# Trash on the Fly



## fontinalis

I have been seeing a lot of awesome pics of some rough fish on here, thought i would start a thread to showcase them. here is my offering, let me see some trashy pics
















[ame]http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad142/pknowlton/Fly%20Fishing/suck6.jpg[/ame]


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## CoolWater

I love rough fish and am very surprised more fly fisherman don't enjoy them. A good number of fly guys are C & R anyways and these species often put up a tremendous fight. I love that first photo by the way.

In my opinion chasing any species in it's native environment is sporting - so all fish can be sportfish.

I'm starting to see a rather well established following for fly fishing for carp... seen at least 2 TV shows this past year.

Very nice thread.


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## bigduck10

Can't do it. I catch Suckers all the time fishing for Steelhead but Carp are just over the edge. I know they fight like crazy but I just can't bring myself to chase them with a fly rod.


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## fontinalis

bigduck10 said:


> Can't do it. I catch Suckers all the time fishing for Steelhead but Carp are just over the edge. I know they fight like crazy but I just can't bring myself to chase them with a fly rod.


Try it, just once.


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## Clayton

fontinalis said:


> Try it, just once.


Agreed, they will humble you for sure.

Also wish I had seen this sooner, I could have taken pics today. Got three kind of suckers and the biggest quill back I have ever seen!

_OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


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## Andrew S.




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## wabi

Fun on the 3wt!


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## jkurtz7

These are from last year.


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## toobnoob

I'm pretty new to fly fishing, just got a 4 wt in the fall and a 8 wt this spring for steelhead. been doing pretty well on the steel this spring but i've been thinking of targeting carp after the steel leave the rivers.

What is the general setup for carp and what flys are productive?


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## Clayton

toobnoob said:


> What is the general setup for carp and what flys are productive?


I like to use very long leaders with zero x tippet. I lean toward heavy crayfish patterns with lead eyes or woolly buggers. Look for tailing fish, which will be indicated by a cloud of mud streaming behind then in the current. 

Cast a few feet ahead of the fish and get the fly in the bottom. When they get close, strip the fly two or three inches, just enough for the fish to notice, and watch him. If he goes over and eats it, strip set and try to get it on the reel!

In slower water you can get away with lighter flies, and I've never been successful on lakes.

Good luck! Be persistent, they can be very humbling. Keep your hooks sharp too.

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## toobnoob

Clayton said:


> I like to use very long leaders with zero x tippet. I lean toward heavy crayfish patterns with lead eyes or woolly buggers. Look for tailing fish, which will be indicated by a cloud of mud streaming behind then in the current.
> 
> Cast a few feet ahead of the fish and get the fly in the bottom. When they get close, strip the fly two or three inches, just enough for the fish to notice, and watch him. If he goes over and eats it, strip set and try to get it on the reel!
> 
> In slower water you can get away with lighter flies, and I've never been successful on lakes.
> 
> Good luck! Be persistent, they can be very humbling. Keep your hooks sharp too.
> 
> _OutdoorHub Mobile, the information engine of the outdoors_


Thanks clay, i'll give it try. I've caught a few on spinning gear but i never target them. Should be fun when i'm done chasing steelies.


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## Clayton

toobnoob said:


> Thanks clay, i'll give it try. I've caught a few on spinning gear but i never target them. Should be fun when i'm done chasing steelies.


My most fun carp was about 24", caught in the mad river on my 4 weight  I was trout fishing but I couldn't find any active trout... happened to stumble upon a big carp feeding and figured why not!

Well, the answer to that is "Because he'll try to take you into the wood at every moment, then try to break your rod, then use the current against you and this will be the most hair raising fight you've ever had". Ya know what? That was right!  I did win though.

I like carp, a lot. I like catfish more but they're impractical to target usually, unless you live somewhere with a ton of them. The red river in manitoba? Just throw streamers! But most places you'll have a lot of undesirable by-catch like bass (  ) if you try. If catfish would rise to a dry fly consistently I wouldn't bother with trout again lol.


