Ben "The Carp Whisperer" Levin
Meet Ben “Carp Whisperer” Levin and one of his pals from Crooked Creek. It would be tempting to say pet carp, given that picture above, but that would belie just how smart these fish are and what an incredible job a fish of this size is. Ben nabbed the beast, estimated between 15 to 20 pounds on a crawdad pattern over the weekend.
Now some of you good folk are probably raising a few eyebrows at the statement that these fish are smart, given carp’s reputation as a scum sucking noxious pest. However the real truth is carp have a pretty similar diet to trout, or smallmouth for that matter, pull like steamtrains, are incredibly spooky and are a whole lot of fun to catch on a flyrod.
The Journal first came across the carp on fly phenomenon in Michigan where the locals were stalking carp on the flats, in the Midwest equivalent of bonefishing. I passed up one day on the flats and have been kicking myself ever since, but at the time I was spending a lot of nights on the water fishing the Hex hatch and sleep deprivation was setting in.
Then in my first year in Arkansas spent a deal of time working out how to chase these fish in a crystal clear spring creek running through the suburbia of North-West Arkansas. At times it could be maddening, but the experience kept me going back.
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Ben, who ties and guides with Duane Hada on Crooked Creek and other warmwater streams mixes the carp fishing in with smallmouth trips. If you are interested in learning how to catch carp from the Carp Whisperer, give us a call. Full Day float trips for one person $300. Two person trips (1 guide each) are $425.
