Finally got the picture back from a trip several weeks ago.  A camping trip on the Colorado River...  saw a few carp nose down, tailing in the grass, feeding like redfish.  I stalked this one and he took a #10 bonefish bitter.  They were feeding on something in the grass... no clue what, just got luckyon the fly choice.  Better to be lucky than good!

Used my home made 4 wt. with a 4 lb. test tippet.  Took me all the way through the backing and to the spool, I had to jump in the river and give chase to keep from getting spooled.  ...lol

Sorry for the pic quality, I took a digital pic of the film pic.   :-/

great pic. I've never given it a thought to fly for carp. I did catch one with a spinner last summer bass fishing that no one believes hit a spinner bait to this day.

Corky

Hey nice carp. Any idea how much it weighed?

I've cought some nice carp before, but not on a flyrod. I can only amagine what it must be like to fight a carp 4wt rod!

I'm getting me a fly rod soon and would love to catch a carp on it. We have some great 40lb+ carp waters 300ft away from my house, but the water is very murky. Any tips?

once again great carp! they are truly a hard fighting fish.

Matt

Welcome to the forums, Corky!

Matt,

Tell your Mom that you have a great Christmas gift Idea... it's $12 and comes with free shipping (delivery by 12/22) from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Carp-Fly-Flyfishing-Barry-Reynolds/dp/1555661866

It's a pretty cool book. I never thought of fly rodding for carp until I saw it. It also has a section where the authors share their favorite and home tied flys. (even some dry flys!)

That's my best tip, I'm as green as you... that was actually my first stalk of a carp. So I think it was luck, and a well placed cast that caught that fish.

As far as weight goes, I would guess 6-7 lbs.  It was almost completely round in the body.

I know a fella that fly fishes for carp all the time in the Missouri River.  They come up and eat the cotton off the top of the water in the backwater off the wing dike.  The cotton is falling off all the cottonwood trees.  He has a blast doing it.  Those carp can get pretty big and put up a good fight.

How long did it take to land?

Carp fishing at night when I was a youngster was a great way to pass the night while fishing for cats and crappie with zebco's and light line.    Great way to learn how to play fish.

Matt.

How long did it take to land?

Felt like all day but really took about 10-15 minutes.  Once I cuaght him on foot upstream, he took off down stream in the current and got me deep into the backing again, the second run really wore him out and then it was a matter of reeling all the backing in. ...lol

It was a blast!

Great pic...anything that will bite is worth the time.

Wayne

Funny how carp can surprise you.

I once caught one, If I recall was 24lbs.  it was on a 1/32 oz jig and 4lb test line while crappie fishing.  I can't say the beast fought.  It was more like I tied the line to a truck bumper.  I landed him but it was a good 20 minutes.  He pulled me and the jon boat about 200 yards.

Very nice!!

The only carp I have caught on the fly was during the mulberry hatch when they are very easy to fool.

Great job!

corky.bailey,

Welcome aboard!

flechero,

Man, I bet that was fun! Besides catching the carp, what were you targeting on the Colorado River?

The intention was to bass fish but the water is/was real low and all we saw were a few perch and some 2"-6" bass besides the carp.  There was deeper water both up and down stream which probably held better fish but I never got to them because I only had about an hour to fish that day so I stayed at camp.

Way to go. That big carp on a 4wt. and 4 lb. tippet.  That is my trout gear.  It must have been fun fighting him on light tackle.