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## dcfisherman

I've been considering carp on the fly. I actually tried it once, but could get them to take it. They seem picky... So I'll probably give it a shot again. I would think they make a great alternative for steelies in the summer.


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## fallen513

Anybody who doesn't like carp on the fly hasn't caught one! 


They're the hardest fighting, easiest to find, hardest to get to bite fish in Ohio's waters. Super smart fish, super senses, super skittish... You sight fish for them... You see the take... 


COME ON!


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## fontinalis

fallen513 said:


> Anybody who doesn't like carp on the fly hasn't caught one!
> 
> 
> They're the hardest fighting, easiest to find, hardest to get to bite fish in Ohio's waters. Super smart fish, super senses, super skittish... You sight fish for them... You see the take...
> 
> 
> COME ON!


I Know, what makes a fish a good gamefish?
Easily accesed
Large size
fights hard
hard to catch
sight fishable
awesome
yep, the carp has all of those qualities


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## Clayton

People are probably getting sick of these pics, but I like to post them in the trash fish threads  So since I haven't posted any pics yet, BEHOLD! lol.










I set the hook on this fish 10 feet from me... lol.










Nothing like 30" of carp on a 5 weight


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## ARReflections

What type of flys do you use to catch theses "trash" fish?


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## salmon king

fontinalis said:


> I have been seeing a lot of awesome pics of some rough fish on here, thought i would start a thread to showcase them. here is my offering, let me see some trashy pics
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> http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad142/pknowlton/Fly Fishing/suck6.jpg


Hey Fontinalis in your one pic is that a maggots fly? just wondered if it was the real mcoy or a good fly... If its a fly you did a damn good job and it looks so realistic if not SHAME!!! LOL JUst kidding


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## Fishaholic69

I don't mind hooking into suckers or carp! they bulldog you like a catfish and put up a decent fight. I hate when people kill them and leave them on the edge of a river,


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## FISNFOOL

Here is a link I posted on another carp discussion. Lots of great patterns.

http://www.flytyingforum.com/speciesCarp.html


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## TheCream

I almost (OK, well not really) landed my first carp of 2011 by accident yesterday. I was tossing a big deceiver for bass on Lake Snowden in my kayak and accidentally casted too far towards the bank and just past a submerged log. I tried to strip fast to get it over the log before I snagged it, but couldn't get it past it. Funny thing, the log took off like a U-boat, HUGE carp, I had mistakenly snagged it. I got towed quite a ways back into a little cove, couldn't stop the fish, and it dove towards heavy cover and broke me off. My 2X tippet was all frayed, the fish broke me off on a log or stump, but gave me a wild ride!


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## fishinnick

Heres some trash


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## Clayton

ARReflections said:


> What type of flys do you use to catch theses "trash" fish?


By order of river flow speed:

I like McCabe's crayfish for fast flowing water, giant prince nymphs for slower water (basically a peacock body with the tail and wings, I can't be bothered with the hackle or tinsel). 

In stagnant water I kind of like Barry's carp fly but I don't think it is weighted enough personally. It needs a serious jump in the bead chain eye sizing to get down in any sort of reasonable time. otherwise you're going to have to lead fish by 20 feet just to get on the bottom haha.

In every flow I have had unbelievable luck with an olive woolly bugger, size ten. It was been totally effective on the bottom like a crayfish pattern as well as drifted, which is great IMO. I like simplicity. As another bonus, if the carp aren't cooperating, just start casting the bugger to weed edges and rock piles and smallmouth fish! And I can't tell you the number of huge smallies I've picked up that were following the "Trash fish" and feeding off of the leftovers of what he scared up. I had a perfect drift going on a 3' long carp and a 14" smallmouth ran up and crushed the fly. 14" is usually pretty good but I was disappointed! 

