Kicking off the 2016 Carpin' season

[dc410]

Congrats, Fred. I don't have a lot of multiple fish outings but it's cool when it happens. The whole carpin' thing is quite addictive.

 

[slay12345]

Here's a good podcast I listened to while plugging away at work... http://toflyfish.com/trophy-carp-fly-fishing/

He has other podcast and blog posts including more carp, muskie and generally a nice site to pick up some bits of info.

 

[Sylvaneous]

for 'artificial' surface activity, what about chumming them with something like TRIX cereal? then float a yarn egg down on them.
I've chummed them on the bottom but it was in rivers and streams. There are plenty of carp near me in Lake Wilhelm. I ought to try the floating cereal trick (trix...just noticed that) and see how it works. I'd rather drift a puffball fly down to them with the current than cast it out and let it sit. Seems like bait fishing. :-?

 

[BrookieChaser]

I bought a carp boat.

It's getting serious.

 

[Fredrick]

BrookieChaser wrote:
I bought a carp boat.

It's getting serious.

What kind of boat is it ?

 

[BrookieChaser]

It's a jon boat I'm turning into a flats boat.

 

[Fredrick]

BrookieChaser wrote:
It's a jon boat I'm turning into a flats boat.

Nice post some pics if you are able

 

[afishinado]

Fredrick wrote:
Nice looking flies I will have to give them a try . I would of thought the tully would be a good spot for a carp jam . I heard Green lane reservoir is a good spot but I have never fished it .

A good place for carpin on Green Lane is right where the Perk flows into the lake at Church Road.

 

[BrookieChaser]

Fredrick wrote:

BrookieChaser wrote:
It's a jon boat I'm turning into a flats boat.

Nice post some pics if you are able

I will when it's finished. Right now the casting deck is built but it needs carpet or horse mat (I haven't decided). I laid out the poling platform and figured materials. I didn't get the material yet because I won't have a solid block of time to dedicate to it for a couple weeks.

I'm planning on taking the boat out this weekend, if all goes as planned. I'll pole it off a cooler for now.

Relates. I had to run to the city today. So I scoped out some carp water that's been on my mind.

 

[dc410]

The spawn appears to be wrapped up at least in the area I'm fishing and the carp are back into their normal shallow water feeding patterns. I had a good day of carpin' yesterday. I started out the day by bringing two carp to the net in a quick one half hour outing before sunrise and than headed off to work.

As I was mowing the yard earlier in the week I noticed the berries just starting to ripen up on my mulberry tree out in my back yard so I knew that the time was drawing near. The conditions last evening after work were perfect with a bit of a breeze to knock the early ripening mulberries into the water so I headed to one of my favorite "berry" holes to see what was happening. I carefully approached my best berry spot and peeked over the top of the tall weeds and there they were! Six or eight good looking carp cruising around like sharks just under the surface sucking every mulberry that dropped off of the surface. This appeared to be simple if I didn't spook them. I got out the right amount of line and took my time preparing for the first and most important presentation. I plopped the berry onto the surface near the group of fish and immediately four of them went after the fly! In a confusing thrashing of their big rubber lips I just decided to strip set and effectively pulled the fly right out of the middle of all of the fish. Dang! Carp are almost in slow motion when they take a berry off the surface and every year I need to retrain myself to relax and let them complete the take. I let the group settle down a bit and picked out one of the original fish that was now off to the side by itself. I placed the berry about three feet in front of the carp and it quickly swam right up under it, inspected it closely and flat out refused to take it. Did I mention the fact earlier that these fish are not stupid. I sat and watched these fish feed on berries for about 10 minutes and another pair of different fish entered the feeding zone. A decent cast to one of these fish resulted in my first carp of the year taken on a dry fly. I rounded out the evening by netting two more carp bringing me five to the net for the day. Not a bad day of carpin' for the time I actually spent on the water. The berry hatch is on! The next couple of weeks should be a lot of fun just got to take the time to get out there and cash in on it. Good luck if you happen across a pod of berry picking carp.

 

[afishinado]

dc410 wrote:
The spawn appears to be wrapped up at least in the area I'm fishing and the carp are back into their normal shallow water feeding patterns. I had a good day of carpin' yesterday. I started out the day by bringing two carp to the net in a quick one half hour outing before sunrise and than headed off to work.

