Some view the common carp as a trash fish but for all you fly guys out there, nothing more can be tougher to fool than a big carp on the river.  When the dog days of summer are upon us and the coldwater trout should no longer be fished for since they're trying to survive in the low warming creeks, hit your local ponds, rivers or lakes and try some site fishing for carp.

I can promise you one thing, it WON'T be as easy as you may think. I do my carp fly fishing mainly on the Juniata river here in central PA and it's some of the toughest fly fishing I've done, they're picky and spooky.  Wade slow and have a good pair of polarized sunglasses. I usually try to find some deeper grassy pools just downstream from some shallow water.  Sometimes if your lucky you'll catch them "tailing" in the shallows which is when they're doing most of their feeding and you'll see their tails splashing and causing a ruckus out of the water rooting on the bottom for food.

Carp have a wide range of food sources from nymphs to crayfish to vegetation and mullberries floating down the river.  My go to fly has been a big size 6-8 beadhead stonefly heavily wrapped in lead wire so it goes straight to the bottom.  When sight fishing just watch where the carp are heading and try and get your fly 3 or 4 feet in front of them with a lot of finese so as not to disturb the water and spook the fish so it's laying on the bottom and try and give it a little movement and be ready to set the hook quickly because as soon as they pick it up they could spit it back out. 

Your going to want some pretty sturdy equipment because once you get into the 30+ inch fish they will take you for a ride.  I've had many fish take me well into my backing several times in a fight.  With my biggest to date being a 34 1/2 incher with a fight lasting nearly 45 minutes and a few battle wounds on my hands from trying to palm the reel when she was making some fast runs it some of the most exciting and rewarding fishing i've done with a fly rod thus far.

bait favorites:big stonefly nymphs, crayfish patterns (with weighted eyes to drag them on the bottom), big beadhead wooly buggers

rod:  I prefer a 6-8 weight

line/leader: although it's not necessary a sink tip fly line could be helpful and i usually go with a sturdy 10lb test mono leader

May 26th I made my way to Penns creek around poe paddy in the C&R section for some drake action.  The coffins came out heavy from the trees as my dad and i practically had the whole 250-300 yd long pool to ourselves except for 2 other guys down at the very end of it that may have only fished for an hour.  As the flys started to fall while there was still a good bit of day light left even the big fish began to feed.  I noticed one that was just sipping the big size 8-10 flys off the top but still had a good hearty sound to it and i made my way over towards him to just watch for awhile and see how often and exactly what he was taking.

Immediately when I got over to him I realized he was taking the coffins and pretty readily sometimes coming up twice in just a few seconds.  I rooted through my messy fly box and actually pulled out an older catskill style coffin that I had found last year in a tree while fishing the drakes.

I tied it on and made a few drifts when i realized he had changed his feeding line by a foot or so it seemed.  I pulled a little more line out and noticed a few coffins coming together toward the fish.  I put my fly right in front of them and when it got there it was just a very subtle sip and my fly disappeared.  I set the hook and the fight was on,  he made a hard run right away towards the bank immediately and then up stream about 15 yards and just sat there.  I knew right away it was a good fish, then finally he made a break downstream and i was still at his mercy with a 4wt rod.  After a 5 minute battle and a litle help from dear old dad the 18 1/2 inch very thick and healthy brown was in the net.  A few quick pictures and a measurement and he was back and on the  move for another angler another day.

Although my night could have been complete with that, darkness was upon us and there was still plenty of fishing to do.  I tied on a big coffin spinner and made my way quietly and slowly up the stream, hooked up with a few more what felt like to be nice fish but couldnt bring any to the night, and things slowed down around 1030 so it was time to hit the trail back to the truck. 

Although they were earlier i think that was for the better as all the people were not around since there vacation was probably planned for a week or 2 later.

Not the biggest fish on Penns creek but definitely my biggest and best to date on a fly rod and a wild trout to boot.