When you are carp fishing, always be watching. Sometimes they will sort of suspend in a slow current and look like they are doing nothing... but carp nymph! So walk slowly and keep an eye ahead of you. If several carp are sitting together shallow and looking lazy, I wouldn't even cast. They are grouped together doing nothing and wont' eat. But one sitting by himself at the back of a pool will probably be feeding on nymphs and might not be too terribly picky either. I've caught a few that way, just casting ahead of them and letting the bugger drift by. Man now I'm excited for carp season! I hope I can find somewhere to annoy these wonderful 'trash fish' near Parkersburg.

On another note, "Trash fish" need not apply to bottom feeders. Some of the best smallmouth bass and pike fisheries I've ever visited were regarded by locals as trash (lets not say local to where ) But anyway! The fishing was unbelievable, dozens of 15-18" smallmouth and practically point-and-click fishing. However, because the state stocked lake trout in all these reservoirs, they were considered the posh thing to fish for. So everyone left the bass alone and the bass got a bit gullible. Trust me, I didn't mind


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## fontinalis

SALMON KING
thanks for the inquiry, thats a fly i call medusa, its just 3-4 pieces of small chenile tied on the hook and then splayed out, burn the ends with a lighter for realism, deadly on those picky carp, and even tricked a few smallies with them. super easy fly to tie


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## Andrew S.

This has been my best carp fly - size 6 or 8 hook white or yellow wooly bugger with bead chain eyes, and some weight underneath in some cases. I've gotten them on dark flies as well, but the spot where I did all my carp fishing before moving to Ohio was in a stream with crystal clear water, and I liked to be able to see the fly.

I found that I often couldn't follow a dark fly over the dark bottom, but I could easily see my white or yellow flies, and this meant I could manipulate the fly, see what it was doing, and see how the carp were reacting.

My Ohio carp scouting suggests to me that I'm not going to find that crystal clear water and that I'll simply have to guess (or feel) when the carp takes the fly...so, I will probably start tying more flies in the darker colors as well.

I prefer all my carp flies, or at least those that will crawl on the bottom, to have bead chain because I want them to ride hook point up. I've had frustrating cases where a carp was following a fly, clearly interested, and then the fly got hung up. No good!


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## Andrew S.

dcfisherman said:


> I've been considering carp on the fly. I actually tried it once, but could get them to take it. They seem picky... So I'll probably give it a shot again. I would think they make a great alternative for steelies in the summer.


They're great fun. I think part of the key to catching them is identifying which ones are worth throwing to. This older thread has a link to some videos I made showing carp feeding that might be useful to you:

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=148079


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## fallen513

Andrew, any info on common carp devastating our fisheries? LOL.


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## crg

pic of the carp in my signature below was on 4wt. ive gotten 2 fish ohios on my 4wt. what a blast!!!


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## crocodile

That sounds sterotypical response of a flyfisherman. Carp are one of the greatest fish in freshwater to persue in the US. Ronnie


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## Rod Hawg

Ugly but nice fish! Good job.


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## sbreech

I need to get the flyrod out really soon. Those big carp look like a blast to catch!


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## fontinalis

During the flooding this week i managed to find a public pond that was not yet chocolate milk, there i found the ugliest fish i have ever caught. Dark on one side, light on the other. A nice fat, mutant channel cat, on the 3wt.


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## oldstinkyguy




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## sbreech

Hey fontinalis - that's a Michael Jackson catfish!


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## Buckeyefly

I love trash fish- first fish is from my cousin - late March, 2 one is mine from 4-4-11. Both fish caught on 5 wts with whoolly buggers. 

 

www.steeliemans.blogspot.com


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## fontinalis

sbreech said:


> Hey fontinalis - that's a Michael Jackson catfish!


hahah, thats exactly what it looks like, it even had a little white glove on its tail when i caught it


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## sbreech

I went to Antrim today to catch a couple trout...got one on the fly and one on the spinning...also went to Osprey, and tried to entice a BUNCH of big carp, but couldn't get any takers. I had my 5wt, and it would have been a blast. All in all, what I caught at Osprey was this bluegill. The bluegill fought about twice as hard as the trout! I hope I can consider these tiny fish trash:


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## TheCream

Stocked trout might not be considered trash by some, but they taste like it, in my opinion. I haven't kept one of them in several years. 