As I was mowing the yard earlier in the week I noticed the berries just starting to ripen up on my mulberry tree out in my back yard so I knew that the time was drawing near. The conditions last evening after work were perfect with a bit of a breeze to knock the early ripening mulberries into the water so I headed to one of my favorite "berry" holes to see what was happening. I carefully approached my best berry spot and peeked over the top of the tall weeds and there they were! Six or eight good looking carp cruising around like sharks just under the surface sucking every mulberry that dropped off of the surface. This appeared to be simple if I didn't spook them. I got out the right amount of line and took my time preparing for the first and most important presentation. I plopped the berry onto the surface near the group of fish and immediately four of them went after the fly! In a confusing thrashing of their big rubber lips I just decided to strip set and effectively pulled the fly right out of the middle of all of the fish. Dang! Carp are almost in slow motion when they take a berry off the surface and every year I need to retrain myself to relax and let them complete the take. I let the group settle down a bit and picked out one of the original fish that was now off to the side by itself. I placed the berry about three feet in front of the carp and it quickly swam right up under it, inspected it closely and flat out refused to take it. Did I mention the fact earlier that these fish are not stupid. I sat and watched these fish feed on berries for about 10 minutes and another pair of different fish entered the feeding zone. A decent cast to one of these fish resulted in my first carp of the year taken on a dry fly. I rounded out the evening by netting two more carp bringing me five to the net for the day. Not a bad day of carpin' for the time I actually spent on the water. The berry hatch is on! The next couple of weeks should be a lot of fun just got to take the time to get out there and cash in on it. Good luck if you happen across a pod of berry picking carp.

^lol.......great story. Good fun. Way to go.

 

[dc410]

The other morning I took a quick walk just at daybreak to one of my favorite carp spots before work. The weekend before I was fishing for some small stream smallies and had a leader tied on with a 2X tippet (I usually use 2X or 3X for bass). My standard tippet for carp is 1X. I thought about retying the tippet but decided to save myself some time and I would be fine with the 2X. Well as luck would have it I stuck a really good carp which immediately headed for the closest debris (some tree limbs in the creek) in a reel screamin' run. I dropped the rod to the side and applied some hard side pressure to turn the fish and avoid it getting into the sticks. The tippet popped and it was all over. I inspected my leader and the tippet snapped in the middle (the double surgeons knot or the clinch knot did not fail). Being lazy, cutting corners or ignoring the details generally does not work real well when carpin'!

 

[Fredrick]

dc410 wrote:
The other morning I took a quick walk just at daybreak to one of my favorite carp spots before work. The weekend before I was fishing for some small stream smallies and had a leader tied on with a 2X tippet (I usually use 2X or 3X for bass). My standard tippet for carp is 1X. I thought about retying the tippet but decided to save myself some time and I would be fine with the 2X. Well as luck would have it I stuck a really good carp which immediately headed for the closest debris (some tree limbs in the creek) in a reel screamin' run. I dropped the rod to the side and applied some hard side pressure to turn the fish and avoid it getting into the sticks. The tippet popped and it was all over. I inspected my leader and the tippet snapped in the middle (the double surgeons knot or the clinch knot did not fail). Being lazy, cutting corners or ignoring the details generally does not work real well when carpin'!

Dc I use 3X and havent had any problems as of yet . But I use a loop to loop connection for my tippet on my leader.

So I headed out yesterday to hit one of my spots before I attended a family BBQ . With the cloudy weather I wasnt able to see where my fly landed as well and ended up the day with two carp to hand. Both fish were in the 5 pound range but in this area I havent seen any carp with some size. The cloudy weather played a big part in how I had to aproach the fish . When I tried stalking the fish while wading I would loose sight of the fish because of the glare off the water and if I tried to get close enough so I could see I would end up spooking the fish . So I went with a high vantage point and spotted and casted to the fish off the banks using allot of the same techniques you would if you were bookie fishing.

 

[hookedonthefly]

afishinado wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Nice looking flies I will have to give them a try . I would of thought the tully would be a good spot for a carp jam . I heard Green lane reservoir is a good spot but I have never fished it .

A good place for carpin on Green Lane is right where the Perk flows into the lake at Church Road.

what is the water\terrain like?

is it deep and rough to wade?
is the water hard to access?

 

[afishinado]

hookedonthefly wrote:

afishinado wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
Nice looking flies I will have to give them a try . I would of thought the tully would be a good spot for a carp jam . I heard Green lane reservoir is a good spot but I have never fished it .

A good place for carpin on Green Lane is right where the Perk flows into the lake at Church Road.

what is the water\terrain like?

is it deep and rough to wade?
is the water hard to access?

Easy access and easy wading with high banks downstream to spot fish.

 

[hookedonthefly]

thank you.

 

[hookedonthefly]

i see a lot of people using 8wt rods...

i am hoping my 6wt epic will do the trick.. gotta love glass!

 

[hookedonthefly]

Just wanted to say, I met up with DC410, today.. No fish. But had a great time with great learning experience!

Thanks!!

 

[Fredrick]

Hit the Bwine yesterday right after I got back from Denver . Caught a nice one that wieghted 15 lbs on the boga . The fish didn't go on any long runs it just stayed in the same area I hooked it in and bulldog me around .

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[Fredrick]

hookedonthefly wrote:
i see a lot of people using 8wt rods...

i am hoping my 6wt epic will do the trick.. gotta love glass!

6 wt glass is fine if it has some backbone but you will definitely need a reel with a dependable drag . I use a 7wt and would use a 6 if I owned one .