Home Forums Fishing Freshwater BIG Colorado grass carp

Not the trout/yellow perch that were the main focus of the trip, but Layne teamed up to land three BIG grass carp on light tackle in Colorado last week. The fish measured 39", 42", and the biggest stretched the tape to 46"! Didn't weigh them, but I am guessing approx. 30#, 35#, and then 40#+ on the biggest. All were released back into the lake after pictures. Fish were caught using HMG spinning rods with Pflueger President reels and 6# test mono with bread crust on a #6 egg hook. Layne just couldn't pass up the chance to try from them when spotted cruising the shoreline. When the hook was set it was like fighting freshwater tarpon as the drag started to sing! Making memories...

I'm totally ignorant of this specie carp.....help me out please!

Most places they don't return carp to the water and even have eradication programs....these must be a little more coveted.

You mention fresh water tarpon,.......is that tarpon in fresh water or something different than I caught in Florida saltwater?

It looks like the boys had fun.....

No worries. Unlike the common carp which are considered a nuisance fish, grass carp are introduced in some lakes to help control weed growth. With plenty to eat, they can grow quite large. It is not as easy to get them to bite, but when they do it sure makes for a fun fight!

The reference to tarpon is just a comparison. There isn't a freshwater tarpon, but the size of these fish and the way they would make the drag sing each time they took of on a run made them seem like the larger saltwater tarpon.

Big carp are fun to catch. Buy then I'd knock them in the head and stuff them in the trash. No I am not from Colorado or kansas. Mb

They truly are fighters. Especially so on light tackle. There seems to be plenty of disagreement on whether grass carp can detrimental to a body of water or not.

In the spring when the river got high and real muddy the carp would come up our irrigation ditch's, we would scoop then with dip nets for my Grand mother to use in her garden, she wouldn't plant any thing unless she had Carp, to put under it. This was in North Western Colorado. Rio7

Introduced grass carp are usually sterile so they don't reproduce. In lakes around here they are are stocked every few years since they die or get fished out.

The fishing guru Al Lindner said that if a guy wasn’t fishing carp on occasion that they were missing a tremendous great fish fighting experience. Very strong fish to be sure. As a kid I’d shoot them in the creeks with a bow and arrow and bury them in my backyard worm farm. Those fish improved the soil a whole bunch.

I knew an older gentleman that would take his grandson carp fishing. I would see them in the old guys 16' Jon boat anchored in a certain cove of a local lake. The old guy had pre baited the cove a few days earlier with dry dog food and canned corn. Then he and his grandson would slip in there and throw some dog food out to attract the carp and cast hooks baited with corn in the water around the baited area. His grandson looked to be 8-9 years old and had a blast catching those big carp on his Zebco 33 rig.

Those are sterile in a temperate environment. People stock them here to keep ponds and lakes cleaned of vegetation. They will eat grass on the shore once they clean a pond up. Those are decent to eat. Guy here had a fish market on the riverbank. He had bought the fish when some one drained a watershed lake. He cleaned them and cooked some one day when I was fishing. He offered me a piece of it and it was decent. Not like the European carp.

I just watched the Carpin series on YouTube. It's cheesey at times but pretty good.

WOW! looks like a ton of fun

I bet it’s really good with some grape drank.