With the flood water all around our yard and driveway, I spotted a carp cruising across the road into the edge of our yard yesterday afternoon. I rigged the 7wt and grabbed my main carp box and stalked the edges of the flood water. I only spotted 2 fish that I could cast to. The first would not take my offering and finally spooked when I think I lined him, and the other I was about to cast to when a car came down the road (within 6-7' of the fish) and spooked it. Hooking a big carp in flood water in the yard on the fly would have been great! There's always this evening...


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## sbreech

TheCream said:


> Stocked trout might not be considered trash by some, but they taste like it, in my opinion. I haven't kept one of them in several years.
> 
> With the flood water all around our yard and driveway, I spotted a carp cruising across the road into the edge of our yard yesterday afternoon. I rigged the 7wt and grabbed my main carp box and stalked the edges of the flood water. I only spotted 2 fish that I could cast to. The first would not take my offering and finally spooked when I think I lined him, and the other I was about to cast to when a car came down the road (within 6-7' of the fish) and spooked it. Hooking a big carp in flood water in the yard on the fly would have been great! There's always this evening...


Yeah, that would be awesome! I was down along my parent's creek yesterday, walking along the smongy saturated ground, looked down...and saw what must have been 200 leaches....


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## bfurderer

Great thread...God I sure do love the 'trash' that those purists don't want to fish for.


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## Steelhead Fever

i caught my first quillback last weekend, ill have to get a pic...


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## fontinalis

I found this little critter slurping up treats in the flood water this morning.


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## fallen513

Nice Fontinalis!


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## sbreech

I caught a carp today, and a fellow fisherman informed me that I had caught a sucker nosed catfish.


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## fallen513

Fontinalis, is that a Willie Joe Access pack?


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## tractor5561

ive been catching lots of "trash" 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...963338596871.115140.1045027183&type=1&theater

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...932570987700.113677.1045027183&type=1&theater


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## fontinalis

fallen513 said:


> Fontinalis, is that a Willie Joe Access pack?


it is the front half of a confluence pack, willy joe sent me a shoulder strap, and waist belt so i could just run with the front half when on short trips, but with the back half attached it is great for an all day trip, room for camera, tripod, water/beer/flask, snacks, extra reel, i like it a lot.


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## fontinalis

Just keeping this thread at the top where it belongs. I will be chasing quillback tomorrow at clear fork. If anyone is interested.
Yellow bullhead








FOCCFOTF, fish ohio channel cat fish on the fly









Below is the picture of a carp that weighed approx 30lbs, and was as long as my leg. Took a cicada pattern, then broke me off in about 4 seconds
 stupid minnows


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## TheCream

bfurderer said:


> Great thread...God I sure do love the 'trash' that those purists don't want to fish for.


Dude! You got flatheads on the fly! I'm officially one jealous SOB. That is the one species I have never caught on the fly and want one in a bad way. I can't believe I haven't stumbled into one by accident, seeing as I catch a lot of channel cats accidentally on the fly every year.


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## fallen513

Jeff, try riffles in Ohio river tributaries. I've caught a ton of flatties on the fly just like you'd catch smallies...on clousers.


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## fontinalis

i also need to catch a flatface, bowfin is next on the list, clear fork was a no go this morning, no money or gas in the truck. need to cut down a tree to get some folding money


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## TheCream

fallen513 said:


> Jeff, try riffles in Ohio river tributaries. I've caught a ton of flatties on the fly just like you'd catch smallies...on clousers.


That's the thing, I catch a lot of smallies right by my place on Clousers in a riffle of an Ohio River trib. I catch smallies, the occasional white bass and even a few channel cats...just never a flattie!


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## fontinalis

try tying a stink bait fly


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## Steelhead Fever

got this at the begining of april


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## Clayton

bfurderer, that one flathead you got is a BEAST. Good lord, I'm jealous too. I've been looking to get in to one that size... or figure out how to consistently get into them that size, that'd be a blast for sure.

