No love at Commonwealth

[john montana]

Cool...my blog is on my signature line.

I have caught two grass carp. One in FL and one out here. Tough situation with grass carp out here in OR and WA. The regs are clear...it is illegal to TARGET grass carp. Since I sight fish 100% of the time, and the difference between a grass and common carp is pretty obvious then I would be going against the regs to even cast at a grass carp.

The spirit of the regs is to protect the expensive investment because they odfw and wdfw stocked them to control weeds in certain land locked lakes...plus they are supposed to be sterile. But...I have seen them in the willy and big c, in sizes ranging from 18 inches to over 50 inches long. The fish are NOT landlocked, and they sure as heck seem to be reproducing to me or the size distribution wouldn't be so vast.

So every time I see one I am torn...casting at the fish or intentionally trying to catch a grass carp is illegal...but I think the regs are making assumptions that are not true.


They are super tough on an artificial fly by the way. Spooky buggers.

 

[igquick]

I can't even imagine what a 50 inch fish would look like passing by the margins...ive caught a 38 incher grassy and the water distorts the image as if it were as big as me...ive heard of artificial flys such as boilie flys, bread ball flys, and even corn flys; have you tried those?

 

[john montana]

Nope. I don't chum (it is illegal to chum in OR I believe) and without a bunch of real corn around, one fake piece of corn (no scent) wouldn't be real attractive to carp. With an artificial fly you have to figure out what they eat every day, imitate that and then get the fly within a few I Che's of a feeding fish. I fish mostly nymph patterns.

The grass carp I caught in WA was about 55 inches long...biggest freshwater fish I have ever caught. Tough though...it isn't legal to target them so when I am out there and see a 40 inch grass carp swim by it can be pretty challenging on the conscience!

 

[igquick]

You got any pics of the fish?!

 

[john montana]

Not the big one...I was solo and I actually caught the fish off of some rip rap...I had nowhere to beach it or put the fish for a picture. Honest estimate is mid 50 inches long...maybe 50 lbs...it was that big. I have weighed a lot of common carp and can nail those guys within a lb pretty quickly, but the grass carp was monstrous. This was years ago...I wish they would change the regs, I see them pretty regularly. Most are around 30 inches or so. The one in fl was a lot smaller...I have a picture of that around somewhere.

Hit sauvie in the spring and just walk the shallows with a fly rod. Tons of carp out there.

 

[Troutier Bassier]

I've started catching carp in the sloughs recently.. I posted about it in my blog, check it out guys !

 

[john montana]

Nice!

 

[igquick]

Now that part of the ****** is going to be fished out lol

 

[Troutier Bassier]

Now that part of the ****** is going to be fished out lol

Sike! they'll never find it

 

[Throbbit _Shane]

Should put some captions in that video! lol.

Nice carp guys!

 

[MikePierce170]

Bas, this has to be an obvious question but... what did you guys end up doing with the carp? Please tell me they didn't actually eat them. Nice fish though.

 

[igquick]

Lmfao this thread just proves that carp fishing can be extremely addicting...some say its like catching a sickness or winning the florida lottery...either way, the only people who dont understand are people that have never caught a carp

 

[bass]

Bas, this has to be an obvious question but... what did you guys end up doing with the carp? Please tell me they didn't actually eat them. Nice fish though.

Hey Mike, if you are asking me we just catch them, take a quick picture and then release them.

 

[MikePierce170]

Hey Mike, if you are asking me we just catch them, take a quick picture and then release them.

That's too bad you release them but no, the question was for Troutier Bassier. It seemed to me the people he was fishing with were saving the carp to eat. I don't really understand why you'd bleed out a carp unless you want to kill it quickly... or eat it. Either way it begs the question of what they did with the carp.