Any floating line that loads your rod for short and accurate casts is what I'd suggest. I'm using an 8 weight (TFO Lefty Kreh "Professional Series") with a Rio Gold WF8F. I keep my leader length to about 9 feet long. Fly weight varies considerably but typically my tippet is 10 or 12 pound Maxima Ultragreen.A question for @Buzzy and any other carp fishers regarding fly line. Would a Cortland 444 SL be a good choice, Rio perception, or? I am going to try an Airflo Bomber line because that’s what I have. I’ll add a poly to extend the taper.
Pickle Barrel!!! ( name of a carp in a long forgotten coming of age story, set, ironically, in England )
Thanks! I bought a 14' wood dowel, 1.25" diameter. A friend of mind sprayed it with bedliner material. It worked great. Not fancy, not bamboo, not carbon fiber.Buzzy...
I'm suffering from recent exposure to the Carp virus, and I got it bad. Your article is just way cool, and I appreciate all the knowledge and information you've dispensed.
Question, can I make my own push pole for my 12' Two-Salt?
Thanks.
Guy
Very much so!That’s awesome, he looks so happy!
I fished with @chief last weekend. His opinion is a strip set will often pull the fly out of a carp's mouth. I'm not consistent with strip setting or lifting as I would with a trout but I think Chief is right. Better a trout set to lift the fly into the carp's soft lips than a strip set to pull the fly out.I've always read, and heard that you should strip set on carp. Yet, there is a youtuber or Instagrammer, that swears by trout set. I forget who it was, but I think it's the guy that fishes the LA river. I know that I have pulled a fly out of a carp, no less than three times, strip setting. Any thoughts or opinions on this?
Patrick failed to mention that we both ended up with two Carp to hand, and we both lost one to the tules. Lots of fish seen but not many looking to eat.My phone rang this morning when I was upstairs doing the morning workout; I was supposed to head to Moses Lake for my semi annual dental appointment. Cancelled until tomorrow. What to do? Go fishing. Called @Engee and said lets go.
Just a week ago the tide was out, today the tide was in. I was going to fish mud but with the tide in, I didn't want to wet wade up to my arm pits on the mud flat. We headed to the rocky shoreline. Engee got one right away, my guess: 7 pounds.
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7 pounder? Maybe 6.5.
Why would I want to fish mud when the rocky shoreline has such clear water? I wanted to try out some new hybrid carp flies that would slide on the mud, stirring it up a bit but these same hybrids just get stuck on rock. Engee's got new wading boots, no more gravel or cheat grass in his shoes.
We saw a lot of fish, many cruisers; cruisers RARELY bite but neither of us could resist casting to the cruisers. With the tide in so far, tules that had been high and dry for weeks were submerged. I was surprised to see what looked like spawning activity in the tules but maybe the carp were just stirring things up looking for food? Often, when carp are post spawn in in the tules, they're susceptible to dapped flies or flies cast into the tules with stout enough leaders so you can get the fly back when it is stuck in a weed. Today, the carp in the weeds were mostly ignoring our presentations. I did get one fish to eat, it took off for deep water and then did an about face and went into the tules where I lost the fish. Three seconds of excitement, fun while it lasted.
The fish were mostly refusing my offerings or blasting out because my cast was too close, too loud, poorly aimed, badly executed until it wasn't. I managed to get two to hand, lost one to the tules and I'm convinced I had three eats that I was either too late or too soon on the strike, most likely too late.
The first fish I hooked took off for the middle of the lake, backing out the tip of the rod when this fish decided to head for shore. I've never had a carp beach itself before but this fish did. It swam right into the shoreline grass becoming almost invisible.
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* (This morning I had my wife rub my bald spot in hopes that would help get my mojo back.)