Fly Rod Grass Carp No. 6

I love catching these things, but I've struggled with it.  Its difficult, they are ultra-wary.  Anything that can go wrong HAS gone wrong...tangled lines, hooks pulled out, broken lines, straightened hooks, etc.
Its been 5 years since I caught my last fly rod Grass Carp!  I'm very grateful for finally catching another one.
I was flyfishing a new-to-me public pond, catching mostly tiny fish....small bass, bluegills, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish....when I saw a big splash near the opposite side of the pond as a bird flew over the water.  I thought maybe it could be a big bass, so I increased my pace and fished my way around the pond to that area.
It looked like someone had thrown peanuts or something on the water.  Over the next 20 minutes they seemed to absorb water, so I'm assuming it was pelleted fish food, or maybe pet food (dog or cat?).  I'm not sure if this was a random thing, or if someone periodically feeds fish/ducks or whatever?
Anyway, I soon saw what I thought might be a decent catfish to my right, but was probably a grass carp, swimming along under this food.  I tossed out the microjig & indicator I had been using.  The fish swam right over to the indicator and ate it.  I didn't react, and in a few seconds it spit it back out.  I then saw a grass carp to my left, and cast over by it.  It also ignored the food and ate my indicator...again spitting it within a few seconds.
Ok....so I removed the microjig and indicator and put on a floating yellow foam bug.  I tossed that around for awhile, while watching grass carp occasionally rising up to eat the food pellets.  3 or more Grass Carp appeared near where I had cast my fly...I was watching the fly (or so I thought), when my line quickly went tight and started taking off!   The "fly" I had been watching hadn't moved....it wasn't my fly.  This aggressive grass carp saved me from my own mistake and hooked itself!  As quickly as I could manage, I brought the fish close to the surface to make sure it was hooked in the mouth....it was!

After numerous splashes, bulldogging, headshaking, and back-and-forths, I landed it.  HOORAY!!
28" long, calculated weight of 10.5 lbs. Its the smallest one I've caught, but certainly still a fun and substantial fish.  I'm very happy to have finally caught another of these interesting fish!

Finally! Fly Rod Grass Carp #4!!

I finally FREAKING did it!!  After 2 seasons of not being able to land any Grass Carp (hooked yes, landed no)., I finally got fly rod Grass Carp #4 last night!  Total surprise, too.

My son had gymnastics last night, and my daughter went along for the ride.  After dropping him off, and the remaining two of us eating a nice healthy Taco John's dinner, I drove us to a nearby city pond.  My daughter stayed in the car to work on some schoolwork she had brought along.

I had 3 fly rods in the vehicle...a 5wt, a 6 wt, and a 7wt.  In general, this pond is good for catching some smallish panfish.  I had never seen a grass carp in this pond.  So, naturally, I selected the lightest of the 3 rods.  I was catching a few bluegills here and there, nothing major.  I was trying different fly patterns, hoping something would excite the fish.  I had put this fly on:

It was unweighted, and pushed quiet a bit of water, and sank very slowly.  It also made a good little "splat" when it hit the water.  I think all of this played a part in causing the Grass Carp to strike it.

I worked my way along the shoreline, and cast towards a small clump of floating algae that was floating about 30' off shore.  Something swirled on the fly.  I set the hook and missed, and suspected the fish was just a bluegill.  I immediately tossed the fly right back into that spot.  A fish lunged, grabbed, and darted to the side with the fly.  I set the hook, saw the fish, and knew right away I FINALLY had another Grass Carp on.  I was so excited!

Once I decided the fish was hooked well enough to stay on the line for awhile, I started trying to find a place to land the fish.  I had no net with me.  When a shore angler hooks a big fish and doesn't have a net or partner to help with landing the fish, the best situation you can hope for is some shallow water that you can drag the fish into so that it has to turn on its side.  Once on its side, it loses its advantage in the water, and can be landed at that point.  At this pond, the shoreline is limestone rip rap, which dropped almost straight off into knee-deep water.  There was just once spot that was a little bit shallower (but not shallow enough to "beach the fish")...where I could at least stand in the water and maybe try to land the fish while in the water. So, I got in the water.  The fish was constantly going back and forth.  I had collected some clumps of floating algae on my fly line, leader, and tippet.

