Carp Fishing Tip Videos

  • Preventing Line Twists

    JP answers a new anglers questions about swivels. The main purpose for swivels is to prevent line twists and JP offers tips on picking the best type for your style of fishing.

  • Knot Tying Tip From JP

    JP answers a viewer's email question about the best knot to tie to join a fluorocarbon leader to a braided main line.

  • How To: Catch Carp On The Fly For A Beginner

    So you are heading out on the river for the first time in the hopes of learning how to catch carp on the fly. There are some do's and don'ts that every angler should know before hitting the water. Chris Galving, a fly fishing guide from Denver,

  • Fish Facts: Carp

    Find out more about carp and why they are growing in popularity amongst anglers.

  • My Town: Denver Carp Slam

    Brought to you by the Denver Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the South Platte Pro-Am Carp Slam teams up professional and amateur fly fishers to chase the elusive common carp on the waters of South Platte River in and around downtown Denver.

Fresh Water

Carp Species Identification

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Introduction

The carp family is one of the largest in the world of fish, containing around 100 unique species that are all mostly native to Europe and Asia. Some of the most widespread species are common carp, grass, silver, bighead, and crucian. For purposes of this section, the common carp will be the main focus as it is the most widespread of all.

Appearance

Carp vary greatly in color and size, but all generally share either a similar sucker type mouth, eyes set in its head at a lower angle than most fish, and barbels (whiskers).The common carp has a light gold color, white underside, and has a long, orange dorsal fin and two pairs of barbels.

Maximum Size

The biggest carp in the world is the giant barb, or Siamese giant carp, which inhabit only a select few river basins in Thailand. This fish can grow to be 10 feet (3m) long and weigh over 650 pounds (295 kg). The common carp can grow to be over 90 pounds (40 kg), though very rarely, especially in North America.

Geographic Range

Carp can be found on every continent in the world except Antarctica.

carp fishing
Common Carp Illustration

Habitat

Carp can adapt to many different habitats, but thrive in  weedy, shallow, warm areas.

Food

Common carp are omnivorous. Younger carp eat mainly plant material, such as seeds, while adults prefer water insects, snails, fish eggs, benthic worms, and plant parts. Carp are not very picky eaters as they have been known to eat garbage off the bottom of urban bodies of water. Its eating habits is the primary reason for its reputation as a poor food fish in North America.

Predators

Smaller carp are preyed on by predator fish such as walleye and northern pike.

Information courtesy of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and USFWS.

Carp Fishing Tips

Holiday Gift Ideas

I know this may sound very strange but my holiday gift Idea is for all of my grand kids to be healthyand to live a very long life. Ok aside from that my gift Ideas was also to my grandkids, we bought each one 4 new rods, all Quantum rods matched with Quantum reels, spooled with 14lp test berkley fluorocarbon line, along with varies types of lures and plastic lures. That was just for the grandkids

Fly Fishing for Beginners

By LOY MILAM              My first introduction to fly fishing (if you could truly characterize it as “fly fishing”) was in the late 1950s growing up in my hometown of Lubbock, Texas. By chance I stumbled upon an interesting package at the local Army Surplus store which read on the package “Survival Kit.” It

How to tie a Spider fly!

Sitting at my tying bench I was inspired to tie something a little different.  I came across a spider pattern in one of my books and modified it so that it was easier to tie and was more fishable than the original. Take a curved scud hook (size 12) and place it in your vice. Take 6/0 white tying thread and dress your hook. Take some white deer hair (not bucktail) and tie it on top of

What Is Carp Fishing All About?

If you want to understand carp fishing in any part of the world, the first thing you need to understand is that this is a truly worldwide fishing experience. People all over the globe love carp fishing and they will often go carping in the day or even try their hand at night carp fishing. This is one species that is fun to fish no matter when you want to go.

What Are Carp?

