Me and my wife were walking around our local park and I saw these tailing fish. My assumption is they are carp and probably grass carp. I have seen them when I have previously been on the water and they are fairly large but have not targeted them specifically. I know people fish for them and they are hard to catch. Anyone have any good suggestions for going after these jokers?
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I tried for the first time the other day, but was distracted by some rolling tarpon lol. I tied up a red berry fly and the plan was to float it past them. Looking forward to the replies as there are several canals around me that hold carp, big ones too!
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I made a recent post about carp, but it was light on details:
Grass carp are the toughest. They are vegans and will remind you of that just like people who are vegans. They are good at target practice and not much more. Watch for them sucking the surface if there are seeds or flowers dropping in the water. This is a great chance to catch them. Or you can try a mossy fly, like a small olive damsel - size 8 to 12. I tend to go small.
Common carp are another story. They can aggressively feed and charge flies, but that is also rare. But they’ll key in and tail on flies. I’ve seen them eat minnows, and I’ve caught them on a deceiver.
The lakes and rivers here in the Texas hill country hold a lot of common carp. I’ve had days walking the shoreline where it was similar to wading the Texas coast for reds. Tails everywhere and hungry fish. And great numbers as well - 16 fish between two people in a few hours.
But I’ve also had days with nothing but rejections.
For gear, I fish a 6 wt rod with a 12’ leader. Usually fish 8 lb to make the knot as small as possible.
Flies - there are carp patterns out there - Carp bomb, Eagan’s headstand, but smaller is better. Some flies have too big of eyes or lead for calm water. Those flies are for rivers and fishing current. Fish still water with light flies, but ones that can slowly sink. I like the headstand flies in orange and chartreuse so I can see my fly and if they inhale it (more below on that).
Lead them just a bit, no more than a foot. If it is a grassy bottom, you may need to put in on their nose.
The strip is like a tactic for permit on the fly - long and slow. Get the slack out immediately with no sudden jerks. Keep it tight, then a long slow strip. Pull tight on any small tug - they can inhale and spit the fly out quick, just like permit. It’s a similar feeling to someone quickly tugging on your shirt, or tapping you on the shoulder once. Keeping the line tight helps seal the deal. Watch for gill flares near your fly and give the line a bit more tug if you see this.
Carp easily spook and when they do, they emit a pheromone from their body to alert other carp known as schreckstoff. They emit this when caught as well. I’ve spooked carp and saw fresh fishing coming along and they’ll dart off unprovoked. But that clears up after a bit.
Here is how to identify grass vs common carp:
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@ckeat knows, I haven’t made the trip north to fish for them with him but it will happen. I’m pretty sure he uses little nymph style flies and you have to drop it in a dinner plate size sweet spot to have a chance at getting them to come across it and suck it up.
My Grandfather taught me how to catch them for catfish cut bait as a child and we used a small hook and pa couple of pieces of whole corn from a can or small dough balls using Wheaties, Big Red and aniseed oil mixture and or WD-40. I know it’s bait but but the method was the same. But we would catch them off sand bars and used 12-16’ cane poles with no reel, just the line tied to the tip and then about three more times along the rod in case it broke on a fish you could still hand line it in. George Sr was a very resourceful and ingenious man who grew up very poor and survived The Great Depression.
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Pretty sure its the grass carp that I’ve seen. Some have a greyish bluish quality, but I’m colorblind so take that with a grain of salt.
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The two I’ve caught were on #10 unweighted olive Wooly Buggers. I need to start targeting them again, supper fun to fight.
I’ve never gotten one to eat a fly, but I’ve never gone out to target them specifically either. I was told years ago about the “coffee bean fly” (which I have yet to try) that Scott Null used to swear by; he says he’s used it to catch grass carp in the bayous in Houston. He said to get a whole coffee bean, cut a groove in it with a hacksaw blade, and superglue it to an appropriately sized hook. Make sure you leave enough gap for a hook set. Apparently the aromatic bean will reliably entice them to eat it. It ain’t a legitimate fly, but then a white amur ain’t a brook trout either.
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our carp down here in south florida are tougher than some of the other species, i’ve caught one on fly, not a big one but what a relief it finally was after many many many spooks…
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Wow, I haven’t heard about the coffee bean fly in years. Yeah, that was a thing. I tried it without much luck myself. The same can be done with corn. Throw up some deer corn the night before and next day they’ll be around eating it, then throw a corn fly tied the same way as the coffee bean.
I did use my dry flies for grass carp - a parachute makes a good flower seed or cottonseed imitation.
This past week I was up at my lake place outside of Austin catching carp on grassy shorelines. I ventured near about a football field of submerged bushes I could navigate through with my trolling motor and I started to hear this sucking sounds from everywhere. Slurp, slurp….. it was carp coming to the surface and eating the flowers off the bushes. But it was way too tight to get any cast at them.
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Grass Carp for sure. My buddy catches them all day long with a red berry fly, under the Baynon Trees
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Definitely grass carp, we unfortunately don’t have common carp in south Florida.
A lot of golf courses and some neighborhoods down here legally stocked large grass carp to help with the vegetation. According to FWC they have to be released immediately and unharmed, so no yard fertilizer lol
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I’ve seen some that are so big it’s baffling. Saw one on be time must have been 20-30lb. Scared the crap out of me🤣
Based on the pic above I would also agree these are grass carp. I have spooked them when bass fishing and they are 25-30” long and will scare the crap out of you when not expecting to see something that big.
Thanks for all your input.
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That looks like a common carp tail, but it is hard to tell, those things fight hard when hooked!
The pic was a screen shot from a video I took. In a few instances in the video they get higher out of the water and I can’t see any extended dorsal fin. That is what I am primarily basing my guess on. Also when I have seen these closer they are more of a silver/blue as opposed to a copper color.
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Been following this poster on IG for a while. Looks like fun!
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I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard that an alfalfa block works really well for this, and it doesn’t get eaten up as fast as the corn.
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Thanks. The guy looks like he knows what he is doing!
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I have seen some massive grass carp in the Tampa bypass canal. I don’t think that is giving away a secret since I assumed you couldn’t catch them (at least I have never been able to). If it is a secret, fill me in and I will remove my comment 
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I bet you could catch them with an arrow fly!
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