I've begun recently to learn about Carp fishing. It's interesting and can be very tackle intensive. A lot like Steelhead / Salmon and Surf fishing.
For some reason though, the custom building of rods for carp fishing ( Euro style ) hasn't taken off yet. Most serious Carp anglers aren't cheap about their tackle; some of the imported English rods go for up to $500. Compared to Surf rod building and Float rod building, there is almost no Carp rod building done yet. Methinks we're, as builders, missing the boat as this fishing grows in popularity. Your thoughts please....
--Lee

Lee,
I agree with you, however Carp fishing is popular amongst only small group compared to the rest of the species. At the moment only few manufacturers are offering Carp blanks and the best one are still produced overseas. Unless Carp fishing become's a very popular form of sport fishing I am afraid that we are not going to see any change on the market.

Marko

Back in the day, I sold quite a few 7 1/2' steelhead rods to carp fisherman, fishing narrow rivers from non- powerd boats for very large carp. But lets face it, carp get a bad rap....why fish for them acccept for the challenge? In America..Carp are a junk, non "game fish". The elite fisherman would never approve of a blank specifically made for a ..Carp. Soft action steelhead rods seem to match the needs for any fisherman seeking carp.......(just dont say carp). GCA120L= Graphite Carp Action, change the CA to an SH, you'll be allright.

I seem to recall quiting FW bassfishing in favor of carp fishing....cuase I'd rather catch a 25# carp over a 4 lb Bass..............ANYDAY. Poor species will just get bigger.

Shhhhhhhh!

Just kidding. I agree with you 100% about the sport of carp fishing and the potential for related tackle and rod sales. Carp are seen as non-sport fish.

Here in Kansas and Missouri the lakes are full of bruiser carp that boats drive over every day on the way to hunt down scattered 12 to 16-inch bass. It does not take much to spend most of a day wrestling these brutes with a box of wheaties, light hooks, suitable rod, and a reel with a very good drag.

The Europeans are definitely on to something.

I may be wrong, but I think some of the rod manufacturers make 'carp rod' blanks. But if they don't there are many that would work great for this!

It may catch on one of these days...

Les

Shhhhhhhh................talk to Mark at The Rod shop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2008 10:56PM by Michael Joyce.

Some of the most fun fishing I have ever done was Carp fishing. Hot summer time in the larger lakes, Carp will shoal up in the shallows and feed on the surface, they especially love drifts, trash on the surface in less than 2 feet of water. A number 8 - 12 Fly Rod with a very small dry fly or small popper, they will eat it up. Not unusual for a 15 to 20 pounder to glom on to it. You have got a rod full of fish and a long fight when one of those take your bug. Kentucky and Barkley Lakes on the Ky and TN border are notorious for large Carp. But a real Bass fisherman would never allow one in his boat !!

5 fish average on a cool spring night....19 lbs!!! Good fun if you have the potent resource,

Real fisherman would shoot a Carp with a shotgun before they had the yarbells to actually touch a Carp.

Lee,
Good points all.
Actually, rather than scoff, catch a couple of carp and smoke them.
It is rather remarkable how good they actually taste.

p.s.
Don't tell anyone, but about every other day that I was fishing the mississippi this fall, I would see commercial fishermen bring in boat loads of carp.
I talked to the carap fishermen and they indicated that they were netting them along the river banks. Typically on a 4 hour set, they were bringing in 3-500 lbs of carp.
They had semi trailers that were being filled with carp.
I was told that they were being taken to Nebraska. I don't know if they were being used for a food stock or for fertilizer or similar use.
Any one know?

I did see several full semi loads of carp being wheeled out of the parking lot however to destinations unknown.

Take care
Roger

Lee,
Ever wonder where the carp came from?
Ever wonder if Carp is good to eat?

Take a look at the following "history of Carp introduction into the USA"

[www.carpanglersgroup.com]

Take care
Roger

p.s.
Here is another fellow from Nebraska who has some good ways to prepare Carp for cooking.

Yes EarnieFan I do eat Carp. I grew up in Eastern Colorado and when I was a kid we always used Carp as fertilizer in the garden. When I went to college in Nebraska one of my buddies from Omaha invited me home for a weekend. He took me to a fish place on South 24th Street called Joe Tess's. He didn't let me look at the menu he just told me to order the special. The waitress brought out a big platter of deep fried fish and french fries. I ate three or four plates of the special, after all it was all you can eat! After I had eaten my fill my buddy Roger asked me how I liked the fish. I told him it was great! He told me it was Carp! You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Since then I eat Carp every chance I get. As you probably know there are several species of Carp but if taken from clean water, like Big Mac in Nebraska, even Buffalo Carp taste great.

There are several ways to fix them but one of the main things to do is to take a sharp serrated knife and run it across the rib cage from the inside after you gut them. Run the knife across the bones and score them at least every inch from head to tail. After skinning and chunking them you can roll them in your favorite breading mixture, I dip them in beaten eggs and then a flour and cornmeal mix, and pop them in a deep fat frier with hot peanut oil (380 degrees or hotter). The bones will be easy to separate while eating and the smaller bones will be soft enough you can chew them with no worry.

