I have to admit, I came by my appreciation for the carp slowly. Time was I considered the homely carp nothing but a trash fish..about as attractive to a trout river as an old refrigerator. Even when one would inadvertently eat a nymph and put up a battle to be remembered I would do my best to release him without touching the fish..well.. to be fair I still do that, but with much less prejudice. Over the years and with some prodding I have come to appreciate the carp for many of it's considerable, if not obvious, qualities! First of all, they can live anywhere. Cold water, warm water, prob even no water if need be. These guys are tough. Second, they are super selective and god awful spooky! Believe me, if you can go to one of our area tailwaters and catch carp on the fly, not snag them, but actually get one to eat, you can catch tailing, cruising fish, of any kind, anywhere in the world!
They don't really like to eat flies to begin with and talking them into it can be a monumentous challenge. Occasionally when there are a bunch of June bugs or on the right year cicadas they can actually be fooled pretty easily, but most of the time dropping a fly in front of a cruising carp and have him take it requires a near perfect presentation. Making the perfect cast to a carp only to have him refuse it is something like getting rejected by the ugliest woman in the bar at two am..his looks just make it sting a little worse! For the life of me I can't figure why they are so spooky. Nothing eats them..we don't, herons don't, osprey don't, not even other fish, and yet when it comes to fleeing from any hint of danger, the carp has no equal! Even shadows or wind will spook 'em!
For angling purposes we will divide the carp into three distinct groups. Resting carp, schooling carp, and feeding carp. Again for angling purposes we can all but ignore the first two groups. Resting or schooling carp almost never eat a fly. Look for the ones up in the shallows that have the appearance of a fat kid cruising the pizza buffet, just slowly moving along, sampling this and that. Drop the fly where he's going and wait for him to get close, move it and see what he does. Most of the time he will spook or follow it a short ways and lose interest, but occasionally he will eat, then you better hang on! These guys can really haul the mail!
For flies, I have caught carp on almost everything, small streamers, dry flies, terrestrial imitations, and even bead head nymphs. But generally for cruising carp something that resembles a wooly bugger in tan or olive, preferably with some rubber legs attached in sizes 4 or 6 should work pretty well. I would suggest fairly heavy tackle as a big carp can make short work of a 4 or 5 weight. 6 to 8 weight rods seem to be best and probably a floating line, sink tips work ok, but when Mr. Carp drops off into even moderately deep water he generally stops feeding and becomes almost impossible to catch. Look for them working along shallow gravel bars adjacent to drop offs. When he's up on the gravel, chances are he's feeding.
All in all, carp are great fun! I followed a guy coming home today riding a moped..it's kinda like that. Maybe a little embarrassing but a hoot none the less. And if you are about to head out on the bone-redfish trip of a lifetime I would strongly suggest you grab your fly rod and head to one of the rivers and chase the wiley carp. I guarantee he will make you better, and probably quite a bit more humble!