Goldfish on Fly

***I haven't shared much regarding techniques for quit a while, my recent posts being more about the fish with which I am so enamored.  I'm going to start sharing more specifically what I've learned for the various species I've caught.

We all know fish in different waters can behave differently and have different preferences.  But I think overall this will give folks who want to try for certain species more info that can hopefully get them started off on the right foot, rather than going blindly.  We can all shorten our personal learning curve by first learning from the experience of others.***

This blog post is about Goldfish.  (It's going to look very similar to my post on Koi.)

Goldfish on Fly

The biggest challenge is finding a public (or private) water that allows fishing.  I'm fortunate to have found such a place not far from where I live.  I'm certain there are other places scattered around the U.S., most likely where folks who had Goldfish in an aquarium or outdoor decorative water feature may have decided to release the fish into local waters.  They shouldn't do this, but it has happened.

My personal experience with Goldfish comes from ponds in public parks, where fishing is allowed.

It definitely helps if the water is clear enough for sight-fishing....where you can cast toward an individual or group of fish, and see how they react.  I've caught fish that I didn't see first, but the visible fish are your best and easiest targets.

I've caught Goldfish during every month of the year.  As long as the water isn't iced over, I've caught them on flyfishing gear/flies.  They are more active in warmer water.

At times the fish can be lethargic, and I've witnessed many times when park users would stop to feed the fish or ducks, which would cause the Goldfish to start feeding more aggressively.  So, now I occasionally take a small sandwich ziplock bag of cat food (we own a cat), and if the fish aren't cooperating, I can usually change that by tossing a few handfuls of cat food out into the water.  Chumming like this certainly isn't required, but it can help.  Do as you wish.

I use a 9' long 6 wt fly rod.  It is absolutely overkill.  You can use a MUCH lighter fly rod... the only instance the heavier fly rod helps is when needing to hoist a large (10"-14"+) Goldfish up over a handrail or other barrier.  They are also smart, so I prefer to use 6 lb test Fluorocarbon tippet.  You can absolutely go lighter... 2 lb or 4 lb Flouro. There are usually other species, like Koi or Grass Carp in the waters I fish for Goldfish, so that is why I go with 6 lb...or even 8lb tippet.  For fly patterns, small microjigs set below a strike indicator has been my most consistent technique.  I've caught them other ways as well.  But the microjigs have caught many hundreds of Goldfish for me, so I will focus on that.

I like the Fish Pimp Original size football-style strike indicators.  I like to tie my own patterns on Wapsi Super Jig Heads.  They have stronger hooks than most other commercially available microjigs.  I think 1/80th oz with the #10 hook is about perfect for Goldfish.  You may need to go smaller if your local Goldfish are under 5" in length.  I've tried different body materials.  White chenille with a short white marabou tail works very well, but I've caught them on many other colors, including with a body of small or medium silver metallic chenille.  A microjig pattern I've had success with lately, catching Goldfish along with Koi, has a short white marabou or rabbit fur tail, and Peach or Sockeye color Eggstacy chenille, by Flybox, palmered up the hookshank.

Other small weighted egg patterns, like a Y2K, can also work very well.

The depth I set the fly depends on where the fish are.  If they are feeding off or just under the surface, setting it 6" deep might get the most strikes.  Where I fish, 18"-24" is usually a good depth to start with if the fish are visible but hanging a bit deeper.  Adjust your fly to where your fish are, or just above.

I've noticed Goldfish can get interested by watching a fly sink down to near their level, or even dropping below.  Goldfish often take and spit the fly very quickly, so if they are approaching the fly from slightly below, that helps to get some sort of signal from the strike indicator that a take is occurring.  

Goldfish eat everywhere in the water column, from the surface, to rooting in the bottom.  

Goldfish are challenging, and colorful.  They generally do NOT fight nearly as well as a similarly sized Koi... but  I really enjoy catching them on flies. Do some research, find some fish near you, and get after them!  Good luck! 

Here's a few pics of Goldfish I've caught while flyfishing:

Flyfishing for Koi and Goldfish

Since I'm still pretty new here in the St. Louis area, I was researching places to fish online, and stumbled onto a little nugget of info.  I dove down the rabbit hole and found more and more supporting pieces to the puzzle.  I had to give it a try.

I enjoy flyfishing for everything.  That covers bass, trout, crappies, trout, catfish and bullheads, grass carp and common carp, gar, etc.  I appreciate was each fish offers.  So, carp are a sight-fishing challenge and they fight really well.  They are beautiful in their own right, from their golden bronze-colored scales, yellow bellies, and red/orange tails.  What could be better?

What angler hasn't looked at the colorful Koi and thought, "Wouldn't that be cool to catch some of those?"  I certainly have thought that for many years  On the extremely rare occasion I might spot a Koi in a public pond that someone probably released from an aquarium or backyard water garden, they seem pretty spooky and hard to fish for.

June-July of 2020, I fished a couple public ponds in Iowa that had some jumbo Goldfish.  11"-13.75" GOLDFISH!  Over a period of ~ 2 months, I managed to catch 18 of these big goldfish on flies.  The water was stained in both ponds, prevented any sort of sight-fishing.  It was total "blind luck" to stumble onto one.  I think the most I ever caught in one day was 3, usually it was one.  From the same ponds, I managed to also catch a couple Grass Carp, and good numbers of bullheads and channel catfish.  I think its safe to say the common belief is that you need to use bait to catch these fish consistently, but it really boosted my confidence at how often they would hit an artificial fly.

I figured I'd be able to fool a Koi on a fly.  Others have done it, I'm not the first.  So, I set off to give that a shot.  Now, its really early in the year, I really didn't know how active or visible these fish would be...I'd never been to this place before.

I used a 1/80th microjig under a strike indicator.  This had worked well for me on those Iowa Goldfish.  Suspending the fly like this means the fish wouldn't have to chase even a slow-sinking fly.  They could just swim over and casually eat it if they chose.  And the indicator would signal most of the strikes.  It would be up to me to time the hookset correctly.  I tried 3 different microjig colors (silver, chartreuse, and white), and they each caught fish.  I would say white has been my best color for Goldfish and Koi...but they certainly hit other colors.

It wasn't a fish every cast, but it was pretty steady all morning until I finally decided to give the fish a reprieve from me.  I ended up catching 13 Koi and (surprise!) 7 Goldfish in 2 hours of fishing!  It was really fun.  Getting them to strike was pretty awesome, but seeing them up close with the variety of colors and scale patterns was stellar!  If you know a little about Carp, you may know there are the common scale pattern variety, a "mirror carp" variety that has scales of different sizes and shapes that may be patchy, in lines, etc.  And then there are Leather Carp that have few or no scales.  I caught all of those varieties, with the color patterns of Koi.  Cool!

Alright...picture time.

First up....the Goldfish.  It was fun getting to see the fish and watch them attack the fly.  Some were subtle, some were pretty aggressive... swam over quickly and hit.

And the Koi:

I'm stoked!  This made my whole year!   😍