Carp Recon

I've been thinking about carp lately. Well mostly, I've been thinking a lot about fisheries that are close to home. Ones that I can get into before and after my kid goes to bed.

So tonight I decided to jump on my bike and head out where I know there to be carp to get my eyes on them, try and learn a thing or two and maybe make a cast. My buddy road up to my house and then we headed out after I put my kid to bed. It was about 5 miles to where we were going and even saw @mattsavage on the way (). When we got there we saw quite a few tailing carp anywhere from 10-60' out.

I rigged up and started casting but couldn't get anything to commit for a myriad of reasons

1. From the shoreline to about 50-60' there was such a thick layer of muck my fly actually couldn't break the surface. The heaviest fly I had with me only had small lead eyes so I'm going to tie some heavier flys so it's a bit easier to target the closer ones.
2. My casting was absolute garbage. I'm not the best caster to begin with, but everything went to shit once I spotted a tailing fish and I tried to focus on it and the direction it was heading in instead of my cast. For some reason, I'm a decent dry fly caster and some what decent streamer caster, but I struggle with these medium size flies (like carp flies, etc). It didn't help that I was also casting directly into the setting sun.
3. My running line is wildly twisted up. I bought it used from the forum for dirt cheap and its a good line (SA Titan Taper Long) and I assume its fine for this application, but once the head was out of the guides I quite literally couldn't shoot any line at all because it's all twisted around itself. I need to spend some time and get it straitened out tomorrow.

Once the sun started to set we decided to head out so we didn't have to ride to much in the dark. I'm excited to get into this and hopefully by the end of the summer I'll catch my first carp. One thing I'd also like to figure out is a rig for my bike where I can keep a rod rigged and just break it down to two pieces so I can cruise from spot to spot and rig up quicker.

Other than the carp we also saw: deer, skunks, rabbits, herons, nutria, otters, rabbits and a opossum eating a dead carp.

 

[Swamp Critter]

I actually had my best carp day of the year yesterday out of about 6 outings. Found quite a few willing eaters in shallow flooded areas that did not have many weeds or floating debris. REALLY makes a difference when your fly stays mostly weed free for the presentation or you are not as limited to decent shots due to the weeds they tend to like to be in. The water temps have reach the point where these guys are really pulling hard too! Really enjoy carp fishing.

 

[clarkman]

I wanna do some carp recon....