 I checked the time on my phone.  I figured I was in for a long battle.  I was very skeptical that I would ever actually land this fish.  I continued fighting the fish.  Mostly it was the constant back-and-forth, with the occasional darting for deeper open water.  My daughter was in the car just 50' away, but since I was down the bank, standing in the water, she probably couldn't see what I was doing.  She was still working on her homework or reading a book.  I called her.  She answered, knew it was me, but couldn't hear me.  So, I just started waving my hand towards her, beckoning her to come to the shoreline.  She saw me, got out of the car and walked over.  I explained what was going on.   I told her I wasn't sure I could land this fish, and I wanted her to see it, and maybe she could take some video of the battle with her iPhone.  She did.  After 5-10 minutes, I told her the fish was tiring, but we seemed to still be at our stalemate.  So, she stopped taking video and went back to the car.

While she had been shooting video, I had been trying keep lifting the fish towards the surface and get its head up.  After my daughter got back to the car, I tried it again, and this time the fish let me KEEP its head above water.  So, I dragged the fish towards me.  It came, without spooking or thrashing this time, so I guided its head straight towards the rocks along the shoreline, and got its head up on a rock.  It still didn't thrash, so I dropped my rod in the water and grabbed the fish and carried it up onto shore.

No doubt about it, I was a VERY HAPPY GUY!

Chunky Fish.  It measured 30.5", with an (probably under-)estimated weight of 14 lbs.

After the photos, I got it back in the water to revive it, and within a couple of minutes, it swam out of my hands.

Hopefully I can get the videos added to this blog soon.

Article in NACA Magazine

An article I wrote (a story about catching my first grass carp on a fly rod) was published in the Winter 2010/2011 issue of North American Carp Angler magazine. Cool!


Here's the cover and the pages from the mag:

Fishing for “Under-utilized fish” Species in 2010.

Have you ever caught fish during a fishing outing that you usually leave out of the conversation when your friends ask you about what you caught?  Some fish just have a bad rap.  Some words used to describe them are "rough fish", "trash fish", "junk fish", "nuisance species".  More recent politically-correct verbage is "under-utilized fish".
I like this terminology better. It is certainly more accurate. The reason for something being underutilized is usually that people don't have an accurate or adequate understanding of something. This is often the case with many of these fish species.

Sometimes I catch these underutilized fish species while targeting other fish, or while using non-species specific techniques.  But sometimes I target them intentionally.  This can be VERY fun and often quite challenging.

Here's some of these species that I was fortunate to tangle with in 2010:

Freshwater Drum will hit bait and lures, and often put up an excellent but usually short-lived fight. 

Channel Catfish aren’t completely underutilized. Baitfishing for them is very popular, but not many specifically target these predators with lures and flies. Very stong fighters once hooked!

Grass Carp…I’ve only caught them on fly-fishing gear, which is challenge and often frustrating. I haven’t tried baitfishing for them yet. Excellent fighters once hooked, they don’t give up.

Common Carp are another excellent challenge on flies and lures, but they can be caught without bait or snagging!

Shortnose Gar are aggressive predators, but their bony jaws are difficult to penetrate with a hook. Fly-fishing gear with “nylon rope flies” is an excellent way to catch these fish, and sightfishing for them can be very exciting.

Yellow Bass are often considered an “undesirable species”, since they can quickly become overpopulated in lakes and reservoirs. There are many ways to catch these fish.

River Carpsucker…this one was accidentally foul-hooked, not uncommon when fishing with lures near the bottom.

Great Fly-Fishing Outing - 6 Species!

I got to fly-fish with Jenni, Julie, Scott and Steve on Wednesday evening, 6-16-2010, at their private townhome-association pond.

We fished it a handful of times last year.  We know there are largemouth bass, channel catfish, bluegills, hybrid sunfish, crappies, and grass carp in the pond.

Our main target is always the grass carp, because they are big fish!  It is also probably the biggest challenge to get them to strike a fly.  In order to tip the scales in my favor, I wore a "lucky shirt"...the one I was wearing when I caught my first grass carp ever on a fly from this pond last summer.

We couldn't really see the grass carp, so we would occasionally toss out some chunks of old hamburger buns to get the fish to feed on the surface.

We had a few strikes on large floating fly patterns that somewhat resembled bread, but no good hook-ups.