My favorite Carp is smoked. They are great when canned also. I would post my methods for doing the smoking but it is sort of a trade secret LOL. I have no idea how to can them properly but I have eaten canned Carp several times and it is delicious. One of my favorite places for canned Carp was a Catfish chain of restaurants in Texas and Lousiana. They sold quart jars of canned Carp at the register. I think it might have been DAVID BEARD'S chain but it has been so long since I have been there I can't remember. Maybe some of the Texan's or Cajuns on the Forum can let us know.

I think the key to how they taste is the water they are caught in. The water in Lake MCCoughnahy is so clean you can often see fish swimming thirty or forty feet down a couple miles from the inlet. Of course there are a lot of other Lakes in Nebraska that have clean water and Carp also.
Good Luck,

GL2


=================
Sounds like we need to get going on making some carp rods!!

Take care
Roger

I believe Loomis makes a carp rod

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Carp just aren't as "cool" as a lot of other fish.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2008 02:18AM by George Forster.

Nice to see another carper on the boards, Lee! I do a fair bit of carp & catting myself and find it's one of the most enjoyable pursuits, especially mid-summer after I have (darn nearly) gotten burned out on other species for awhile. Free-lining with corn, good day...10 min between takes on the local pits, most between 5-15 lbs. Rarely does a passing basser not exclaim "Man, I don't know why I'm not doing that today...LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT FISH!" I think many folks forget that they can catch carp and how fun it actually is. Simple too, which brings us to the next issue that pertains to rod building & market.

Yes, Euro carping methods and tackle do work for carp here in Indiana, but IMO not as well as the simple stuff. Light chumming is good, but when it comes to all the terminal tackle so common with the Euro/Match method it's largely a waste of time. Perhaps the same with specialty rods? Seems many carp rods are huge and really have pretty limited utility outside their intended purpose. My universal tool of choice is the 9' fly blanks and they can be used effectively for most anything including freelining for carp. Never will I buy/build a specific carping blank as they seem overkill for the purpose at hand for aside from being rather heavy, I couldn't imagine enjoying the frequent 2-3lb C-cats that "interupt" the typical carping session.

Might be that American carp fishing could use a bit different take on the Euro idea of carp tackle, let's not forget the pleasure of (smaller) incidentals like cats, suckers, drum, and other fish that are likely to be caught. Rodbuilding for roughfish? Sure! Check out [roughfish.com] for a look into the fanatical pursuit and some of the tackle used. They even raffle a build for the contest, seen a few split-Ts on there as well.

There probably is a market to build for and maybe a bit different from it's Euro counterpart with a bit more versatility on the rod side of things. Y'know, if the carping is slow or I'm on the walk back it's entirely likely that I may sneak a fluke or stick on that circle hook and pick off some bass before calling it a day. The typical Euro carp rod is not well suited to that type of switching of tactics, 9' fly blanks are awesome for it.

Granted, I'm speaking of USA carping in general and there are some that like the the Euro-style and promote it. However, it is possible that slightly different definition and build of carp tackle could be marketable here. It is different water, fish, and people and a product may need to reflect that.

CARP??? ewwwwwww.

eric
(pansy dry fly trout guy who hates the thought of even touching suckers but thankfully hasn't caught one of those since his first fish)

probably demonstrates why rough/course fishing hasn't taken the US by storm, YET.
despite my over-generalization above, it's intriguing

I used to fish for carp every so often as a kid, and it can be very challenging! The fish in the lake where i targeted them were so shy, that we couldn't even get close to the water or they wouldn't bite. We also never used any kind of weight, relying purely on the line floating on the surface as a telltale strike indicator. If these fish felt a hook or any resistance from weight, they would spit it and run!

It's easy to see why many around here would rather target salmon and steelhead -- they are prettier and their value as food is much higher than any carp. However, many guys are going to strictly catch and release, and in that case, the argument against carp goes right out the window. I just don't fish for them much any more because there aren't many lakes near me that have any.

I've not seen a Loomis carp rod, but Talon in the same town has made quite a few blanks/rods. They have a stronger market in the EU, Russia and Canada ,for some reason, than here in the US. Anglers Workshop also in the same town has been a Talon dealer for a long time.
The last I looked carp blanks were still on Talon's web site. www.talongraphite.com I believe.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2008 10:02AM by Spencer Phipps.

ANGLERS INTERNATIONAL INC MAKE FINE FLOAT AND CARP ROD BLANKS UNDER THE "RAVEN" BRAND NAME www.raventackle.com

Lee:
Just look up blanks for the fish you are going for. Weight, line you are going to use, lures or bate, and go from there ? Those puppies are real strong fighters. Took me about an hour to pull one in one time that was about 15" long. I figure he was about 15 + LBS. On a trout, crappy rod.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2008 01:18AM by bill boettcher.

I fish for Carp with an 8wt fly rod using a variety of nymph/wooly bugger flies or "berry flies". I put them right up there with any FW fly rod game fish (and a lot of SW) in terms of getting to bite and landing. Dave Whitlock wrote a great article on fishing for the Golden Ghost.