Late fall carp

After the success, I had last Christmas Day, I was anxious to try and catch a few more carp
before winter cold sets in for good.

I selected a place on the lake where it is often quiet.  A place where I believed the fish would feel safe
and undisturbed by people in row boats.  I picked a place where I know carp travel and loiter.  This spot, I have fished for carp on many different occasions, spring , summer, fall and last winter when the air temperature was a balmy 65F here.

I recommend if you want to try this, that you chum at the same time, for at least 3 days.
Yes, a minimum of three days before you wet your line.  The idea is to create a place where the tired,
cold and hungry carp can come relax and enjoy the company of others like themselves.  Want
 seconds ? no problem.  Not hungry? It will be there all the time just waiting for carp to feed.  After several days of this hospitality, carp are very likely to be less weary.  And anxious to partake in the carp smorgasbord spread out on the bottom of the lake.

On the third day, I begin to test the waters for feeding carp.  The carp rig I used has been modified to suit my needs.  I've attached a split shot above the "corn",  I've hair rigged to my tippet.  This particular "corn" is  buoyant and the split shot allows the lure to suspend about 2 inches above the ground where a feeding carp can see and hopefully take my offering in its mouth.

Traditional crap fishers call things like this "pop up".  Pictured above is one of my carp
fly boxes.  All of the flies pictured can be fished as "pop-ups".

Fishing for carp in late fall or winter requires fortitude and patience.  I once sat in a steady
downpour watching carp go about their business. Around the ninety-minute mark, my fingers started to get numb.  I had to make several attempts to land the carp as my  fingers were so numb from the cold that they were hard to move.  I hope to get a day or two more of warm,(for this time of year) weather to see how many December carp I can catch.  I lost 4 carp before
landing this one.

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Ultra light carp fishing 2

I usually fish this part of Loeb Lake at the beginning and end of the season.  I draw fish to this area
by chumming with a mixture of corn, oatmeal and odds and ends I have at home.  I don't like
to keep carp bait in my house during the winter.

I used a cheap fiberglass fly rod I bought a few years ago on eBay.  This rod cost all of $15.00.
My ultralight equipment for this day included  a 3pc, 7'6" rod and a carbon fiber semi-automatic
Franco Vivarelli reel designed for trout.  Once I wrote to Franco Vivarelli's customer service office questioning if their carbon fiber could be used to take carp.  They answered with a resounding NO!
But I tried it anyway.

My process for late fall chumming a lake is to pick several consecutive warm weather days
 ( above 50 F.).   Each day I chum at a time when I know carp like to feed in this part of the lake.

I continue to chum and fish the "spot" until the weather turns colder.

I managed to catch this rare fantail carp

Catching carp with ultra light equipment

Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.  Today I used a cheap 3 wt, fiberglass fly rod
to catch carp.  It is a 3 piece, 7' 6" slow flex rod. I really wanted to use my nine-foot graphite  rod
but I knew I would be casting with tree branches all around me in this spot.  So, the nine foot 2 wt was left at home for this trip.

After not having caught any carp in awhile, I set up to fish in Loeb Lake, one of the 5 lakes
located in NYC's Central Park.  My goal is to see how days I can catch fish before air
temperatures dip below 45F.   The sun heats the water here until 3:00 o'clock.  This is the time
when carp feed in this part of the lake.  Here the lake is secluded and quiet; which is what I want when I fish for carp.

Here is my 3 piece, 3 weight fiberglass fly rod with the carbon fiber, Franco Vivarelli semi
automatic fly reel.  I chummed with a ground bait.

Hutchinson River

Look what I saw in the Hutchinson River. Menhaden Swimming and feeding in the Hutchinson River
I have walked the Hutchinson for a few years now.  When I look at maps I see that the river
after leaving Pelham Lake flows into Eastchester Bay.

Today, I followed the flow of the river after it leaves the lake.  I came upon this sight of
"bunker" feeding.  They are filter feeders, which was evident as they swam by with
their mouths open.