Carp are predominately freshwater fish, meaning there are very few fish in this very large group that will actually tolerate saltwater. Although there are several ornamental type carp, such as the koi or the common goldfish, other types of carp are used as a food source for people, which leads to different types of carp being located all over the world. In many area, such as North America, carp are considered an invasive species that was accidentally introduced into local rivers and streams.

carp boilies
Boilies
Bastet - Wikipedia Commons

Carp Fishing Baits

Some baits that work well for big carp fishing are hot dogs, cheese, worms, corn, prepared dough baits, and boilies. Boilies are made from boiled combinations of fishmeal, milk proteins, bird food, soya flour and eggs. They come in many different sizes, flavors and colors, and many carp anglers make their own.

Carp Fishing Rigs

Carp feed by mouthing and ejecting their food before committing to swallowing it. For this reason, a hair rig is often used for carp fishing baits. It has a short line attached to the bend of the hook that holds the bait. This way, the carp can inhale the bait easily, and is hooked when attempting to eject the bait.

Chumming for Carp

Chumming is an extremely effective method for drawing carp to an area and getting them in the mood to eat. Be sure to check local regulations to ensure that chumming is allowed. Common carp chum includes corn, flour, bird seed, fishmeal, dough, dog food, bread, or a mixture of any of these items. A scoop is usually used to through the chum into the water near your line.

Carp Fishing Photo Galleries

  • The party has begun...

    First fishing day 2013

  • 2013 Striped Bass Fishing Trip

    Pictures from our May 9, 2013 Fishing trip to the Chesapeake Bay

  • Perch Fishing With ReelBait, XZone And Salmo

    Perch Fishing With ReelBait, XZone And Salmo

  • fishing 2013

    fishing 2013 started at perch festival time

  • fishing 2013

    2nd year to fishing

  • Bass Fishing: Split-shotting 4" worms

    During the post spawn we were able to have many productive days in both deep and shallow waters using a split shot rig with 4" plastics

  • 2013 Fishing Season

    Pics From the 2013 Fishing season

  • Shore Fishing Lake Erie

    Some shots from around the north shore of lake Erie

  • 2013

    2013 fishing

  • ice fishing 2012-2013

    ice fishing me and my girlfriend

  • Fish

    many fish

  • Spring Sturgeon Fishing in BC

    It's been a killer season with friends and family chasing the Fraser River White Sturgeon. Check out some of my picture highlights !

  • fly fishing In point breeze Ny

    Fishing with my son 2012

  • fly fishing In point breeze Ny

    Fishing with my son 2012

  • Pine Island Sound Florida

    Great day fishing! we caught Snook, Ladyfish, Trout, Jack and cat fish. most were caught close in to shore in the mangroves off Pine Island Sound. Captain Wendell shared his knowledge and experience with 2 fresh water anglers, Gary and I. Great taste now set with salt water fishing! Thanks for hooking us in!

  • Pine Island Fishing, Florida

    Gulf Coast fishing: Snook, Red fish, Trout, Cat fish, and Jack. One of our totals granted the title of a Slam as locals call it. We used Quatum Rods and reels, 30lbs pro line, Jigs with freshly caught bait, shrimp and pin fish.

  • my first trout

    trout fishing

  • Summer 2012

    Fishing on Long Island

  • Past catches

    So many kinds of fish are in my memory.

  • Feb. & March 2013

    Fishing in SW Florida

  • Recent fishing

    My angling results are here.

  • Zulu Queen, My Current boat

    This is my current boat. The name i chose for it was Dawgman. I had a nice decal made and everything but my wife really like the name of the other boat i sold that was named after her. But as i got ready to put the Dawgman decal on some wind blew it and it folded up ruining it. So then i took out the Zulu Queen decal and that's how it took the name of the former boat. well my wife is happy about i

  • Zulu Queen, My first Boat

    This was my first boat that i named Zulu queen. It was named after the African tribe my wife belongs to. My wife is a south African and a Zulu.

  • BulletBobber and DualFins

    The BulletBobber is the result of an accidental freak of nature, cross breeding of a fishing float with a planer board. The result was an entirely new species that provides directional control! It moves like a planer board but flips flips direction when given a little tug but size is more like other bobbers and cast like other bobbers. fishing invention. Seriously though, a fun to use fishing i

  • 13 pound 2 ounce laketrout icefishing released

    fishing on whitefish lake in northern ontario catching and releasing a big laker.

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