Carpin

[brookieaddict]

I,ve been carpin my buns off but not much luck.The numbers are very low and the fish are super spooky. Anyone have better luck??

 

[dc410]

Keep at it. They are tough! I have spent a lot of time carpin' this season and have had a whole lot of fun. I kind of set a goal at the beginning of the season to try to bring 20 carp to hand on the fly rod this season. At this point I still have 3 to go. So I guess it was a pretty good goal, still attainable but in no way easy to pull off. I hooked into one today after sneaking through some tall grass through a very swampy area and casting to a pod of about 6 or 8 fish that were all surfacing (gulping air or whatever they are doing when you see them and hear that sucking noise). I cast right into the middle of them and one grabbed it and took off. So I was standing there in my Redwing boots in a swamp overtop of my boots, no where to go to play the fish, no net, reel screamin' - you get the picture. Totally unprepared on my part to actually hook into one in that position so I snapped it off.

As the season has progressed it seems the fish have become even more spooky. Maybe it is because of the skinny water - not really sure. I have switched to using an unweighted pattern that has a real slow sink rate to have a very delicate presentation and this has seemed to help a bit on getting a few more late season hook ups. Stay out of the water, go into stealth mode, fish in the early morning and don't keep fishing over the same fish (they get smart real quick). Here is a photo of #17 for 2014 caught in the Tully the other afternoon, my first carp ever on the Tully with a fly rod. Good luck!

 

[BrookieChaser]

Carp were on my list this year. I haven't been able to find them.

 

[jeremymcon]

Nice dc410! The Tulpehocken holds a ton of carp. One time when I I first started fly fishing I was on the Tulpehocken, and there was a hatch of light colored mayflies, and a pod of carp swam right past my gulping clumps of mayflies from the surface. At that time all I had were some Adams dry flies, so I never managed to take advantage of the hatch, and ended up getting skunked. But in the deeper pools I've seen some really large carp, especially for the size of that stream! You'd have to use some pretty stout tippet to bring one in on the section I fished in Myerstown - very narrow section of stream with lots of dead trees and branches in the water.

 

[jifigz]

In 2016 PA is supposed to have a significant Cicada hatch....the carpin' should be good then. I have witnessed carp slurping down locusts one after another on several different bodies of water...so get a Cicada pattern and hold on.

 

[dc410]

jeremymcon wrote:
You'd have to use some pretty stout tippet to bring one in on the section I fished in Myerstown - very narrow section of stream with lots of dead trees and branches in the water.

Thanks Jeremy. Yeah, the Tulpehocken has some real hogs. I am hoping to give it another shot or two for carp this fall. I have been using 1X tippet most of the season for carp. I'm using Rio powerflex, I think is equates to 13.5 lb. test. This set up gives me a lot of confidence when I hook up with one. I can usually horse one if I need to keep them out of some debris and get away with it. I have pulled some pretty large pieces of woody debris out after getting hung up. I have actually had hooks straighten out before the tippet popped.

jifigz,

I was disappointed with the Cicada emergence in regard to carp fishing last season (2013). I saw a lot of Cicadas but none in the vacinity of my favorite carp spots. I do have some Periodic Cicadas tied up though so I will be ready if it happens in two years. Catching them on top with a Cicada pattern would be really cool!

 

[brookieaddict]

Nice fish, so what flys are you using??? You can tell us we wont say anything. This is the slowest summer for us for carp, I think the high water episodes we had in the spring may have spread em out a bit in the small tribs we fish. I agree the go to stream around here is the Tully, well done keep up the good work.

 

[jeremymcon]

Yea @dc410 I still have those cicada flies you gave me a couple years ago - never did get a chance to fish them. Maybe the next brood will bring better luck.

 

[dc410]

brookieaddict wrote:
Nice fish, so what flys are you using??? You can tell us we wont say anything.

I don't have any problem at all sharing the patterns that have worked for me this year. However, the locations of my carp "honey holes" ..... that is completely different. I have attached a photo of the five patterns that have accounted for all of my carp this season. The patterns from top to bottom are as follows: an olive and a rust version of a crayfish pattern (the rust one is in pretty rough shape after being abused by a few carp, I need to tie up a few more of them), the glo bug type of fly is a Rainy's Popcorn Ball, an Olive damselfly nymph, The Siltsifter (this fly produced a lot of hook ups this year - I have as much confidence in this fly as any of them), and the bottom one is the Blind Squirrel pattern. Most of my carp flies are are tied with bead chain eyes (Clouser style) so they sink quick and ride hook point up. However, the Blind Squirrel pattern at the bottom is the one I have been using lately that is unweighted. The way it is tied it still generally rides hook point up. But it allows for a real delicate presentation and it sinks very slowly. It has been very effective for me later in the season with lower water levels and ultra spooky carp. If you want any more details on materials or tying techniques just post back on this thread and I will try to fill in the details for you.

 

[jay348]

Dc, those crayfish work for sure. I lost the rust colored one from the WW swap to a fish on my only carp outing this summer. I'm gonna go back and check that thread for the recipe.

 

[dc410]

Jay,

Yeah, those rust colored crayfish were always very productive for me as well. Good to hear that you at least tied into one with it. They are a very simple tie. I mixed hare's ear and rust superfine dubbing together for the bodies on the ones that I tied for the WW swap. The only one I have left is the one in the photo - time to restock.