cicada madness!
This year in our annual striped bass run Weldon North Carolina we got a very exciting opportunity to catch carp on the surface as well! The run happened to be at the same time as the 13 and 17 year cicada hatches and they were out in full force. Now we have annual cicadas every year here in the south east but not like this, thousands of the black and orange cicadas blanketed the water and the trees!
It is a rare occurrence to catch carp on top water they are bottom feeders their mouths are designed to eat down. You can see that as the sometimes struggle to get the bug in their mouth and keep pushing it with their lips. They do get it more often than not and when they do its on. They are a hard fight big run kinda fish that you can see your backing on many times due to the fact they don’t build ups lactic acid so they will fight forever.
I like to stick to the program but after making a long run one day I noticed a few carp eating on top so the next day I threw a rod with floating line and a orange and black cicada in the boat. After catching a few striper I asked any client if he wanted to try something new. Little did I know what we were about to get into. Pulling into the spot I could already tell that there was way more bugs on the water than the day before and I could see carp waking down the bank for a good ways. once I gave him the over view of what to do we find our first fish and make a cast to him . the fish cruised lazy up to the fly and in one motion sucked it down. Instantly there fish took off once he realized he was hooked and the fight was on. After landing six really big carp my client so excited that he got a very rare opportunity to fish a hatch like this.
Though we were there for the rockfish the carp quickly became a go to when the striper bite slowed down. Clients had a blast sight casting to these big fish and realized how fun they can be. Glad we got to be part of such an epic event but also glad to be back to the regular program. I am finishing up my last trout trips and ready for full time summer smallmouth action. If your looking to get out this summer I do have some later summer dates open