October Edition
MARTY SIPE
Our angler of the month for October is Marty Sipe, from Pennsylvania! We wanted to congratulated Marty for his captures so far this season…not only of his fish but his photography as well. Wonderful shots with some incredible vibes…awesome job bro! Keep up the great work!
Check out his insta page:
NOTABLE CAPTURES
September was a banner month for many of our members across the USA and with the Summer coming to an end we are seeing some glorious fish being captured. These photos below caught our attention in the month of September so we thought that some extra recognition was warranted. Congratulations to everyone on the success of their angling sessions this past month…We appreciate all of your tags and mentions, and can’t wait to see what everyone is catching over this next month! Don’t forget to tag us #americancarpsociety #jointheguiltyones and tag @american_carp_society in your stories!
Some great lens work coming across the social feed in September…These four shots particularly stood out for us…Great job guys, keep up that creative lens work!
NOTABLE CAPTURES
September was a banner month for many of our Carp on the fly members across the USA. With the Summer now coming to a close, we are seeing some glorious fish being captured and these photos below certainly caught our attention in the month of September. Congratulations to everyone on the success of their angling sessions this past month…We appreciate all of your tags and mentions, and can’t wait to see what everyone is catching over this next month! Don’t forget to tag us #americancarpsociety #jointheguiltyones and tag @american_carp_society in your stories!
High End Gear vs. Stealth
BY: BRANDON TOURIGNY
There are no guarantees in fly fishing. Buy the latest $900 rod, and $500 reel paired with fly line that cost you over $100, and you will still come home from the carp flats empty handed on many occasions. This however never stops the endless stream of new tackle being developed to entice anglers with a hole in their pocket. What I propose to you today is that the greatest asset to you when fly fishing for carp is not gear; it is your ability to be stealthy.
In the time I have spent fly fishing for carp, I rarely am successful at feeding fish past 30ft. In fact if my memory serves me correctly, more than 80% of the carp I land every year happen on casts within 20ft of me. In 2018, when I started fishing for carp, I landed 23 fish over the course of 5 months. By the following season that number climbed to over 70. The X-factor I found to success was getting as close to feeding carp as possible.
A $900 fly rod will not make a difference for you on a 20ft cast. What will make the difference when it comes to improving your success rate is the number of times you can put yourself within 20ft of a carp.
A few suggestions I have for you to accomplish this, based on my experience, are:
1. Fish with the sun to your back. This makes spotting fish much easier.
2. Take your time in the approach to a feeding fish. You have no idea how many unseen carp might be between you and the one you can see actively feeding.
3. Fish out of vessels which put off minimal wake. If you fish from land, approach a fish from a crouched position if possible.
4. Don’t cast to a carp until you know exactly where its head is facing. This means NOT casting into the mud cloud of a feeding fish. Wait until its head is visible to make your cast.
5. Keep false casts to no more than 2. Practice being able to put a fly exactly where you want it in, ideally, one casting motion.
If you have any thoughts, comments, or questions for me about this month’s column feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook at, @tourigny_onthefly. Good luck out there!
Fall Baiting Strategy - Don Low
Fall is well and truly with us. The day and nighttime hours are now split 50/50, and at least in the middle and northern thirds of the US this means rapidly falling temperatures, especially overnight. This triggers the carp to begin stocking up on reserves for the winter ahead. They are feeding much more willingly than the hot summer months and are looking for food items that provide high levels of proteins and fats.
During this time of year, I change my baiting approach from heavily using particles like corn, tigers, and small seeds items, to mostly using boilies. While I am happy to use some shelf-life readymade boilies, many of them do lack high nutritional value. I always add 50% of my home rolled high protein baits. These contain ingredients like whey protein concentrate and brewers’ yeast that massively boost the nutritional content. I am aiming to have around 35% - 40% total protein content in the base mix. When eggs are added you will get a nice percentage of protein. It’s exactly what the carp are looking for. I still include some particles to the bait bucket, particularly hemp which is also relatively high in proteins and oils.
The pond I am current targeting is very silty. To ensure the boilies don’t embed too far into this soft bottom I cut them in half. This helps slow the decent of the baits, so they sit on top of the silt rather than being completely obscured. Hook baits and rigs are low lying popups or wafters on helicopter leaders or even a chod rig. Again, to ensure that the baits can be easily found by the fish.
Congratulations to Jake Didier and his daughter Harley for a great representation of the American Carp Angler on his local outdoor sports network ‘Minnesota Bound and Due North Outdoors ‘. It looks like a fun day was had by all with a number of fish being captures. What a great opportunity to get the word out there on our beloved species. Well done guys…. Watch the YouTube vid below!
NEW ACS GUIDE - DAGUR GUDMUNDSSON
We are happy to announce that Dagur Gudmunsson will be joining us as an official ACS Fly guide in Northern California. With years of experience as a trout angler overseas before finding his beloved species, he is sure to bring this knowledge and passion to his clients to make each day not only fun, but informative, with a goal of leaving each client with a higher regard of these misunderstood fish and as better anglers.
