# Sight Fishing



## Max_Flies (Mar 21, 2015)

Hey all, I am new to the area, I recently moved to Nelsonville for school, and was wondering about sight fishing for carp in the area. It is one of my favorite things to do. I did it all the time back home, but no one seems to really know much about any streams or lakes around here where I could do it, so I am asking you guys! Any help would be appreciated!


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## FishDude (May 15, 2014)

Hey max_flies, my main pursuit is sight fishing for carp. I'm not familiar with Nelsonville but there are lots of fly carping opportunities in Ohio. This time of year is a great to explore new water and see what your water holds. As the water approaches 60 the carp will flood the lake flats to spawn, giving you a good idea of that water bodies potential. The local river


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## FishDude (May 15, 2014)

*continued* rivers also will hold fish. If the river floods the carp will move into the flood plains and you can check out numbers and size. Explore and you will find!


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## Max_Flies (Mar 21, 2015)

Thanks for the info fishdude.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Basically any local lake with a shallow mud flat will hold them. There are plenty of them in the Hocking, also, but depending on where they are can be tougher to sight fish. I see more fish deep in the river and also more fish that seem to not be interested in feeding. The lake flats are better action. I haven't fished it yet but plan to this spring, there's a dandy looking mud flat on Lake Logan that should be accessible by kayak or john boat. You can find a lot of good water by looking at the fishing maps on the ODNR page, and I tend to cross reference that with Google Earth. Find shallow water over a wide area and it's usually money. On Google Earth, the mud flats tend to look more brown/tan in color on the aerial photos compared to the main lake.


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## bobcatbasser (Sep 20, 2014)

Strong second to what Cream said above; he is a carp sight fishing master. I just started targeting carp on the fly last year and found success on small feeder creeks casting to fish making their way downstream to spawning flats on bigger flows right about this time of year. They were traveling in packs in fairly shallow water which solves many an access problem. I'm sure you already know but bring stout gear if fishing current: it can be tough to turn the head of a runaway freight train going downstream.


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## bobcatbasser (Sep 20, 2014)

Upstream from the bigger water, rather.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

This is a screen grab of the carp flat at Veto Lake that is usually stuffed with fish. You can see the color change on the aerial photo (marked with the arrows) of the shallow mud flat.










I didn't make it to Veto last year but it never fails to produce. You don't find the biggest fish there but the numbers are usually incredible.


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

I'm a mainly a small stream sight fisherman and we're a few weeks away from prime carp time in my area , but if you have some small tribs to fish , now is a good time to sight fish suckers. You may have missed the best fishing for Red- horse suckers but high -fin/ quillback fishing should be picking up soon. Small nymphs fished right on the bottom will normally produce fish .
Ohio river tribs provide excellent fishing for Buffalo suckers in mid summer.
Good luck and Good fishing


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## Max_Flies (Mar 21, 2015)

Thanks for all the help guys. I have been fly fishing carp for a while and find it addicting.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Do you have a kayak/canoe/watercraft?


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## Max_Flies (Mar 21, 2015)

Yes, I have a kayak.


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