I know a thing or two about carp! Hah...basically all I fish for anymore unless I am traveling and chasing black drum in Louisiana. I just got back from a week on Lake MI chasing carp, but my home water is the Columbia River. My rules.
1). Know your forage. Carp eat all kinds of stuff so you need a general idea of what they eat so you can imitate the forage on your water. On the Columbia, they eat clams so I fish small nymphs and my hybrid fly. On lake M they eat mainly gobies. Try to figure that out so you can imitate accordingly.
2). Don’t cast until you can see their head. It is a sight fishing game so use some stealth to get close enough to see their head. That distance varies depending on light and water clarity, but by keeping this in mind I force a better stalk on the target and catch more fish.
3). You gotta make them move. Carp can eat a fly from about 1/3 of their body length, so detecting the take can be tough. I try to put the flies to the side of the fish at a 45 degree angle, then key on the slight head turn when they turn to eat. Or, if forage is prey, I want the fish to pursue the fly so I can detect the take.
4). To catch more carp cast at less. Pick your targets. Find feeding or shopping fish, skip poor targets like sunning fish etc. casting at bad targets just risks spooking unseen good ones.
One thing I have found for carp that are not chasing prey is you are better off not moving your fly much if at all. My home water carp won’t move for a fly, so we drag and drop the fly close and just let them find it. I rarely strip or move the fly at all. Also, I trout set 90% of the time. Most carp are not chasing streamers, so a trout set is effective. If you are lucky enough to be after streamer eaters (Like my lake mi trips) strip set is the way to go.
Carp are ridiculous fun on a fly rod. Good luck!
Posted: 25 Jun 2020, 04:18 • 
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