do carp "hunt" bait fish?

 

Long story short, i saw carp hitting baitfish off the topwater. Now I have seen them hit insects off the top...but I didnt think they would hit baitfish like a bass

I'm not sure, however I have caught them with senko's and skirted jigs. Hooks in the mouth, not snagged like a lot of guys do with crankbaits.

My carp question is will bass stay in an area where carp are herding up and going crazy or should I pass right by?

Me too...I don't know but I've caught a bunch of carp on jigs. For whatever reason the jigs I caught the most on were the old yellow marabou jigs I used to get.

 

I found one of those jigs with a really dull hook the other day in an old tackle box. I kept it for a pattern. I might try my hand at tying some.

Carp jump like whales around my water!

 

Doesn't seem to affect the bass bite.

 

With the possible exception of exotic transplants,

natural occurring species all coexist very well.

 

Roger

5 hours ago, nascar2428 said:

I'm not sure, however I have caught them with senko's and skirted jigs. Hooks in the mouth, not snagged like a lot of guys do with crankbaits.

I caught a big carp in the mouth with a crankbait early in the spring. I had just caught a 29" walleye a few days earlier in the same area, so I thought for sure I had another monster. It was at night, so you can imagine my disappointment. 

Carp are from Europe not a native species.

Tom

Carp are useless. They hit lures about as frequently as the browns make the playoffs 

I have caught common carp in the mouth with crankbaits. Most people think common carp are a native species but they are not, they are originally from Europe.

My youngest son lost a decent carp on a lipless crankbait of all things earlier this year. Never thought they'd hit most bass lures, but there ya go

I know for a fact that they hit insects off the top as I have seen them do it, they were small carp doing this, and they were getting airborn! really cool to see, this is in a small creek by me I micro fish. Its how I found the spot actually, poked my head around the corner and saw carp jumping!

 

Now the spot I mentioned in my first post, is a very large lake, that has a ton of monster carp. The wind was blowing into the cove I was fishing, and birds were dive bombing the water, so I was like ok, the wind must be blowing the baitfish my way, and thats what they birds are dive bombing, then I start seeing a ton of monster carp hitting top water as well. Now I didnt actually see any baitfish myself and couldnt clearly see what the birds were catching, but putting two and two together, its gotta be baitfish, given all the stuff I previously mentioned, as well as the fact that the lake was so big, and it was so windy, theres no way any insects were out on the water and I also dont think birds, including ocean birds would be dive bombing insects, there were also ocean birds doing crazy underwater swimming hunting on them...at first I thought I was confusing the underwater birds with the carp, but after a while I confirmed I was not mixing them up. Anyways I wasnt quite sure what to make of carp schooling on baitfish and nailing them off the top! So far I have only caught carp on nightcrawlers

Wind doesn't blow baitfish, it pushes plankton that the baitfish feed on and they follow the plankton. Something else that feeds on plankton and other small organisms that are pushed by the wind? Carp.

 

Carp will feed on baitfish, but do not possess the equipment needed to do it effectively. Their small mouths are not capable of creating the strong vacuum effect from a distance to pull a healthy baitfish into their mouth.

 

My guess is the carp were just there feeding on things getting pushed by the wind.

21 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Wind doesn't blow baitfish, it pushes plankton that the baitfish feed on and they follow the plankton. Something else that feeds on plankton and other small organisms that are pushed by the wind? Carp.

 

Carp will feed on baitfish, but do not possess the equipment needed to do it effectively. Their small mouths are not capable of creating the strong vacuum effect from a distance to pull a healthy baitfish into their mouth.

 

My guess is the carp were just there feeding on things getting pushed by the wind.

 

 

thank you for that explanation, i was unaware of that and learned something new. I
was trying to make sense of the scene that I saw. So what do you think "those" things were getting pushed by the wind than? are you trying to say they were just getting baitfish pushed by the wind rather than schooling on them?

I bought a handful of red eye shads in Baby Carp color during a sale a few years ago.    Haven't been able to hook a bass using that color.

4 hours ago, ISuckAtBassFishingBoise said:

I bought a handful of red eye shads in Baby Carp color during a sale a few years ago.    Haven't been able to hook a bass using that color.

It's one of my better colors, but in the crankbaits, not the RES.

There is a guy in Australia(I follow him on IG) using Cicada top water lure targeting carp.

1 hour ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

There is a guy in Australia(I follow him on IG) using Cicada top water lure targeting carp.

 

they blowup on bugs on topwater

On 6/5/2020 at 2:09 PM, soflabasser said:

I have caught common carp in the mouth with crankbaits. Most people think common carp are a native species but they are not, they are originally from Europe.

if you think about it, common carp are just as naturalized to American waters as largemouth bass are to the western US. neither would be there if not for man's actions. I love carp fishing so I will defend my carp

On 6/5/2020 at 9:47 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

Wind doesn't blow baitfish, it pushes plankton that the baitfish feed on and they follow the plankton. Something else that feeds on plankton and other small organisms that are pushed by the wind? Carp.

 

Carp will feed on baitfish, but do not possess the equipment needed to do it effectively. Their small mouths are not capable of creating the strong vacuum effect from a distance to pull a healthy baitfish into their mouth.

 

My guess is the carp were just there feeding on things getting pushed by the wind.

interesting information. I have seen carp feeding on dead or dying shad floating on the surface. In fact, they completely ignored any tried and true carp bait I offered them when they were in shad mood. It must be a rare delicacy for them when they can gorge on small dying shad

10 hours ago, Eric Matechak said:

if you think about it, common carp are just as naturalized to American waters as largemouth bass are to the western US. neither would be there if not for man's actions. I love carp fishing so I will defend my carp

interesting information. 

Common carp are a introduced species of fish in North America and they are native to parts of Europe and Asia. I also enjoy carp fishing and have caught many over 40 inches long.

21 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Common carp are a introduced species of fish in North America and they are native to parts of Europe and Asia. I also enjoy carp fishing and have caught many over 40 inches long.

agreed. but largemouth bass are not native to California so both species are introduced species in a way

 

One day on the St Lawrence River, I noticed a tight swarm of small carp in shallow water (maybe 2 to 5 lbs).

I beached the boat on the island and approached the carp school on foot. I was smallmouth bass fishing

and had a 3/16 oz orange ballhead jig tied on. With nothing to lose, I cast the jig into the heart of the school,

let it settle to the bottom, then jerked the jig hard. Surprisingly, I foul-hooked a carp,

reeled it ashore and released it. On my next cast, I fouled hooked a second carp (How lucky can you get?).

After about 6 back-to-back carp, it finally dawned on me, you're not "foul-hooking" them stupid!

Every carp was hooked in the rubbery lips. This was about 25 yrs ago, but I still have no rational explanation.

 

Roger

 

44 minutes ago, Eric Matechak said:

agreed. but largemouth bass are not native to California so both species are introduced species in a way

Largemouth bass are a introduced species in California but they are native where I live in South Florida. In fact the black bass I catch in South Florida are 100% Florida largemouth bass. I am mostly a multi species fisherman and enjoy catching all types of fish from tiny mosquitofish to sharks.

10 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

Largemouth bass are a introduced species in California but they are native where I live in South Florida. In fact the black bass I catch in South Florida are 100% Florida largemouth bass. I am mostly a multi species fisherman and enjoy catching all types of fish from tiny mosquitofish to sharks.

do you catch mosquito fish on a hook? with insect larval flies?