What I found to be unique was that they swam in groups.  Larger fish swam above smaller
fish. It looked like a crisscross pattern .

The New Rochelle Water Company dammed the Hutchinson River in 1886 and 1907, to create three reservoirs (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3) at the northern end of the community. The Westchester County Park Commission purchased the reservoirs and the surrounding water shed property in 1927, for parkland and parkway purposes.^[5] A part of the land was used for the Hutchinson River Parkway, which follows the river for most of its distance.

The Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia Tyrannus) is a North American species of fish in the herring family, Clupeidae.

Atlantic menhaden are found in the North Atlantic coastal and estuarine waters from Nova Scotia south to northern Florida. They are commonly found in all salinities of the Chesapeake Bay and Mid-Atlantic water. They swim in large schools that stratify by size and age along the coast. Younger and smaller fish are found in the Chesapeake Bay and southern coastline while older, larger fish are found along the northern coastline.

Characteristics
Atlantic menhaden are silvery colored fishes characterized by a moderately compressed body and a black spot on their shoulder behind their gill openings. They can reach a size of approximately 15 inches.

BiologyDiet
Atlantic menhaden are filter feeders, meaning that they collect food by filtering water through modifications of the branchial apparatus (gill arches and gill rakers). Atlantic menhaden’s diet depends on the size of their gill rakers, which change as menhaden age. When the rakers are smaller, which generally correspond to when they are under the age of 1, Atlantic menhaden feed primarily on phytoplankton. As they age and their gill rakers grow larger, menhaden shift their diet to primarily consume zooplankton

Lifecycle
Atlantic menhaden can spawn year round in inshore waters off the Atlantic coast, with the highest spawning rates near North Carolina in the late fall. The eggs hatch in the open ocean and the larvae drift to sheltered estuaries via ocean currents. The young spend a year developing in these estuaries before returning to the open ocean. At this early stage, they are commonly known as "peanut bunker". Atlantic menhaden usually do not become sexually mature until the end of their second year, after which they reproduce until death. A young, sexually mature female can produce roughly 38,000 eggs, while a fully mature female can produce upwards of 362,000.

Eggs are buoyant and hatch within 2 to 3 days depending on the temperature. The larvae will spend 1 to 3 months in waters over the continental shelf. The Chesapeake Bay is a popular nursery for juvenile menhaden. Larval fish will enter the Bay in late winter and early summer. The larval fish will move into lower salinity waters in estuarine tributaries while juvenile and immature fish remain in the Bay until the fall. Atlantic menhaden can live up to 10 to 12 years.

Predators
Atlantic menhaden are preyed upon by fish such as striped bass, weakfish and bluefish, and by birds such as ospreys and eagles. Humpback whales off the coast of New Jersey feed on Atlantic menhaden. Other cetaceans, such as fin whales and dolphins also eat menhaden. Dolphins can eat up to 20 pounds of Atlantic menhaden a day.

Fishing Woodlands Lake

I've caught carp in the Saw Mill River before.  This lake is formed where the River collects
near a waterfall.  A few trout have been known to frequent this water.  The theory is that they swim down from where they  still stock trout.

The sun was setting when I finally arrived ( I got lost).  And while the temperature had been like
summer weather in the afternoon, the weather changed to fall conditions and the wind picked up.
I had walked to the park; as a result, I had begun to perspire.   When perspiration meets cooling
breezes, the person perspiring becomes cooler too.  Another layer was needed.  I felt like I was fishing in a meat locker!  After almost two hours of no bites; I left for the train.

I saw no fish activity in the water (Bass,carp, crappie).

Woodlands Lake is on the Saw Mill River in Westchester County, New York and is used for recreation purposes. Construction was completed in 1840. Its normal surface area is 13 acres. It is owned by Westchester County Dept Of Parks and Recreation.

Woodlands Lake Dam is masonry, rock fill. Its height is 20 feet with a length of 200 feet. Its capacity is 87 acre-feet. Normal storage is 87 acre-feet.