let's talk carp

[waterwolf]

Originally Posted by Flat Fly n

Few pics from a big hatch night. You can literally hear the millions of willow flies take off at one time. At one point this night we thought a deck was on fire and looked and the willow flies had started to swarm. pics are my son and Seagull. My favorite fly is a #4 Comparadun tied with a foam wrapped body, and gray deer hair. Big and buggy

That boy needs a lesson from me on how to properly look like a carp.

[Rockyraccoon]

Nice post and pictures!

[TroutBum88]

The weasel can do a good carp imitation... Whats funny is that we take carp fishing as some what of a joke but out west guides have clients paying hundreds of bucks to fish em

[seagull]

I have seen the waterwolf actually eat willowflies because he said he wanted to know why the fish liked them so well. I think he liked them too, cause he ate more than one.
Ephemerella sushi

[Troutman]

I remember the first time I saw the willowflies, I did not know what they were. I was working in Kingston that day and decided to eat my lunch at the city park by the boat ramp. The trees along the bank were full of them and was on the side of the floating dock. I put a handful in my empty drink cup before I left and stopped by the creel on my way back through Knoxville. I showed them to Waterwolf and ask what they were. He seemed very happy to see them and knew where they came from before I told him where I was at that day! I expect he probably took off for watts bar that evening.

I have never seen them on Douglas, Cherokee or on the French Broad or Holston rivers. I never fish Norris, Melton Hill, Tellico or Ft. Nasty. Is that mayfly pretty much only in watts bar and lower Hiwassee river basin. Could it be due to the fact that The feeder lakes to the TN river system have such a big drawdown in the winter that the eggs are laid in high water of summer and then left dry during the winter?

[seagull]

Watts Bar has the heaviest hatches, but some areas of Ft. Loudon have some decent hatches that get the fish working. Melton Hill has some isolated hatches, which are usually into August, due to the cooler water.

[Flat Fly n]

They are actually a mayfly that originally are #16 upstream of Watts Bar, but due to the mitogens from below Oak Ridge.........

Actually, those flies are found throughout the south in lakes with silt bottoms. You have to look for them where the bottoms did not dry up or draw down during the winter months.

Those hatches are indeed impressive.

[waterwolf]

Originally Posted by TroutBum88

The weasel can do a good carp imitation... Whats funny is that we take carp fishing as some what of a joke but out west guides have clients paying hundreds of bucks to fish em

I got into a scum line carp frenzy on the bighorn many moons ago, and had the tourists in a stir as they thought I was ripping huge browns one after another. Ahh, if they only knew.

Nothing beats the cicada carp action, nothing. Willow flies are fun, but cicada action is just madness. Hundreds of carp in a day, and rods broken like tooth picks.

This last year was awesome on Watts Bar and Douglas. I wish it happened every year, and hopefully I will still be around to hit the next round.