Fall Carp on the fly

Mid October through November is some of the best Carpin for me. The long hot days are usually behind us and the fish move shallow with eating in mind, as apposed to spawing in March and April. Same fish, same places, just better fishing. Mid summer is fine and there are plenty of targets but the weeds, moss & turbid water are kind of a drag depending on where your at. It can also be Africa hot on some of the good inland water. Fall brings Shorts and Tshirt fishing with clear water, almost no surface scum and aggresive Carp. It's beautiful.

Mass exidous fighting the current back up stream...

I havn't got out after them for about three weeks. Striupers, Rainbows and other things shelved the Carp for a bit.   I decided to hit some tidal water Carp today.  It is definitly a window of oppertunity depending on the tides, wind and salt intrusion. This is a brackish environment at times but they seem to tolerate it extremely well.  On the hard outgoing tide, there were dozens and dozens of fish runnig back up through the large culverts up into a network of canals and shallow sloughs. They were everywhere. Size was Ok. Nothing real big but good numbers of hard fighting 5-8lb fish were snapin well placed bugs so I really can't complain. They can be a little spooky given that they have no deep water to escape too when they are on these flats. Errant casting and pounding them day after day with out rotating the areas will shut them down so I usually try to hit them hard for a day, and then back off and go elsewhere for a few days. This works and keeps the fish fresh year round.