Matching the Hatch for Carp

angler angler
This angler is casting to carp feeding on blobs of algae just under the surface.

I get a lot of questions from fly anglers who have just started to look into targeting carp on the fly, and the first question usually is, “What fly do you use for carp?” If I were to ask any trout angler, “What fly do you use for trout?” the answer would vary immensely, based on a variety of factors, most importantly, what the fish were eating. But for some reason, people think that for species that are not trout, all you need are just a few fly patterns. In reality, matching the hatch, imitating what the carp actually are eating, is just as important as when matching the hatch for trout.

Matching what the fish are eating, when it comes to carp, opens up a lot of possibilities at the fly-tying table. Matching the hatch for the golden ghost can require a variety of different flies, some familiar to trout or bass anglers and others that are quite specific to fishing for carp. For example, some days on the carp haunts, you might encounter a “scum hatch,” where hundreds of fish rise to algae clumps floating in the surface film. Other days, you might find fish pushing onto sand flats and feeding on clams, keying in on specific colors and sizes. An important part of being a consistently successful angler for carp is being able to figure out what the fish are feeding on and how to imitate the movements of each food item for your presentation.

Feeding on Top

One of the most exciting ways to fly fish for carp is when you see them feeding on the surface, often called “clooping.” For carp, feeding on top can involve everything from aggressively coming up to grasshoppers and beetles to subtly feeding on midges and algae.

As with trout, the ways in which carp come to the surface can tell you a lot about what they are feeding on. When it’s windy, and especially when the wind is coming from the shore, carp key in on terrestrial insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, and ants. During extreme wind events on cold spring days, I’ve noticed larger-than-average carp porpoising in the waves and eating grasshoppers that were blown out from a large main lake point just up the shoreline. During these events, I’ve landed some of my largest carp by splatting a hopper in the feeding lane. The fish come like dolphins to hit the fly.

Where I live on the Central Coast, we’re lucky enough to have grasshoppers year-round, but great terrestrial action can be had with ants and beetle imitations, as well, especially in areas where the vegetation overlaps with the shoreline, creating easy pickings for the fish when a breeze pushes the insects onto the lake. As with most carp flies, you want to make sure these imitations are tied on heavy-wire hooks that will land heavy fish while still being light enough to float. My favorite hooks for carp are barbless egg hooks and streamer jig hooks. Barbless hooks are easier on the fish and still hold extremely well.

One thing to remember when using dry flies for carp is that the color doesn’t really matter. The silhouette and size are the main things they focus on. The fish won’t see the color when looking up at the fly, which means you can tie flies with colorful foam, yarn, or wool on top to make them easier to spot.

As any angler who has fished for trout with dry flies will tell you, you need to wait for the fish to turn with the fly before setting the hook. In general, carp are much larger, so they take a longer time to turn and close their mouths. And depending on what they’re eating, carp sometimes keep feeding after taking your fly, especially when feeding on algae, keeping their mouths open for an excruciatingly long few seconds. This means that you need to watch their mouths closely when fishing dry flies to figure out the timing. Every fish requires slightly differently timed hook sets.

carp
This Central California carp fell to a leech pattern fished in flooded brush.

During the middle of winter, the carp in one of my local lakes suspend in big groups right beneath the surface in creek arms, feeding mostly on emerging midges, much as trout would. There are usually small microcurrents in these creek arms. The fish sit in these current lanes and pick clumps of emerging midges out of the surface film. When I first encountered this, I started using classic troutstyle midge flies in sizes 16 to 20, but I managed to land only one fish — on a size 18 Klinkhåmer — and the hook was so bent out of shape that I couldn’t use the fly again. Every other fish that took my midge imitations either bent the hook or broke off, because I had to use a light tippet to thread through the small eyes of these small hooks. The solution was to tie flies with the profile of a size 18 midge on a size 8 or 10 hook, with the whole body just barely behind the eye of the fly. Using a beefier hook and a heavier tippet will reduce the number of fish you lose.

