The Outdoor Line Forum

Carp are right up there with the jack crevalle..."garbage" fish that can both smoke a fly reel in a heartbeat. After yakking about fishing for "Ruby Lips" on the show yesterday I just had to repost the short article I wrote about them a few years ago. The carp action is just getting underway in Eastern Washington and the next couple of months are prime time. Anyone else on here have any experience with these things

Washington's Freshwater Bonefish
http://blog.theoutdoorline.com/post/201 ... efish.aspx

I threw a firecracker in a koi pond one time... Does that count?

Used to fish them in Lake Washington back in the "Day".

Fished the shallow bays up around the U 0f W during May and June - the Washington fish are very nice size. Most were in the teens and low twentys. Saw fish a lot larger but never was able to land them.

Great fun!!

Tight lines
Curt

I grew up fishing for them in Wisconsin in the local river. Corn borrowed from the local fields, or white bread balled on the hook worked then. I wish I had known about fly fishing back then. It would have been a blast. They are really powerful for their size, and they were actually quite popular to eat with some of the folks that lived in the area. Never tried them myself. Easy to catch, usually, and a five or ten lb carp is a handful. I've always wanted to find somewhere around here that had them to try it again. Then all I need is my old white Shakespeare Wonderod and a Mitchell 300 reel to go old school. I hope you get into them, and let us know how it went.

When we hunt Potholes early in the season we will spooky them out of the shallows sometimes. Maybe we'll try Davids plunking technique off to the side of the decoys and see what happens. Wouldn't that be a rush

I fished Lake Washington in the mid 60s for them in Juanita Bay over by the old golf coaurse, like Smalma said, there were some big fish around.

My son Madden came screaming in the house about the huge fish he saw in the water. I ran down there to see some big carp and try as we did, we couldn't get them to bite. Any tips on catching these guys with conventional tackle? We used corn and bread with no luck. I've heard about some big schools in the Newport Shores area and would love to catch and release a few.

The most effective way to catch a few with convential tackle would be to feed up an area (legal on Lake Washington) and once they are consistently using the area start fishing.

A commonly used chum/bait is corn - the trick is to use enough to attract the fish but not to "fill" them up. I liked "nibblets" and usually broadcasted a 1/2 can or so at a time. Carp are a pretty sensitive and spooky fish so fish carefully and pay attention to the details of your presentation.. Probably will have to scale down your tackle a bit - might be able to get by with 8#. Use a slip sinker (only as large as needed to get your gear to the fish) a swivel and decent length of leader. You will want to bait your hook with only a kernel or two of the corn. I liked a thin wire hook around a size 8. Need these refinements so that the biting fish don't feel anything and reject your offering. If the fish are aggressive you may get by with heavier gear and if the fish are "touchy" may have to go finer.

There a ton of variations and modifcations of this appproach (some folks into carp fishing in a big way) and any "search" should provide lots info. I would also soak the corn (both the chum and bait)in some scent before using.

Folks have compared carp fishing with flat fishing in the salt - your presentations be like fishing for bonefish and once you have hooked a carp you will find that they are more like "Jacks" than bones -- great fun and expect to break a fish or two off.

Tight lines
Curt

Thanks Curt, I did do some searching last night and there is a lot of info out there which surprised me a little. As far as scent for your bait/chum, what do you reccommend? There were some pretty elaborate suggestions out there but quite a bit of it seemed to be suggesting something sweet like vanilla. Is this approach better or something fishy? I guess trial and error will tell the tale.

I found the ones in LW a little harder to catch than in other lakes. I used bread, corn and a few other things under a small float. Even when the float would go under and move several feet away it was hard to get a good hook set. I was never able to catch one of the big carp, only the medium and small ones.

A few years ago I stayed on a house boat on Lake Powell for a week and fished for them at night with lights, the water is very clear there and you could easily see them. They were very wary and with even the slightest thing out of place and they would avoid the bait and stay about 10 feet away from it. As long as the bait was in place when they swam by and it didn’t move they would bite.
I did catch one on the surface with a very tiny Crippled Herring type lead jig, they were feeding on the surface and I just set the jig on top of the water and one sucked it in.