What do carp eat?

[SpecialK]

Do they eat what ever they can or are they mostly plant eaters? I ask this because I was down on Lake Byllesby yesterday trolling a jointed #5 floating Rapala in rainbow trout color and had 2 lay the smack down on it. They were both roughly the same size (16" - 18"). I took a picture of the one I got in the boat (threw him back). I always thought they were vegetation eaters is why I ask.

As a side note, all of you carp fisherman should add Byllesby to your lakes to fish. They were everywhere and sight fishing shallow or deep could be accomplished easily.

[Fishin Beast]

Anything on the bottom pretty much. They usually dont attack things off the bottom like that, but I bet sometimes they must get hungry enough.

Their main food will be small invertabres and plant matter I believe.

Check up the dnr site. Search all of the different fish in MN and when they spawn, what they eat, where they are located.

[Roughfisher]

Common Carp will crash schools of minnows if they are plentiful, they will feed on dry flies like trout do and grub on the bottom for crayfish. They do not feed on plants, but they can uproot and destroy plants by grubbing on the bottom. Their most common food is aquatic insects: mayfly larvae, caddis larvae, chironomids, and aquatic beetle larvae. The same stuff trout feed on.

[Cyberfish]

Mabye the question should be, What don't carp eat? !

[barnyard]

Carp eat anything through the water column including the surface. I've seen carp slurp down dump apples falling off a shoreside tree.

Tom B

[chris63]

My wife lived out in Montana before I met her and said the best Trout bait ever was those mini marshmellos.They used to get mad at all the pesky(and large)carp and suckers that would crash their baits competing with the trout!c63