modernflyfishing

Been doing some reading into this and sounds awesome. I've caught some decent sized carp when i was younger spinning. Really looking forward to trying to do it on the fly.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience locally? And where are some good spots for carp around GTA area? Keeping in mind i'm mostly walk and wade.

Also for those with experience... any suggestions in terms of leader/tippet setups? fly suggestions?

Appreciate it!

Ive been fly fishing for carp for the past 3 years, and ive had my best luck along the southern shore of georgian bay, from waubaushene all the way to meaford. the best places to walk and wade would be some of the harbours and shipyards as they are normally very protected to the wind and have huge schools of carp crusing them from ice out until mid summer.

As for leaders i keep it pretty simple, if the water is dirty i can get away with a 9' straight monofilimant leader of 10 or 12 lb test, if the water is clear i will normally fish a 10' to 12' leader of straght 8 or 6 lb florucarbon. I dont like fishing tapered leaders while carp fishing because normally after every fish i have to put on a new leadrer cause of the fish fraying the entire leader from wraping around rocks, logs, or anything else they can find.

Most of my flies are oversized trout nymphs, like large stoneflies or mayflies. Wolly buggers in black, olive, brown, and orange also work really well. And small cray fish imitations can be killer some days when they wont seem to eat anything else.

Ps. carry a spare leader with a wire bit gaurd and a couple large streamers, you'll come across a few very large northerns and gar pike while looking for carp.

i used to use the small spools but recently switched to the larger spools to try to save money. The only difference between the two is that the larger spools are not as abrasion resistant, i think its cause they are made to be more limp to have better castablity since they are supposed to be a main line. But other then that, i havent had a problem using it

This season I noticed several salmon with a pink stripe from head to tail and I thought they were coho. Pretty much the same size as salmon. In one case, the fish had a noticeable hump at the back (more like Sockeye) - So I wonder if they were pink salmon too?

Could be pinks, they are normally a little bit smaller then coho's but its always hard to tell untill you get one out of the water.

.... the story goes that they tried introducing them to Lake Superior in 1955, it was deemed a failure and the fry still on hand were literally dumped and forgotten....

I have a cool little story... we lived in Mississauga right on the QEW in the late 60s, there is still a little stream just east of Hurontario... in that stream I use to catch minnows and in the fall of '67 or '68, I chased a school of medium size "reddish fish" thru several pools... I was in Grade One. An old guy living near by told me they were "salmon".

take both stories with a grain of salt but who knows. The 1955 story i have heard and read several times over the years.

I think it would take Pinks for than 15 years to get from Superior to Lake Ontario unless some were released down here... I also recall doing a story on a species of "west coast salmon" commercial anglers were catching in Lake Erie in the 1930s and no one at the time could figure out how they got there or exactly what kind of salmon they were.. I must dig that up.

Gorgeous fish, friend!

The release of pink salmon into to superior was actually an accident, the fish were intended for hudson bay, but during transportation of the fish, something went wrong, so instead of letting the fish die, they dumped them in to superior. They dumped 21000 fish. They expected this fish to survive but not to reproduce however a few years later pink salmon were found spawning in a minnesota stream. this was unheard of due to pink salmon being anadromous and requring salt water to complete there life cycle.
These pink salmon became the only self-perpetuating freshwater population in the world.
The most interesting part of these pink salmon is that they were an odd year stock of fish, however these fish gentically change and break the strict 2 year life cycle and live up to 3 years. This produced an even year stock in the great lakes aswell, even though it isnt as prolific.

Sorry i kinda rambled on there, but i find this extremly interesting, i even wrote a report on it last year at flemming college.

Thats a pretty funny story, i did the same thing when i was probably in grade 1 or 2, except I tripped and fell face first in to the river.

Thats very interesting about the west coast salmon being caught by commercial anglers, if you find that story i would really enjoy reading it. It really makes you question when west coast salmon really got here.

and thanks, i hope i can get some more

When I was up north last month we stopped at a few superior tribs trying for them, but I guess we were a bit too early also the fact that it's an even year didn't help lol. Congrats!.

Thanks, and thats always a dissipointing, did you stop in at the st. marys rapids?