September Edition
oliver gandzadi
Our angler of the month for September is Oliver Gandzadi, from Portland, Oregon! Oliver has put the mighty Columbia River on the map in recent years with his incredible catches of both Carp and Sturgeon. A talented angler and photographer, he has pushed the boundaries of social media here in the USA for Carp angling with an instagram account of over 41k followers! A wonderful guy who is also featured this month on a very special podcast with Sean on The American Carper…Congratulations “Da Sniper”! Keep doing your thing by catching those refrigerators with fins!
NOTABLE CAPTURES
August 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 August so we thought 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!
THE blackfoot social
Many thanks to both Spencer and Brittany Powell and Richard Cervantes for hosting a Social in Idaho this past month. By all accounts, a wonderful time was had by everyone that attended and a number of those stunning Idaho Mirrors were captured! Thanks Richard for these shots!
dropping the lead: DON LOW
I’m fishing an urban reservoir that has gained thick weed growth over the Summer. It’s top to bottom in many places and it’s a deep body of water, over twelve feet in most places! There are clearer areas, but the fish run into the weed very quickly. The scenario calls for fishing a tight line and a tight clutch to prevent the fish from going to far. Even then we needed to crank those hooked fish though multiple marginal weed banks. The lead was making this difficult. Both myself and Ryan were losing too many fish.
An additional complication is the height of the bank above the water level, which causes an acute angle from the lead back to the rod tip. Because of this, my trusted chod rigs were not going to be suitable. Neither were Heli-leaders.
Rather than opting for an inline lead fished drop off style, which would mean losing the lead on every take, even from small fish, I chose to use the good old lead clip. Its not something I have done in a while. The lead clip will eject the lead only if a fish runs into a weed bed. This means I can still bully smaller fish or drag the lead and rig back through margin weed without having the lead come free. It worked a treat. My hooked to landed ratio has improved without any reduction in the number of runs. Sometimes the older (let’s say heritage) approaches are still the best.
Let me finish by stating that the situation needs to be extreme for me to even consider dropping the lead. In my opinion it’s unnecessary in 99% of cases, and expensive. Usually, you can land fish safely with the lead attached, but there are occasions when it really does work in your favor.
Some great lens work coming across the social feed in August! These four shots particularly stood out for us…that quarter fish shot of Paul’s stopped us in our tracks!
notable FLY CAPTURES
August was a banner month for many of our carp on the fly members across the USA. With 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 August. 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 and spread the word! #americancarpsociety #jointheguiltyones and tag @american_carp_society in your stories!
Thanks to our friends at CARP UNLIMITED for all of the tags each month!
FLY MATERIAL SPOTLIGHT: orange bead chain
BY: BRANDON TOURIGNY
Without a doubt, the greatest benefit to tying your own carp flies is experimenting with materials. You and I are currently living in the golden age of fly tying thanks to suppliers like Wapsi and Hareline Dubbing who offer a plethora of unique fly material. Two years ago, while working for a local fly shop, I was perusing the Hareline catalog and stumbled upon fluorescent orange bead chain. It’s no exaggeration to say that this $2.99 purchase would dramatically change my carp game.
For those of you willing to go back to the July Angler’s Insider, I spoke to you about a material called Mini Marabou. I had been using a rust-colored variation of that material to tie my favorite carp pattern the DamCraw. When I began replacing the standard black bead chain on that pattern with fluorescent orange bead chain, I experienced a noticeable uptick in carp eats.
DamCraws with orange bead chain have outproduced those with black bead chain on every body of water I’ve fished them in; from the Hoosic River in New York to the Chattahoochee in Georgia. I personally think the small, but bright, orange spot on an otherwise dark fly pattern helps carp notice the fly faster in murky water.
My fly-tying challenge to you this month is to do the same experiment I did; swap out your standard bead chain with some fluorescent orange beads on your favorite carp fly. If you feel like sharing the results of your experiment, feel free to shoot me a message on social media at @tourigny_onthefly on Instagram or find me on Facebook. If you have other carp fly questions, you’re more than welcome to reach out with those as well. Good luck fishing out there!
flies on the store
On Tuesday September 14th we will be releasing the very latest podcast of ‘The American Carper’ which features our August ‘Angler of the Month’ - Oliver Gandzadi. In a very personal in-depth interview, Oliver discusses his early Carp angling in Paris, France and his eventual move to the USA. Putting the mighty Columbia River on the map has been one of his goals for many years and in this interview we look at all of the work that has gone into achieving just that.
Filled with great insights on how to fish for Carp on a large tidal river, we also discuss his passion for targeting some prehistoric Sturgeon. Oliver is a wonderful angler with a great sense of humor, whose passion for the species is undeniable. Set your calendars…and join us for some ‘River Madness’ with ‘Da Snipa’ on Tuesday, September 14th! Some behind the scenes audio footage below:
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OLIVIER TEASER
2021 mill creek cup
We are happy to announce a number of new sponsors that have stepped up to help support the 2021 MCC. 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!
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.
A Real American Hero!
We want to give a crisp salute to member and angler, Patrick Barela Jr.! He is donating paid admission into next year's MCC 2022 ($250 value) for one lucky angler. What a class act this gentleman is for making such a selfless sacrifice to the sport. Thank you so much, Patrick, for your generosity!
Patrick Barela Jr.
premier angler
Check out the latest feature from Wayne Boon and The American Carp Society on the Premier Angler website:
Fishing For Carp By Using “The Method”
Shining a spotlight on “the method” in the world of Carp angling, Wayne takes a look at how this well loved approach can put more fish on the bank for you.
We see more enquiries and thoughtful questions from new anglers getting into the sport from this outreach that we are doing with traditional fishing sites and outlets. If you have a local store, news channel or fishing site that needs information on the species, don’t hesitate to reach out to us so that we can help to educate the masses!
save the carp - 2021 DENVER CARP SLAM
Registration for CARP SLAM XV is 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 (Racket net, 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 button 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!
We now have some new camping items on the store for our members…Complete ACS cooking sets as well as the new ACS cutlery set. Everything you will need for your bank-side sessions!