If you tried, you couldn’t come up with a sorrier-looking puss to put on a poster than a carp.
And, oh, has it been tried.
“It’s the classic ‘lemonade’ story,” Denver Trout Unlimited chapter president Todd Fehr said of the “lemons” that dominate Denver’s hometown fishery along the South Platte River. “The Pro-Am Carp Slam started because that’s what we had to work with. And the thing is just quirky enough to have taken off.”
The irony of using the lowly regarded carp to promote and preserve the would-be habitat of the regal trout is not lost on Fehr. But after years of frustration over the lack of a productive local trout fishery in metro Denver, DTU member Tim Emery suggested in 2007 that the group might try to take advantage of the abundant bugle-mouthed fish that reside in the neighborhood.
As it turns out, Emery was on to something.
“We turned a lot of heads when we told people we were having a carp tournament,” Fehr said. “But we’ve raised a lot of money from carp.”
Plans are underway for the fifth annual Carp Slam slated for Aug. 27 in Denver. Perhaps more significant, though, is the master plan that will be revealed today for the 2 1/2-mile segment of improved river corridor at South Platte Park in the Carson Nature Center. The plan, produced by Ecological Resource Consultants, Inc., in an effort to support a better native fish population, an improved recreational fishery and additional riparian habitat was largely funded through Carp Slam proceeds, Fehr said.
“It’s the predominant game fish in the river right now, at least downtown,” said DTU secretary Fred Miller, who added that the slowly improving fishery holds another half dozen species of fish. “Had we just targeted trout, we would have had a tough go.”
Noble causes aside, the timing for Carp Slam couldn’t have been much better. The reputation of the abundant, big-bodied fish that’s loved in Europe and is known in some stateside locations as “Queen of the Rivers” has been on the rise in recent years. Locally, they’ve been described as “the poor man’s bonefish” by freshwater game fish guru Barry Reynolds, co-author of the 1997 cult classic, “Carp on the Fly.”
“The attraction from a fisherman’s perspective, first and foremost is that they get big,” said Reynolds, adding that much of the angling world began catching on to his 30-year pursuit only in the past five years or so. “Twenty- or 30-pound fish are not uncommon, and occasionally 40- to 50-pound fish are possible. The ability to go out and chase a fish that big on a fly rod, in fresh water, close to home within the city limits is hard to beat. It’s hard to pass up.”
Reynolds has held appreciation for carp considerably longer than most sport fishermen, having learned how to haul them in as a child in San Antonio. Along the way, he also learned the intricacies of a fish commonly misunderstood as a “bottom feeder” and “trash fish.”
True, carp take a majority of their food from the river bottom, but so do most fish. And the reputation for eating dough balls, popcorn and Cheerios is the result of habituation, he says, not a natural diet.
“You can train a trout to feed on that too,” Reynolds said.
Since the fish are true omnivores, feeding on everything from crayfish to cottonwood seeds, figuring out the appropriate fly is a large part of the carp fishing challenge. But the prime time for unlocking the secret is right about now, just before (and after) the spring spawn, when the fish spend much of the day in cool shallows rooting and tailing like bonefish.
“They will challenge your thinking,” Reynolds said. “They spook so easily. Your first shot is your best one.”
The reward, however, is an incredibly strong fish that can take a 7- or 8-weight fly line well into the backing before coming to hand. And as word spreads on the challenge and stout fight of carp on the fly, ancillary appreciation grows for all that the species can do for urban fisheries such as the South Platte.
“The river is getting cleaner with all the cleanup projects and awareness that events like Carp Slam bring,” Reynolds said. “I had a bunch of friends who didn’t want me to talk about the Platte, but it’s never going to get cleaned up unless you make people aware of the possibilities.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
