my first one.

went to a county park lake today. its a nice lake,about 125 acres. cheap to at 5 dollars a day. iit used to be a private lake,. its full of carp. today was my 3rd time there. last week got a 11lb common on a float fished worm. was trying to get a nice cat. so went this morning to the same spot.was catching small sunfish on one rod, and nothing on my catfish setup. i always have corn with me so threw out about half a tin. put a bolt rig on the catfish rod and baited with corn. about 10minutes go by then a hard jerk on the corn then the line slowly starts moving. pick up rod a felt heavy weight on it but i kind of felt like a snag coming in that is until about 15 ft from the bank. i saw then it was a grass carp. finally got it netted and weighed, 22lb. i was beside myself with joy. a guy came by in a boat and i could hardly talk. this is my first grassie. what are other good baits for them, i want to catch another. any advice on rigs and bait would be appreciated, oh and seen a solid 35lb common cruise thru to. ive got corn for him to

Over here legering (carp style) is popular using a variety of baits – maize, sweetcorn, tiger nuts, peanuts, boilies and maggots. Ttry presenting baits popped up just off the bottom or buoyant fashion. During hot sunny still periods, Grass Carp will feed on the surface where they may be caught on the usual suspects, bread, dog biscuits etc.
Jerry

well done on catching the grassie never had one of these.

I like grassys, lovely looking fish. They can be a handful on the bank unless you play them out which isn't always the easiest as alot of the time grassys refuse to fight. I tend to slacken my drag off and give them a tap in the edge with a landing net and this sends them off on another run, I do this until they're really tired. They tend to behave themselves on the mat if tired, which is safer for them, just give them a few minutes to recover in the edge.

Grass carp are incredibly greedy fish and appealing to there greedy side is the best way to catch several fish in the same session, all my big hits have come over big beds of bait. Particles are the best bait although you can catch them on anything, my last grassy was caught on triple red maggot over groundbait. Prebaiting is a real help but not essential, I tend to use a mix of particles but the base of the mix will always be lot of maize.

I use a standard semi fixed rig with short braid hooklink as I'm fishing over a tight bed of bait. If there is a good head of grassys in the lake then I wouldn't think twice about spodding out a couple of kg's of particles.

Mol there is one at Coppice Lane fishery in a pool thats mostly very shallow , it gets caught once a year apparantley , I had it this year on my sons 4 meter beastmaster which he had elasticated with Hydro , it has no puller bung on it so it took me ages to get it in , then I botched the landing of it and hit it with the net and off it went again , longest fish I ever caught and took me nearly ten minutes to get it in , or at least it felt like it, I'd have put it at around 8 but didn't weigh it.

Beautiful fish , as was writing this it suddenly occurred to me why is there only one in there ? ( Thats what the Baliff told me ) 22 lb must have looked HUGE - well done USCarper !

I have had grassies to just over 20lb whilst fishing normal bottom rigs for carp at Shatterford.

They have a habit of going on one frenetic run when they are hooked, then giving up the ghost relatively easily.

Large good condition Grassies are handsome creatures.

Nice ome mate - I've yet to catch a grass carp

thanks for all the info and help guys.will try the pop-ups and a large bed of bait. yes it was a very good looking fish. my net will hold a 17lb common with ease, but this fish would only go about halfway in.when i hooked him, well he hooked himself really. it was just dead weight on the line, thought i was snagged on a limb or a turtle. he finally came up and i saw his tail, i loosened my drag up some but it was like he didnt know what was going on.he came in easy till i tried to net him, then he make a very short run, just a few feet and stop. i'd pull him in again, same thing. finally got him in the net. this he didnt like, every time i would try to get the hook out of the corner of his mouth he wouldthrash around. i had him on a peice of tarp that was wetted down on a soft patch of grass.he was fine when i put him back no scales missing or anything.i held him in the water for a minute or two then he soaked me when he took off. one of the most beautiful fish ive ever caught. this lake has alot of these i'm told by a guy who used to fish there when it was a private club water. i'll be there again sunday morning with some corn, and maybe some canned chick peas. will let you know what happens.

I'm led to belive most grass carp don't fight much until there are at the net and then on land - good luck in future

thank you my lord, he definatly fought harder out of water than init. its like they dont know there hooked or something. a regular carp of that weight takes off for the horizon.

benny the reason could be if you have alot of them they will eat all the weeds and aquatic plants. of course it depends on water size. the guy who told me there was alot in this lake said this was primarily a bass and crappie lake they put them in to help with the moss and weeds, but they ate so much of it that now the lake has almost no weeds at all. which is a favorite bass hide out. and a nursery area for alot of different fish. he also said{don't know if its true or not} that once they get over 10 lb or so that they start eating different stuff to, such as worms, crayfish, aquatic insects.they still eat weeds and things but not like they do when their smaller. the rules at the lake say you can keep 6 of them a day if their under 18 inches. any over 18inches must be returned. i personally will release all i catch.same with any carp i may catch there.

I'm envious as it has been a long time since I last caught a grass carp, but that lake is now long gone.

