I've caught exactly one carp on the river below Whitney dam and here's how I did it. A buddy and I were in a canoe fly fishing for bass. We'd "park" the canoe and get out to wade likely spots. I was back at the canoe, and he had a fish on, so I was sitting there waiting for him to wrap it up. I had my rod laid across the gunwales of the canoe and didn't even notice my fly was in the water. I was sitting there with a beer in one hand and a chicken leg in the other when the drag on my little 3-weight started screaming. I calmly placed the beer down and finished eating (yeah, right, I spilled the beer, the chicken leg fell in the water), and about 20 minutes later brought a big carp to hand. I was using a bead-eye Clouser on a 3-wt sink-tip with a furled leader and a 3-foot tippet of 4# Trilene. Not that any of that really matters...

I always encounter Buffalo on Denton Creek. What is the difference between how they respond and how a carp responds to a fly?

Those I have seen about 1/2 mile below the dam at Lake Whitney on the Brazos look like carp but there are some buffalo.

Carp really aren't that hard to catch. I would say 90% of the carp I catch are within 3 rod lengths. The trick is learning to stalk up on them and not spook them. If you know they are in the area go slow, take a few steps and look around for a moment and then repeat, you'll be surprised how many fish will swim by you un-alarmed. cast 3-5 feet in front of them, let the fly settle to the bottom as they approach twitch it a few times. more times than not carp are willing to play the game and as long as they see the fly they are willing to move to eat. on days they are real aggressive they will bull rush a fly. I've even caught my fair share blind casting the flats in gray light.

buffalo on the other hand are [censored] fish, their the only fish i could care less for. at times especially in the winter they will readily eat shad patterns. they rest of the year they primarily feed on algae as they are in the sucker family, but will occasionally eat a nymph. the majority of them won't touch a fly though and once hooked all they do is wallow on the end of you line and slime up you leader.

fly and leader and all that stuff really has very little to do with success when chasing carp at least in most of Texas.

1. you need to find fish that are actively feeding that you can see
2. be able too cast to a papper plate size area in front of said fish and hope they see the fly fall or strip into "strike zone"
3. you need to learn the fish behavior - they have tells when they are about to take fly gill fair, flash of white lip all that fun stuff.

good luck.

If they have a mud bloom they are Definitely on the hunt. I have caught a ton of them late In the sandbass run blind fishing with clousers. When I am targeting fish I pass by any fish that is cruising and just hit the ones plowing thru the mud. I like capt approach with a very lite fly when site casting to them they see the slow fall and attack. The plate sized target is spot on it's a very visual game. They see it fall it is often times fish on.