For several years I have been seeing photos coming along about flyfishing for carp. A weird niece at first but them again carp are omnivorous and will try and eat anything that fits in their mouths. Apparently carp fishers use all sorts of things as bait, from the simple breadcrust to corn, from surimi to tinned escargot. So making flies for carp shouldn’t be that difficult. One flyfisher in my cyberspace surrounding is Edwin Kerssies, a man devoted to carp fishing and creator of the superb site http://www.dyckers.com/. He’s been catching carp for quite some time now and has posted some great pics of some massive carp caught on fly. After some email contact and some info I decided to give it a shot and go out and find some carp.
Now finding them, believe it or not, was at first quite difficult. Holland is filled with carp water however where I live not many “polder” waters are available and most water is very murky. Carp flyfishing is, well that’s how I see it, sightfishing. Spotting and stalking the carp and casting a fly in its path and hoping it will take it. Besides polders, the community ponds are valuable places to go and look for carp. Many children and parents come here to feed the ducks and in effect feed carp as well when the bread sinks or stays floating. These carp aren’t easily spooked and provide good target practice.
After several skunked carp trips I came upon a pond next to the river “Lek” it was connected with a small canal with other ponds and whilst approaching it I saw some fish hurrying away from the edges of the pond on my side. Carp I figured. So now I finally found a pond that could give me my first carp ever. One step closer to accomplishment!
After some time observing I decided to blind cast and see if with some dead drifting or slow retrieval I could fool a carp in taking my corn imitation. Time passed and nothing really happened. I could see carp busy in the reeds but the frustrating thing was that I could not reach them because of the muddy ground. It was like quicksand only with mud and clay. And even if I could, I would still have to present the fly in the middle of all that reed. Whilst making the hundreds of cast I saw something in the right side of my eye. I turned round and behold there was a carp tailing in just 2 feet of water. I immediately thought of bonefish and felt the adrenaline kick in. Thankfully I could restrain myself from casting directly towards the tail, I would have spooked him for sure since he was facing away from me. I crawled through the thick reeds to the other side to get into a better casting position. The carp was feeding happily and I reached a perfect spot. I Checked and double checked the fly, flyline and backcast and the first cast was perfect. Thank god no line tangle, no hook getting stuck on your backcast, no sloppy forward cast and no sudden gush of wind.
The fly dropped several inches in front of the tail and I waited some seconds before I started a figuring eight retrieve. As soon as my strike indicator came in motion I could see the tail wiggle and twitch and I instinctively set the hook. A big flapping of the tail and the carp was shaking its head like a big bull. Awesome!! There I was fighting my very first carp and then realizing I just brought this pathetic sized trout net with me. But the fight wasn’t over quickly so there was no worrying about any nets. The carp was in no way of letting the pressure off and although it didn’t take any line it didn’t want to come any closer either. After several minutes the leader came to the top and I had to get into the water to see if I could land the thing. These are the scary moments and looking back I realize I was a lucky SOB. The carp headed straight fowards me and swam between my legs. Lucky no fishing buddy was around to witness this stupid action of mine. Two things could have happened, first the carp could have come off, crap instead of carp, and second and maybe the worst one, my rod tip could have snapped as a twig. After some pirouettes and nearly tipping over I managed to get untangled and scooped the carp with both hands. I caught my very first common carp.
I set myself this goal for 2009 to catch a carp and a Roofblei (Aspius aspius) and I already managed to get one in the early season. So now that I caught one, the carp fever has hit me and the need to go and look for them is big. I just got word from Edwin he caught his first 29 pound carp, damn that’s a Pig!
Flies and gear
The flies I took were flies are quite straight forward, tied on hooksizes 6 to 10, salmoneggs, cornballs, breadflies, worm imitations and small crayfish do the trick. Since carp can be quite spooky and quite strong fighters, long leaders about 12 ft with 20/100 tip minimal are advised. With heavy plant growth thicker tippets are really necessary 30/100 easy.
