How to Catch Asian Carp on Fly and Spinning Gear

I was leafing through International Angler, the magazine published by the IGFA, the other day when a short article by Bryce L. Meyer caught my eye. It was about fly and spinning methods for invasive Asian carp. I’ll be honest, I had never really heard of people targeting them on rod and reel, and if they’re as challenging as Meyer claims, I’m not entirely sure why more anglers aren’t chasing them…especially the fly guys who are eaten up with carp fishing lately.

I wanted to link to the article, but it doesn’t exist online, so here are just a few of the key points. Meyer recommends size 16 – 14 white or yellow wooly worms and scud flies when carp are in filter-feeding mode. Much like shad fishing, it sounds like you just want to hang the flies in the lane the carp are using and wait for a take. For the spinfishermen, Meyer says small crappie jigs and even Roostertails are effective both when carp are filtering and picking off larger forage.

Have any of you ever tried hooking up Asian carp on fly or spinning gear? It kind of sounds like fun to me, and not seeing another article about bowfishing them was refreshing for a change. On another note, there’s a short sidebar within the article about a blind taste test set up by Southeast Missouri State University, where people were given a piece of fried Asian carp, channel catfish, and tilapia. According to the story, the testers preferred the carp 2 to 1 over the other fish.