Carp jumping, not biting.

Went out to PGE's Trojan Pond today. Was on the North pond for about five hours, and no takers.
As I was leaving, about 30-45 minutes after sunset, the carp started 'jumping' every few minutes.
I note that of all the carp that I got a good look at, only came about 2/3 of each fish came out of the water.
Most of them were landing upside down, or coming out of the water upside down.
I estimate that the fish were ~2-3" thick, 6-8" from back to belly, and 16-22" long. It seemed to me that the fish were all about the same size.
My rig today was baited with corn, and at one point had a worm on it that I dug up. Doesn't seem to be the ideal bait.
I am more of a hunter, so about every 5-10 minutes I would move my bait about 20-40 feet.
About 5 pm I noted fish on the surface on the NW corner, don't know what they were doing.
I was reading a while ago some of you might have been interested in coming up here to check them out.
There's fish, I can attest to that.

I've heard that's the behavior they exhibit when spawning, or preparing to spawn.
My cousin and I went to the ponds by the Fern Ridge dam in Eugene a few weeks ago and they were all sky bound, but we didn't catch any.
Went to the same ponds again on Monday (4/7) and caught about 15-20 each, using corn and worms.
A few pics posted below.





Give it a week or 2 and they should be biting again!

If you went for about 5 hours and they are jumping after sunset, that sounds like spawning time for them. Probably at that time, 1 out of every 100 Carp were eating and the rest spawning. You have to find the time they are pre or post spawning.

grizzlynitemare said:

I've heard that's the behavior they exhibit when spawning, or preparing to spawn.
My cousin and I went to the ponds by the Fern Ridge dam in Eugene a few weeks ago and they were all sky bound, but we didn't catch any.
Went to the same ponds again on Monday (4/7) and caught about 15-20 each, using corn and worms.
A few pics posted below.


Give it a week or 2 and they should be biting again!

Click to expand...

Those pictures dont appear to be from the ponds by Fern Ridge, but look like the long tom. Nice carp either way, iv fished there a couple times and caught fish, but usually too many people for my taste.

Throbbit _Shane said:

Those pictures dont appear to be from the ponds by Fern Ridge, but look like the long tom. Nice carp either way, iv fished there a couple times and caught fish, but usually too many people for my taste.

Click to expand...

I say the ponds because it's easier than "long tom right below the dam" haha. But yes, these were caught in the stream right below the dam.

You ever fish the lake for them?

I haven't. I have only been on the lake when testing our boat. Never really fished it.