Carp, And Why I Hate Them...

[Bluebasser86]

My buddy caught about a 20lb common carp on a finesse jig yesterday, had the bait right  in the outside of it's mouth. Thought he had a monster bass for just a few minutes. I don't mind it when I snag one, we try to snag buffalos in the winter when the bass fishing is slow in fact. Still, my preferred bait for carp is a heavy fiberglass arrow with a barbed tip flung out of a compound bow 

[Jar11591]

Carp are fun as hell. Poor man's bonefish.

[basscatcher8]

Least it wasnt an Asian. You snag one of those it gets all the other ones in the area riled up then you got em jumping at the boat while your trying to land the snagged one. We had a big 10-15 pound one snagged once and as we were hauling him up two more jumped and hit the side of the boat and about knocked me out of it lol.

[NathanW]

If fishing is slow, why complain about the fight that fish has given you.  Unless you plan on keeping that carp you gaff, then it wouldn't be a good idea.  I don't believe in just killing a fish just because it happens to be the wrong kind, ugly, or some think it's useless, not to mention if you buy a commercial gaff, odds are it's not gonna be as good as you would like. Having made many a gaff while working on sportfishing boats in S.Cal, those gaffs are crap, the hook is normally too big, and depending on your state fishing regulations, IE, Cal, it's illegal to gaff ANY freshwater fish.  Get a net and release your opponent safely and be thankful for the fight it gave you.  It maybe annoying when you hook them, but it's still fun to pull on something that pulls so hard without giving up.  

 

The commercial gaffs do look increadibly cheap.

 

Don't worry there are always folks on the bank who are more than greatfull to take the dead carp off my hands. I have not looked into the WA state regs but I figure that if you can bowfish for them than you can spear/gaff them.

 

Carp are invasive to bass habitat as they uproot vegetation, kick up bottom and suck up eggs. I have read that they are especially threatening to the largemouth spawn, which bothers me because the largemouth population is struggling in our waters while the carp population is absolutely thriving.

 

I kind of get the idea that I am the only one fishing waters as densly populated, as I have not been out yet this year where I have not snagged at least one Carp. Like I said I had a five carp day last weekend and a three carp day this weekend on two different lakes 100 miles away each other. I run and gun most of the time too so its not like I am snagging them all in one spot either.

[Bankbeater]

Had one swim into my line a couple of years ago and almost spooled my spinning reel before it got loose.  That was quite a fight.  I think the carp won.

[buzzed bait]

only caught one…. ever…..  but it was on a 5' ultralite rod with 4 pound test, perhaps the fish fight of the century….  felt like hemingway's old man and the sea!!

[MarksHooked]

Lots of big common carp come out of my area. Earlier this month I went targeting them for the first time. (Bass season is a ways away and I have been looking for other fish to target with the gear that I have) I landed one and lost a few, but MY GOODNESS! I recently started fishing, and in all the fish I caught last year, I never had any run on me or pull line, no monsters.  WHAT A FEELING it was, to just hold my rod up as some shapeless beast peels my line off like crazy, unable to control or horse it in! Needless to say I know what I'll be doing from now until the 3rd week of June!

[Elwood aka Ted Striker.]

Want to catch carp? Why not try floating baits such as bread and bread crusts when they are up in the water on sunny days. Did you know this can sort out the bigger fish. Carp are known eat up spawn and fry and small mouth sized fish in the early part of spring as did you know they spawn a lot later than most species in the uk so eat a lot of protein prior to there own spawning time. If the carp are present in high numbers then the bass will numbers will definitely be suffering over time aye.