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Serious Carp

By Scott Richmond

Do you really need to spend $$$ to go flats fishing?

lad in a quick-drying tropical shirt, shorts, and sandals, I waded the knee-deep flat. Warm water rippled against my legs and brilliant sunlight streamed down.

I searched through my Polaroids for feeding fish. Two big shapes moved slowly from left to right, their tails up and their noses down on the bottom. I cast so the fly landed slightly in front and just to one side of the biggest fish. He moved to it. I waited. His nose went down to the fly. I counted to three, then struck. He had it! Line ripped from the reel as the big fish moved for deeper water. My eight-weight Sage bent in a deep hoop as backing disappeared and I . . .

Yadda, yadda, yadda. You know how those magazine articles go, right? Yet another story hyping saltwater fly fishing in the tropics. Somebody's payback piece for their free trip to Belize, or the Bahamas, or Christmas Island. One more fantasy vacation that you'll take when you can pull together an extra $3,000 . . . $4,000 . . . $5,000 or more.

Not at all.

This is a fishing trip that is within a few hours of the Northwest's big metro areas. Fishing that costs next to nothing. Uncrowded fishing that few people bother to experience.

It's carp fishing in the mid-Columbia River.

Why Not?

Why wouldn't you do this? Carp are big, powerful, and plentiful. It takes real skill to catch them on a fly. There's no competition. It's an easy, cheap trip for thousands of us. So why not?

Many anglers turn up their noses at carp. They argue that they're a non-native fish. Yeah, but so are brown trout. You can argue that some of them live in really bad, polluted water. Well, the carp didn't cause the pollution, and the mid-Columbia isn't going to rot your ankles when you wade in its clear waters. Can't eat carp, you say? So how many trout and steelhead do you actually put on the dinner table? You can argue that carp are ugly. Well, take a close look at those big, iridescent scales in sunlight. They're gorgeous. But those that head, you say, those lips . . . Okay; I grant that I'm not about to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on one of these guys, but the other 90 percent of the fish isn't so bad.

Just a few decades ago, bonefish were regarded as trash fish--and ugly besides. Not too many years before that, tarpon were similarly despised. Then anglers got over their hangups about inedible, ascetically-challenged fish and discovered that these species were fun to catch. Now people pay big bucks to chase them.

Attitudes toward carp should change as well. I take this fish seriously, and I think more Northwest fly fishers should do the same.

The Ten-Pound Minnow

Carp are the largest member of the minnow family. It's hard to call a 10 or 20 pound fish a minnow, but taxonomists have their own criteria for these things. Carp are the most intelligent of the freshwater fish, scientists say, because of their ability to learn. They can survive on very low oxygen, which is why they do well in warm water and polluted areas.

Carp are not chasers and pursuers. They prefer to save their energy and mosey along picking up crayfish, snails, worms, midge larvae, cased caddis, and anything else that might be edible. They feed primarily on the bottom. On the other hand, I've seen them rise to the surface and sip caddis and midge pupae when a hatch was on.

Tackle and Flies

Most Northwest anglers already possess most of the tackle they need to pursue carp. A six-weight rod is sufficient for some situations, but an eight-weight is better. The bigger rod will cast a weighted fly more easily in the wind, and you'll appreciate the extra backbone when you hook a big fish.

Because you're fishing in shallow water, a floating line is all you need. A weight-forward will help cast the large, heavy fly. A 9-12 foot fluorocarbon leader is preferred. The fluorocarbon is important because it's hard for the fish to see and is more abrasion-resistant (you often fish over a rocky bottom).

You can survive with just three flies:

1. A black Carp Worm. This Woolly Worm variation has no tail. The grizzly hackle is reverse palmered. Weight the fly with 15-20 turns of lead.
2. A black leech or Woolly Bugger
3. A crayfish pattern, such as Crayfish ala Darc

Finding the Fish

Carp are plentiful in the warm waters of the mid-Columbia. They prefer warm, quiet water. You often find them in sloughs and backbays, along islands, and on shallow flats and gravel bars.

The Columbia has many places such as this. A good place to start is to pick up a good set of maps, such as the DeLorme Atlas for Washington. Run your finger down the Columbia River and look for islands, back bays, and sloughs. The back bays and sloughs are especially productive. They are often shallow and offer carp the quiet water they love. Gravel bars and flats around islands are also good places to search for carp. Mid-river gravel bars that are not far upstream from a dam are good because they are shallow and the current moves slowly as the river approaches the dam.

You want water that is knee-deep or less. You can find carp in deeper water, but those fish are difficult to catch on a fly.

It's not enough just to find carp, though. You want carp that are actively feeding. These fish will be moving slowly. If you look closely, you'll see that their tail is tipped up and their mouth is near the bottom. Sometimes the tail will break the surface.

Fish that are moving quickly (faster than walking pace) are not feeders and make poor quarry. Sometimes you'll spot a fish that is not moving at all, but is suspended near the surface like it's taking a sun bath. That's not a good target either.

But if you find a school of slow-moving, tailing carp in water that is knee-deep or less, you've found the mother lode. There are enough places to fish--and enough carp--that you should keep moving until find that situation.

Carp are easy to spot when you're in shallow, clear water. They're big and dark, and they stand out like a neon sign. They're also spooky, so wade carefully and slowly. If you see a puff of silt, you just scared a fish. Darc Knobel at The Blue Dun in Wenatchee is a mid-Columbia carp authority. He says he's seen carp spook from 150 yards away at the sound of an electric trolling motor. Darc is a carp guide, and he advises his clients to speak in a whisper because even loud talking can send them scurrying away. So remember, no "whooping" when you get a hookup.