The best one I've caught was maybe 18" long


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## fallen513

For what it's worth, I've also caught a bunch of BIG ones (20lb+) on rubber crawdads on hot pink, 1/2 oz. jig heads.


No idea why, but they LOVE it ripped as fast as possible right along the bottom.


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## bfurderer

TheCream said:


> Dude! You got flatheads on the fly! I'm officially one jealous SOB. That is the one species I have never caught on the fly and want one in a bad way. I can't believe I haven't stumbled into one by accident, seeing as I catch a lot of channel cats accidentally on the fly every year.


I really wish I could claim them as intentional, but each one of them has come while targeting carp. They are a blast when hooked though.


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## jhammer

I've caught many of them on big orange clousers around here. The bait guys (I've done it as well) throw large goldfish out to them in the river. My flatheadin fly rig is an 8 wt set up for the chuck and duck method. I just use a running line attached to a 25 pound leader with a lot of weight and heave it out there.


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## TheCream

Carp #1 of 2011. Probably the smallest one I have caught on the fly, but it was real aggressive on the take. This fish hit a #6 black Backstabber. It's not often that you can hook a carp on a fly rod and not have to give it an inch of line.


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## copperdon

Great Pics!!

The best fight I've ever had was on a 4 wt fly rod with a carp that weighed 6 lbs or so.

I was actually targetting smallies at the time on the Mohican, and I dropped a #10 black stonefly just off of some structure and WHAM! it damn near jerked the rod right out of my hands.

I really didn't know what I had because it never surfaced, and until it finally swam towards me and I could see it, I was at a loss because I had never heard of anyone catching a carp using a fly.

I love flying for trout, and I know that much bogger carp have been caught on fly rigs by others, but that 6 lb carp will stay in my memory forever - as it was absolutely hands-down the best fight I'd ever encountered on a stream, and that includes counting some very nice 4 and 5 lb trout I've hit out west and up north.


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## fontinalis

This is the first gar i have brought to hand on the fly, hooked lots of them, always seem to loose them. Not very big, but i have been trying to get one for a long time. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic.


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## BASSINaDL

fontinalis said:


> This is the first gar i have brought to hand on the fly, hooked lots of them, always seem to loose them. Not very big, but i have been trying to get one for a long time. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic.


that must be the ohio river


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## fontinalis

No sir, maumee river providence dam. drug it over to the stairs so i could sit down to unwind the leader from its snout


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## TheCream

If you really want to consistently catch gar, try a rope fly. They are very easy, very simple...and have no hook. The ones I made are from shredded white nylon rope, mine were about 4-5" long. Get a gar to strike it, they shake their head, the rope tangles in their teeth and they are had. Removing them is not the most fun thing in the world, you have to pry their jaws open and pull out the rope, but it is the best way to land them. Works wonders in the Hocking!


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## jhammer

fontinalis said:


> This is the first gar i have brought to hand on the fly, hooked lots of them, always seem to loose them. Not very big, but i have been trying to get one for a long time. Sorry about the crappy cell phone pic.


Nice looking gar! That's always been a good spot for me. It's given up many drum, gar, and cats over the years. It's pretty good further down the wall too if ya wade out a little bit.


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## jhammer

Here's my first additions to the "trash on the fly" thread. A Yellow Bullhead caught yesterday on the Auglaize River using a Panfish Charlie, and a sheephead caught a couple weeks ago at the Independence Dam near Defiance.


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## sbreech

OK, this thread was sliding off the page, so I thought I'd catch some trash to move it on up.  Blue Cat, Largemouth Bass, and Bluegill.


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## jhammer

I thought I would bump this thread up. Pulled these guys out of the Auglaize yesterday evening.


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## Steelhead Fever

aweosme,
what did you get the carp on? I am still in search of my 1st carp on the fly!


