Why… Los Angeles area River Carping?
by
Wayne Boon
Thanks as always for taking a few minutes to read through this quick blog.
A little background is probably in order to set the scene:
After nearly 35 years in the big city, my wife, Rachel and I recently (3 years ago) upped sticks and moved to the country (beautiful East Texas country to be exact). We love Los Angeles and have many, many wonderful friends & memories there but we got to a place where we’d done all the hustle/bustle of big city life and started looking at writing a new chapter in our life’s book and thankfully, it’s been working out really well…
Probably a little unfair of me but the photos below show a bit of contrast… I love contrasts in life!
Anyways, back to fishing; there’s plenty of awesome angling to be had in East Texas (one of the big reasons we ended up here as opposed to a few other areas that took our fancy to be honest).
The genesis of this short read started when I recently took a road trip back to visit my daughter and a few friends in Los Angeles and found myself walking a few of my old haunts/fishing holes, while I have plenty of fantastic fishing memories attached to many of the lakes, one water brought back a gush of emotion. Not for the big fish but for the challenging and often extreme conditions/environment that the fish have to endure…tbh, it’s not so easy on the anglers either lol…
So I got back home to East Texas and dug out a few LA River system carp capture photos that I had on my local hard drives…so to answer the intertwined and connected questions, “Why carp and especially, why fish the rivers of Los Angeles which are often messy and sometimes even a bit stinky? I’m sure some of you have a similar water within a short drive of your home too…
So, here we are :)
Even though I’d lived and fished in the Los Angeles area for nearly 35 years, I’m a little embarrassed to say I don’t know much about the history of the river systems at all… I say river systems because there are around half a dozen tributaries that run into the LA basin.
One stretch in particular was a really handy area to fish not 10 minutes drive from my house that I visited to catch carp in the 3 to 10 lb range when I have a few hours free. It scratched the itch, you know…and sometimes with remarkable results!
I do know that much of the river system was channelized by the Army Corps of Engineers starting in the 1930s to help prevent life threatening/very expensive flooding! Thankfully, in a precious few places along it’s length, where the aquifer rose too near surface level they had to leave the natural riverbed… These areas are typically the deeper pools where most of the fish hang out and strive to get back too after Winter storms wash them downstream into brackish waters…
Although there are still “bad days,” from personal experience, the water quality has improved immeasurably in my 30 plus year casual fishing relationship with the rivers. Consequently, the wild life and fish stocks are doing very well in places.
There is a cool group called “Friends of the L.A. River” that have championed public use of some stretches of the river that have been cleaned up and pedestrianized in recent years. Many areas along the river are getting quite gentrified actually… I’m sure a quick google search will reveal many more organizations pushing the revitalization of the River. It’s definitely getting better but has a long ways to go yet…
For those with questions about “why carp?” Along with some nice river capture photos/vids, here are some questions that I’ve been asked over the years while both actually fishing the river and from a few interviewer questions for various publications that may go someway into explaining our passion for this wonderful and exciting quarry (to my mind anyways….) Especially when caught from locations/waters around the country with less than a stella reputation like the often maligned, Los Angeles river systems…
These beauties were float fished and show how bright the future could be for the rivers…
Why do carp make a great gamefish for anglers to pursue?
Two words: Brains and Brawn are an awesome combination and carp have them both in ample amounts!
As anyone with an open mind and has fished for carp will tell you, Carp (cyprinus carpio) are without doubt one of the wiliest and smartest fish swimming in our waters. We really do need to bring our “A” game to the water in relation to tackle, bait, anticipation and an intimate knowledge of the specific traits of carp. Then once hooked, their physical strength and pulling power will amaze! Pound for pound I believe carp (especially river carp) are the strongest fighting fresh water fish barring maybe Striped Bass or Salmon on their best day…
As the founder of the American Carp Society, have you seen growing interest in carp angling?
Absolutely, yes! In our work promoting and raising both anglers’ awareness and public perception of all the exciting virtues of carp since 2002, the trend is definitely upwards and at a rather pleasing rate!
Have you seen growing interest in urban angling in general?
I’m also very please to say a big yes on the rising popularity of Urban angling for carp too. Primarily because more and more folks are now living in our large towns and cities for work. Our work lives are busier than ever these days with very little vacation time, leading to the necessity of finding fishing opportunities in nearby ponds, lakes and rivers for a quick after work or Sunday morning session.
Carp are blessed, like humans with the ability to survive in a myriad of environments and associated conditions; this lends well to the existence of thriving populations of cyprinus carpio in our urban areas, despite the massive challenges that exist with living in and around very large populations of humans! One other point worth mentioning here is that Carp Angling, like soccer is a true world wide sport. The advent of massive amounts of social media content from other parts of the world on the subject of carp fishing means it’s readily available to US anglers to learn and emulate…and of-course to push on from and bushwhack new methods that are better suited to our particular waters…
What an amazing sight to behold and I feel very lucky to have witnessed it... Common Carp running upstream on one of the Los Angeles area river systems to deeper water away from the brackish lower stretches where they got washed down to after a recent storm… just like some Salmon runs I've seen in Washington State and Alaska.
What types of people do you see now starting to pursue carp?
