Grass carp on the fly rod

I pulled off another grass carp on the fly rod this past weekend. It measured 37" and I'd estimate 30-35 lbs. Online weight calculators agree. The fight was pretty disappointing, with only a couple hard runs. He came out of a community pond in Bluffton, SC. Grass carp are crazy difficult to get on the fly. If you're going to target them, be sure to check out my post on how to catch grass carp on the fly rod.

Phoenix Carp Fishing

After a conference in Arizona this past week, I found myself with some spare time for fishing. I hit up The Hook Up Outfitters for a couple trips, one being some urban carp fishing. My guide, Dale, took me to the Crystal Gardens, which is a community development with a bunch of ponds stocked with all kinds of carp and koi. Over the half day, he taught me the tricks to getting them to eat, and I pulled in about 5 fish. I went back out on my own the next afternoon and even more. Here's a few pictures, with some pointers for doing it yourself after the jump.

Urban Fly Fishing for Carp in Phoenix

Where to Fish

We hit the Crystal Gardens. This is a community where the ponds are open to the public. You can walk around every pond on the map. You need is a freshwater license. All of the ponds have fish. I only had time to explore a few of them. The ponds all range in size and, at least this past weekend, in water clarity. Some are crystal clear, while others have a foot of visibility or less. My favorite was the pond by the playground because it was one of the crystal clear ones.

What to Catch

There are several different kinds of fish in these ponds. The most common are a type of koi, but don't ask me to break down the species of koi because I have no idea. You'll find lots of different colors though. There's also a healthy population of common carp, with my guide witnessing one catch of a mirror carp. I saw a couple grass carp as I was walking around, too. Of course, there are a bunch of smaller largemouth bass in the 10-14 inch range. I'm sure in the next year or so, they'll keep growing to a decent size, but with the general lack of cover, I doubt you'll run into monsters.

Tackle to Bring

We used 5 and 6 weight rods. The fish are all nice sized, but not are huge, and there are few obstructions from which you need to muscle them away. No need to bring big rods for these guys. Check out my post on picking the right equipment for carp. Leaders need to be VERY light. These fish are spooky. You'll need to run 6X tippet or smaller. I caught all the fish on small egg flies. Orange was the most productive color for me, but pink and yellow also worked. I tried a hare's ear for a little while, but visibility was too much of an issue. I'd suspect a San Juan Worm or something similar would work too, but I never tried it.

Technique to get the Eat

The bad news is these are SPOOKY fish, and you probably have a legitimate shot at around 5% of the fish you will find. The good news is you will find hundreds off fish. To have success, all you need to do is walk around the ponds. Most of the fish swim counter-clockwise, so I walked clockwise. The ponds have a few feet of gentle sloping flats and drop off to about 4 or 5 feet deep about 10 feet out. You'll generally find several different behaviors:

• Fish eating algae off the edge of the wall
• Lone fish (sometimes a pair) poking along the ground on the flats for food
• Small schools of 4 or 5 fish slowly cruising along the edge of the flats or coming onto the flats
• Enormous pods of 50-100 fish cruising along

These fish are spooky. Have I mentioned that already? No? These fish are spooky. In the more clear ponds, they're more spooky. The technique is generally the same for all of the situations, except the wall eaters. Find the closest feeding fish (the further away you can accurately cast to it, the better) and figure out it's relative depth. The eggs sink slowly, so you'll need to lead it enough to have enough time to get it in front of the fish's face. On the first day, I used a tiny bit of split shot to help get it down, but on the second day, the splash would spook the fish. 

When these fish want the fly, they'll swim a few feet for it, so you don't need to be perfect - but you should still try. If the fish looks like he should have seen the fly, but doesn't eat, I found stripping it a few inches would sometimes get them to come after it. Even still, you'll probably have 80% of the fish being completely uninterested in it, and 10% refuse it last second. The remaining 10% are the ones you're looking for. If the fish ignores your offering, move on. There will be many more shots in these ponds. After the closest fish ignores it, go for the next closest. If they're grouped together tightly, you'll need to be careful casting to the next fish. Once one fish spooks, they'll often spook out the entire group. This is especially important on your first cast to the large pods of fish.

When you find a fish eating against the wall, you need to take a slightly different tactic. These guys will often be poking their mouth completely out of the water. They're generally keyed in on algae and pond scum, so you'll have a more difficult time getting it to eat. Your best bet is to gently drop it as close as possible to the fish, and hope you time it well between when he's coming out of the water to eat and when he ducks under to move a few inches down the wall.

Final Word

This should give you enough information to get out there and duplicate my success. It's always a riot catching fish in an an urban setting - in my opinion anyway. Next time you're in Phoenix, swing by Crystal Gardens and let me know how it goes!