They are stunning fish I think; would that I could find a lake close enough to make it worthwhile fishing it regularly.

i'm lucky that i live close by, about 5 miles. the first year that they made it into a county park. fishing was free. everybody and there brothers were there it was packed. and of course things started getting littered up, problems with parking as some people would drive right to the edge of the bank, instead of using car park. people getting drunk. but they started charging this year and that has helped alot. seems that most of those people dont want to pay the five dollars a day for ticket. i will gladly,the money goes right back into keeping the lake nice, stocking fish etc. i love catching carp,and the lake is full of them. no one fishes for them here. ypeople ask whhat are fishing for? carp i say then they just look at you like you just escaped the mental hospital they always ask what bait i use especially if they see you catch a nice one. corn i reply. this just shocks and bewilders them . never heard of that they say. i just smile. out of perhaps 20 people fishing last sunday. i was the only one fishing for carp. its great, a 125 acre lake full of carp and grassies. all to myself.would be nice if some of you guys were here to help me see just how many and big they are

Carper what do they fish for instead ? Presumably catfish and bass ? Forgive my ignorance , are the grassies in this lake considered an invasive species ?

yes benny, most people fish for largemouth bass, crappies, and catfish. this lake was originally a private lake and a golf course for workers and retirees of a steel mill. it was stocked with bass,crappies, sunfish of all types, channel and flathead catfish. the regular carp i'm not sure of, but the grass carp were stocked fish.the north end of the lake is shallow and was full of aquatic vegetation. making it virtually unfishable. they stocked the grassies to combat this, but they put in to many, this is hear say. so have no idea how many were put in, or when. there are very little weeds now. now this part i dont understand, a person can buy grass carp here for stocking, but, they are sterile and cant breed. i understood this to be a requirement of our fish and game dept. as they are non-native fish, they didnt want them getting into our rivers and lakes. (they are in both, i have seen them. know a guy who caught a 45lb grassie in our local river .) but the grassies at the park must be breeding, because they haven't stocked them in a long time and they want any under 18 inches removed. the ones they stocked would be much bigger than this.the only invasive species here are zebra mussels and in lake erie the european goby. smallmouth bass love these. the regular carp in this park lake are beautiful as most have never been caught before, the ones that have are caught accidently by people fishing for other species.ive seen one that i'm sure is 35lb alot of doubles. all the common variety so far.

uscarper: Congratulations on your fantastic fish! From the way you write I can see this catch has given you a great deal of pleasure and probably a big boost to your confidence which has resulted in you wanting to go for even bigger. I hope it happens for you...

Good luck for the future!

Those Crappies are a strange looking fish ! Very interesting read

what rods do most people use at the lake - will a carp of 30lb break the line if most are fishing for bass?

thanks tee cee, you are very right, i do want to go bigger.ive caught catfish bigger than the grassie [blue catfish 34-6, flathead catfish 35}, but they didnt excite me like the grassie did. my biggest common carp is 19-12, i would love to break the 20lb mark with them.again thanks i really appreciate your comments, and thanks to all the other guys on here to, all your comments, support, techniques and help really mean alot. yes benny they are kind of strange looking. they are very popular here. alot are kept, as they are very good to eat. they are caught on float fished minnows and small jigs.in the spring and fall when the water cools they are caught shallow, when its hot they will suspend in the lake making them hard to find. they are a schooling fish. so if you get one they are usually more.their are 2 species, white and black. a good one here is around 1lb 8oz, but can get to 5lb. their mouth is very thin and soft, some people call them papermouths because they are paper thin and tear like paper my lord, yes i beleive most people rods here would break if they hooked a 30lb carp, or at least their line most crappies are caught on light rods and 6 lb test. bass fisherman usually only use lures, but most use medium rods with 10lb to 12lb line. some use a heavy rod and 20lb line for flipping in the brush. they flip plastic worms or heavy jigs into shallow brushy areas and when they hook one they must horse it out. these rods would hold one, but would have alot of pulled hooks due to the very stiff action. if they hooked one in open water they might get it, but if fishing near or directly in and around a snag i.m sure broken lines would be a problem. no one here uses safe rigs , i do so, but if a carp breaks someone off it could easily become fouled up and cause serious problems.catfisherman usually use any thing from medium action with 10lb line to 30lb line and ocean surf gear. again thanks guys. cant wait to see what sunday brings

went to the park lake today.went to my usual spot and put out a tin of corn. caught some sunfish. after a hour i got a nice small common, about 5lbs i guess, didnt weigh him. sat for 2 more hours without a run. so went looking for the fish. went to a shallow area where few people fish. but saw some carp there last weekend. i could see mud coming up and bubbles and knew there were some carp present. chucked out a tin of sweetcorn, 15 minutes a hit and a small channel came up. cast back out, 5minutes a 10lb channelcat. 20 minutes and a 7lb common, then another about 5lb. a little later channelcat no.3 then 2 commons of 10lb. 11lb 8oz. then one last channel. missed two fish, and lost two from hookpulls. was another great weekend. we had a good rain last nite and temps went from 98degrees to 71 this morning. cloudy. oh saw 1 grassie about 10lb i would guess.