Editor’s Note: Eric is now guiding carp fishermen out of the Wildcat Creek Outfitters fly Shop in Zionsville.

The wily carp

Lebanon angler Eric Corya doesn’t seem to mind the odd stares that appear when he talks about his favorite sport. Some might even call it crazy, though the old phrase “crazy like a fox” is certainly more appropriate. After all, even Eric admits that not many people intentionally fish for carp and even fewer do it with a fly rod. He definitely has an uncommon obsession.

Carp fishing has never caught on in North America because of all the other excellent fishing opportunities available. The fact that carp tastes like pond scum mixed with sewing needles and tend to accumulate toxins faster than an illegal chemical dump doesn’t help their reputation among stateside anglers. However, in strict terms of fight and sheer availability, the carp has few peers.

The fly book is fairly simple for carp

Corya is fairly new to the sport of carp angling, having only begun two years ago. “I just like to catch big fish but I gave up on the bass. Then I got on the Internet and looked around and got (involved) in the carp anglers group. I’m getting devoted to it”, Corya said. The Carp Anglers Group that Corya joined is not generally mentioned in the outdoor press or among more mainstream anglers but a visit to the club’s website at www.carpanglersgroup.com quickly shows that there is more to carp fishing than dough balls.

On the day we met for a practical demonstration of the art, Yours Truly was a bit skeptical. While the weather was unseasonably mild for the middle of January, the water remained cold enough to make a nun spew serious cuss words if she happened to fall into the creek. Even the word “creek” was an affectation for the dredged 15-foot wide channel that was to be our field of honor. Finally, like many anglers, I sneered at the whole idea of carp, considering them some type of genetically inferior catfish that ate cigarette butts and could probably survive a 350-degree oven for two hours.

We met at the back of Corya’s truck where he patiently explained some of the sophisticated bait technology used because carp, especially big fish, are actually very hook-shy and require specialized techniques to catch consistently. Though these bait techniques were interesting, our talk was brief as the challenge of the day was to catch a carp on a fly, though it seemed less likely than Yours Truly winning a figure skating competition.

Fly fishing for carp isn't exactly a wilderness pursuit

Corya then began fishing with a surprising intensity more akin to angling for brown trout in spring creeks than carp rolling a few hundred yards downstream from a municipal sewer outflow. He stealthily crouched and gently cast his fly to a pod of fish that were feeding near a logjam, a discarded playground slide and a bent metal For Sale sign.

Five minutes later I had grown bored and began idly thinking about other things aside from dawdling along a muddy creek bank when my thoughts were interrupted in mid-sentence by a strangled grunt from Corya. He had hooked a fish and judging by the washtub-sized swirls, it was huge.

The brawl spanned 15 minutes until the carp finally rolled for the last time and came unwillingly to the net. Corya pulled it onto the bank where I noticed that he, the fish and the outdoor writer were all panting like we had been fighting for our lives, though the carp was the only one with reason to worry. The carp’s fears were groundless because after weighing the 15 pound fish and running a tape measure down its 28 inch flanks, it was gently released back into the water like a prized native brook trout.

Carp can be as spooky as wild brown trout

Corya had utilized his polarized fishing glasses to watch the leg-sized fish feeding among the debris along the banks. The water temperature was only 43 degrees but Corya noted that carp feed until the water reaches 38 degrees. He had delicately presented his size-8 brown nymph about four feet from the carp and the fish immediately swam to investigate the morsel. As the carp mouthed the fly, Corya slowly lifted the rod to begin the altercation. Fortunately, because of the cold temperatures, the fight had “only” lasted a quarter hour as Corya noted “if I would have caught him in August, he would have been gone”.

So it passed that Carp can indeed be caught intentionally on a fly in winter and I have witnessed the spectacle. Given that the creek was the least likely stretch of Hoosier water to be considered a prime fishing spot, the performance was impressive enough to give a sporting angler pause for serious reconsideration of his fishing prejudices. As Corya rhetorically asked, “How many people do you know that caught a 15 pound fish on a fly today?”

Not many. But that might change as soon as I buy some 2x leaders.

Related stories:

Interview with Clifford Fox

Carp Shoot

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