Fishing Forum

I fish a powerplant lake in North Dakota mainly for bass. Recently, the water has come up about 2 feet or more. The water in the recent years havn't been this high, but now there are little back bays with more cover ect.
This comes to my question. There are a few places that have a lot of reeds and cattails and i was excited to go back there and fish them with my tube. The problem was, there was carp all over the place and they seemed to be trying to get in the middle of these thick reeds and cattails right up next to the shore and if you stayed back there you could just listen to them splashing around all day. So it's pretty much a why question, i was just interested in why they are doing that if anyone can help.
A lot of carp were back there on Saturday when we had a 70 degree day and when i went back on Sunday, i started to catch some bass back there and i think it's because some of the carp had moved out and were not in the way for the bass to be back there.
Here's just a pic of the shoreline to give you an example of what i'm talking about.

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Mmmmm, there could be alot of reasons they are holding in the reeds. For one, i'd bet they are full of food. Two, I bet the cattails are loading the surrounding area with oxygen, so it would make for a great living enviroment. Lots of oxygen, plenty of food, and lots of piece-of-mind being shelters from the sun and would be predators(if there are any). I know if I were a fish, that's where i'd want to hang out. [cool]
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[black][size 3]Kinda new to this CARP game (but I am totally hooked). I don't know if this is spawn time. Out at Utah lake a couple of weeks ago, I saw something kinda large and black floating out in the middle of the bay. As I got closer, I noticed something orange flipping around. I thought maybe a carp had been hooked, broke the line and got caught on some driftwood. I cruised closer to see, and there were about 10 large carp just rolling around, no driftwood.[/size][/black]
[black][size 3]So, I threw a beadhead Prince with a haresear dropper over the top of them and started stripping back very slow (on intermediate line)[/size][/black]
[black][size 3]BAMB! CARP ON![/size][/black]
[black][size 3]I am going to learn more about this awesome sport fish! Try Tube Dude on this one, I would like to hear the answer.[/size][/black]
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This is that magical time of year when the fish don't care about the "Birds and the Bees". They have their own way of doing things.

As other fish spawn, it will attract more carp into the area. They consider it as a free meal. The extra Oxygen in the area doesn't hurt but it is only a plus as other fish decide to spawn in some of the same areas.[cool]
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[center][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/1347/cat/500/ppuser/89"][/url][/center][center]note in the photo this female is full of eggs.[/center] [center]you can also see the time of year is mid spring with leaves out on the trees and grass is lush.[/center] [center]this photo was taken in the second week of may.[/center]
you recently had a worm rain that triggered the carp spawn, and they went back when the found the ground was still cold after rolling around making thier beds..

its still a few weeks early for carp spawnings so what has most likly happened is with the run off from the recent rain, and the over crouding of the carp population in your lake you had a migritory run. I have seen this many times, and to realy see this answer in action you need to look at the tiers of rice patties in japan and china where carp are used for keeping the patties clean and firtilized for rice production.

when the waters begin to move carp instintivly follow the fludding watters up and down the tiers. meaning when the water rises the carp run up hill and when it lowers they run down hill...

Carp were intorduced in europe from china then to here. Carp are domesticated fish, as domesticated as a fish can be though thousands of years of rice patty plantation irrigation habbitat.

so it is a simple process of irrigation migration. as the worm waters cooled back off from the cold ground they went back down,.,

watch for it again in a couple three weeks when the ground worms up a bit and you get a heavy rain to raise the water level back up again and the carp will be there for a few days to lay thier spawn. middle april to mid may, your elivation is a bit higher than me so it may be closer to the latter.

any way if you look in to the rice patty production you will learn more about the carp than you ever dreamed of.. it is the first farm fish... they have been on the farm at least ten thousand years...

you know the saying you can take the coy out of the farm but you can never take the farm out of the coy. [sly][angelic][laugh]
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haha well dave, i think you pretty much said it
and thanks to everyone else for all the info!! [cool][cool]
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pulling in carp on a flly rod is a riot. Biggest fish I ever landed on a fly rod was a carp, a 36 incher weighting in at 42 pounds!

I thought I was going to loose my new fly rod..

and it was I think around the first week in april. I will have to get all my shots uploaded to my gallery one of these days,

trick is to have lots of backer and reel in any time you can... and always let um run...
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That would just be insane to pull that in on any kind of rod!!
So what would you say someone would have to do to catch some of these carp up in the reeds, because when i was out there, there were some people that were trying with night crawlers and nothing seemed to be producing..
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[black][size 3]Don't know about out there, but here in Utah, I had a GLASS ( I say glass, cause it will protect the tippet with the fact that the WHOLE rod bends) 6wt rod and a #14 Bead Head Prince, on 6lb Flouro and Intermediate line.[/size][/black]
[black][size 3]I thought about my 8wt. But the 6 did fine this time. It is still early in the seaseon and if these guys get much more spunkier, then it will definitly be the 8.[/size][/black]
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I have a couple of Dipping sticks that I use for the toules or cat tails. These rods are like 10feet long and only have 1 eyelet on them on the tip. These are excellent for pulling fish out of the weeds.[cool]
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the trick is dogh ball

as to what flavor? thats any bodys guess,

some people make them out of a peice of bread and mash it around a trebble hook, others use a big fat marsh mellow, while others use breakfast cerial. and yes the ever popular gob of worm, or hotdog is good too... just slice a hot dog cross wise and slide the center of a trebble tough the center and it will stay on there for a good long time....
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Lately, I have been using that Kings Hawaiian Bread. It has just the right amount of sweet for the bread balls.[cool]
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Well maybe this weekend when i head out to that lake again, i could throw together some bait together before i go and maybe try my luck at the end of the day when i'm done with my bass fishing. I'd love to be able to catch a huge fish even if its a giant carp. i 'll be sure and get some pics!! [cool]
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hey tubeN2,
do you have any pictures of those Dipping sticks of yours?
It sounds like an interesting and new tactic for catching fish to me...I'm always up for trying new things! []

Also, what kind of fish do you usually aim when fishing with those rods in the weeds?
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I don't have any pics of them but I will get some soon.

Those sticks are good for bass fishing in the weeds. LMB[cool]

They are perfect for dropping in a Senko from over top or even hovering a special fly for fly fishing. The dragonfly pattern seems to get them exploding on it.
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Yeah, this sounds like it would be a lot of fun to try out. If you eventually get pictures of your gear, that would be cool to see, so just let me know.
I think i'm going to look into this a little bit more and hopefully try it out this summer []
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Even if you can't find a normal dipping stick, you can also get like a 10 foot fly rod in a 10wt. That would give you enough strenth to lift them bad boys out of the toules.[cool]
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ha well there's my answer. I got an old fly rod i havnt used in a while so i'm sure when im not fly fishing i could try that! [cool]
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LMAO!! I just realized what you are talking about...........A Cane Pole. [] The best cane pole i've used to date is the one you can get at Walmart called a Black Widow. There are actually pricey for a cane pole (around 30 bucks for the long one), but they are pretty strong.
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I got me one of them cane poles, cant remeber if it is the same name, but wallmarts kmarts and mejjers carrys them, and I paid right about that much, it is 17 foot long.

but it is a telliscopic.... I know, I am going krazy with all my telliscopics, I do like it, works wonders on them deap water roaches...
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