Summer in the south. Humid, hot, sticky, and all sorts of other adjectives that make you want to personally buy the guy who invented AC a beer. In Georgia specifically, the heat isn’t the only thing that makes a return in the summer: its nearest and dearest friend of thunderstorms is right there with it. Because of this, when it comes to throwing fly line in the Georgia summer, it is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it is sunny, warm, and the water is warm enough where you can take out the good ol’ Bote (standup micro skiff) to get after fish. The bad news is that you need to have a sense of when to go and the approaches to utilize because the rivers can blow out within a 2-hour notice.

With all of this said, this summer has been particularly productive for carp on the fly in Georgia. Not only from a numbers perspective, but the size of fish has been unlike anything I have ever seen. As those of you who follow this blog will know, I am a huge advocate for carp, and have fished for these creatures my entire life. They are big, fight hard, and really test your patience with their infinite spookiness. Due to the fact that countless carp excursions have taken place this summer, I am going to narrate some of the best highlights from the summer.

To begin with, I made it a point to start my carp “season” earlier than usual this year (mid-April). Usually this is a great time of year to fish pretty much anywhere in the continental US, because spring is trying to transition to summer, and it isn’t too hot. I experienced much of the same which really optimized conditions for carp. On one outing in particular, it was clear that the carp had started to think it was summer and were out on the “prowl”. Dozens of fish about 2-3 feet sub-surface of the water…inquisitively reacting to anything hitting dropping out of a tree and hitting the water…good body language. After about half a hour of struggling (shaking off some of the rust and trying to find the right fly), I finally got my act together and threw on a trusted black damsel “pluff” fly that I tie on. Within one or two “shots” at fish, it was on. 12-20 pound carp inhaling this fly and making runs into the deep backing. Always fun when they pull the stand-up micro skiff/board around, and it becomes a whole other challenge to land them. Because of this, you might not always land every single one, but this day we were able to bring some awesome fish to the net.

A few days later after this outing, I made it a point to get back out there now knowing that the fish were willing to cooperate. Upon arrival on my carp spot, I had noticed that a large number of grass carp were around, with the majority of these fish appearing to be over 25 pounds. Not seeing a ton of common carp, I decided to shift focus and try to catch “one” grass carp as they are known for being infamously spooky especially at this size. For these fish in particular, they were not in a “feeding” mode and didn’t appear to be eating any plants/bugs/seeds etc. off the surface of the water, so knew we were going to need the right chance. Fortunately for us, about 15-minutes into the outing, had a huge grass carp pop up about 30-feet from the stand-up board near some tree branches. With my trusty black damsel “pluff” tied on, we slowly approached the fish…threw a gentle cast about a foot ahead of the fish…slow stripped…saw the fish slightly move…and my line goes tight. Fish on. From the initial set, I knew this fish was huge, but had no clue on how freaky of a large beast we had barely hooked on the end of the line. After about a 10-minute fight, we were able to get only the head of this fish in the net (barely), and proceeded to be in pure shock of the easily 35+pound beast that we were looking at. The fish was truly a monster, and even had a slight hump on its back that made it even more menacing.

After these two outings to kick off the carp “season”, anticipation and expectations for the rest of the summer were at an epic high. And luckily enough, terrific results continued. Great numbers of fish landed, awesome fights as usual, and lots of different techniques utilized. Specifically, noticed that I became better at the following throughout the summer: using “tree” patterns, getting up on the flats when super hot, and fishing schools of carp. For “tree” patterns, I’m talking about any fly that looks like a cotton seed, berry, or piece of vegetation. I found these patterns to be crucial on really hot days where the carp weren’t actively out on the hunt, in that it seemed as if these fish were more willing to eat a slow-sinking (non moving) fly like this. In regards to getting up on the flats, this was the only way to catch fish on really high water days, and required faster sinking flies to be closer to the bottom. These areas were no more than a foot in depth, but were the only way to find fish on murky water days. Lastly, for schools of carp, I experienced my best success yet but providing extra long “leads” on casts and by not underestimating fish that were deeper in the school. Sometimes it can be hard to not throw at the biggest/most visible fish in the school, but learned that keeping the fly in the zone (and even fishing it deeper if need be) can often catch some of the big fish lurking underneath the ones up top. Below are just a few examples from the success with these techniques over the summer.

As always, tight lines and appreciate you taking the time to read the blog!

Joe