The Fine Art Of Stalking the Wild Carp

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There are all kinds of accessories for the Compleat Fisherman but you'll really need only a single additional piece of equipment . . . if you want more than one fish per excursion, that is. A catch bag is the tool that makes it possible harvest a larger number of carp from a single cove before all the skittish fish are scared away. A burlap feed sack, with a cord or small rope laced over the mouth for a drawstring, is ideal. The closure twine does need to be about ten feet long however, so that the floating bag will trail far enough behind so that it won't scare your next target.

You may be wondering why I don't use a boat. . . which, in some waters, would indeed be desirable. My father used prowl the swamps of the Southeast with a flat-bottom rowboat, gaffing or pitchforking carp and flipping them aboard. It was a good method for those parts . . . one that increased his range and protected him from water and leeches.

Here in the open waters of the West, however, a boat seems to be a disadvantage. Any time the carp have deep water under them, they can disappear too rapidly to allow a shot. It's just as well, then, that our area's worst danger to waders is nothing to more serious than thorny weeds.

KNOW THY QUARRY

Now that you're equipped, its time to discuss the carp's habits . . . and its nature can be summed up in one word: efficiency.

The creature you're about to pursue is, first of all, most my effective feeder. Its gills are equipped with strainers so that every breath drawn also pulls in a bit of food in the form algae and tiny free-swimming organisms. In addition, carp are very active grazers in the weeds that grow on mudflats. They' even lunge out of the water—slurping and grunting like pigs— to grab mouthfuls of grass from an overhanging bank!

The carp's metabolism allows a far better feed-to-weight; gain ratio than that of most fish . . . and, because these giant cousins of goldfish eat low on the food chain, they're less likely than game varieties to be contaminated by pollutants which become more highly concentrated as they pass through the systems of several species.

Efficiency is also seen in the carp's patterns of movement. When the water is warm and the relaxed fish are just cruising about, they'll usually move with the current (if there is any). This knowledge can help you increase your catch.

Next to the bank, for instance, look for your quarry to head upstream with the eddy or back current . . . and remember that there's also a thermal current, caused as the heated water on the edge of a shallows spreads over the surface of the main body. This action will cause some cold water to be drawn into the bottom layer of the shallows. Thus, at the mouth of a cove, incoming fish will most likely be swimming at a greater depth than outgoing.

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