Carp Effect On Bass Bite?

[masterbass]

I was kayak bassin a few days ago and as I was approaching a large cove I was seeing massive splashes  everywhere.  I originally thought they were bass blowing up so I was paddling like crazy and dreaming about how this was going to be frogging day of historic proportions.  As I got closer I saw them, thousands of carp just going crazy and my heart sank.  I ended up only catching a couple in the morning.  Into the afternoon the carp calmed down and started catching some decent bass.  I'm wondering if the carp feeding frenzy turned off the bass bite.  Has anyone had similar experiences?

[Bluebasser86]

I've never had much luck when they're spawning, like it sounds like you ran into. While carp are feeding in an area I have had good success, especially for smallmouth for some reason. 

[scaleface]

I actually hooked a big bass that was below some carp. I was going to try too snag one . I threw a Bomber Long A and started ripping it through them when the bass hit .

[the reel ess]

I don't know...I've caught bass where there were carp splashing around. But it was a pond. The bass are captive and have to eat.

[basscatcher8]

I keep my Bow in the boat at all time for just such an occasion. I never mind taking a break from bass fishing to shoot the bow a few times.

[flyfisher]

Carp feeding has only increased my bass catching.  The carp rooting around stirs up the little bugs and other things that the baitfish will eat and then the bass are soon to follow.  

 

I can also echo that this happens a lot for me with smallmouth as the carp and smallies seem to populate similar areas.  

[Turtle135]

This past weekend I had the exact opposite experience. There were huge carp crashing through shallow aquatic plants and it seemed like the bass were waiting for baitfish to get flushed from the vegetation. A black & blue swim jig right behind the marauding carp frequently found an aggressive largemouth waiting to ambush.

[georgeyew]

I know that this is a bass forum, but if I have a situation where that many carp are actively feeding, I'd be targeting the carp. They fight much harder than bass and are usually much bigger. It is not uncommon to see 20+ pound carp. Imagine the fun in fighting those fish!

[Dave Jakes]

Splashing or just cruising around, I've never had a great bass experience if there's carp around. If I see more than 20 carp swimming around I'll just move on. Not sure if there's any accurate reasoning to this experience or if it's just coincidence, but it's been consistent enough for me to just avoid them.

I have buddies who believe the opposite, so who knows!

[bankguy315]

For me, when there are alot of carp the bass bite suffers.

[papajoe222]

When the carp are spawning, which follows shortly after the bass and before the bluegill, I avoid the immediate area as I've never done much good close to all their commotion. Their ritual is a good indicator to me that the female bass have moved off the nests and that's when I begin fishing deeper areas.

[CeeJay]

I know that this is a bass forum, but if I have a situation where that many carp are actively feeding, I'd be targeting the carp. They fight much harder than bass and are usually much bigger. It is not uncommon to see 20+ pound carp. Imagine the fun in fighting those fish!

 

Me too

[scaleface]

When the carp are spawning, which follows shortly after the bass and before the bluegill, I avoid the immediate area as I've never done much good close to all their commotion. Their ritual is a good indicator to me that the female bass have moved off the nests and that's when I begin fishing deeper areas.

Good tip . I need to remember that one .

[MassBass]

River smallies will hang around carp that are rummaging the bottom, quickly darting in for crayfish and helgramites rooted up by the carp. 

[scaleface]

I remember watching a Roland Martin show where he was catching bass on   a "carp and gar" pattern. He   targets areas where these fish are visible ..

[WRB]

Carp are egg eaters, enemy of spawning bass. The carp fry are a food source of the post spawn bass, young of the year carp are a prey source for adult bass, what comes around goes around.

Carp are a invasive species from Asia, not a native fish, do more harm than good.

Tom

[cdunlapb12]

For the last week the carp have been suspended near the surface around my dock. They're all facing upstream like they're waiting on something. They let me hit them with my spinnerbait and jig and never moved. In regards to the OP, I caught three good sized bass in the midst of all these carp.

[BooyahMan]

When the carp are spawning, which follows shortly after the bass and before the bluegill, I avoid the immediate area as I've never done much good close to all their commotion. Their ritual is a good indicator to me that the female bass have moved off the nests and that's when I begin fishing deeper areas.

 

If this is true, it would explain my situation perfectly. Carp surfacing everywhere in the lily pads and on the weed edges, and the bigger bass just seemed to have disappeared for us bank anglers. The frog bite in the pads has been terrible these last two weeks, and all I see are splashes and wakes made by the carp. 

[flyfisher]

Carp are egg eaters, enemy of spawning bass. The carp fry are a food source of the post spawn bass, young of the year carp are a prey source for adult bass, what comes around goes around.

Carp are a invasive species from Asia, not a native fish, do more harm than good.

Tom

Carp have been here for a long time and to call them invasive you would have to do the same with bass and a multitude of other species.  I am also curious as to how they do more harm than good unless you are speaking specifically about the big head carp as that is one i have read about the negative impacts on specific fisheries but the common carp i haven't seen much information about het negative impact.

[WRB]

Carp have been here for a long time and to call them invasive you would have to do the same with bass and a multitude of other species. I am also curious as to how they do more harm than good unless you are speaking specifically about the big head carp as that is one i have read about the negative impacts on specific fisheries but the common carp i haven't seen much information about het negative impact.

Fresh water black bass, all 8 species are native to North America, no carp specie is native, they come from Asia and Europe. Carp are egg eaters, eating the spawn of all fish including bass. Carp also get big and eat the fry and fingerlings of all fish along with plankton that young fish need to survive. The problem is carp reduce the available food source for other fish while reducing to survival rate of eggs, fry and small fish.

Most carp are introduced by folks releasing their pet gold fish, not aware of fishery management introducing common carp into fisheries, lots of efforts to eradicate them. The grass carp being used to eat aquatic vegetation is fairly new to North America, time will tell how this species adapts to it's new environment. All the other carp have adapted too well!

Tom

[flyfisher]

Invasive to me doesn't always mean they aren't native to this country.  A perfect example is when brook trout from the east coast were transplanted into the eastern sierras to supplement the population and they decimated the native golden trout population.  So those to me, they are invasive at the same level as those fish from other countries.

 

Do you have inks to any studies around their impact because i would like to read up more on the topic.  I know many of the areas I fish hold some very large carp and i would be curious to see what type of impact they may have had on the fishing.

[CeeJay]

Common carp have been here in the US for over 180 years.  They are well established, yet bass are still prolific and growing to enormous size.

No one here is old enough to know if bass fishing was "better" before carp were introduced.

[A-Jay]

Don't know for sure if the presence of carp in the shallows help or hurts the bass bite.

 

But if your lake has any kind of depth and decent pike population - the Super Tankers are often not too far.

 

Yesterday the lake I was on, which is blessed with huge pike, had a ton of carp up shallow - quite a few of them looked like they had a fight with a meat grinder & lost - all scarred up.

 

A-Jay

[rybobassmaster]

I was kayak bassin a few days ago and as I was approaching a large cove I was seeing massive splashes  everywhere.  I originally thought they were bass blowing up so I was paddling like crazy and dreaming about how this was going to be frogging day of historic proportions.  As I got closer I saw them, thousands of carp just going crazy and my heart sank.  I ended up only catching a couple in the morning.  Into the afternoon the carp calmed down and started catching some decent bass.  I'm wondering if the carp feeding frenzy turned off the bass bite.  Has anyone had similar experiences?

hello,  in my expereance in some lakes the carp will attack and beat up anything smaller (bass) so it hurts the bass fishing sometimes .

[scaleface]

You've seen carp beating up   bass ?