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## jhammer

I got him on a carp/craw pattern I've been working on called the dubbin' craw. It's basically just a small size 8 hook, some bead-chain eyes, a little bit of brown dubbing, and some brown rooster neck feathers for the hackle and tail.


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## WPM

Lake Erie -- You never know what you'll get bumping the bottom with a crayfish pattern.


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## fontinalis

so do you cast and retrieve, or cast out a good ways and drift. Those are some awesome fish, also what line are you using, im looking into getting a rio deep 7, but havent pulled the trigger on it yet, im not sure if it will work for steelheading, it might sink too fast. I dont want to spent 75 bucks on a line that has only 1 use


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## Steelhead Fever

awesome. any pics of the fly? and those fish at erie had to be awesome!


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## WPM

fontinalis said:


> so do you cast and retrieve, or cast out a good ways and drift. Those are some awesome fish, also what line are you using, im looking into getting a rio deep 7, but havent pulled the trigger on it yet, im not sure if it will work for steelheading, it might sink too fast. I dont want to spent 75 bucks on a line that has only 1 use


Definitely RIO Deep 7 - it really gets down and doesn't bow. This is all we use it for here, but we did have some success casting big pike flies in Canada. 
We usually cast while drifting, let it sink, feel it touch bottom, strip in 3 or 4 ft, let it drop back, then repeat.


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## WPM

Steelhead Fever said:


> awesome. any pics of the fly? and those fish at erie had to be awesome!


I originally posted one of these pics in another thread (see "Perch on the Fly" on this forum). There's a picture of one of the flies there, but it's a bit bedraggled and hard to see.


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## Dandrews

I caught this 22 inch drum on 7/12 in a tributary of the Little Miami. The water was gin clear, I could see it in the distance suddenly lumber over to my wooly bugger. There were quillbacks and redhorse all over but none of them had any interest in what I was offering. The drum, smallmouth and spotted bass didn't seem to mind though.
To this point it&#8217;s my biggest fish on a fly. 
I felt pretty good about it until I saw WPM's...Wow.


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## jhammer

Time to add a little more trash! I went down to the Auglaize River this evening and lost a nice carp, but caught a few nice channel cats. :G


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## fontinalis

Bringing this old thread back to life. Yanked my first carp of the season out of the Black River this afternoon. Took the 3wt hoping for sunfish and baby smallmouth, didn't find any, but i will take a good old carpski any time.


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## sbreech

Call me crazy, but I really like the looks of a carp. Their scales, like on the one you have there, are really cool.


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## fontinalis

I guess I'm crazy too, I love em. Way cooler than your average largemouth in my opinion. I saw one today that looked more orange than most, not quite a koi, but still pretty cool.


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## FISNFOOL

Bump, Just keeping this thread alive. Carp on a fly is a great challenge.


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## zachxbass

Bump again, I wanna see some trashy pics. Going to the LMR after work today, hopefully the carp are hungry. I've yet to land one on the fly, but hopefully today is my day. Ill let you know how it goes.

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## crazypoultry

Caught on a 6ft 6in 3wt with a 4x tippet on a size 14 hare's ear. 4th on July morning took 45 min land him. Took a year of on and off chasing them.


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## BassSlayerChris

Got him in the dead of August on the grand. On a fly from my Carp Assortment by Cabelas 


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## fishinnick

This was my first year targeting carp and suckers with the fly rod and being successful. They are a blast.


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## toobnoob

A few of the uglies I've caught this year. All of these were caught on a 6 wt using 8lb flouro for a tippet.


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## tg2n1

Anybody know of any good spots in the Cincinnati area for trash on a fly? 


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## sbreech

I think the Ohio River is down there somewhere.


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## nitsud

Trash in the Ohio River? Surely not...


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## BassSlayerChris

fontinalis said:


> I have been seeing a lot of awesome pics of some rough fish on here, thought i would start a thread to showcase them. here is my offering, let me see some trashy pics]


Totally off topic but is your profile pic Bubbles from trailer park boys??



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