Fished the lovely LA River a few weeks back with a few friends. Started out trying my fly fishing gear, did a great job of spooking the carp feeding in the shallows. The tilapia were a little more interested in the flys, but didn't stick.
Eventually switched to conventional tackle. Typical carp bait worked just fine, on a split shot/sliding sinker rig. Ended up landing several small carp, and we got one very nice, 17" common carp. Highlight for me was a ~ 12" carp on 2lb mono, trout pole. Very fun fight. Also had a few tilapia landed.
All fish were caught and released. Not the same for the individuals downstream that were catching and gutting fish on the bank. They were very dissapointed that we released the big carp. Hoohoo.

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