WOW, cool to see!

[toonfish]

Today out in a small bay outside my work there were literally hundreds? thousand? Carp rubbing up on each other in the shallows. They were flopping and rolling all over the place, it was really cool to see. There was a permanent wake throughout the bay, and at any given time 15-40 fish roling on the top. And they were not small! So they are setting up to spawn? Would these things eat right now? They would at least be fun to catch, but I am assuming they are pretty busy with eachother right now . So do they rub and roll around to get the male to spray the eggs? Well anyway it was cool to see. Any answers to my questions appreciated it would at least be fun for the kids.

[deepportage01]

cool site huh, when I was little we watched them every spring in the back bay of green lake [spawning]

[go4carl]

I know not everyone is cool with this but when I was a kid me and my dad would bow hunt for carp on a small homemade rigged up pontoon. It takes some talent but it is amazing the size these fish can get. I have never used bait for carp so I can't help you for fishing for them, but if you are a hunter it is fun to rig up your bow with a line and go for them like this.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Used to and still do bowhunt for carp. That's tons of fun.

[Captain B.R.K]

I know people fly-fish for carp as well. I can imagine smoke coming off of those fly-fishing reel gears and having a 9 ft rod double over!

Now that would be fun

As for seeing that many carp in one area, I sure hope it isn't in a great body of water.....yuck.

[Roughfisher]

Usually when you see that kind of surfacing behavior it is native bigmouth buffalo, which push into each other and splash on the surface in preparation for spawning. Carp rarely do that kind of thing; they make quick surface runs while in the act of spawning. What lake was it?

[toonfish]

Well, the body of water is Prior Lake!

[toonfish]

It was funny that the bowfishing came up, because it didn't take 3 hours (after my post) that a guy with a bow showed up. It was funny because by the time he got there they had really settled down, too bad. Earlier in the day I could have grabbed them with my hands from shore.