How to Get Started in Carp Fishing, with Rick Mikesell

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Sports, Wilderness, Education, How To

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I offer no apologies for being a carp evangelist. They live almost anywhere, they are here to stay (they were stocked in many places in North America even before brown trout), and they are the hardest-fighting fish in fresh water. They are also fascinating creatures that can be a challenge to catch—which is why most of us fish with a fly rod. Rick Mikesell [49:05] of Denver is one of the best carp anglers I know and a terrific teacher and he gives us a great introduction on how to pursue these worthwhile fly-rod targets.

In the Fly Box this week, we have some interesting requests, including many questions about leaders and tippet.

What fly line should I use on my Helios 2 rod for dry-fly fishing?
What can I do to prevent my tippet from kinking?
What can you do when small stream trout refuse your fly?
I have been using heavier tippet and seem to be doing just as well as with lighter tippet. What is your take on this?
Is there a big difference between various brands of tippet material?
Can I just add a tippet ring to my 9-foot 4X leader to make a nymph leader?
Should the butt section of my nymph leader be made from fluorocarbon?
What should I take on a multi-day fishing trip that I would not normally think of?
Why am I foul-hooking so many trout and whitefish this year?
What do you think of furled leaders?
What rod should I get for my 8-year-old daughter? What rig should I start her out with?
What do you think of Crocs as inexpensive wading shoes?
What can you tell me about an older Orvis rod I purchased?
How can I tighten the drag on an older spring-and-pawl fly reel?
What is the deal with all these multi-fly rigs? Am I missing something by using a single fly?
Do people fish for trout with poppers?
Do I need sinking agents as well as flotants?
At the end of my drift I stripped in a dry fly and got strikes. Should I change my setup and move my flies a bit?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing podcast.
0:13.4	This is your host, Tom Rosemauer.
0:15.3	And in this week's episode, my guest is Rick Mike Sell.
0:20.2	And Rick is a carp officianto and one of the best
0:27.9	urban anglers that I've ever met and a fun guy to be around. Rick's gotten me into lots of
0:34.5	difficult carp on the Denver South Plat that I know I wouldn't have caught without
0:39.9	Rick standing over my shoulder.
0:41.9	And this guy is just a fount of knowledge.
0:44.7	And what I wanted to do with Rick this week is to do a more basic carp episode because,
0:51.8	you know, I'm a carp evangelist.
0:53.9	I have to admit, I think it's one of the most
0:57.4	interesting fish in freshwater. And they're available almost everywhere. And are they easy? No,
1:05.5	they're not easy to catch. So it's not something you want to go out and try for your first fly fishing
1:10.5	experience.
1:11.3	You're better off starting with panfish or bass.
1:14.7	But, you know, if you're a reasonably proficient, trout angler or bass angler, it's such a
1:21.7	fascinating fish, and they are definitely the hardest fighting fish in freshwater.
1:27.7	So anyway, other than steelhead and salmon, which I don't really consider freshwater fish
1:33.2	because they're an adrimous.
1:35.4	But we're doing a basic podcast on carp fishing, and I hope that by listening to this, those
1:42.3	of you haven't tried it and maybe been curious about it,
1:45.7	we'll give it a try because it's a way of taking pressure off our trout streams.
	...

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