# Some new stuff to try on carp this spring



## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I'm really bitten by the carp bug, I have to admit it. I only hooked/landed a few of them last year but didn't start targeting them until a little later in the summer. I've read a lot about using bonefish-style flies for them, so I have tied up some small Gotcha's and Crazy Charlie's to give a shot this spring. Here are a couple of the Gotcha's, I did not have flat diamond braid for the body so I used a clump of Krystal Flash for the tail and wrapped it forward. Here is tan and dark brown, I used a brown Sharpie for barring the tan craft fur:





And this is a pattern (more or less) I found online called Tyler's Secret Weapon, supposed to be a good carp pattern. I modified it slightly. I have done a few trials in this one on a #10 heavy nymph hook in rust, dark olive, and purple:





 

I forgot to take some pics of the Charlie's, will get to that later this week sometime!


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## Andrew S. (May 22, 2010)

I think all of those will work, especially that last three.

But my own experience with carp is that the fly is less important than a whole lot of other factors. Personally, I'd rank the keys to success in this order:

1) learn to find & spot carp

2) learn to recognize which carp are worth throwing to (this is much harder than number 1, but I figure that finding and spotting has to come first, by necessity!). In my opinion, this is key. Once you learn which carp to pass up, you will spend a lot less time casting, but your ratio of casts to hookups will climb dramatically.

3) Fly position, action, retrieve: that is, once you see carp, where do you put the fly, and what do you make the fly do?

4) Fly (it's only after you've figured out the other stuff that fly selection comes into play...assuming, of course, that your fly is basically the right sort of thing. A 12 inch herring fly would not be a good choice, of course. But carp are omnivores that will eat a great variety of smallish aquatic critters, so any sort of buggy/crayfishy looking thing should work.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Andrew, I've watched some of your carp videos and clearly you know far more about carp than me! I'm very new to the golden bonefish.  I have read, and witnessed a lot, that cruising carp are most likely not going to strike. Like I said, I saw this in person several times last year. Would you consider that to be accurate? Avoid casting to cruising fish? The fish I have hooked were all rooting/tailing/feeding...all 7-8 of them.


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## Andrew S. (May 22, 2010)

TheCream said:


> Andrew, I've watched some of your carp videos and clearly you know far more about carp than me! I'm very new to the golden bonefish.  I have read, and witnessed a lot, that cruising carp are most likely not going to strike. Like I said, I saw this in person several times last year. Would you consider that to be accurate? Avoid casting to cruising fish? The fish I have hooked were all rooting/tailing/feeding...all 7-8 of them.


Yeah, that's mostly correct. The cruisers don't seem to want to feed. But I actually think there are true cruisers, i.e. fish that are really just trying to go from point A to point B, and then there are fish that are just sort of on a nice little mosey, but will sometimes take a fly. In other words, they're really fish that are feeding casually, as they slowly move along. I say this because I have had fish veer off course to follow a fly on a few occasions. 

So, now that I've said don't cast to cruisers, I'll tell you a secret: I have a hard time NOT casting to any carp I see! If it's really, really moving, then I don't bother. But if not, I at least give it a shot. Can't hurt!

But, I don't spend_ too_ much time chasing those that look like low percentage fish.

(I also think that I got very lucky when I found my great carp spot. It's full of fish and the water is crystal clear. So I got a lot of shots at carp, and I got to spend a lot of time watching exactly how they respond to flies. Years before I spent a bit of time chasing monstrous carp in a lake in California, and I never came close to even getting a follow. For all I know, 7-8 carp is excellent for the spots you fish! In any case, I think if you've gotten 7-8 of them on purpose, you're doing something right.)


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I wish I could find carp in places like that. Most fish I find are on mud flats in shallow water. When they are feeding, stirring up the sediment, sometimes I wonder how well they see the fly. A lot of my strikes seem to come as a fish sort of moves off from their little spot they have muddied up, like they are moving a few inches forward past some of the muddy water and bam, they see my fly. I know of a creek that I have seen carp in before, I need to go give it a shot this spring and see if I can find some fish in cleaner water. Smaller water and smaller fish, but I may be able to drop down to the 5wt and still have some fun with them.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I've been chatting with a carp pro lately...I'm going to try & catch one during the dead of winter... challenging, but possible I'm told. I guess we'll see. 


My "rough fish classic" went nowhere for me this year, as I just couldn't pry myself away from the hybrids. I really want a redhorse on the fly! When these rivers get back down below Noah's Flood stage, I'll be back in the water after carp and suckers in between trips to the area warm water discharges for skipjack & hybrids.


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## Andrew S. (May 22, 2010)

fallen513 said:


> I've been chatting with a carp pro lately...


Who? T.J. Brayshaw? English Jonny?

[ame="http://vimeo.com/12268498"]Interview with T.J. Brayshaw on Vimeo[/ame]


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Andrew Stoehr said:


> Who? T.J. Brayshaw? English Jonny?
> 
> Interview with T.J. Brayshaw on Vimeo


Did you shoot that in Ohio?


Hilarious!



Addicted to the slurp. 


Aren't we all.