“Carp are simply one of the best fish to chase with a fly rod. The combination of sight fishing, technical approaches and presentations that can be used with these big strong fish, make them a worthy target of fly fishermen. There are very few anglers pursuing these incredible fish in my region of California, even though there is a considerable amount of fly fishermen in the area, they choose to drive over three or four hours to chase ten inch trout! One of my goals with my guiding service and classes has been to open local anglers' eyes to the opportunity of chasing world class fish close to home.”
We are happy to announce that our latest sponsor will be providing one large pizza to each team at The Mill Creek Carp Event in November….Big thanks go out to PIZZA HUT who are now added to the list!
Along with the cash prizes, ACS rods and bait and tackle items we are providing…. this is setting out to be quite a prize pool!
Pizza Hut - Will be supplying each team with one large Pizza during the event.
McDonalds - Will be supplying Sausage biscuits, breakfast burritos and coffee for one day of the event.
Taco Bell - Will be supplying soft tacos and bean burritos for everyone for lunch for one day of the event.
Sonic - Will be supplying breakfast burritos for everyone for one day of the event.
Walmart - Will be helping us with gasoline supplies for generators and snack items for the event.
Brookshire’s - Will be supplying us with water and sports drinks for the event.
Treaty Oak Whiskey - Will supply bottles of their finest whiskey for prizes and also a tasting at the event to get things started.
USA Carp Guides will be giving away a guided Dale Hollow experience at the USA’s famous mirror lake, for 2 Anglers - (criteria for winning will be announced at the event).
The Buffalo Whisperer - Keith Thompson will be giving a way a guided buffalo experience on Decker Lake in Texas - (criteria for winning will be announced at the event).
The Canadian Carp Society - Will be giving membership to the members of the top three placing teams.
Tractor Supply - Will be giving a 25% discount on any items purchased for our anglers at the event. Camping goods, feed corn and other necessities for a 3 day event can be purchased here.
Quality Inn - Jay Patel of the Quality Inn at Canton will be giving a special room rate of $60 for any angler who is attending the event.
Registration for CARPSLAM XV are now open! Amateur competitors, "Slamateurs," compete in fundraising efforts to benefit the Denver South Platte River, then spend the day teamed up with a pro targeting carp on the fly in Colorado's premier carp on the fly tournament!
We are working closely with our friends at Denver Trout Unlimited to bring some more exposure to the great ‘Carp Slam’ Fly fishing tournament that takes place later this year…and we are happy to announce that The American Carp Society will once again help to sponsor the event and bring awareness to the cause through raising funds ….and we have some very cool prizes for those that contribute!
We are happy to announce that anyone who donates to this year's CARP SLAM campaign will automatically be entered to win one of three prize packs for this year's fundraiser raffle! Prizes include a custom, handcrafted leather American Carp Society fly wallet, containing carp flies tied by Master Spanish fly angler Javier Pena, an Urban Anglers USA swag bag prize pack (Racketnet, UA hat, UA logo shirt & UA artist edition CARP shirt) AND a CUSTOM ink drawing from American Carp Society member & Carp Slam XV competitor, Sunny Sundgaard! Sunny is a very talented sketch artist who designed the UA CARP shirt and contributed illustrations to this year's Carp Slam XV. He will work directly with the winner to illustrate a carp/fish/pet image of their choice! Every donation of $25 or more is an additional entry to win. ($100 = 4 entries, etc.)
Simply click on the link below to donate and automatically be entered for the raffle…Please share this link on your social media pages and with your friends and fellow anglers…It’s a great cause!
2022 Membership Packages
We are happy to announce that the new 2022 Membership Packages for our Euro Carpers will be shipping out at the beginning of November! Featuring more products, stickers and our new bait samples for the 2022 line of bait ‘DESERT FRUIT’.
We greatly appreciate your patience with us on this as we have been delayed, due to Global shipping constraints, of some products because of the pandemic. Our legacy members packages will be shipped the very first week of November.
2022 Membership packages include:
New members beanie
ACS Talon hooks size 4
ACS Flexi - Ring Swivels
ACS Pop - UP Corn
Bait stops
ACS Lens cloth
ACS Sticker Pack
Access to the digital American Carper - VOL 1
Desert Fruit Boilie sample pack
NEW ACS HOODIE AND SWEATPANTS OPTIONS
We will be taking pre-orders for the classic ACS winter hoodies this month…..
We have taken our super soft members ‘classic hoodie’ design and added a pairing of sweatpants for those of you that asked! Featuring the original ‘classic’ American Carp Society logo on both the front and back of the hoodie and also on the left leg of the sweatpants. These will be sure to keep you warm throughout the winter months. The hoodies are available in both pull over and zip up options!
We are happy to announce that the new American Carper Products line of weights is now available for our members on the store. With seven members of the’ family’ and a few special additions to be added over the coming months, we should have you covered for all of your lead needs! Now available on the store in Limited Quantities.