winter carp

[greybeard]

The water down here is ice free, in fact I'm fishing in waders that I use in warmer weather.. This morning I was wading and casting for pickerel(got 1 ) and saw a pretty big carp come out of the water like they do in spring.

Someone once asked me about winter carp fishing and I had no ideas about it.and never recall seeing them until March.

does anyone here target them in winter ?

[HuntOrBeHunted]

I don't normally go for carp unless im just trying to burn some time but when I fish in the winter ice or not it's mostly for northern pike.

Live bait works wonders.

[greybeard]

I haven't targeted carp in years... I used to use dough, corn, or mulberries.. even got a couple on flys that I tied to look like corn and got some on deer hair flys rubbed with mulberries that I'd cast under a mulberry tree....On a couple of them the initial run went down to the backing..

Many years ago, I shot some with my recurve bow with a reel attached(but that's ancient history).

There are lots carp where I fish and some guys get them in the spring where I was today.

In the spring they rise up all over, Also, they thrash around during mating time... I just never saw them in January break water until today..I might give it a try if I thought I'd have a good chance, but don't know if it's worth my time to catch and release them, but maybe it could fill in some winter days IF they're active....

In the spring I don't try for carp because there's too many other species I want to target.

We don't have pike down here on Long Island unfortunately, so pickerel is the best I can do when it comes to Esox, and I love catching pickerel.I use spinnerbaits, jigs and soft plastics..

How big are the pike up there ?

.They did put some tiger muskys in some lakes, but I'm not sure if they survived.

[PREDATE]

I remember jigging up my biggest carp ever during mid winter from the Susquehanna river. My brother left the minnows @ the launch so I fished from shore while he motored back down for them. We were targeting walleye. It was just a plain 3/8oz bucktail. When I hooked up I thought I had the state record walleye! Nope, just a slob carp.

[greybeard]

Thanx... that answers my question.that they can be active in winter..Now I have to decide if I want to give up on pickerel,and occasional big Largemouth that ARE hitting to fish for a carp that MIGHT hit.

I saw one again today come out of the water near the same spot as yesterday .. It's been pretty mild for winter so maybe they're even more active..

Guess I should be pretty happy because currently this is my biggest stress..."Pickerel, or Carp".