Gearing Up for Carp

A frequent question I get when talking to people about carp fishing or taking them on the hunt is "what gear do I need?" This is one of those "it depends" questions, but I can give you some general guidelines to get you started. Here's my personal gear list for Washington DC carp fishing:

• 7-weight Orvis Helios 2 Rod
• Mirage Reel
• Weight Forward Floating line
• Either nylon leaders or fluorocarbon leaders with 3x tippet
• Strike Indicators
• Flies (obviously)

Let's look at each piece and what's important for you.

Rod

This is I use a 7-weight Orvis Helios 2. The 7-weight is my go to rod size for most of my fishing in the area, but I think it's a great rod for carp specifically. In the end, you need to size your rod for the most common scenarios you'll find on the water. If you're mostly getting into small fish, then you will be fine with a 5-weight. But, it the majority of fish in your local water are 10-15 lbs or more, you'll need to throw a 7- or 8-weight. Consider water speed as well. Are you in still water or a river? A fish with access to fast current can quickly make a 5 lb fish fight like it's a 20 lb fish constrained to a pond.

Fishing the Potomac, you can run into some big fish (20 lbs plus) with quick access to fast water that will easily work out a 7-weight and could even leaving you wanting a little more. Some of those fish will make you wish you had a 9-weight, but the frequency of finding those are pretty limited and not worth overpowering the more common sized fish. 

In the C&O Canal, the majority of the fish are much smaller. You're typically finding 3-6 lb fish in that water, with a few bigger ones in some sections. With these, you can easily get away with a 5-weight, but I still like throwing the 7-weight because of the tree litter that's scattered throughout the canal. When one of these fish take a hard run towards a tree, you want a rod that has enough backbone to turn him around. You will find yourself having to be a little more delicate with a lower weight rod and might lose an extra fish or two.

I really like fishing my Helios. It casts great and has a great feel. It's a bit on the pricey side though, and frankly, the fish don't care how much you spent. For a lower cost alternative, try the Orvis Recon. I have fished this rod and it's incredible. It's probably even a step above the original Helios. The most important part of picking a rod for carp - or really any fish - is finding one that's comfortable in your hand that you can cast accurately and consistently.

Reels

Reels always blow my mind. They can get so expensive for something that simply holds line. For big, saltwater fish, I can see the need for the sealed drag and added expense. But I do have to laugh when people have $600 reels for brook trout. That being said, I go with an Orvis Mirage reel. Generally, carp will fight hard. You'll run into one on occasion that likes to think it's a roll of wet paper towels, but generally these guys pull know how to strip some line off. Getting something as high end as the Mirage isn't necessary if you're only carp fishing. If you're fishing in an area with bigger fish or faster current, you'll want something that has a good, stout drag, but still no need to go crazy. You aren't chasing Giant Trevally in Christmas Island with this rig. If the majority of your fish are smaller, you can scale down on the expense of the reel fairly safely since you'll be able to play those fish off the reel.

Line

This is probably the least important item. I've seen special carp tapers. In my opinion, that's completely unnecessary. Any floating line that you can cast well and shoot a few feet will be more than sufficient.

Leaders and Tippet

I use a different leader and/or tippet material based on the situation. At it's most basic, fluorocarbon sinks and nylon tends to float - or at least sink much slower. So, in situations like the C&O Canal where I need to keep the fly higher in the water column, I typically use nylon. Elsewhere, I'll use fluoro. I usually go with 3x tippet, but really only because it was what I had tied on the first time I went carp fishing. On occasion I'll use bigger tippet material if I grab that spool first. I haven't noticed the carp in the DC area to be leader shy, so I'm sure you can get away with bigger if you need to. I know that's not the case everywhere, so play around with leader diameter if you're getting a lot of refusals.

Strike Indicators

I rarely use strike indicators. The majority of my fishing is pure sight, but there are situations, particularly in the C&O Canal where I have no choice but to use them. I still hate them though. They're annoying to attach, are splashy, and often spook the fish. My solution to that is Skips Turn On Indicators. You can attach them and remove them from the line in seconds without having to cut off your fly. They're highly visible, and actually are relatively delicate landing on the water with a soft cast. If you must use them, I'd recommend using those.

Flies

I could write an entire post about carp flies alone. But, you'll want to imitate what the carp are eating in your local waters. There's no "magic" carp fly, but there might be one for your body of water. The standard/traditional carp flies or a San Juan Worm work well in most bodies of water, but it doesn't substitute matching the harch. If the carp are near a mulberry tree and the berries are dropping, you guess it! You should throw a mulberry fly. If there in a muddy bottom area, they're probably rooting up nymphs. Muddy water? Try something bright for high visibility. Rocky bottom? They'll happily take a crayfish imitation. Just explore your local waters, and experiment a little bit. 

Disclosure: The links in this article are affiliate links. If you click them and buy the item, I get paid a commission. That being said, I've only linked to items I personally use because I think they are the best. I don't link to anything that I wouldn't buy myself.