Obligatory Love for Carp Post

New year, but some things don’t change. One of those things that will never change for me is spending a great deal of time chasing Carp with the fly, and spending a little bit of time highlighting some of the specific on the journey throughout the year.

2025 was an absolutely great year for some southern carp on the fly when the conditions wanted to cooperate. As shared in years past, as much as I enjoy the carp fishery in the south, it’s a bit of a dance with the river and rain. When the suns out and rain isn’t falling, you are in the gold…when it’s the opposite, woof. For us this year, the weather was fairly difficult, especially come weekend time (but some terrific fish were still caught and great memories were made).

As in years past, the usual methods continued to produce on the paddleboard. Although there were some spring fish, it really seemed the activity picked up in June-August of this year. It also seemed that the fish this year were predominantly caught as single roaming or in pairs, with not a lot of action in giant schools that years past have presented. In addition to this, I made it a goal of mine to fish further into the year in 2025…with carp caught in my favorite area all the way through mid November. Pretty tough to beat.

Below are a few pictures of some extra special carp from the year. One was an absolute behemoth that hammered my go to carp fly sinking right off of a branch under a tree (with an intense fight to follow). This fish was the epitome of what we look for…hot summer days, happy fish looking up to eat, and pulling the paddleboard around like a chihuahua on a leash. The second is a carp from a session on my “mini” paddleboard…terrific eat, honestly like a big bonefish chasing it in (rare occurrence). Through some difficult navigating and cautious phone placing, was able to get a picture after a long fight. Lastly, a pic of the last carp caught of the year…mid November. Went out for probably 4 hours to maybe only get three solid shots at fish, and fortunately made this one count. The fish were super lethargic due to the water cooling, but had a great eat from a drag and drop right on top of this fish.

As always, carp hold a special place in my heart. I’ve used all the words about them…under appreciated, overlooked, tough, the furthest thing from a trash fish…but the truth is these fish mean so much to me because they allow me to “reset” constantly throughout the year. When work picks up or other obligations start to overwhelm. Sometimes you may only have a couple hour window that works to get out there, and these guys have always been there to create some chaos.