lite action shallow carp

[Carp King]

I've been fishin Carp for many years. Mainly on the Mississippi SAint Paul area. This past summer i seen some monsters at an area lake. I'm very intrested in hooking into one on lite rods.

Is it best to sight fish roaming fish or blindly bottom fish. The roaming fish seem very skittish but will swim right by me as I wade the shallows. Point me in the right direction

[Lunker]

I have always had trouble having consistent success fishing lakes for carp. I can catch them on rivers and creeks, but lakes present another challenge. One problem fishing carp in lakes is if there are bullheads, you have slim chance of having your bait left alone.

[hogsucker]

Carp will not take a bait or fly if they know you are there. They are a very skittish and cautious fish. My advice would be to stand extremely still for long periods if you must wade, and let the carp come to you. Cruising, unmolested fish will eagerly take a fly or bait. The Mpls. area lakes are ideal for flyrod carping. This subtle technique will take some monsters if you put in the time. When you see a carp, try to judge it's attitude and flip a small nymph pattern or very small bait(like a small crawler or angleworm, or crawfish tail)in it's path. If these tactics fail to produce, I would suggest trying some chumming. Spread a good chum of corn in the area you generally see the carp, then bottom-fish with corn or crayfish tails over the chum. This technique won't fail you. ~hogsucker

[Tyler Holm]

One thing I like to do is fish the deeper water adjacent to where carp are seen. You'll first want to chum the bottom with sweet corn. Roaming carp will catch this scent and and move to the deeper chumed water. These carp will no longer be skittish, they will turn agressive. In fact, if you have several carp, and a lot of food/chum down there, they will turn onto a feeding freenzy.

If they are big carp, I'd caution using a UL or Ligth action rod. If you want to enhance the fight, use a ML rod with about 8lb test. You'll have plenty of fight with that getup.

[barnyard]

I would doubt that you could land a 20+lb fish from shore with anything lighter than 10 lb test.

We were crappie fishing a couple of years ago and I hooked a 25 lb fish. We had to pull up anchor and follow it to land the fish. I was using a 7.5 foot lite action rod with 6 lb test.

Anyways, for fly fishing lakes, you might try cottonwood seed patterns. Of course, this only works during cottonwood seed season.

Another guy told me that he caught his biggest fish (several 30+ pounders) on persimmons. I can't remember seeing a persimmons tree in this area, but, he said that he saw carp feeding on them as the fruit dropped into the water. Ran a hook through a ripe fruit and gently lobbed one under a tree.

He said that the 1st 2 he hooked, spooled him and he lost them. Switched to 20 lb test with a flippin stick and finally started to land fish.

He also said that the riper the fruit the bigger the fish. Annnd, you only get a chance to burn a few of them. As soon as he caught a couple of huge fish, he said that only the smaller ones grabbed fruits that were on the hook. He theorized that the bigger fish, once stung by the hook, figured that the hooked fruits sunk differently and avoided them.

He did say that when the gettin was good, it was second to none....

Anyways, I would think that if there are overhanging fruitbearing trees near this lake, wait till the fruit is dropping in the water and watch if the carp feed on it.

Carp are omnivores, so if you can find what they are eating, you may have a chance at one of those small lake monsters.

The only lake fish I have caught have been on the Horseshoe chain, which is technically a river resevoir, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Tom B

[Blue Kayak]

I'm going to try flyfishing for carp this year. One thing I'll try is small plastic imitations of crayfish and nymphs. These (and regular flies) would also work with a spinning rig and a bobber. You have to cast the bobber well past the carp and get it into position without spooking them. I used a bobber and corn last fall for sight fishing on carp for the first time. Sight fishing is much more fun than just throwing it out and hoping a carp will pick it up.

If you use bait, check out hair rigs. Google "carp hair rig" for more information.

[icehousebob]

My sons developed a sport when they were young of seeing who could catch the largest Carp on an ultralight with 4# line. One of them took a 20 pounder out of Minnetonka while shore fishing. They also totalled a few spinning reels doing it. It did teach them to finesse fish rather than horse them. Especially when I stopped buying them new reels.

[CarpBoy]

I would agree with nearly all of the points made on this thread. There are some great carp fishermen here. I fish almost exclusively for carp and use a fly rod 90% of the time. The city lakes are a great place for big fish. I like to chum them in to the shallows around a ciy fishing dock. Everyone else fishes the end of the dock so you have room and the fish are easier to see when they come in.

My favorite technique is to walk the shore slowly in 'carpy' areas to look for active fish. I seldom wade, if you do, stay in one place as was suggested by hogsucker (andy? corey?). They are just too spooky to put up with a lot of mucking about and splashing.

I was casting flies to tailing carp YESTERDAY in a secret spring near my house. They snubbed me, but I am going back...

Carp Boy

[justin32]

ive been fishing for carp for a couple of years now and i seem to only like ot fish them with lite action poles now because it is more fun i think, but the biggest i ever landed from shore is a 22 pounder

[riverrat56]

I've started to glorify light action carp fishing more, from shore or in a boat, on lakes or on the river I stick to my walleye gear, 6 or 8 lb line on a 6 ft medium or 7 ft medium light....

One tecnique I have used from shore is where a big culvert pours in, the carp will school up and feed on the incoming food in the water, sneaking up to the edge and dropping a hook with a few kernals of corn on it right into the middle of the fish will get a bite in a few seconds as long as you don't disturb the fish. Usually you can only get one that way as the other fish spook during the fight, but bottom fishing can then be productive and if you sit around long enough they resurface.

In lakes I can never seem to catch the fish cruising up shallow on the sunny days, will wait for an overcast day and then take the boat out into a shallow bay and fish a small hook covered in corn with just a split shot or 2 for weight. Stealh is required in the boat as they are still very skittish.....Usually one fish will stir up the area and I will move 50 to 75 yards with the trolling motor after I catch or lose a fish.

Bobbers can be used up shallow as well, hover the bait just off the bottom, inches at most

This year I plan on trying to "troll" the shallow bays with a bobber keeping a bait right off the bottom on a long cast behind the boat and the motoring or drifting as slow as possible.