The pond on our new apartment complex has a few grass carp that I've seen. I saw one near the surface loafing about, and another I didn't see until I spooked it into a skinny bay and it went apeshit and kicked up a cloud of silt until it found its way to deeper water.

I know they can be very spooky so I've tried to stealthily approach areas where I've seen them and fish both floating bread crust and slow-sinking bread balls. We have had a lot of rain here so the pond is murky and I've been blind fishing. I haven't seen a grassy while I've had rod and bait along.

My biggest problem is that the gazillions of turtles in the pond have been fed by residents here many a time. They are so thick that anywhere I try to cast 3-4 turtles are taking my bread within 60 seconds.

Any advice on turtle-proof tactics for pond grassies? Grass balled up on a hook? Or leaves maybe?

I had one hit a dandelion head in Iowa.
They were rooting around in a small weedy cove.
So I picked a flower and sent it out, one hit it after about 15 minutes.
I Nerfed the hookset and scared the school.
Durp..........

I've heard banana peels work good.

Or just make a shitload of turtle soup and try for Grassies next week. Make it a welcome to the neighborhood potluck and you serve fresh turtles. Baked turtle, fried turtle, turtle soup, turtle in the half shell (had to throw that one in there).

But surely a banana peel presented on a bare hook with maybe a splitshot above, a foot or so in front of them and blam!

Hmm, I wonder if the turtles would leave banana peel alone. We certainly have bananas...

Try fishing in the evening near sundown... this will eliminate the spook factor to a certain degree, they wont be able to see you AS well. The rain showers can be a good thing, I have no idea why... but in a lot of pond settings I have noticed that after a quick afternoon shower when the sun breaks back out right after a shower the grass carp get really active, usually near the surface... I have no clue why. If you continually chum the surface of that pond with bread, eventually the carp will start to get the hint and you will definitely get them interested in feeding from the surface... the turtles can be pesky, but I think the carp react to the commotion of feeding turtles, like a dinner bell. Once you get them feeding from the surface it really wont matter if they spook, they will come right back within a few minutes... I wouldnt give up on trying to get them off the surface, they may just need to become more accustomed to it... so every so often get out there and toss bread onto the surface.

-I would just load that pond with bread (or saltine crackers) on the surface... near the evening or after an afternoon shower. Put a float on to help cast the bread out farther, dont bonk the carp in the head with the float though haha. It should work... just may take a few tries

When I went to Illinois to visit a friend from school we stopped by his grandparents pond which had a few big grass carp in it, I dont think they had ever even been fed, but after a little bit of rain that day I saw the grass carp cruising the surface and managed to get them up to the top with bread before long... and sure enough he landed his first carp ever, which was also one of his first FISH ever

I've caught a grass carp on a jig spinner before, and I've seen them chase lures, which makes me think they're not purely vegetarian. Try something with a spinner, with a bit of worm on it. Turtles are usually too lazy to go after moving bait.

Since the pond is right in your backyard, you could feed them something like banana peels, fish pellets, or cherry tomatoes everyday at the same time. The fish will get accustomed to this and be looking for the easy meal. It shouldn't take long to get them into this habit. Once they are less spooky and feeding more actively, you might be able to present your offering without a turtle beating them to it.

additionally... you can use a mesh bag with wide enough gaps in the fiber that dissolving food will spill out or can be sucked out by carp... but not taken by turtles. if nothing else this will leave a scent slick. In Arkansas I lived on a very large pond... 7 acres or so, and I used this method. I took some of these green mesh sacks that came with groceries and filled them with corn and bread balls and tied a string to them and tossed several of them out and drove the strings into the ground...

-I usually fished for the carp during sundown, but would seem to completely shut down when it got dark and the channel catfish would move in. Either way, the sacks of food would stay out there for days at a time, I would see carp swimming around them during the day from time to time... not sure how much it helped but it did something. The turtles would climb all over the bags but really not mess them up. Most of the carp I caught were smaller, but I did land two that were over 40 lbs back then! good times


from way back 'yonder!




even though I had these chum bags on the bottom... and probably could have caught the fish from the bottom, I get all anal about SEEING my fish take my bait that I still fished the surface with bread most of the time so I could watch the fish take the bait. When it got too dark to see we would use those floats that have little light bulbs in them and I would fish balled bread under the float. The turtles were really bad out there too.. they followed floats on purpose, im convinced of it! Just had to fish around them really.. once you get the carp clooping bread off the surface you can pretty much cast right in the path that they are sucking up the bait