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## AtticaFish (Nov 23, 2008)

The rough fish really got my attention this past season. I haven't signed up for roughfish.com forum....... yet. I see it in my future though. 

Cream - Flies look good, the last one pictured would be my first pick. I used to ONLY sight fish carp and use mostly small nymph styles, but the hellgramite flies i started tying up this year got me alot of hook-ups for carp. Even caught a few in deeper pools on the hellgies, could only see them cruising by occasionaly. Have caught very few on minnow imitations.

Not to hi-jack - but this one was caught on a minnow looking bucktail jig (1/10th) during late fall on UL spinning gear. One of the very few on minnow patterns, but was a nice one!!!








Caught it on the silver jig on the bottom.











Fallen513 - I never knew it, but have been catching redhorse for years out of the Sandusky River... i think redhorse anyway. They are hard pullers. Finally figured it out this year after catching a quillback carpsucker and trying to find out what the heck i had caught - i saw all the different things i have been catching, including hognose suckers as well.  Pretty sure this is a redhorse, correct me if i'm wrong.


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## Andrew S. (May 22, 2010)

fallen513 said:


> Did you shoot that in Ohio?
> 
> 
> Hilarious!
> ...


That was in Connecticut, not long before I moved here. It's largely a series of inside jokes, but most people find it fairly funny even without knowing the context.

My friend Jon ("English Jonny") and I are big fans of a documentary called "Rivers of a Lost Coast", which is about west coast steelhead and salmon fishing and the interesting characters involved in that sport in the 1950s-1970s. I got the idea for this after watching that movie.

I have a couple more T.J. Brayshaw installations in the works...


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

AtticaFish said:


> Fallen513 - I never knew it, but have been catching redhorse for years out of the Sandusky River... i think redhorse anyway. They are hard pullers. Pretty sure this is a redhorse, correct me if i'm wrong.



That's the one~! There are 3 different types that frequent Ohio's waters I believe... 


As for the "roughfisher", that is the "pro" I've been talking to... Jean-Paul Lipton! He definitely knows his suckers. 




Andrew, what can you tell me about the phenotypic plasticity of melanism in the cabbage white butterfly?!


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## Andrew S. (May 22, 2010)

fallen513 said:


> Andrew, what can you tell me about the phenotypic plasticity of melanism in the cabbage white butterfly?!



Everything you could possibly want to know....but only if you get me into some good fish!

Yes, I know, I drive a very hard bargain. But if melanism is what you want to know, you have to pay the price.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I think you guys need to come to my place and try to hook into one of the monster smallmouth buffalo that frequent the riffle by my place. I only hooked 2 this past year, landed 1. The first one I hooked had me in the backing on my 7wt in about 3 seconds! :B The other nearly got me to the backing, but me running downstream helped avoid it, but it was a much smaller fish in the 6-7lb range. I have seen some HOSS buffalo in there!


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

TheCream said:


> I think you guys need to come to my place and try to hook into one of the monster smallmouth buffalo that frequent the riffle by my place. I only hooked 2 this past year, landed 1. The first one I hooked had me in the backing on my 7wt in about 3 seconds! :B The other nearly got me to the backing, but me running downstream helped avoid it, but it was a much smaller fish in the 6-7lb range. I have seen some HOSS buffalo in there!



I'd love to join you Jeff. Maybe we can hit up some trout water this winter too?


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

fallen513 said:


> I'd love to join you Jeff. Maybe we can hit up some trout water this winter too?


Was actually thinking about hitting Clear Creek this Sunday if we don't get the possible nasty winter storm. Do you fish the Mad through winter?


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

TheCream said:


> Was actually thinking about hitting Clear Creek this Sunday if we don't get the possible nasty winter storm. Do you fish the Mad through winter?


I'm goin' to this winter!


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

robothamor said:


> this the perfect thing you no about the games and plzy to grip up . ok




Well stated!


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Fallen, I was all set to go to Clear Creek on Saturday afternoon, but first I had to go help my hunting buddy get our deer feeders up for some winter trail cam inventory. While over there, I noticed that 2 small creeks about the size of CC were iced over! I couldn't make myself take the gamble of driving an hour to see I needed an auger to get to the water.


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## RonT (May 4, 2008)

I lucked into this hog while fishing for Brown Trout brooders in the lower clearfork the Friday before thanksgiving. He hit the dropper (#14 BH Caddis) which can be seen in the upper lip.
Went 6# on the Boga (weighed him in the net, for the neener, neener boyz).
Did tag 1 ~7" Brown on the Upper CF Saturday, on a #22 Cream midge. a look outside sez go to the basement and tie....
R


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Finally remembered the pics of the other bonefish-style flies, the Crazy Charlies:


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Those should work equally well for carp. Definitely going to stir up the silt & that's what really gets'm goin'!


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

I only caught one carp on the fly and it was pretty small but fought pretty hard. hit a red/white clouser minnow on the retrieve one cast after I hooked into a smallie in the same spot? other than that I have caught numerous sucker fish over the years. they remind me of a carp kinda. they hug the bottom like a catfish when they fight.


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