With fly fishing for carp growing rapidly in popularity, many fly fishermen and women, from the die-hards to the weekend warriors, are coming to appreciate the difficulty and tremendous enjoyment this prolific specie can provide. While some find success in enticing carp with a prince nymph under a strike indicator, or by stripping a bugger blindly, I have grown to love the challenge and thrill of sight casting to feeding carp, watching the take and enjoying the long, powerful runs these fish are known for.
Joe Ferber introduced me to the guerrilla tactics he had developed to sight cast to both common carp and grass carp that inhabit the creeks that flow through the hairy, overgrown hardwood forests of Kansas and Missouri. The first common I landed was a bow-and-arrow flick through an arc of vines and branches; a twitch of my leader as the carp took a mulberry pattern, a strong strip-set and a 10 minute battle left me standing in shin-deep mud holding a healthy 12 pound common. This was the fruit of many fishless days, combined with Joe’s knowledge and patience and when I left for Utah I told him he couldn’t pay me to go trout fishing.
So I didn’t. My first week in Utah was spent trying to locate a reservoir in which commons had finished their spawn, which marks the beginning a period of heavy feeding. When I did, I had struck gold with back-to-back afternoons in which I landed nine, then 16 fish weighing between 5 and 15 pounds. Yeah, maybe Joe has better days back in KC but I still slay out here. One thing I still come across from onlookers without fail: “You know there aren’t (or ain’t) no trout in there…” Yup, I got it.
This beat up old male still had some fight
Golden nugget, common for the area
Good fly placement, something Joe never really saw me do.
Yours Truly,
That guy releasing carp to the dismay of all other fishermen:
Mike Mazzoni
Flatland Fly Fisherman 