Carp in Flowing Water

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My expertise and experience with carp lies mostly in stillwaters. My carp fishing revolves either around walking or kayaking my home lake or hopping ponds looking for fish along beaches, rocky shorelines, or on mud flats. It's fun sometimes, frustrating oftentimes, and engaging all the time. In the summer here in CT, carp are one of the prime species for exciting freshwater fishing. Heat doesn't put them off like it does many of our fish, so pond hopping is a regular routine. The high on July 12th was a little over 90, and Noah and I found actively feeding carp everywhere we went that day.

The last stop on our route was actually a stream, though a heavily altered one, with wide pools that could more appropriately be called ponds in it, and a heavily channelized course. I'd fished it before and caught plenty of bass and panfish, including some very nice largemouth, but though I'd seen carp I'd never caught one there, nor seen one in the flowing, shallow, narrow parts of the creek.

This time things were different. First off, there were more carp around than I'd seen any time prior, and second, many were in about a foot of flowing water, tailing vigorously and rooting around in the rocks and mud.

Carp in this water... yes please.

I only hooked one, and it was an absurd fight. The thing dumped into the backing very quickly, but then came in to just under a fly rods length and stayed at about that distance, taking and giving a few feet of line here and there, making my baking knot click up and down through the guides. That knot, which had had come and gone through the guides a bunch of times while carp fishing in the weeks before, gave way. I acted quickly, lunging into the water and grabbing my fly line trying to prevent lightning from striking twice (years ago I lost a fly line to a big carp in this manor. It's back in the archives, if you care to look. A post in August 2014 I believe). I managed to hand line the fish most of the way in but it broke off just before I could land it. Noah's decent bass on the ultralight ended up being the best fish out of that creek on this day.

The next day, I wanted revenge. I wanted one of those shallow water belly crawlers. Conditions were no different and the fish were in a great mood still... I felt confident. 

It took me a little while to get a really good shot at a belly crawler. I botched a few shots at fish both in shallow and deep water on my way down stream before I reached the best stretch and got a fantastic shot and a fish feeding in less than 10 inches of water. I saw three fish dropping slowly out of a run, and one of them split off and turned into the current to begin feeding. I carefully made my way down the steep bank and got into a casting position, crouched on sand bar. The fish made a couple aggressive digs, likely rooting out some macroinvertebrate, then angled a bit towards me. I chose that moment to go for it. My cast and presentation were perfect and I was rewarded with a great eat; sucking my white mop fly off the brown bottom in plain site. The hookup and then a blistering initial run were every bit of what make fly fishing for carp so damn fun.

This time the fish went without any hiccups and I ended up catching a great fish. This was one of those moments I live for, a bit of a gap in my fishing experience filled. And it was so exciting. What a joy it is to wander with a fly rod, observing and sometimes catching fish big and small.

Not long thereafter I got another smaller fish. It was a big monkey off my back. I don't get to fish for shallow, moving water carp nearly often enough. Though I will say it is incredibly difficult to decide what to do some days. Too many fish, too little time. It almost makes my head spin.

Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.