Once the water starts to warm in the springtime, most lakes have an algae bloom of some sort, whether it’s small bits of scum in the surface film or large swaths of thick green stuff. Since carp are able to feed on pretty much anything, you should key in on these events. Keeping your flies simple works best, and one of my top-producing flies during the algae “hatch” is basically just a clump of EP Fibers in colors matching the algae. This lets the fly sink slightly below the surface film, which can be a deadly tactic when the wind dies down. Cast ahead of the fish and past it, then drag the fly into its path, stopping and letting it drop. The tactic works well on fish that are feeding on algae in both the surface film and just underneath it. You can usually spot these fish because they’ll be doing just that — cruising slowly beneath the surface to pick off algae clumps, occasionally poking their heads above the surface to eat floating scum.

When there’s a slight breeze, the algae will form scum lines along the surface. Carp will position themselves in these lanes, feeding on top and sitting like trout in a stream, opening their mouths every now and then to let the wind-created currents bring the food to them. In these situations, a floating algae fly fishes better than the slow-sinking version, since the fish often feed only on top. My favorite fly in these situations is a foam parachute, with a white piece of foam as the main post and a yellowish hackle wrapped around it. That’s it! It sits right in the surface film, not on top of it and not underneath, like a lot of the algae in the surface film, and the white post is easy to see.

These are some of the common scenarios you might encounter in California when carp are feeding at the surface, although as with every other fish, regional differences can influence the types of food sources that are available. Make it a point to learn the intricacies of each fishery and the food items found there. In landscaped urban areas, for example, carp will feed on nuts and berries that fall from trees hanging over the water. You can also find fish feeding on mayflies, damselflies, and other regional hatches. The point is, carp not only deserve the same amount of respect when approaching fly choices as trout do, but matching the hatch, whatever that means where you fish, will also improve your success on the water.

Bottom Feeders

When the water warms in the early spring, the shallow-water flats start filling with golden ghosts feeding along the bottom and rooting aquatic insects and clams out of the lake bed. You can spot these fish by the way they feed — tail up and head rooting around on the bottom, sometimes around the roots of flooded vegetation or weed lines and sometimes in wide-open sand flats. Paying attention to how and where these fish feed can help you figure out what they’re feeding on.

Fish rooting along the open sand flats, gravel flats, or seemingly featureless mudflats are often feeding on aquatic clams. If you see bubble trails coming out where the fish are feeding, it’s usually because of the warning gases that clams give off as the fish come up on them to feed. Clams are an odd food source for fly fishers to imitate — they don’t move much, so the presentation at some point has to be dead still. Clams come up out of the lake bottom to feed, putting out a wormlike feeding tube to filter nutrients from the water, then dart down into the bottom when danger approaches.

This means that the perfect presentation is the drag and drop, which I mentioned earlier. Here, the concept is the same as with slow-sinking flies — cast past the fish and drag the fly into its path, then let the fly drop down to the bottom. This imitates a clam trying to escape from an approaching carp.

flies
Flies for carp include imitations of dragonfly nymphs, leeches, and clams.

Flies that imitate clams come in a variety of shapes and sizes, most of which should incorporate some sort of worm-style tail to imitate the feeding tube. Some classic carp clam imitations are John Montana’s Hybrid and the Loco Moco by Glenn Ueda, both of which utilize a worm-style tail, bead-chain or dumbbell eyes, depending on the depth of the water, and a soft-hackle collar that opens up when the fly lands on the bottom, imitating a clam opening up with a feeding tube sticking out. Fly size should be similar to the average size of clams found along the shoreline. If you can’t find any live clams, there should be plenty of empty shells along the shoreline, especially in reservoirs that are low from drought.

Another way to imitate clams is by tying in the Merkin style, which is similar to crab imitations used in Southern California for corbinas. I generally tie these with bead-chain or dumbbell eyes (depending on the depth of water), a wormlike tail, and EP Fibers tied onto the shank of the hook. Basically, I cut the EP fibers into four or five small strips and tie each one to the shank using figure-eight wraps until I reach the eyes. I then use UV glue to secure the wraps over and under the shank and trim the sides to the proper shape to imitate a clam. I like to fish these flies in clearer and shallower water. The body shape makes the fly drop slowly, and a slow drop can sometimes be the difference between a slow day and a good day when chasing carp. The slow fall of the fly is often the part of the presentation that grabs the attention of the fish. Well-vegetated flats will often have damselfly or dragonfly nymphs and other aquatic insects, as well as leeches and scuds. These food items move along the bottom, which allows the angler to present the fly with a little bit of movement (again, cast past the fish, then slowly strip the fly into its path.) This can be very helpful in the muddier waters that characterize a lot of carp habitat, since you can cast at a tailing fish. Because you’re slowly stripping the fly, you can actually feel the take, as opposed to a clam presentation, where you need to see the fish eat the fly in order to set the hook.

