Ok so I have been stalking this fish and he/she has picked up the coyote capr fly twice but ump hooks set has failed.

Advice? Pull back at the first bump?

Any advice would be appreciated and thanks..

It's more about just watching the fish and when it PUFFS for lack of a better word set it, lightly.

I guess I should clarify the water I was in is dank I can see the mud bloom from the fish and I target that. I did feel a bump but then boom the fish was off.. should I do a slight strip set when I feel that bump?

Great Video!

I've spent many hours casting at tailing carp in muddy water.
I've pretty much come to the conclusion that it's almost a waste of time. You can hook them, but it's seems to be more luck. There is no strike like you are used to, they gently suck it in and then a heartbeat later will spit it right back out and often will bolt in fear. If you can't see their head or your fly you really need to watch their body language.

"I think my fly is 1 foot in front of him, ohhh he sees it, he's getting closer, oh he must see it! he's digging for it, he must have it by now, gentle hook set, nothing, compose myself, he's still there, oh he must have it now, no not yet and..... and SH*T !!! He's gone."


My Conclusion has been to seek clear water, you will have much better opportunities.

Thanks just mute it, I sound like a goofball

Wow that looks like fun! I will have to try that.

One thing I have learned about hookset with carp and buffs is to always strip set. If you try to lift the rod you will move the fly out of their space (if they don't get hooked) and have to re cast.

I figured a strip set would be the way to go

I have had better luck with a sharp rod lift, I have a ton of videos on that there youtube, just search lonestarcarper.

It also depends on how far you are casting to fish, some places I fish its no more then a 10'15' cast some places its a 40' cast also if I am fishing moving or slack water.

At the risk of sounding like a guru, which I'm not, it's much more to it than luck. It's skill that is acquired over time.

A trick I use is to watch the carp and tippet simultaneously. It helps if the tippet floats a bit and is as taught to the fish with out moving the fly. When the carp takes the fly in on the puff, a careful eye will notice a slight twinge in the tippet. Don't wait too long or she'll tasted it and dropped it before you're hook set.


Good fishing.

Looks like you hand feed that one lol.

I just had my eyes checked and have 20-15 vision with my contacts, but I'll be darned if I can see the tipped move an inch or two past about 25' on a sunny day. Would a strike indicator be useful? I believe I know what you mean when you say "puff". (sucks water in through it's mouth along with mud off the bottom and blows it out its gills) However, in my limited experience you really need clear or very shallow water to see that happen as it's usually around their head which is usually the most cloudy area when they are feeding. Is there some other "body language" I need to spot. Most of the creeks and lakes in North Texas are pretty stained most of the time and about all you can see is the upper 2-3 inches of their back.

If the water has a wind rip on top it will be hard to see the twitch in the tippet so a strike indicator could work, though I have not tried one.

The body language that is most likely to produce a strike is when they are rooting around like pigs.

Sometimes you can study them for a moment and give a pretty close guess to which way they are feeding. Then you can cast our in front of them a few feet and hope she finds it.

In my experience, the best success has been when I find a carp vacuuming up the bottom so much you can barely see the back half of the fish. When you see that, I cast over the top of them and strip easy back to the fish so the fly will drop down to the front corner of the fish side closes to you. When the fly drops down into the silt smoke screen, most of the time the carp will not be spooked because of all the chaos it's causing by eating.

Deeper water can be a bigger guess, but when you find a cloud from a feeding carp, even if she is too deep to see, cast farther out in front to the plume streak as to allow for the current. In other words, the by the time the streaks of silt are visible, they actually are emanating at a distance some what ahead of where you see, depending on the speed of the current flow of water.

Cool, excellent descriptions! I have witnessed what you described on dozens of occasions, but on only a handful of times did I manage to hook up. I think I will try the strike indicators. On another note I was out on the Brazos this weekend and the spawn was on. There were dozens of carp spawning in 8-10 inches of crystal clear water just yards from my tent. My brand new sharksin and 5 wt were in perfect sync and I just couldn't miss. I was dropping all manner of flies as delicate as a feather and twitching them right in front of their mouth, but alas they had other priorities and hardly gave my fly a 2nd glance.
My brother in law saw the same scene on Benbrook Lake. I'm guessing this means the carp will stay shallow from now on.