Can carp be caught during the spawn? Most of the time, yes. Actively spawning carp probably can't be, but rarely ever does ever carp in an given lake or river spawn at the same time. Some even go crazy eating the very eggs dropped by the carp that are spawning. I've never seen a better example of this than my home lake. The spawn actually results in far and away the best carp bite of the year, at least for those of us who primarily use artificial lures or flies. After a school of spawners work through and area, a school of post or pre-spawn carp will roll in and start feeding on the eggs. It's the only time I've found I can get more than a few shots in a morning on this water, at least on foot.
There have been decent spawns the last few years, but they didn't really last a long time, or involve the bulk of the biomass at once. This spring though was the best carp spawn I've seen in quite a few years. I haven't seen one significant enough to draw in panfish and big bass since before I'd ever picked up a fly rod... this year's was significant. Schools of perch pursued the egg layers, and smallmouth pursued those perch. I, however, was just trying to get as many carp to hand as possible. The other fish would only get in my way.
I really did catch a whole bunch of carp, actually. Rarely ever does it work out that way, but this time was borderline absurd. At one point I hooked fish on three consecutive casts. I used mop flies primarily until I'd literally run out, then I fished a Hybrid. Both worked perfectly well and got fish to eat very consistently. Some fish that were cruising would even stop completely and tilt down to intercept a slowly sinking fly. The ease with which I could approach, cast at, and dupe carp was astonishing. This was the day of days. I ended up catching more than a dozen commons. I even unintentionally fouled (and subsequently broke off) the first mirror carp I've personally ever seen in m home territory.
Most of the fish were pretty beat up. This is very typical of spawning. Lots of the males were covered in small tubercles. One oddity I noted was a progressive decline in fight quality as the morning progressed.The first few fish burned right into the backing, but very few came anywhere near doing so after that. By the end the fights were still good, but definitely didn't feature any long, fast runs.
This has been a pretty stellar carp year for me thus far. I've gotten size, I've gotten numbers, and I've gotten some pretty cool mirrors as well. Now I just need a koi... As the season progresses, I may drift more towards targeting grass carp or seeking koi, I'm not yet sure. But I'm certainly very pleased with what I've accomplished so far.
Until next time,
They can give your rod a good bend and are fun to catch. I would say you did very well this year.
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