A day on Staten Island

Willowbrook Lake

We gathered outside of Prospect Park Friday morning. The plan was to fish on Staten Island for carp and bass. I chose Willowbrook Lake, Grasmere Lake, Cloves Lake and Silver Lake. The weather was great, not too warm. First stop was Willowbrook Lake. Willowbrook has bass and a decent carp population. Early, things looked promising as Dennis caught a nice bass. I got the carp pellets out and began the process of trying to get carp to actively feed. After fishing for bass for an hour, we started to target the carp. Nothing we tried could get the carp to feed on the surface. We left for Grasmere Lake, home of big bass.


another view of Willowbrook Lake



Grasmere Lake

Grasmere Lake is unique in that it is one of several lakes that are invisible to the general public. There is no maker or sign to indicate the location of the lake. I heard of the lake a few years back from a fisherman as we passed in the Staten Island ferry terminal. It took some research and miles of walking to find the exact location. I actually walked passed the entrance the first time. Friday morning it was our second stop of the day. We set up and fished the lake but after two hours, all we found was evidence of poaching.


Cloves Lake

Next stop was Cloves Lake. It has aggressive catfish, bass and a large population of big carp. No one caught any bass or carp. The only fish I was able to catch were a few BGs.


Silver Lake

At Silver Lake we were able to catch bass with fly rods! This particular spot is a reservoir and you must fish from a road that crosses the reservoir. You simply let your line fall down into the reservoir until it touches bottom. Sink lines or heavy flies only here. But the group pulled almost two dozen bass in the hour and a half of fishing there before it got dark.

We had put in another day of Urban Fishing in NYC, twelve hours of almost non stop fishing. One eat and run meal at a local deli but the rest of the time, we fished.

ROLL CAST / Switch Cast Excerpt from 'Casts that Catch Fish'

We came, we saw, we carped!

Dennis and I fished for carp on Friday. Things were very slow. I lost two fish and two flies; as we both were unable to land any fish. Carp were actively feeding but not on the surface. Things started to pick up in the afternoon. It was another 90F day. By the evening Dennis had landed this koi as well as a really thick, powerful carp on his 4wt rod. I brought in a couple of nice carp too. It was another twelve hours of carp fishing with fly rods

Woodcliff Lake

On my way to Indian lake I noticed this lake in North Bergen, New Jersey. At the time no one knew the name of the park or the name of the body of water. I noticed the street name and did a Google search. So this morning I went to Woodcliff Lake to fish it myself. The reports say there
are bass, BGs, carp and the state of New Jersey drops trout in the lake several times during the season.



The lake is shallow and sits on about 15 acres of park land. What I noticed about the lake is that there are lots of bass fingerlings near the lake's edge. A good sign that there are big bass too.



After a walk around the lake I put my rod together, tied on a #10 BH woolie bugger and began to fish. A third of the way around the lake, I hook a really nice size bass.



I hooked a couple of BGs and club size bass ( bass less than 10 inches) on the same woolie bugger.

Indian Lake

I visited Indian Lake in Little Ferry, New Jersey. This is another "stocked with Trout" pond in New Jersey. It is the third one I've fished this season. While carp are present, I was not able to get the carp to feed from the surface.



I did see a number of bass, BGs channel catfish & crappie but I did not see any of the reported perch. I fished from early afternoon until 7:30pm. I caught one small BG and one pocket bass (less than six inches). Fishing was very slow.

The Grand Slam

Dennis and I ended the week fishing in Queens for carp. Our first stop was at Golden Pond near the Little Neck Bay. We were unable to get any of the many carp in the water to take our flies.



I was able to hook my first crappie there on a #14 BH black woolie bugger.



Next we went to Oakland Lake, near Queensborough Community College. The shore of the lake was covered by lily pads and duck weed, it was unfishable.



We returned to the bus stop and boarded a bus headed to Kissena Lake. On our way there we passed Bowne Park, a little known park that has a pond. At Kissena park, we used chum to raise the carp but as soon as we were ready to fish a crowd gathered and frightened the carp away. We then fished on the less populated south shore and waited for the evening. As darkness covered the park, we chummed with dog biscuits and the big carp began to stick their mouths through the surface of the lake. It began to rain and it was a steady rain. We continued to fish. We were not wet ; we were determined to carp. Finally Dennis had one on his line. The rod was bent and the reel whined zzzzzzzz! I put my rod down and grab the Boca grip. I waited, it was a strong fish who eventually pulled the hook from its mouth. Aside from a runner doing laps around the lake, we were the only two there, fishing, carpin in the dark.




Bowne Park
It is named in honor of Walter Bowne (1770-1846), who served as a State Senator and as New York City Mayor. Mr. Bowne's summer residence stood on this property until March 1925, when fire destroyed the building.




This obscure pond has large mouth bass, BGs and big carp.

The boy wonder, Alex.

Dennis with another carp during a day of carp fishing.



Alex with his very first carp on a fly.



Alex with carp #2



Alex with his third carp of the day.



Dennis trying for one more big one.



I hooked this one late in the day on my new 5 wt from March Brown Fly Rods. This company makes fine seven piece travel rods. These rods are ideal for the type of urban fishing I do. The seven piece configuration allows me to conceal my equipment and take it anywhere.

Flycasting Extreme Pt.II (adhesiv casts)

Voodoo Cast.avi

Al & me

Al is a classically trained fly fisher but had never caught a carp on a fly. So I took him to a pond where we fished for carp. In spite of the 90F. temperature fish were active. I drank a half gallon of fluids during the afternoon but was parched by the end of the day. We had a good long day of carpin. I hooked 4 and landed 1 Al caught 2.

Semi automatic fly reels

My semi automatic fly reels, left to right: Goldstar, ATP 37,

Bold, & ATP 37 (graphite model)



ATP 37 graphite model



ATP 37, aluminum model



Franco Vivarelli Goldstar



Franco Vivarelli carbon fiber reel, 3.6 oz.



Inside look of the Franco Vivarelli trout reel.



Semi automatic fly reels are quite popular in Europe. In fact most countries produce their own semi automatic fly reels. I have several semi automatic fly reels. These reels are nothing like the automatic fly reels that were popular thirty years ago. There is no spring needed to retract the fly line.

Semi automatic reels have extractable spools, adjustable drags, features not available on the old, heavy automatic fly reels. In my opinion the Franco Vivarelli Goldstar 8 is the best of the semi automatic fly reels made from anticorodial aluminum. The Goldstar 8 is designed for 8 WF line, 150 yards of backing & is saltwater ready. The ATP 37 is similar but is designed for 7 WF line and 100 yards of backing.

Men at work

Friday is carp day. Dennis and I met yesterday morning to fish for carp either in New York or New Jersey. We got a late start and didn't arrive at New York City's Central Park until 9:00am.
I had made a visit to the park Thursday evening to put some carp bait in the lake. I hoped this would increase our chances for hooking big carp. But due to the water levels still being low we didn't see any carp. We packed up and grabbed a bus headed to Passaic , New Jersey.




My carp caught at the very end of the day.


Dennis with one of the many carp he caught.


Dennis with another carp on


We fished for more than 10 hours and between use hauled in 2 dozen carp( Dennis was deep into the double digits, do the math, i hooked two and landed one)! We emptied ours guns. We used carp pellets, dog biscuits & white bread; from the shallow end of the pond to the deep end.

Carp Fishing | Monster Carp caught on Fly rod - Ga Fishing video!

derleineangler : fliegenfischen auf karpfen / flyfishing for carp