2017 Carpin' thread

Thanks DC, I just whipped up a few grassy looking flies with what I had, some dark olive marabou, olive zonker strips, and some Peacock herl and used deer hair. By no means is it pretty, but I did get 2 looks and noses but no actual takes sadly. This is pretty far out of my league as I really have only fly fished for trout. I'm not gonna give up on these guys though, I know it's only a matter of time before I get one to take.
 
BC,

Finding good water and some new access is always a good thing. I'm very fortunate to have located some large mulberry trees with part of the canopy overhanging the water. It seems like stretches of the creek that I normally see a lot of mudding/feeding carp and do well nymphing for them are currently almost void of any carp. Seems like the word went out and whole carp population has relocated to under the mulberry trees. These fish are gluttonously feeding on the berries. They even seem to be a bit less spooky. Maybe some of the berries are starting to ferment and they leave their guard down while working on a "mulberry drunk".

Jlafko3,

Your quest is really cool. Keep after them. I assure when you get the first one to take and get a good solid hook set your drag will be "screaming"! You'll feel an adrenaline rush that you probably never felt before. Good luck, hope you stick one soon!
 
I covered 15 miles of water today. I found two mulberry trees over the stream. The majority of berries weren't ripe, and the grackles were on the ones that were. There were no carp near either tree. I only saw 3 carp total today and none were feeding.
 
BrookieChaser wrote:
I covered 15 miles of water today. I found two mulberry trees over the stream. The majority of berries weren't ripe, and the grackles were on the ones that were. There were no carp near either tree. I only saw 3 carp total today and none were feeding.
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BC,

Wow! That's a lot of work for only seeing 3 carp. I realize that I may be totally spoiled by having some great carp fisheries in my back yard. Honestly, I would focus on a different stream, although I realize that your options may be limited. PM me if you want to get into more detail about it.
 
I appreciate the help, DC!

I will send you a pm soon. I'll be honest, I'm a bit wore out from covering that much water in today's 90°+ weather.

 
Nice, nomad! I always enjoy an incidental sucker hook up while trout fishing. It just kinds of shakes things up a bit when you get into one of those wild fish.

The berry season is starting to wind down but it was my best year ever on top with the berry flies. Lots of carp to the net, lots of long distance releases and berry flies lost in the heat of the battle. The carp are getting a lot more particular as the season wears on and I'm getting a lot more refusals as I've stuck a lot of them over the past three weeks. May get one more weekend out of it but not sure about that. Either way, the 2017 berry carpin' season was a good one!

Plenty of great carpin' left in July and August just got to get back into the routine of nymphing up the mudding carp.
 
Thanks DC. The sucker was an interesting catch. I thought it was a really good brown at first. Still fun. I am about to switch over to bass fishing everything is getting a bit on the warm side. We should get together and do some bass fishin.

Also glad you enjoyed the video. That is a new toy that makes it fun to share the experience. Although I am very careful to go give up a spot in the videos. I just dont have enough spots to have that happen.

 
Are you working on those one handed carp curls :lol:
Got another SH yesterday I'll try to get a pic up tonight

dc410 wrote:
Nice, nomad! I always enjoy an incidental sucker hook up while trout fishing. It just kinds of shakes things up a bit when you get into one of those wild fish.

The berry season is starting to wind down but it was my best year ever on top with the berry flies. Lots of carp to the net, lots of long distance releases and berry flies lost in the heat of the battle. The carp are getting a lot more particular as the season wears on and I'm getting a lot more refusals as I've stuck a lot of them over the past three weeks. May get one more weekend out of it but not sure about that. Either way, the 2017 berry carpin' season was a good one!

Plenty of great carpin' left in July and August just got to get back into the routine of nymphing up the mudding carp.
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I went over to the Conestoga River last evening not even thinking about checking the streamflow online after the rain earlier in the morning. Well, the 'Stoga was flowing about 2,000 cfs higher than what I like for wading and was like chocolate milk with lots of debris floating in it. Dang!

On to plan B.

I stopped on the way back home at one of my local carpin' spots. Late afternoon with high bright sunshine was not making for the best conditions for catching carp but it was one of my few options if I was going to fish at all. I stopped at a local pond and the water was very off color as well making it very hard to see much more than a foot into the water. I was sneaking along the bank of the pond when I spotted a bit of a disturbance out in front of me about 12-15' off of the bank. I figured it was a carp working and stopped to watch and see if I could figure out where it was to take a shot at it.

As I was observing I noticed a silt cloud form directly in front of me literally 2 feet in front of my boots. I was sure I hadn't spooked any because the silt cloud difference between a spooked fish and a feeding fish is drastically different. As I continued to watch some bubbles formed and the silt cloud intensified. All of a sudden The beat up tail of a large carp materialized out of the silt cloud below the surface. I had a bead on him now! So I slowly wound in my fly line until there was about 3" of fly line past my tiptop. I gently laid my nymph down into the water column where I estimated the feeding carp's head to be located and immediately leader moved about an inch the right. I slowly picked up the rod, felt the restistance, one quick strip set and it was on! It was a great battle and I eventually brought my PB Mirror Carp to the net. At 30" and a bit over 12 lbs. it was an ugly old fish but a heck of a lot of fun.

 

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Nice story and fish he almost has no scales .
 