I advise to use a 6 or 7 weight rod on small ones and if big ones are around an 8 will give you the leverage to turn a carp in its path just before he hits the reeds or plants. Carp are one of the stronger fish you’ll find in Holland and one that can for a change take line and go into your backing, so secure those knots and have some amount of backing.
Good luck
Now finding them, believe it or not, was at first quite difficult. Holland is filled with carp water however where I live not many “polder” waters are available and most water is very murky. Carp flyfishing is, well that’s how I see it, sightfishing. Spotting and stalking the carp and casting a fly in its path and hoping it will take it. Besides polders, the community ponds are valuable places to go and look for carp. Many children and parents come here to feed the ducks and in effect feed carp as well when the bread sinks or stays floating. These carp aren’t easily spooked and provide good target practice.
After several skunked carp trips I came upon a pond next to the river “Lek” it was connected with a small canal with other ponds and whilst approaching it I saw some fish hurrying away from the edges of the pond on my side. Carp I figured. So now I finally found a pond that could give me my first carp ever. One step closer to accomplishment!
After some time observing I decided to blind cast and see if with some dead drifting or slow retrieval I could fool a carp in taking my corn imitation. Time passed and nothing really happened. I could see carp busy in the reeds but the frustrating thing was that I could not reach them because of the muddy ground. It was like quicksand only with mud and clay. And even if I could, I would still have to present the fly in the middle of all that reed. Whilst making the hundreds of cast I saw something in the right side of my eye. I turned round and behold there was a carp tailing in just 2 feet of water. I immediately thought of bonefish and felt the adrenaline kick in. Thankfully I could restrain myself from casting directly towards the tail, I would have spooked him for sure since he was facing away from me. I crawled through the thick reeds to the other side to get into a better casting position. The carp was feeding happily and I reached a perfect spot. I Checked and double checked the fly, flyline and backcast and the first cast was perfect. Thank god no line tangle, no hook getting stuck on your backcast, no sloppy forward cast and no sudden gush of wind.
The fly dropped several inches in front of the tail and I waited some seconds before I started a figuring eight retrieve. As soon as my strike indicator came in motion I could see the tail wiggle and twitch and I instinctively set the hook. A big flapping of the tail and the carp was shaking its head like a big bull. Awesome!! There I was fighting my very first carp and then realizing I just brought this pathetic sized trout net with me. But the fight wasn’t over quickly so there was no worrying about any nets. The carp was in no way of letting the pressure off and although it didn’t take any line it didn’t want to come any closer either. After several minutes the leader came to the top and I had to get into the water to see if I could land the thing. These are the scary moments and looking back I realize I was a lucky SOB. The carp headed straight fowards me and swam between my legs. Lucky no fishing buddy was around to witness this stupid action of mine. Two things could have happened, first the carp could have come off, crap instead of carp, and second and maybe the worst one, my rod tip could have snapped as a twig. After some pirouettes and nearly tipping over I managed to get untangled and scooped the carp with both hands. I caught my very first common carp.
I set myself this goal for 2009 to catch a carp and a Roofblei (Aspius aspius) and I already managed to get one in the early season. So now that I caught one, the carp fever has hit me and the need to go and look for them is big. I just got word from Edwin he caught his first 29 pound carp, damn that’s a Pig!
Flies and gear
The flies I took were flies are quite straight forward, tied on hooksizes 6 to 10, salmoneggs, cornballs, breadflies, worm imitations and small crayfish do the trick. Since carp can be quite spooky and quite strong fighters, long leaders about 12 ft with 20/100 tip minimal are advised. With heavy plant growth thicker tippets are really necessary 30/100 easy.
I advise to use a 6 or 7 weight rod on small ones and if big ones are around an 8 will give you the leverage to turn a carp in its path just before he hits the reeds or plants. Carp are one of the stronger fish you’ll find in Holland and one that can for a change take line and go into your backing, so secure those knots and have some amount of backing.
Good luck
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