Believe it or not, I caught this Common Carp on a two weight Redington Classic Trout/Orvis Battenkill outfit while fishing for bream in a local pond. To be honest, I had my doubts about landing it but in the end, persistence paid off. The fly of choice was an olive wooly bugger.
I was was stripping size 8 Clouser minnows parallel to the bank in a large pond in Gonzales, Louisiana, hoping that I would entice a bass or a big bluegill. A couple hardy bluegills and a small bass later, something caught my eye out of my peripheral vision.... Off to my right, about 40 feet away, in water only about six inches deep, was a large buffalo swimming around in the man-made canal feeding into the pond.
I removed the Clouser and tied on an olive wooly bugger as quick as I could. Then, I casted my fly past it by about two feet. Stripping it back slowly, I brought the bugger right past its nose and sure enough, it opened it's sucker-like mouth and vaccumed that wooly bugger right up! And so, the fight was on! It was very much like fighting a redfish with a zebco 33 combo... I thought I'd never get it in! For a minute there, I was worried my rod was going to break and I even started to cuss myself out for being so foolish as to attempt hooking a fish that big on such light fly tackle. But then, just as soon as I was about to turn my rod tip down and let it break my tippet, the fish tired and I was able to get it ashore. After admiring it for a moment and taking a couple pictures, I returned the exhausted Buffalo back into the water and watched it swim away into the murk. I think I was nearly as exhausted as it was, looking back.
This was my first attempt at catching a carp on my fly rod and it won't be my last. Next time, however, I think I'll bring my six weight!
Taylor Nauta
The Southern Fly Guy
