Carp on the fly

This used to be on here, with the new format, it must have been lost. Has anyone else been doing this? Carp are great fun on the flyrod and with the fact that they are so widespread, there almost has to be a good population close to home. When you hook one, it's like hooking a truck, you'll see you backing just about everytime

On detecting bite vs no bite or differentiating between signal and noise. If you fish close to you in clear water you can see the fish take the fly with poloroids. We all can't fish clear water though, so you can still read body language. If you can just see the tails or an outline of the fishes back look for the fish to repostion. You will see a slight movement, count to three and hook set. Then again you can do like I did yesterday and caught carp on dry flies. Thought that you might enjoy this photo of a carp taking a classic trout dry fly in a Royal Wulff.

Thanks for the tips, Clay. I had the first two points going for me yesterday, but not really the third. Really good to keep in mind!

jroosevelt, Quick tutorial. 3 legs of the carp on the fly according to Rick.

Find the fish first - don't blind cast

Put the fly in the zone - within inches of it's nose and not feet.

Understand the difference between signal and noise. The difference between a bite and no bite. If you are use to bass, trout and bluegill you will be missing many bites. I don't feel 99% of the bites, I don't see the line move. I physically see the fish take the fly with poloroids and hook set.

This is my method, it might not be for everyone but works for me. Good luck man, now go get ya' some!

Found out that a pond near where I live actually had some fish in it, so I gave it a shot yesterday. I was hoping for bass, of which there were some in the pond, but there were definitely more carp, so I gave it a go.

Not sure if one even looked at any of the flies I was chuckin' at 'em. Oh well. I need to do a little more research on carp technique, maybe.

Definitely a bigmouth buffalo. They're actually pretty good eating.

Clay, nice fish indeed, the 26 lber, but its got to be a buffalo which are less common on a fly actually. but that def looks to be a buff

Love the shot with the snow in the background. This fish was taken on Feb 10th this year in Southern Wis:

nice carp that must of been a blast. i wish i still had all my pictures from last year fishin em on the beaches, man they fight out there. heres the last one i got on my fly rod before it broke. not a big one but was still a good surprise fishing steelies.

Had to add a shot of the big one. 26 pounds 14 oz on my 7 wt with 8 pound Vanish as the tippet material. OOOOH, AHHHH.

i use a 4 wt for carp sometimes and that is a real rush. my largest on a 4 wt was 16 lbs and it took me about 4 hours to get it in with it going into the current where i was fishing for them. over all you just need to know how to fight them and also how to use the flexability in the rod to your advantage, but yes a heavier rod is a lot better and easier when fishing for big carp.

I've pretty well wore out 5/6 wt reels on big carp. musky do a little less damage to the equipment because of the number of hook ups. I would definitely go with a 7/8 if your going to fight allot of big carp.

A five wt will handle carp. period. You won't be able to horse them in like you would with a 7 wt, but yeah, it'll handle carp.

i just got a 5 wt fly rod. do you think i could go carp fishing with it? or is it too light?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742286341478873.html also.. New Barry Reynolds video out of Denver: http://www.frontrangeanglers.com/newsletter/april09/breynolds.html

We have carp up the wazoo below the dam here in Beaver Dam. Flyrods, spinners, heck, I think even dynamiters would be welcome. Literally thousands of them in the first 100 yards or so below the dam.