I fished a section of one of my favorite carp streams this morning for the first time this year. It is always loaded with carp and this year is no different. The heavy showers from yesterday had the stream very full and also very off color as this stream receives an extreme amount of runoff from agricultural lands. Sight fishing for carp very far off of the banks was literally impossible.

I had a really fun morning dodging the electric fences, burn hazel and cowpies while sneaking along the bank looking for surface disturbances literally inches off of the banks where many carp were actively feeding this morning. I was simply dappling a nymph right in front of the feeding fish with only inches of fly line past my rod tip. The carp were hugging the banks and actively rooting and feeding underneath over hanging branches, weeds and lots of woody debris in the stream. Classic carp habitat!

I did manage to bring 3 carp to the net this morning but the fish were extremely spooky even with the murky water. None of the fish were huge with all of them being in the 5-6 lb. range. I'm figuring that these carp are either getting some fishing pressure or more likely have seen some recent bowfishing pressure. Getting the carp to take the fly is only half the battle while fishing in this type of heavy cover and debris. Once the hook is set and the battle ensues another whole chapter starts. I absolutely love the challenge of landing these big fish under these conditions. The hottest parts of the summer is when the early morning carpin' really heats up. Tight lines and reels screamin'!

 

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Hey guys, I haven't been able to get those huge grass carp yet, but I have found out a new fly for common carp that has been working like crazy the last week. I've hooked over 15 and landed 9. Man are they a blast to catch. All it is is white egg yarn, with some rainbow dubbing, and a heavy bead in the middle(I used big pink tungsten beads) covered by the dubbing. Tie it sort of like a sucker spawn and then when you finish put some uv resin on the sides of it and your done. I guess it mimics a white mulberry or just a piece of bread but man does it work! If anyone gives a try let me know if you have any success. I put a video from the last few days on YouTube check it out and let me know what you think!

https://youtu.be/FZVHpo-xoOY
 
Jlafko3,

Nice job! They are a ton of fun, that's for sure. Looks like you found a honey hole. What weight rod are you using in your video?

You should consider getting a net. Nothing fancy, just a sturdy long handled net would make landing them much easier. When your fighting a carp on your flyrod try to resist the urge of grabbing ahold of the butt section of your rod above the cork for leverage. The small fighting butt extension on heavier rods (usually 7 at and up) can very effectively be placed against the forearm of the rod hand for extra leverage when applying side pressure or turning a fish. Getting ahold of your rod above the cork significantly increases your chance of breaking your rod. Congrats, that area should provide a lot of fun for you for years to come. Good luck with your carpin'!

Jessed,

The most important part is actually finding the fish. Being from SE PA you should be relatively close to some decent carp water. Scout for them by sneaking along and covering lots of ground looking for feeding carp. Look for the silt clouds, bubbles and tips of tails of actively feeding carp on your local Warmwater creeks. The actively feeding fish are the most catchable ones. But the first and most important thing is to get out there and actually locate some. Hope you find some soon. Good luck!
 
Caught my first carp a few weeks it was a blast. I was out smallie fishing and stumbled upon two big carp feeding. The carp were facing me and I figured there was no way I could make a cast without putting the carp down. I tied on a small crayfish pattern that doesn't sink very fast. I attempted to approach them from behind but I couldn't see the carp and didn't feel to confident in detecting the strike, so I went back in front of them thinking this was my best chance. My first cast was to far away a little gun shy of not spooking them. My next cast was about 3 ft in front the carp slowly raised his head and sucked it in. After about a half hour of trying to reel in a run away mack truck I finally landed it. The carp was about 35". So needless to say I've started looking for carp.
 
Mwheaps32 wrote:
Caught my first carp a few weeks it was a blast. I was out smallie fishing and stumbled upon two big carp feeding. The carp were facing me and I figured there was no way I could make a cast without putting the carp down. I tied on a small crayfish pattern that doesn't sink very fast. I attempted to approach them from behind but I couldn't see the carp and didn't feel to confident in detecting the strike, so I went back in front of them thinking this was my best chance. My first cast was to far away a little gun shy of not spooking them. My next cast was about 3 ft in front the carp slowly raised his head and sucked it in. After about a half hour of trying to reel in a run away mack truck I finally landed it. The carp was about 35". So needless to say I've started looking for carp.
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Mwheaps32,

Congrats on your first carp on the fly. Just a word or warning - it is very addicting. Good luck with your carpin' adventures. Tight lines and screamin' reels!
 
Yes I'm starting to realize that. Here in PA what other widespread fresh water fish can we Target in the 10-20lb range. My last few outings have been frustrating but I'm learning from each mistake.
 
Well, with Fall knocking on the door, the 2017 carpin' season has been very different. Work and life has really gotten in the way of my carpin' this year for me. The last carp I brought to the net was over two months ago. The past two times I was out (including this AM) I got skunked. I saw a number of fish but I never encountered carp as spooky as the last two times I fished. Not being able to get out much lately, I would have expected the opposite.

I have to think that the fish are getting some serious bowfishing pressure although I haven't seen anything to confirm that. It has been a very humbling experience as I have effectively spooked every fish that I took a shot at over the past two months. So it goes with carpin', chalk it all up to experience. The one plus for this year was I finally had a really successful berry season bringing over a dozen carp to the net taken on top on berry flies. As Fall approaches and my carpin' season winds down I'm already finding myself looking forward to the next season. Tight lines!
 
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