First carp on a fly, kind of dissapointed.

[somersetian]

I was fishing the Casselman river in Markleton on sunday evening catching smallmouth. As I slowly waded through a big wide slow moving section casting poppers I saw about 15 fish hugging the bottom. My first thought was fallfish, then I noticed a monster in the middle of the pod of fish move. I quickly tied on the biggest prince nymph I had. Landed it on the bottom infront of the fish but no take. Then I tried a double bead san jaun worm. This fly sunk right to the perfect spot infront of the big guy in the middle and I watched it move slightly forward and suck it up. Set the hook and while I def felt the weight of the 20-24'' fish it didn't really put up a fight. I have heard a number of times that carp fight like hell, but this fish took about 6 ft of line and then pretty much gave up. Had it in my hand in about 30 seconds. Showed it to my buddy who was fishing from shore and set it free. He also said he couldn't believe how easy it came in, and he has caught a lot of carp on spinning gear, that was my first carp ever. Just a lazy fish or what?

 

[dc410]

They are all different in the way react when being hooked. Some of them are real strong fighters. I have had some take two really good runs on me. Then some of them give up fairly quickly like your experience. Fish up in the 30" range are a bit different to fight just based on the actual weight of the fish particularly if they get into any kind of current. However, if they would fight like a Smallmouth we would all be trouble whenever we happened to hook up with one. Either way, congrats on your first carp on the fly rod.

 

[somersetian]

Thanks, I guess I shouldn't be disappointed. It was a great day and after catching a bunch of small smallmouth it was great to feel the weight on the rod. One question I have though, do you pretty much have to see a carp to fish for them? Or will the chase down a floating nymph?

 

[dc410]

I usually sight fish for the carp that I catch. However, sometimes I can't actually see them (because of water depth or clarity) but I know that they are there because of the active mud clouds or bubbles. I try to figure out which direction they are feeding and lay the fly about 12" in front of them. The takes can be very subtle so focus on the connection of your leader and fly line and strip set if it does anything unnatural. It is cool to see them take it but I think I enjoy it more not knowing exactly how big the fish is you are casting at.