Over the years, we’ve coined the term, “The Independent Thinkers” at the American Carp Society for the type of angler who is likely to be open minded enough to try angling for carp in the 1st place. Shall we just say, they’re not the type of person that typically follows the rest of the “sheep” through the same “marketing” gate as it were… Then to follow on with the angler that has tried carp angling and loves the sport as most folks invariably do after giving it a try, they then progress to where we call them “The Guilty Ones…”
It’s all a little tongue in cheek and we all have a lot of fun with it… But it definitely rings very true when you stand back and look at the big picture…
Now of course we get many Bass anglers trying carp as something different to the “Marketed Norm.” Often times, they’ve caught carp as a kid and now that it’s getting more “in-vogue” as a sports/game fish, want to learn more about them. Also plenty of Cat and Trout fishermen and other specie specific anglers call us and want to broaden their skill sets typically give carp a chance.
Of particular interest to us at the American Carp Society is our quickly rising membership population of Carp On The Fly anglers who really understand the visceral excitement, virtues and challenges that catching carp offers a discerning, independent thinking angler!
And, on the flip side of that, who are still the holdouts? The people who still don’t see the value in carp as a gamefish.
There are many anglers who just simply love fishing for the specie(s) they presently do and are totally contented with that… Nothing wrong there at all but many of them are heavily influenced by old school marketeers and State governing bodies that don’t see a monetization angle to carp yet. They feel the need to keep things going just like they have over the last 40 years or so…
Another beautiful LA River common carp…
Without pointing a finger directly, it’s usually the folks who have a vested interest in not sharing the market equally who typically send out negative and often very false and confusing information about carp; often purposefully blurring the lines (at best) or totally ignoring the differences between the harmful and recent (1970s) imports from Asia like the Silver and Big Head filter feeders that are infesting many of our mid-Western waters right now.
To be clear, these two aforementioned species along with the Amur (Grass Carp) are in no way shape or form related to Carp (cyprinus carpio) our beloved quarry, which were introduced across our country in the 1870s by our government, to help feed our fast growing population’s push West. It has to be said, that cyprinus carpio (Common, Mirror and Koi carp) are as naturalized at this stage of the game as the early settlers are to our great country.
But the times are a changing and the marketeers and governing bodies will have to follow the popular and exponentially growing premise that fishing should be fun and sustainable (catch and release) for our future generations’ sake. Folks are getting a lot more aware of these important issues…
This clip is from one of my favorite 15 minute battles with a carp ever and the fact that it was a Los Angeles River system fish caught on the fly put the icing on the cake!
I'd twisted the arm of a good friend to let me use his Fly gear and this happened with much instruction.. Thanks again Matus!
This capture was such a lovely surprise and sooooo much fun... Hope you enjoy :)
I don’t feel 100% comfortable speaking to the Fly angler yet because I’m little more than a fly dabbler at this stage but I’ve promised myself and some very good Carp On the Fly friends that I will work hard to rectify that situation over the next season or two here… But the bottom line is that Carp are not called the freshwater Bonefish for no reason!
The Common Carp (cyprinus carpio) is now considered naturalized in many states and as such are not thought of as invasive at all.
With the help from the American Carp Society, the sport of catch & release fishing for the common carp has exploded here in the United States, it’s growing by leaps and bounds each and every year.
Many more anglers each year are learning exactly why this fish excites and creates such a visceral passion within any angler that is open minded enough to try fishing for them, and in doing so, has cast away many outdated, blinkered and myopic old school view points....
Here is a factually correct and educational link for, hope this helps...
https://www.americancarpsociety.com/us-carp-history/
Carp can, like many other species in an un-balanced, artificially stocked water where the predator base is inadequate to naturally balance all life, take advantage of the situation. These ‘problem lakes” are generally shallow waters used for the convenience of put and take anglers.
Carp were intentionally introduced into the USA as a food source.... Additionally, there has been much misinformation on the species over the years being blamed for 'poor water quality' and 'devastation' to native fish species...
Poor forestry and farming management causing runoff from the land plays a huge part in the problems found here in the USA regarding water clarity.....as well as the amount of watercraft (powerboats and Skidoos etc) in a given body of water causing excessive turbidity.
We have a biologist on staff at The American Carp Society, he has done much research on the subject and I often quote this “summational” paper he wrote:
https://americancarpsociety.com/science-misinformation-on-the-species
It’s a fact that many of the Trophy Bass Lakes in the USA holding the largest fish also hold Trophy Carp (30 to 40 lbs in weight)....food for thought....We’ll usually also find Trophy sized Carp together along with very large Catfish too.
It’s also a fact that Carp have been the scapegoats for a long time. They are an easy target for ignorance and man’s poor fisheries management usually through a lack of understanding of their environment. There are many crystal clear waters around the US and other countries all over the world containing weed from the bed of the lake to the surface with a multitude of species including a healthy population of Carp all living together.... a lack of management will invariably cause any species to negatively impact an environment and so carp are no different than any other - they just have to be managed correctly and let nature balance itself out.
In recent years, the Los Angeles river has been a growing hot bed of Carp on the Fly anglers in and around our community. They have penned many an article in the local newspapers and social media outlets about their experiences. We’ve seen numerous references to the river in carefully crafted social media posts and newspaper/magazine articles. I say “carefully crafted” because honey holes have to be protected even though the LA river and it’s relatively small sections that have been left fairly natural looking, where most of the fish hang out are probably one of the worst kept ‘secrets’ in LA…
Huge thanks to my good friend, Fernando Vazquez for sharing his extensive knowledge of the LA river systems with me and for being a totally drama free session partner over the last several years! I appreciate it my friend…Cheers Fernando!
If anyone would like to ask further questions about carp and how to angle for them, please don’t hesitate to contact me either via email: wayne@americancarpsociety.com or info@americancarpsociety.com or you can also direct message me at www.instagram.com/wayne_boon
Thanks again, be Lucky out there…
Sincerely,
Wayne Boon
American Carp Society - Founder
www.americancarpsociety.com