Fishing Forum

looking to get into fishing for carp with my flyrod. just need some pointers to start. i'd like to hear opinions of best flies, sizes and when the action heats up in the spring. any help would be appreciated. i'm sure there's some bft fly guys/gals who are into it. i live near utah lake..... what a carp fishery, huh?
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I love it! I live more in the City of Salt but the Jordan is within walking distance. I basically go after them as soon I as I see activity (which I saw the biggest ol' tail come out last Sat.)

I use an 8 wt and I like the fighting butt. I think you can use a 6 or 7. My problem is I go after the GRASS carp which means I get allot of salad too.

Flies, I say experiment. RAINY has a great Carp Fly collection. I like bigger haresears like #10 with rubber legs and a Tungsten bead. Black Woolly Buggers and Brown too. I also have done very well with YELLOW. I love Rainy's Carp Hex and the Corn Ball. Have caught more carp on those. So, I tried a Platt River Spider and WOW!!!! They love that thing. Might be that hint of red.

They are kinda spooky so you will want maybe a longer leader. I like 9'.
Oh, and when one hits, I jerk like a Bass fisher to set the hook in those rubbery lips.
I have had allot on only to loose them with in inches of the net.

Stay in touch on this!!!
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What Joni said! The Rainy flies are great and The folks at Rainy are wonderful. The Jordan river is loaded with carp most anywhere. When you hook into one " hang on tight". And when you do hook one you will be hooked.
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So I've heard folks talk about carp as the freshwater bone fish. I've caught carp on the fly, but it was in golf course ponds in the very lower Provo River. Nothing like stalking flats like you would a bone fish.

Wouldn't it be cool to have flats to stalk carp on? A place where the water is shallow for as far as the eye can see and loaded with carp? I think I might know of a place...
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[indent]Decker Lake?
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Bear Lake?
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hot spotters! []
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FG,

Have you ever fished the canal off of 500 S. at about 1900 W.? It flows under I-80 towards the airport, there are some huge carp in there!!!
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I haven't. Isn't that where Ev fishes? I will have to check that out. I an fishing around 900 W. 1100 S.
Close enough to check out. Thanks.
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In the summer hit PV behind the library tons of them there. Just roll cast out a hook with a small roll of bread on it [laugh]
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alexander is a perfect place for huge carp and there are millions of them if not billions well millions there are alot of carp there i would love to see that place get fished for the carp... you want 20 plus pound carp go to alexander.. no joke
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Fish lake is an area that I didn't think about until last year. The shallow flats on the N end have lots of carp. Nice and clear water and a bit more challenging than some of the places in the valley.
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If you can find a place that has carp where people also feed ducks bread, you can use a bread imitating fly. It's really easy. Just take some white of cream colored dubbing and spin it on a dubbing loop. Wrap it up the shank and tie it off, and you have your fly. I've caught a ton of carp that way. Also, egg imitations are a good option too. You can take fish that are cruising higher in the water column if you cast well ahead of a cruising fish and time the sink so that it's right in their face when they reach it.

I need to get back into it this year, I haven't chased carp for a few years, but there are a lot of good spots up here in Cache and southeast Idaho for carp. I doubt that many people fly fish for them here.
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If you want to travel over here to the Gorge, the back of Linwood in the spring will have Carp that will blow you away. I'm sure some of them will run 50-60 lbs. maybe even larger. I've caught a lot of Carp on purple, think along the lines of a small, short, marabou clouser. I agree with the other posters about bread. You can take a piece of cream colored sponge, maybe weight the hook shank just a bit, and if you want to get fancy take a brown permanent marker and color in a little crust :-)) Is it legal to use bread scent??
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Rainy's collection has a awesome bread fly:



I like POPCORN, plus it floats really well. Pretty easy to tie. Just need white foam cut into strips.


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I had one on in the Bear River the other day. It hit either a black leech or a mercury midge. I am not sure which as it broke me off. They were sipping flies on the surface too, so I imagine anything that is somewhat close to what they are used to eating will catch a few country carp.

Bread and popcorn for the more urban species. They have a more refined taste! FG, those flies look great!!
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I guess that would be called "matching the hatch" at some of the urban carp ponds, eh ??
Never even thought of a popcorn fly....Inovation...
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Last fall at Willard I saw large schools of Carp along the South bank. They appeared to be just milling around at the surface. They are very spooky. We tried bait under a bobber but they didnt seem interested. Are these fish catchable? More so with a fly? If so I will be packing my fly rod when I go Catfishing there..![cool]
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[quote kochanut]hot spotters! [:p][/quote]

aw dude - I thinks they're offering suggestions, not guessing....

I'm gonna throw up Cutler reservoir and marsh. Plenty of carp wallow them waters. Lots of it only some 4 feet of water above the mud. Up-n-down the bear river too.

They may wallow and flop, but when they wanna go - they'll take line with'm.

I have not fished for them at Willard (in fact I have never fish Willard[]), but I have fished and caught at Utah and Starvation.

If I am sight fishing, I will cast over or in front of the carp and strip the fly back either over them or in front of them. They are looking up. I will even stop right in front of the fish and let the fly fall...that gets even the stubborn fish to strike.

But you do need some casting skills with carp. Light and exact is very crucial so practicing with the fly rod is a good idea before going after them.

Or you can look for big clumps and fling heavy flies over them and snag them.
...I have seen allot of people do that! I can't say for sure how that works first hand though, cause every time I tried casting to clumps, one eats my fly.
Never foul hook one, but that could be the run of your life!
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