Presentation

Presentation and setting the hook are the trickiest elements of carp fishing. Your cast has to be accurate. You want the fly to land within 10-12 inches of your target fish so that by the time the fly sinks to the bottom it will be 6-8 inches from the carp's nose. Too far away and the carp will ignore it. Too close and you'll spook it.

My advice is to practice casting before you stalk any fish. Pick a rock or weed and pretend it's a fish. Then cast to it. Do this a lot.

Most carp flies are weighted, and therefore they are difficult to cast accurately, especially if there is a wind. If you slow down your cast and open up the casting loop, you will be more accurate. Also, keep the rod in the same plane; the more it wiggles around, the more erratic the trajectory of your fly. A straight vertical overhead is the most accurate, but it is not always the best cast. A horizontal side-arm cast can be accurate, too, if you practice it and keep the line short. Almost any other angle, however, will make accuracy elusive.

One key to casting accuracy is to make short casts of 30 feet or less, which means patiently stalking fish or letting them come near you.

The most difficult skill for beginning carp anglers, however, is knowing when to set the hook. Carp pick up their food with their lips and test it. If they like it, they swallow it. They have two large teeth back in their throat, and they crunch the hell out of anything they swallow (never stick your fingers deep down the throat of a carp; they could get mashed beyond belief). Your fly will never make it that far, however. The carp will test the fly with its lips for a couple of seconds, and reject it. So you have to be quick. But if you're too quick, the carp won't have it. Timing is everything, and it takes a while to get the hang of it.

A good presentation will help. If you place your fly slightly to the side of your target fish, you can see it move over and put its nose down on the fly (or where you think the fly is; you probably won't actually see the fly). Count to three, then pull line in hard with your left hand (if you're a right handed caster). With luck, you'll feel the solid resistance of a good hookup.

Other tips

1. Playing fish. Carp are not jumpers, nor do they have the speed of a bonefish or a steelhead. But they will run hard and powerfully, and it's a rare carp that won't take you into your backing. They usually make one long run, then come back close to you before taking off again for a shorter run. They might have one more surge before wearing out. Unhook your fish with forceps. Be careful of the spines on the back; they can give you a nasty poke.
2. Best times of year. Carp have no fight in April, says Darc, and May is iffy because the biggest fish don't eat much. June through August is best. September can be decent, at least early in the month. Later, the water can be warm enough but the sun is too low and it becomes difficult to spot the fish.
3. Stay mobile. If you don't find aggressive fish, move. If your favorite flat holds no fish, check back in a couple hours; fish could have moved onto it.
4. --Picking a fly. Pick a fly based on bottom-type: the Carp Worm for gravelly bottoms; Crayfish for rocky, bouldery bottoms; leech for mud bottoms.
5. Sunshine is good. Sunny days are best because you can see the fish from farther away. Cloudy days and low light make for difficult fishing because you can't see the fish--or by the time you see them they have seen you and have spooked.
6. Wind riffle. A bit of wind riffle on the water is useful because it helps hide you from the fish. But too much wind makes it difficult to spot the carp.
7. Wading. Much of the summer you can wade wet, with just a pair of shorts and sandals or old sneakers. Be careful on mud bottoms, though. That mud can be slippery as heck, and if you start down an incline you can end up on your backside in a hurry.
8. Watch the fish. When you're new at it, watch the fish for a while before you start casting. Get a sense of what "normal" carp behavior looks like. This will help you figure out when to set the hook.
9. Lakes. Many lakes in the Columbia basin also hold carp. As in the Columbia River, look for water that is knee-deep or less. Banks Lake is popular, but there are many other possibilities, especially in the Pot Holes area. Most lake carp are under ten pounds. The Columbia's carp can top 15 or 20 pounds.
10. Watch the wind. The mid-Columbia can have strong winds. When combined with the current, you can get some nasty waves--nasty and dangerous if you're in a small boat. I've been soaked to the skin from spray and had some tense times in my14-foot Klamath. Winds can be localized. I've seen whitecaps in one area, and mere riffles less than a mile away. It depends on the wind direction and whether the wind is blocked by hills or funneled down a canyon.
11. Watch the water level. The Columbia River is managed for the benefit of irrigators and power producers, not carp anglers. Water levels can change by two or three feet in a short time. This can leave your boat high and dry. And since what goes down can also go up, you need to have sufficient scope on your anchor line to keep your watercraft from floating away if the river rises.
12. Boat not essential. Many areas can be reached by foot from the highway, so you don't have to have a boat. But it helps.
13. Guides. Carp fishing is not terribly difficult once you get the hang of it, but you can save yourself a lot of bumbling around if you see someone do it right. So seek a mentor or a guide.

Scott Richmond is Westfly's creator and Executive Director. He is the author of eight books on Oregon fly fishing, including Fishing Oregon's Deschutes River (second edition).

Uploaded 08/29/2002.

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Joe Warren prepares to fish a carp flat near Biggs.

Carp can grow to large size, and can easily take you deep into your backing.

A typical mid-Columbia backwater. These quiet shallow waters are favorites with carp. A few minutes with a map can help you discover these places.

The Carp Worm is a Woolly Worm varient. Talk about easy to tie!