Rockland lake

Caught a smallmouth bass & several BGs
At Rockland lake



Fishing was slow until I reached the eastside
of the lake. Wish I had brought my waders.
Saw a few feeding carp on the westside of the lake
swimming beneath the lily pads. I caught several
yellow perch too.

More fishing after 7:00

Same place, same time, more big carp



I was barely able to net this carp. Look at the size!

Dennis' biggest carp

Dennis & I have found a place that holds big
carp. Unfortunately, the best time to have a
shot at catching a big carp is between 7:00pm
and dark.



I worked the net for Dennis this time due to
the size of his double digit carp. My net came
apart as I tried to lift the carp from the lake.

Urban fishing in New Jersey

Last week I made trips on the PATH train to
Bayonne and Harrison, New Jersey. The purpose
was to recon two ponds which are reported to
hold carp.



My first stop was at the almost unknown
Bayonne pond, in Bayonne, New Jersey. It is
a small body of water which holds channel catfish
and carp. I spent several hours inspecting the
pond and catching only one "pocket" channel
catfish.



The next day I headed to Harrison, near Newark,
New Jersey. There I found a pond loaded with
panfish and carp. All along the shore I saw
fish suspended.



In the north east corner I found what I had hoped
to see, carp. They moved slowly in the afternoon
sun. A few were still spawning.




There were a number of koi swimming slowly
in the water too.

Hackensack flats

Saturday I traveled to the Hackensack river.
Carp are reported to hold in this part of the river
During the tide change, carp move freely.



In this picture the tide has gone out and all that
remains is a pool for carp to wait for the
incoming tide.



In this picture the tide has returned, even the
flats are now covered.



I don't know if these prints in the mud were
left by a raccoon or a small child walking on
her hands in the slippery Hackensack river
mud.



The flats on the Hackensack river at low tide.

My wife catches her first carp on the fly.

Beetle Tactics - The Fly Fishing Odyssey - risetheory.com

The third time is the charm

We returned to Central Park, Sunday evening
for some more carp fishing. The park is filled
with tourist until about 6:00 pm, then people
start to pack up and leave. This is the time to
look for feeding carp.



Dennis arrived earlier than I did so he had already
wet his line by the time I arrived. We used spey
casting technique to reach carp feeding on the
surface. There is little room for back casting here.




We cast from this rock. The water is muddy
looking and algae is starting to grow but this
lake has some of the largest carp in the city.
In the few days spent fishing at this part of the
lake, we have caught a number of double digit
carp. They are longer and thicker than the carp
we normally see.

carp fishing big mirror carp

The Pond

After leaving the lake at 72nd street we walked
to the pond at 59th street. While the water
there was brown and muddy, we were able
to see fish.



At the west end of the lake we saw these young
bass sunning themselves in the morning . Several
large koi were suspending too.



The draw back is that this body of water must
be fished very early in the morning because of
tourists.



Looking east at the pond.



The waterfall & source of the water for the pond.

The next morning

Dennis & I returned to the park in the morning.
There was no wind on the lake. I set up and waited
But unlike the previous evening no carp were
feeding.



Dennis landed his first mirror carp.



I landed a big carp with the aid of an 8 wt March
Brown fly rod and my net which shortened
the time needed to beach this one.



Dennis fighting the mirror carp.*



Looking south at the lake.

*Mirror carp are a type of fish, commonly found in the United Kingdom and Europe. The name "Mirror Carp" originates from their scales' resemblance to mirrors. They can grow in excess of 60lb - the last few British record fish have all been mirror carp.

The difference between mirror and common carp is both genetic and visual - biologically they are similar. The mirror carp was the first mutation of common carp, owing to two alternative genes, the S allele and the N allele. The genetic term for a mirror carp is "ssnn" (all minor). Common carp have an even, regular scale pattern, whereas mirrors have irregular and patchy scaling, making many fish unique and possible to identify individual fish by sight, leading to most carp in the UK over 40 lb being nicknamed. This lack of scales is widely believed to have been bred in by monks in order to make the fish easier to prepare for the table.

Out of the night

My fishing buddy asked if I wanted to fish for
carp in Central Park in the evening. I got to
the park after 7:00 o'clock and waited for Dennis
I could see carp clooping.



This part of the lake has a number of 30 lb carp.
When I hooked this fish, he took off towards the
south end of the lake. The rod shook in my hand
as line was peeled off the reel. My 5 wt was bent
and now backing was being stripped off the reel
spool also. This was a powerful carp!



My March Brown Fly Rod



It was dark by the time I was able to bring this
fellow to shore (more than 30 minutes).

Drying out

We've had several days of rain and today it was
still cloudy. I walked the lakes edge looking for
signs that fish are active.



Bass fry are visible almost everywhere.



A club size bass taken on a #12 pheasant tail
fly. At this time of the year these guys are very
active and I've had success using this fly for bass
this size (8" - 12").



The park gets greener each day



A mature BG

Central Park Common Carp

KOI

I was walking by an area where I had seen koi.
Previously, I had chummed this area in an effort
to get the carp & koi to feed. Note the koi pictured
it has an orange body with a few black hash marks
on it's side



I was surprised to see that the carp were back
again; this time to spawn. The koi are much
easier to see but when I looked closer, I could
see common carp swimming as well in this shallow
water.



the koi pictured is almost a meter in length,
including the fan like tail.



There were 4 white koi in this area with the
less flamboyant, common carp.



This koi was in spawn mode too. I did put a
fly in front of him but no "takers".

Little Ferry

I went to Little Ferry, New Jersey to fish in
a small lake. Last year I fished this lake but
fish were not feeding. This time the water
was muddy and the fish still were not feeding.



I did see a few ducklings but not one trout or
carp. Some people who were fishing with bait
managed to catch fish here & there but it was
a really slow day.



Looking south, almost no wind but the water
looked like a cup of light coffee.



Carp normally reside in the north end of the
lake.



A big snapping turtle, there were lots of them
visible.