Skip to content

Bass vs Carp

Featured Replies

Every time I am bass fishing; when the carp show up, bass are gone. Do the carp beat up the bass or what? I know the carp eat bass eggs but Im talking post spawn, late summer. I mean carp are fun to catch and all but Im trying to get a big blow up on a frog not watch 5 million sucker mouths eat every piece of floating grass lol does anyone else have a problem with this?

  • Super User

Nope . As a matter of fact one day I was watching a school of carp sucking at the surface like they often do . I took a Long A Minnow tossed it out there and started ripping it in an attempt to snag one . One of the biggest bass I ever caught hit it instead .

  • Author

 

3 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Nope . As a matter of fact one day I was watching a school of carp sucking at the surface like they often do . I took a Long A Minnow tossed it out there and started ripping it in an attempt to snag one . One of the biggest bass I ever caught hit it instead .

haha well that is a win, win then! They are fun to snag, one time I was throwing a s-waver for pike, thought I hooked a nice pike. Turns out I snagged a 15lb carp! I just cant seem to catch bass if the carp are there. I have a couple "honey holes" that Ill roll up to, carp are there, not catch anything besides a pike minnow. Come back a hour later, carp are gone, and catch fish. It makes no sense to me. 

Carp are shy. If you start tossing at them they'd likely swim away.

I haven't your same experience. I've seen bass blowing up and just after carp sucking stuff off the surface.

My friend has a koi pond and he has kept a bass in there for a few years.  The bass is slightly smaller than the koi, but he/she bullies them, not the other way around.  It may be because the koi are domesticated and the bass is wild, but they koi just are not territorial like other fish.  

Carp are the Great Danes of fish, they have no idea how big & strong they are and typically are very passive towards others.

I think it may have to do with the carp being there to eat the grass or algae or whatever they are there for.  If the carp are in there tearing up the grass that the bass are using as cover and for enriched oxygen, it may run the bass out of there.  I have no idea if this is right.  Just a guess.

In the shallow stained water I'm use to fishing, if I see a LOT of carp around, I usually move.  Especially in the summer when they get to flopping out of the water.  I've never had good luck around this.  I almost wonder if they flop because the water is hot and short on oxygen... if that's the case, I'd rather find cooler more oxygen rich water that has a better chance of holding bass.

  • Global Moderator

Carp disturb the bottom sediment and cause the water to get muddy, which can effect a bass' ability to find a bait. 

I've never had much luck catching largemouth around carp, but smallmouth seem to follow carp around, probably waiting for them to scare crawdads and other potential prey items off the bottom while they're rooting around. 

All of the reservoirs around here are loaded with carp and often times you can see them cruising around in the shallows.  I haven't noticed any difference with the carp around, seems like the bass do their own thing and carp do their own thing.

  • Super User
On 8/13/2016 at 1:48 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Carp disturb the bottom sediment and cause the water to get muddy, which can effect a bass' ability to find a bait. 

I've never had much luck catching largemouth around carp, but smallmouth seem to follow carp around, probably waiting for them to scare crawdads and other potential prey items off the bottom while they're rooting around. 

+1

Never had good luck for LMB when I can see more than one carp...but in the river, the SMB and carp seem to coexist under the same shadow just fine

I have found that bass will actually follow carp around, probably feeding on the invertabrates and crawdads that the carp unbury while rooting around in the bottom.  I have witnessed this many times while fishing a clear water gravel pit with 20+ feet of visibility.  Whenever I see a carp I always cast right next to it (unless I am trying to snag it, which I usually do) and often catch a good bass before the lure hits the bottom.

I fish a lot of ponds and 9 times out of 10 in the ponds I fish, the carp will end up in one area of the pond.  This has almost always been the least productive part of the pond for LMBs for me.  

  • Super User

When I saw the title of this thread I was hoping it was going to be a really good read about a battle more like Clash of the Titans, not a conversation about fishing.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.