We took breaks during which we fished for the "other fish" in the pond.  We caught some small- and medium-sized bluegills, and some medium- and large-sized hybrid sunfish, like this 9-incher:

Next, we noticed some good activity near the inlet culvert, where we had seen some good bluegills hanging out earlier.  I suspected largemouth bass were chasing the bluegills.  So, I put on a foam bass popper fly and headed to the edge of that area.  After just a cast or two, I got a good strike, and an excellent battle ensued.  The bass never jumped, but kept trying to dive to the bottom of the pond.  It was a good fish, which measured at 19"...probably around 4 pounds:

I also caught a smaller bass from that spot, before switching locations and flies again.

We continued to have fun with the bluegills and hybrid sunfish.  I eventually landed a small crappie, too.  Then we fished again for the grass carp.  I switched to a fly that is nothing more than a craft-store "fluff ball" type thing, trimmed to the hook to provide maximum hook gape.  Unfortunately, it sinks, but it is easy to keep it suspended in the water column by VERY slowly retrieving line....just enough to keep all slack out of the line.  This technique worked!  I got a strike, set the hook, and the battle was ON!

I could tell it was a smaller fish than last year's big one, but it was still very strong and a good fighter.  Scott helped with the net, and I was eventually able to lead the fish into the shallows and into the net.  It is NOT a big net, but it worked...HOORAY!

It measured out at 33" length, and I ran this through a lenght-to-weight conversion for Grass Carp, and got an estimated weight of 17.5 lbs.

Well, to complete a clean sweep of all the fish species in this pond, I still needed a channel catfish.  I didn't have high hopes for this, so I just tied on a soft-hackle nymph that had been working well for the bluegills and sunfish in the pond.  I tossed out towards the middle of the pond, near some remaining floating chunks of bread that the bluegills were occasionally pestering, and began retrieving. BAM!  A very strong strike, but not big enough to be another grass carp.  Still this was a decent fish, and catfish always fight good.  I estimated this one to be @ 18" long.

6 species of fish, all on flies, in one evening!  Very awesome!!  Thanks Jenni & Julie for letting me fish with you at your pond again, its ALWAYS a very fun time, even if we don't catch anything.  And thanks for taking such great pictures...again!  Thanks also to Steve, for smoking some good cigars with me, and introducing me to Leinenkugel's "Summer Shandy" beer.  It was so good, I went and bought a case!

Night Fly-Fishing 9-19-09

Beautiful night last night...calm...mid-60's. No ducks or geese on the pond!! Great night for fishing, right? YEAH!

Well, really fishing was S-L-O-W. I fished for a about 2 hours...from 7:30pm-9:30pm. Caught 10 crappies, 5 bluegills...and a minnow.

A muskrat had been swimming along in front of me, and kept splashing everytime I would move or cast...but he'd come right back up and continue to swim around in front of me...like 20 feet away. Finally, it swam along the shoreline to my right and then swam to the bank, where I could no longer see him. Just a couple minutes later, I hooked something big...and it splashed a several times, and I was sure I'd hooked that darn muskrat. It swam across in front of me, so I turned on my cap light...and it was a fish! The minnow. BIG MINNOW!

It was a trick to land by hand, alone in the dark, but I managed. The "minnow" was a 29" Grass Carp. SWEET!!

Plugging the length into a couple of weight-to-length conversion equations specifically for Grass Carp yields an average calculated weight of 12 lbs. Not bad for the 5wt fly rod!

I used a yellow boa yarn leech pattern again, although I had started off the evening trying something like a Thunder Creek minnow pattern tied with yellow calf tail...(had some bumps on that, but no fish).

Fly Rod Grass Carp!

One of my "fishing goals" for 2009 was to catch a Grass Carp on a fly rod. With the help of some friends, I finally did it! Measured out at 36.5", and the calculated weight is @ 25 pounds!

Here's pictures from the battle (photos taken by Julie...THANKS!)

Jenni was the designated "netter". Tough job, but she did great!

And here it is!

The fish was returned to the water after the quick photos & measurements. I rescusitated the fish, and it soon swam of strongly.

GO TEAM!!!

Here's the fly I used. Its a boa yarn leech that I tied. The pattern was originated by Rick Zieger.