A little Carp lesson

[ditz2 0]

I went hunting some carp on the river flowing thru the local city. I found some on the far side of the river that I had no hope of reaching. I waited around for a while but the carp seemed glued to the far bank. I went a mile further down stream and walked about a half a mile of the bank and saw no fish until the walk back. I found some muds. I could not see the carp but I knew they were there so I started stripping line off the old SA reel manufactured by Hardy which is a click pawl reel. By the time I made the second strip the whole bunch of carp flushed and a large section of the rock flat became a mud because all of the several fish flushed. I was at least 20' from the water edge and at least 40' from the closest fish. I went to the house and took that reel out of service for the carp hunt. I will begin a hunt for a silent reel. I would never thought that a reel click would spook these fish. Just a thought for other novice carp hunters

[TheCream 0]

I kayak fish for them a lot, and any sound you make in the kayak seems amplified by the hull in the water. I have trained myself now to never keep anything but my rod and forceps anywhere near my lap in the "cockpit." Everything else goes in my crate behind me. If you can keep the noise down, you'd be shocked at how close I get to them in the yak. I'd say half the fish I catch/hook are less than 20' away.

[Piker20 0]

yeah the noise vibrations travel much further than we think. Even venues with heavy foot traffic suffer as the fish soon pick out the feet that snap that twig or don't move along the bank like the rest.

A strange observation I made in my bait days was stretches of river along rail ways never fished so well when the train was coming for a period of 10mins or so before I ever heard it. Then once passed the best fish of the day would often appear.

[ditz2 0]

that is weird about the train....I have not been able to find any carp close to home in TN but here in Indiana there are a good supply in the local river flowing thru the city I am originally from. I am currently visiting so I have been trying to fish some but it has been very hot and about 3 hours is about all I can stand. I have yet to hook one and have only had maybe 3 carp show any interest in my offerings. The wind has been a problem with any kind of accuracy so that is part of the issue. The water is also just murky enough to allow me to see them in about a foot of water but I haven't been able to see if they eat the fly. Mostly the fish seem to be eating in about 3' of water and all I can see are muds. I would have thought that they would be accustomed to all the foot traffic but maybe they become more sensitive to the foot traffic.

[Piker20 0]

Yeah with the fish and foot traffic or road traffic its the same as humans if you live on a main road. The constant steady traffic becomes unnoticed and then you still hear the odd noises that pop up. Reckon fish are the same. If you fish where people feed ducks the carp in my experience let you right near the water but you only get one bad cast before they spook.

[michaelray 0]

I used to fish some small residential lakes for Carp back home. There's an old boatramp they'd crowd up and feed at, but if you approached from any direction within 50 feet or so, they'd scatter. We ended up planting a couple small trees along the bank to hide behind.

[Goats 0]

I fish the flats of Lake St. Clair for carp. I use my kayak to find'em and then I jump out and wade to catch them. I always know when the "feed bag" is on when in my kayak because I usually see the fish I am spooking. When the carp are not feeding all I see of the fish is a silt cloud. One thing you really need to watch for in kayaks is "hull slap". I fish flats that are well sheltered on most days so it is not an issue.