Every day when we are on the river fly fishing for bass we keep an eye out for carp. They are very wary and give a great fight when you hook them. A 20 pound carp can strip most of your backing in just a few seconds, then when you get him on the reel he may make several more powerful runs, testing your fish-fighting skills as if he were a huge rainbow trout on the Yellowstone River.
In the shallows I often spot carp tailing as they feed on the stream bottom much like a tailing bonefish. My most successful tactic on the “tailers” is to wade in well below them and cast up and across at a 10 degree angle to them dropping my fly 10 feet upstream of them. I let this drift naturally to the carp and watch him for his strike. Productive flies are the Murray’s Olive Marauder 8, Murray’s Brown Carp 8 and Murray’s Olive Carp 8.
In sections of the river that are three to four feet deep along the banks I frequently find feeding carp by seeing the muddy water which streams downstream from where they root out food. A productive tactic is to cast my fly 10 feet upstream above the upper section of the muddy water. I use a slow two inch twitching fly actin as my fly drifts to the “mudders” suspected feeding station. Here I try to detect the strike by feeling it. The same flies I use for the “tailers” work on these “mudders”.
In order to land these carp I try to take up all of the slack fly line quickly and put them on the reel so I can be in control of the fight.
To brush up on your carp tactics watch our video
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