Month of the Carp?

Landing a carp, which hit a Rebel Bluegill. Photo by Joe Sills.

In a lifetime of fishing all over the country, I've caught four carp on artificial lures. Three of those have been in the past few weeks. As noted in a previous blog, I caught grass carp on back-to-back days from two different lakes in Alabama earlier this month. Both were hooked in the mouth, and one hit a Rebel Bluegill crankbait, while the other attacked a Pop-R.

The Rebel Bluegill did the job again last week at Lake Powell. While fishing way up the San Juan River arm of the lake and catching mostly smallish smallmouths, I about had the rod snatched out of my hand from a strike, and at first I thought I'd hooked a seriously big largemouth or smallmouth. After a few minutes, though, I got the fish close enough to see it in the clear water and realized that yet another carp had grabbed a lure. Eventually I got the powerful fish close enough to get a hand beneath it's belly and land it.

From looking at the large unusual and unevenly distributed scales on the side of the fish and comparing photos to photos online, I'm almost positive it was a mirror carp. It definitely wasn't a grass carp, like the two from Alabama, so I got to add it to my 2015 species list. Now I just need a common carp to complete a "slam" of the most common carp species for this year.

This trip's smallmouths were also the first of this year for me. With April winding down, the count for '15 is at 16.

Surprise Carp

While bass fishing in a small Alabama lake last week, I was certainly surprised to catch a big carp on a crankbait, with the fish hooked in its rubbery lips. Adding even greater surprise, I caught another carp, the very next day, in a totally different lake, with a Pop-R. The second carp, with probably weighed 5 or 6 pounds, absolutely annihilated my little popper on the surface, hitting it with as much vigor as any striper or redfish I've ever caught.

I've only caught a few carp in my life, so to catch two on back to back days in different waters, and both on artificial lures, was pretty odd. In both cases, I was astounded by the fish's strength, speed and stamina. Considering that carp live fairly slow-moving lifestyles (from my understanding anyway), not doing any hunting, they seem to be amazingly fit. I actually don't know when or if I would have gained enough control of the bigger first-day carp to unhook it without "gripper" help from another angler.

Carp was species 13 on my 2015 species list. The first of a couple of spotted bass I caught the next day on the Coosa River was No. 15. To be more specific about the carp listing, I'm guessing grass carp, simply based on the fish having been stocked in small private lakes for grass control. However, if you know the carp species, based on the photo, please let me know (jeff.samsel.fishing@gmail.com).

Bugle Lips & Bread Battles -- Pymatuning Spillway

"Cheap entertainment," a mother said through a smile as her children threw slices of bread into the water and marveled at the frenzied carp show. "We've been here dozens of times, but it's always just as fun."

I understood the young bread throwers' fascination. I had no offerings of my own, but I was right there with them enjoying the show. Nothing contains the thousands of carp that congregate around the spillway at Pennsylvania's Pymatuning State Park. This living simply is good, as it has been for decades because of a longstanding tradition of feeding the fish, so the fish have no reason to go anywhere else.

I'd heard about the carp and had been told several times that I really needed to see them. Apparently only the Liberty Bell attracts more visitors in a year in Pennsylvania. Still, I had no comprehension how cool it really could be to watch a mass of rubber-lipped armor-sided fish begging for bread like spoiled house pets. I shot a couple of video clips, which I'll find the best of and post later, but you really have to see it yourself, so if you're ever anywhere near the Pennsylvania/Ohio border...

Of course, Pymatuning is a beautiful park with cabins and plentiful campsites and the fishing is outstanding, so you don't have to travel there just for the carp. Just don't leave the carp out of the plan when you are in the neighborhood!