Who say's Carp won't take a dry?

[NickR]

Found carp rising throughout one of my local carp hot spots. They were out in the middle feeding in a similar manner to trout sipping tricos in slow water. So I walked upstream a bit to investigate and see if I could figure out what was going on.

Can be tough at times to figure out what carp are eating because sometimes they are eating plant matter and not bugs. Easier to figure out trout because you can spot them chasing bugs and see bugs moving about. With carp they often eat plant matter and the plant matter is sitting in the surface film.

After walking up on the this mulberry tree overhanging in the water it became pretty clear what these carp were feeding on. It became even more evident after a slight wind rustled this overhanging tree and plopping berries into the water which prompted a small pod of carp to surface feed.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-wVNVmgfcs



After the excitement of finding so many feeding carp I tied on a mulberry fly and promptly threw a mulberry pattern that I tied in front of a feeding carp. I was able to hook three just in this spot alone. One very big one straightened out one of my hooks, the small carp in the video and an average carp around 10 pounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU4C7OMGjt0

Why anybody would shoot these fish with a bow is beyond me.

 

[McSneek]

Who said carp won't take a dry fly? Sure they do under the right circumstances. I have caught plenty of carp on a cdc caddis on the Tulpehocken.

 

[NickR]

^^^
It's called sarcasm man...you do know carp are mainly bottom feeders right?

 

[J55tyger88]

Awesome videos man! Thats pretty cool.

 

[pete41]

caught a huge carp on white marabou muddler -size 2
was at night but it was foraging for smaller fish.

 

[McSneek]

NickR wrote:
^^^
It's called sarcasm man...you do know carp are mainly bottom feeders right?

Oh sarcasm, now I get it! (that's sarcasm too Nick). yes - I know they are mainly bottom feeders and if I was targeting them I wouldn't start out fishing on top. BTW - I agree with you that shooting them with a bow and arrow makes no sense.

I keep driving by a pond near my house that I think I am going to stop at and look to see if there are any carp around. It may actually be too shallow for any fish to live in it.

 

[David]

I saw it on the Mulberry hatch!
Theodore Geisel (aka Dr Suess) must have been a fly fisherman, too!

 

[NickR]

Haha Mcsneek, good response! Just busting chops a lil' that's all. Don't rule them out from living in very shallow water. There is a pond near my house that they live in and the water is so shallow that a large portion of their time is spent with the upper section of their backs exposed and out of the water. Freezes up every year too... really not sure how they survive there.

 

[jifigz]

Nice stuff. I like it when I can find carp feeding off of the mulberries from overhanging trees on the Juniata. Makes them much easier to fool. Being a burgeoning fly fisherman though, I used to just put the actual mulberry on a hook with a spinning rod. Nice stuff though. They are spawning like mad right now in the Juniata.

 

[Night_Stalker]

The Mulberries were not ripe as of two days ago in Mechanicsburg / Carlisle...at least the ones I saw.

What is an easy pattern that works? Is it foam based?

 

[BrianMyers67]

Foam Mulberry fly pdf

Works well , won't sink , rides low in the water and hits the water with a good plop sound like a mulberry. I just use white craft foam, black 140 or 210 thread then hit with sharpie markers to color it.

 

[Night_Stalker]

Thanks

 

[codym21]

yeah nick looks fun

 

[NickR]

Bryan, that's a great mulberry pattern. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BrianMyers67]

You're welcome.