In flooded vegetation — brush that was on dry land before a reservoir’s water level rises — I tend to lean toward fishing leech imitations, because the bottom is generally lifeless enough that I don’t see a lot of aquatic insects darting around. If the water is muddy, a simple McTage’s Chubby Chaser Leech is the best choice, tied with bead-chain eyes. If you need to fish deeper water, a tungsten bead can be added in front of the eyes to provide additional weight. The main body is simply a wrapped dubbing loop of a flashy dubbing mix of your choice. If the water is muddier, use darker colors, such as purple or black, and in clearer waters, a tan or olive fly can work wonders.

Flats that have mostly aquatic vegetation provide a more stable habitat for carp food sources, such as dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, scuds, water boatmen, and other water-dwelling insects. Fish cruising the edges of the weed beds on these flats can be targeted with a variety of lightly weighted flies. Even a simple Woolly Bugger is a good all-around imitation of a dragonfly nymph and could even pass for a leech. I like simple flies with bead-chain eyes, rubber legs in the back and right behind the eyes, and a body of natural fox dubbing wrapped from the back, then between the beadchain eyes, and finished just in front of them. This makes a great all-around imitation for a lot of aquatic nymphs. Carry it in a few sizes and colors.

Scuds, another carp food source on the vegetated f lats, are not only fun to tie, but fun to fish. I often find fish in the winter targeting scuds in slow-moving pools in river systems, where the aquatic vegetation growing along the back eddies is home to a reliable buffet of scuds. You can find scuds along the edges of the vegetation, and they’re usually easy to catch with your hands. Matching the size and color of the scuds can often lead to good fishing. Scud flies should be kept simple — a plastic strip tied in at the back, folded over a body of dubbing, the color to match the naturals, then wrapped with a copper wire over the entire fly to create the kind of ribbed-segmented look that scuds have. Just as with all flies for carp, make sure the hooks are strong enough to handle a large fish.

clam
A clam and its imitation.

Gravel and rocky edges along deeper waters are often where you can find crayfish. These mud bugs are often associated with bass and trout fishing, but carp do key in on them when they’re available. When crayfish are on the menu, you can almost fish for carp like they’re bass. Once you spot a fish, lead it on with a crayfish streamer, stripped with pauses into its path, and hope it’s interested enough to follow and eat it. I find that most carp, at least the ones that I encounter, key in on smaller crayfish, so I tie my crayfish flies in sizes 6 and 8 and keep them simple. I use a jig hook, a slotted bead, and a hackled body like a Woolly Bugger, but the tail is two feathers spread apart. A dab of UV glue keeps the feathers spread, and I tie two strands of muted Flashabou as antennas between the feathers. Play around with the speed of the strip. Each day and each fishery requires a different presentation.

Putting It All Together

Carp have a reputation as a very difficult fish to tempt with a fly. They don’t forgive a sloppy cast, require a stealthy approach, and can sound like a daunting fish to chase if you have never done so before. They’ve got the largest brains of any freshwater fish, they’re spooky, and they can be quite picky. Not to mention that you need to find the fish feeding in areas where you can stalk and present a fly to them. Sometimes carp seem to have supernatural senses. But that’s what makes them so endlessly fun to chase.

Every day requires that you figure out where they’re feeding and what they are feeding on, which informs how you approach them. Not just seeing whether they’re feeding on top or on the bottom, but being able to discern what they are feeding on is paramount to consistent success on the water. Being able to match the hatch for carp and adjusting your presentation to mimic the food source allows you to target carp year-round, as long as you can find the fish. And in my book, the more I’m able to find and fish for carp, the better.

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