Grass Carp on a Fly, Patience-Luck and Good Fly Selection Needed!

Summer Grass Carp Bite

Summertime is here and rivers are too high to fish, what to do? It's one of my favorite pastimes each Summer (sometimes Spring & Fall if time allows) is Freshwater fishing.

Most of you know that trying to catch a Carp on a fly is not an easy thing to do. When you attempt to target a Grass Carp, the stakes really beef up since these things do not like to eat, spook extremely easy, take a perfect presentation and lastly solid equipment to bring em in!

For the past 10 years, I have spent countless amount hours chasing the Golden Bonefish with maaaany frustrated outings, as well as break offs to remember. To really be good at Carp fishing, or even Grass Carp fishing you need to do some research. Where to find these fish, what Season to target -they can be much more active certain seasons than others, non spawn periods, time of day since weather is as important as your fly selection.



 

 If you Saltwater fish or looking to do more, Carp fishing can truly enhance those fishing skills needed to be a better fisherman. Sight placement and knowing how to read them is just as important as it is similar to Bonefish, Tarpon and Redfish.

Here in Colorado this is the next best thing so I will take it any day of the week! Can't wait to spend more time learning about these fish and if you really want to learn from the experts, check out a few buddies who know their stuff: Lee Novotny with The Fish Fly and Jeff Currier Global Fly Fisher

 

 

Nothing like catching a few Bass as well along the way, I will chase any Freshwater fish as long as the Carp are snoozing!



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Catch Magazine June Edition!

Catch Magazine June Edition is out, check out another Great issue!
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Fly Fishing For Carp, A Few Techniques For Ya!

Fly fishing For Carp, It's On!
FFA Carp Page


A lot of people who fly fish in warm waters have had the experience of accidentally catching a carp. But few try to accomplish this deliberately. For those few, this brief guide should be helpful. Hopefully you will also experiment and share with others your successes and failures.

Basically there are only two ways to fly fish for carp -- sight casting and blind casting. Sight casting involves seeing carp in the water and casting the fly to about 1 or 2 feet in front of them. While this is not always possible, it often is and provides some of the most exciting carp fishing. An analogy is often drawn to fishing for bonefish and the analogy is quite accurate. Like bonefish, carp can often be seen tailing in the shallows. Like bonefish, carp are eating whatever organisms they find on or scare up from the bottom. And like bonefish, when they take your fly expect a long hard run that may take you "into your backing".

Blind casting can take two forms. You can cast to places carp are likely to be and hope you are right. This is usually not a high percentage technique. More reliable is to cast to where you know carp are because you have tossed groundbait in that area. The groundbait not only attracts the carp and concentrates them in a relatively small area but it also gets them into a feeding mood, maybe even a competitive feeding mood. People who bait fish for carp know a great deal about groundbaiting and I suggest you consult some of their published information. In particular I recommend Modern Bank Fishing by Michael Keyes.

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Gary LaFontaine reports watching trout in the shallows of a mountain lake. They would cruise along and suddenly change direction to begin rooting on the bottom and another leech would become trout fodder. It took him a while to discover how the trout knew where to root. It was a small puff of silt stirred up when the leech moved. He used this information to design the Bristle Leech -- a leech imitation that sits on the bottom but creates a puff of silt when retrieved. The Bristle Leech catches not only trout but also carp and the mechanism that triggers a strike in both fish would seem to be the same.

Bonefish anglers know that bonefish also look for puffs -- shrimp, crabs, and the like moving along the bottom of mud flats and creating a small cloud with each jerky move. A common technique is to cast in front of a bonefish, allow the fly to sink to settle to the bottom, and then give about a short pull on the flyline. The fly rises up off the bottom and creates the puff of silt. A bonefish, even some distance away, can see the puff and rush over for a meal (your fly).




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