Carp on the fly

[Pittflyguy]

Like any warm water species, their metabolism slows so they aren't as active and the fight they put up when hooked is significantly less "spirited". You can catch them but it's more difficult and I prefer to chase other species through the winter and return to carp around April.

 

[mtangler]

We do a lot of carp fishing in Montana. I wasn't into it when I lived in PA and would catch them from time to time by accident, but now I'm hooked. Our carp fishing is all site fishing which is a blast. We even get some great carp fishing on dry flies when the fish move into big eddies to slurp insects off of the surface. Carp also love crayfish and sculpins so we use a lot of crayfish flies or bonefish patterns that sink fast. The idea is to cast upstream of the fish and let it drift down and then strip it like a bonefish retrieve. You can check out an article on fly fishing in Montana for carp which isn't really unique to just Montana.

Also: here is a link to a you tube trailer for a carp fishing show that we did with Trout TV that will air in February. One of our head guides, Sean Blaine is the guide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPRQb9EQqKY

I still make it back to PA from time to time so I'll have to find some new carp honey holes back home for my next visit!

 

[Missouriflies]

If anyone is interested in carp flies I've got a few up on my site which is in large part dedicated to Carp Flies.
I can get you what you want on the best hooks, with weed guards. if you don't see what your looking for, shoot me an e-mail...I aim to please. I highly recommend crayfish patterns, Black Ops, and various other leeches, buggers, and nymphs.

 

[trevor]

Your rough dub craw and carp zonker look like really great flies.

 

[pwk5017]

Yeah, all the "carp crack" like flies can be dominate. I have done best on inverted hook patterns like the crazy charlie, gotcha, carp crack etc. I have no idea what it is about these flies that makes a carp attack them, but it is a curious thing to watch carp dart at them. My favorite fly of the summer was a size 10 charlie in tan. It just looked like a ball of hair, but carp nailed it. I had a carp take 2 weeks ago when we had that weekend in the 50s. I totally botched the hook set though. I was really thinking sunday was going to have some possibilities, but this weather put an end to that.

Anybody have any carp ties for small wild grapes? The stream I fish has several patches of wild grapes and I have seen carp pile up around these vines to whack any fruit that falls. I noticed this twice while fishing for smallmouth(before I decided to give carp a go) and never went back to these spots to try for the carp. Do they make a purple mcflyfoam or globug yarn? I figure I could do a globug immitation over a tungsten bead so the thing sinks like a grape.

 

[CLSports]

I learned plenty about this last year with a coule of my fishing buddies. My 1st time out I was skunked. 2nd time I caught and landed 3. My advice is simple:

First you need to spot them feeding (look for smoke trails).

Once you find a feeding fish just cast about 5-6 feet in front of the fish and let your fly sink and rest on the bottom for a minute. Have patience.

Once the carp is close enough to the fly start stripping in short and slow strips pausing a bit in between. Have patience.

When they grab it, hang on and have fun!!

I use the backstabber fly last year with great results.

 

[Fishnut]

I never understood why fly fishing for carp hasn't picked up here on the upper allegheny. It's alot like fishing for red fish and they are smart! They are not the dumb brutes they are made out to be. I fish for them alot during the summer and man is it fun.

 

[hookedonthefly]

i would love to start to fish for carp, i live in walnutport pa. can someone guide\direct me to a good place to fish for carp?

 

[mike_richardson]

I gave a few crayfish paterns to a guy I work with to test on small mouth. They ended up catching 15 carp on the things. This one was a mammoth and weighed 35# and broke the guys 8 weight fly rod. Flies were just dead drifted past carp they had seen. The carp would just swim over and suck up the fly. I still have yet to land one yet unforunatly.

 

[lv2nymph]

Ok, that would be a very large fish to land on fly tackle! Wow, had to have been a blast.