Weekend Carp
- This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Jul 16, 2013 at 12:00 pm by
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I’ve struggled to find carp this year, in between struggling to find stripers. I think there are a number of reasons for that; firstly I was striper-fishing on the best carp days from a water level perspective (can’t do anything when the fish are all out in the channels at low water). And secondly I was just plain not taking shots at fish that arguably were catchable because I didn’t have any confidence that I could get it done.
Meanwhile Andrew Wright has quietly become the best carp fisherman in Atlanta. He’s averaging double-digit days and has been killing me with his stories of success. 🙂 So Saturday we finally got clear to fish together. It’s such a pleasure to have someone in the boat who can pole and show me what’s going on. We did fish to several mudding fish that I would have passed on before, but ultimately we got the best looks at cruisers in shallow water.
I’m not sure if carp change colors a little throughout the year or what–I’ve never studied them that closely, but this guy resembled a golden dorado.
I’ve got a couple more pics at home so I’ll post a supplement later on.
Thanks, Andrew–great time.
Zach
As you did Zach I went out to chase Carp on Saturday.
Our grain fields edge the Mississippi and when the river floods the fish invade the flooded fields. Acres of tailing fish and with the fresh food source it is really tough to get them to take a fly.
The sloughs and ditches fill up with the Common Carp such as what Zach is diplaying and Asian Carp both of which hit the 5 – 10lb. range. When the flood waters recede from the fields they are trapped
as the inlets they used to get in from the river fill with silt and no longer hold enough water for them to get out.
We call it “ditch fishing” , add a few Boodviesers’ and let the fun begin,
Then this rolled in.
The temps. went from 83 to 73 in under 10 minutes with the rain blowing sideways and marble sized hail.
Never took a stick out.That’s cool Mark. One thing I have learned: carp are definitely as difficult a fish as there is to catch in fresh water. They are really challenging on the whole. If I had as many looks at stripers as I did at carp on Saturday, I would not have been able to pole the boat out of there. 🙂
Zach
Finishing these off with a couple pics of my compatriots, Andrew and Thomas.
Andrew on the stick.
Thomas with a nice solo carp. Thomas had a banging day from what I heard.Zach
We have been using something proprietary that Andrew Wright cooked up. Personally I have caught fish on Carter’s Rubber-Legged Dragon as well as Crazy Charlies, but as our fishery gets more pressure, the fish have become quite a bit more particular. One thing I will say is you want a fairly heavy fly that will drop right down on the heads of tailers, because those fish get straight-up-and-down vertical on you and you almost need to scrape their bodies to get their attention. That was a very frustrating lesson to learn.
<cite> @ZachMatthews said:</cite>
I’m not sure if carp change colors a little throughout the year or what–I’ve never studied them that closely, but this guy resembled a golden dorado.Zach
I have noticed the carp here are much darker early in the season. Some of them have an almost black edge to their scales when they first get moving once the water warms up. After a few weeks spending time in the shallows they lighten up in colour.
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