My First Carp Ever!

[pkins44]

I caught this fish outta my usual river. I was using my hand tied white zonker, the same pattern I just made for the bass fly swap. I had my 8wt TFO rod and Lamson Konic reel. The water was extremely clear I could see about halfway across the river, a cool morning 50* or so. I saw a group of carp eating off the bottom and stirring up quite a bit of silt. I crouched down to one knee cause I was under a tree. Did some sort of side cast about 10' up and past them. Then, slowly with tiny strips worked the fly along the bottom pausing between strips until it was only a 1' in front of the group. I waited for the fly to settle on the bottom and just twitched the line a little to get a tad more action from the fly. The big carp of the group took notice and cruised on over and began to suck. I slowly striped in line until I could feel the fish and with a slight jerk the fight was on. I had to crank down my drag a little and take a several minutes to tire him out. After a couple of runs to the other side of the river (60' or so) he was tired and let me take a picture of him with my feet and my white zonker in his mouth. Then I released him and watched him disappear back into the river.

 

[fire instructor]

Can't see your photos, but I know the excitement! Caught my first fly-rod carp the other day, a small one (18"), but an AMAZING 20 minute battle on my little 7' 3/4 wt.! I can see more carp fishing in my future!

Congrats on the catch!

 

[Ard]

I just placed a 'Sticky' in the Faq's threads that should be helpful for getting pictures on threads.

Ard

 

[pkins44]

OK I think the pictures are fixed now. Thanks for letting me know they were showing up on my computer. hah

 

[troutchops]

Cool..Good catch!

 

[stl_geoff]

Welcome to the addiction.....dont catch too many, or all you will want to do is carp.....

 

[HuronRiverDan]

Congrats n your first one! Carp are very addictive....

Dan

 

[pkins44]

Well the addiction is here. I found myself passing on some smallies this morning to have some more throws at carp. Carp add a challenge to the hunt with a big reward. The fish in my neck of the woods are relatively not fished and I see some 25lbers often, I just never knew they would take a fly. Hopefully Ill be able to post a few more fish next time. I want to thank Justin at Allen flyfishing. I made a mistake about a promotion that ran last year and went ahead and sent my info to him. And even though I was a year late Justin made it happen. Ill be visiting his site more often Allenflyfishing.com. Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement Ill try to keep you updated. The work season is coming up soon and Ill have to die down the frequency of my trips unfortunately.

 

[mbphotos54]

im hoping to get a carp this year, I really want to hook up with one of the monster grassies at a local pond.. the beasts look like torpedos

 

[pkins44]

I can't wait to hook up with the next carp either. I keep scaring away the monsters on my stretch of the river. I didn't think I was that ugly but I guess that proves me wrong. Carpin' is quickly turning into an obsession. I've been working on a couple of flies specifically for carp one may have some promise. I'll let you know if I hook up with another golden bone tomorrow morning. I haven't had too much time to get out the past couple of days but will have a few hours tomorrow. Good luck out there.

 

[Joni]

Pkins, I feel your addiction. It is insane! An actually the middle to last part of May is usally Carp time.

I have been hitting the Carp spot about four days a week with workand weather and I am at a loss when I am not.
Here is one of Yesterdays for me.

Still liking that yellow Glow Bug:

I am so happy for you new comers to Urban Bones, keep them comin'

 

[dry_fly]

love me some sh*torus carpus! They are a blast when you catch them rising on dry's!

 

[mbphotos54]

I think I might need to get a bigger net I have got to do this.

 

[Joni]

Funny you mentioned that. When I hooked the first one, I got it close. I looked at the Carp then the net...and figure of speech, scratched my head.
I literally scoop the head in the net, lay the rod down and grab the tail.
The net makes the trips stuck behind my spare tire as they do wear strong perfume.LOL

 

[Joni]

I took the old man out to my Carp Spot yesterday. Well, large percentage of catching carp is sight fishin but I have caught then blindly, just casting count down and strip.
With the storm front pounding through, there was very little visual. Just a tail now and then.
I really wanted hubby to feel the fight on these things, but it was a bad day.
Finally I hooked one that took off running down river so I followed. Mojo reeled his line in and when I got to him I handed him the rod.
OMG this one fought! I looked and he was smiling, who wouldn't!
I tried to net this guy twice, which means scoop the head in the net and grab tail.
I proceeded to lift the carp out and he is laughing saying we need a bigger net.
So, now you get to see ME holding this biggest to day "MIRROR" Carp.

I am not sure I would have landed this by myself.

 

[mbphotos54]

sweet!. I am going to try to make a white deer hair bread fly,, and pick up some shop made flys this week, Im going to look for this glowbug, any other good ones to look for? ill be hitting a pond next week known to have carp.

 

[pkins44]

Looks like a lot of fun with those carp Joni. I have been spending most of my time on the river chasing carp with not much success. They are feeding extremely close to shore and with all the people that would much rather throw stones at the carp than fish for them they tend to flee at the sight of people. It makes it more of a challenge, but that is fine by me. Unfortunately, with the terrible storms coming through Illinois the last couple of days the river is raging. But it will give me some time to research some more carp flies to tie up until I find a effective pattern for this stretch. So as mbphotos said, if anyone has suggestions it is all appreciated.

 

[gatortransplant]

Mike, just pick up some chenille and tie the glo-bugs yourself, you will save a LOT of money that way. Egg-style flies are the biggest rip in the industry when it comes to shop-tied flies.

 

[mbphotos54]

I plan to hit bps wednesday for stuff, it seems my shop even though we are able to get alot of bps stuff from our dealer program, we cant get hardly any fly stuff, so... ill be getting hooks lead eyes, cone heads, and materials at the big store.. like I needed another reason to go