a couple fishing the Wissahickon Creek. One took a pearl estaz bug I was tossing for smallmouth. Thought I hooked the biggest smallmouth in the world until it broke the surface and then my tippet. I guess I was fishing for the other one. I saw it swimming toward me and dropped a PT Nymph in front of it and it sucked it in. Set the hook. It took off and another broken tippet. Another time I was fishing the Tulpehocken below the dam for trout and a big one came up and tried to suck down the CDC and Elk I was fishing. Scared the crap out of me.

Any type of buggy nymph should work. Even look at bonefish flies a pan fish Charlie should work. As I understand fly fishing for carp, is mainly sight fishing for them. They're skittish and spook easily. Drop your fly in front of one, maybe twitch it a bit to get the fish's attention. I usually use a 6 wgt for smallmouth with 6 wgt, and I've landed 5 lb fish on it. A 24 inch carp would probably be in the 5 lb range. I'm not sure how leader shy they are but I wouldn't use less than 10# tippet. The only time I've heard of folks fishing for them with a dry fly is during the "Mulberry" hatch. Find a mulberry tree hanging over the water and the carp with gather around to feed on the berries that drop from the tree. You could probably tie a mulberry fly using purple deer hair or maybe one out of foam.

Most of my fishing for carp was done thirty, forty years ago on the Bohemia River in Maryland. I used heavy spinning tackle with corn meal balls as bait. I did land several large carp in 20-30# range. They were a blast on the spinning tackle. I'm not sure my heart could take hooking a big one on a fly rod.

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I like a 6 or 7 weight for carp, but I've gone as heavy as an 8 and as light as a 4. Carp where I fish for them mostly eat crawfish and nymphs. Big, heavy flies aren't necessary and often spook fish. I use smallish buggers, nymphs, and small crawfish patterns. Where there are grass carp I've used green hopper patterns to imitate leaves since they're vegetarians.

I look for fish that are mudding or tailing, cast ahead of them, and drag my fly into their path. Cruising fish are more difficult and fish sitting still are a waste of time.

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I can confirm that carp sitting still wasted a lot of my time. I have never fished for them but have accidentally caught them while spin fishing but never while fly fishing. They put my spinning gear through a serious workout so I think I'm going to use an 8 wt so I don't chance breaking my 6 wt.

 

Since there seems to not be a lot of love for carp I spent the evening scouring the interweb on carp flies. They seem to all be pretty generic and in the form of Montana's hybrid carp fly. Today I will pick up some hooks and hopefully this weekend I can steal an hour to whip a few up.

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As a kid in Ontario, I considered carp garbage fish and would make pocket money selling them to restaurants. We used pitch forks then. Now, many in Ontario prefer carp on the fly to other fishing. Check out some Canadian/Ontario carp flyfishing sites. "Poor man's bonefish" Thankfully(?) there are no carp where I live now.

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No common carp in Central Florida. I haven't targeted them in my adult life, but we got into a whole school of nice ones once, on a Wabash River float trip. We were drifting down the river in jon boats, and could see a bunch of them feeding on Catalpa blossoms that were falling on the water. We tied on anything we had that was white ... and got hits on every casts. Four of us, two to a boat, and we boated about 20 fish before they finally spooked off the spot.

 

They are bottom feeders, but not scavengers. Although they are opportunistic, and will eat anything, they specifically "sniff" out living creatures on the bottom. BUT ... they will also suck surface scum in eddies and such.

 

I would think that, if you drop any small trout fly in a soup of surface scum, and you might get a good fish on.

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I've never used John Montana's hybrid fly, but I know lots of guys love that pattern. John is a pretty good fisherman, I've fished for trout with him, and he's very fishy. He's a pretty good tier as well, and definitely knows a thing or two about carp.

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The flycarpin link was one I had not previously found. Thanks for the link, it was a pretty good one.

 

My expected carp creek is minutes from my home and I've fished about 25 miles of it but never for carp. I've seen plenty of carp and I've tried on occasion to catch them with trout flies to no avail. I generally fish for bass and have caught thousands of sunnies and hundreds of bass and stocked trout from this creek. In all the time on this creek I've never hooked a carp not even by accident. Learning from this experience I can pretty much rule out hares ears, copper johns, prince nymphs and PT nymphs. I think I need something a bit heavier, something that gets to the bottom and stays there. From what I've been reading it seems carpers like their flies to sit still and move with a little puff of silt every now and again.

 

It does have a heavy cottonseed bloom. Just not sure how to get an appropriate size or close to appropriate size carp hook to float with such sparse material. Along with the hybrid fly I'm also thinking squirmy wormy. What doesn't like a worm? And I've never fished a squirmy worm in this creek.

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I never got into it but years ago there was an Orvis store nearby and they sponsored a fly carp tourney every so often, guys told me they did best with Clouser Minnow and Woolly Buggers.This was in a smaller clear creek, about 30-50 CFS, and fish averaged about 6-10#.

I've seen them caught in the same stream on crawdad tail and catfish bait.

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This is in a little different line of thought. I've also only caught carp by accident or snagged them but I have several flies specifically designed for carp and if I do fish them this year the one thing I'll do that I wouldn't do for trout, bass or any real fish is squirt scent on my fly. Anise or any of the popular worm or crab sprays. I've also read (only READ) that dormant carp are very unlikely to feed. You need to look for a slowly moving carp that is one the search of food and try to lead them. Good luck and I may give it a try with my 8 wt. this year too. Even though I have bamboo rods up to 8 wt. I think I'll stick to plastic on these guys. Would cry if I shattered one of my bamboos on a 30# carp.

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I had a pretty good weekend! I Went to Cabela's and picked up a fly box for carp flies and a new ugly stick and Penn Slammer reel for spring striper and summer flatheads and still found time to tie up some carp flies. They are all just my read on the various carp flies that interested me on YouTube. They are all keel weighted by way of dumbbell eyes or belly scratcher beads. If I were to name them they would be variations of Montana's hybrid carp fly, the backstabber, belly scratching swimming nymph and a no name fly the guy swears makes carp look stupid because it's stupid simple and quick to tie. I like stupid simple and quick. I tried to use different materials for testing purposes and will probably whip up some more before winters over but it's a start.

 

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Mr. Deck,

 

Please identify which is the no name fly for stupid carp, and list the materials. The original Clouser Swimming Nymph is one of my all time favorites. What did you use for the feather legs/hackle on yours?

 

Thanks, Bob H

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It's the gold one. Nothing but a small set of dumbbell eyes, gold chenille and a piece of red ultra chenille. The swimming nymphs I used a partridge feather for the legs. I'll probably make a few with rabbit fur and pine squirrel next time I get a chance.

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