Carp Lessons

In the past two years, fly fishing for carp has given me a lot of satisfaction. Over that time, I’ve made a few discoveries.

These include a rig to fish dirty water, capitalizing on the mulberry hatch, and discovering for myself that carp are a winter fly rod fish.

Fly fishing for carp is a sight fishing game. My local spot gets dirty. That’s not a good combo. On many days, I’ll see tailing fish, but it ends there. Once my fly sinks, I lose it. And there’s no way I can see a fish take.

So I turned to my trout fishing experience. My go to rig became a 9 foot 2X knotless tapered leader with a lightly weighted black mini-bugger knotted to the tippet. A short distance above the bugger, depending on water depth, I attach a New Zealand strike indicator. They’re adjustable, easy to use, and cast great. On top of that, they’re stealthy and hypersensitive. After spotting a carp and putting my fly in the strike zone, if the indicator moves in any way, I set the hook. Many times it won’t get pulled under like an aggressive trout take, it’ll just shake. Here I think the carp is mouthing the fly - basically test eating it. Fish don’t have hands, so it’s the only way they can physically investigate a possible food source. And if a presentation is good enough to earn a look-see, that’s a bite.

This was a clear, calm day. You can see the indicator directly above the fish.

Next, flies that imitate berries not bugs - the mulberry hatch.

In June, I’ve found when cottonwood seeds are in the air, mulberries are on the trees. And if you find a mulberry tree over carp water, you can score. Carp, like so many creatures, love eating mulberries. When these fruits drop to the water, carp gulp them.

On windy days, I’ve seen a mulberry carp blitz develop. It’s incredible.

It’s not often that I eat what the fish eat.

I fish these mulberry flies like a terrestrial dry for trout. I treat the mulberry with floatant and tuck cast it, plopping it down like a natural. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of refusals. But eventually, if you stick with it, instinct and competition seem to take over in the fish, and you’ll force one to make a mistake.

Finally, on January 14, 2021, I caught my most memorable fish.

Parts of the shoreline had sheet ice. But there were also stretches of open, clear water. Fish were in the shallows.

I’ll never forget having a carp chase my mini-bugger. Given the water temperature, I really didn’t expect it. That upped my intensity and I was able to eventually fool the fish below.

When I got home, I did a quick Google search and read this line, “It turns out that because of their amazing temperature range, carp are one of the most viable winter fly fishing species not named Trout!” (flycarpin.com)

Lesson learned.

The January fish. Easily my prettiest carp to date. It looks like a red drum that got rid of the black dot and grew a mustache. — The January fish. Easily my prettiest carp to date.
It looks like a red drum that got rid of the black dot and grew a mustache.

Summer Beachfront Game Plan