Carp on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River

I went out on a smallmouth float on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River this past weekend. Of course, With the possibility of carp, there was always a rod rigged up just in case we saw a feeder. We floated the section upstream of Elkton, almost at the beginning of the South Fork. Within the first 5 minutes, we saw a silt plume, and the guide handed me the carp rod. I patiently waited for the fish to turn any direction except away from me so I didn't line him. Once my opportunity came through, I got the right amount of line out, went to drop it in front of him.... and hooked my smallmouth rod on the forward cast. By the time I got it untangled, we lost track of the fish. Bummer. We saw a few more feeders, but never actually got a shot off before the fish spooked away. There were a lot of other BIG fish we saw in some of the deeper holes. It really makes me want to try a float dedicated to carp, but there probably wasn't quite enough water conducive to fly fishing for carp to make it worth an exclusive trip on this section of the river.