Just got back from a week in FL with the kids and Kelly's parents. We had a great time in Marco Island, but I'm glad to be home! The flight back was tough...just a lot of hours in a plane with two young kids! Elia is an absolute fish and had a blast at the beach. JJ was sick most of the trip, but still enjoyed building (and destroying) sand castles! I spent one day fishing with Mark from Everglades Guide service. We fished hard but the snook just didn't cooperate. I enjoyed the change of pace from carp fishing...hammering the banks with streamers, trying to tuck the fly under tree branches and in amongst the mangrove roots was quite a challenge. I managed one small snook, and a bunch of snappers. I nearly had a couple of jacks but the schools busting the bait move so fast it was tough to get in front of them.

I spent the mornings at the resort walking the beaches and looking for fish to throw the fly at. There was a large rock pile about 1/2 mile away, so I would walk slowly along the beach casting at swirls and then spend the bulk of my time casting off the rock piles. I caught a ton of sierra mackerel, and had more than that chop through the straight 40 lb mono I was using as leader. Man, do they have sharp teeth. I landed one really big mackerel that went way into my backing (not pictured) but most were the size seen below. Fun fish, they just maul a fly...all of my clousers are chopped down to dumbell eyes with no more bucktail. I caught the big lady fish below off the beach. Walking along I saw some activity, chucked a clouser out there and this ladyfish grabbed the fly. They fight pretty well! I also managed to catch a few small jacks from the rock piles...pound for pound, they crushed the lady fish and mackerel. It was a nice change of pace from carping...completely different than anything I've done before.

My dad just misses the 20 lb club...19 lbs 10 ounces. Nice! His biggest fish ever caught on a fly rod.

He's shooting for 20 tomorrow.

Just haven't had time to post of late, but have had a few outings. Nice triple here with my dad's friend Mike. I'll get some details up soon...fish are 16, 9, and 19 lbs.

16 lber from the other day...

A couple more pictures of the 30 lber.

Pretty good sign that you are into the carp here.

Great day with my dad. While I actually took this picture scouting on the way home after fishing with dad, we saw about this many carp when we had flies in the water! Too tired for a full on report right now, but some large fish were seen, and caught. My dad landed a 17 lber, his 2nd biggest fish ever on a flyrod. I caught a 16 lber and this fish that stole the show.

The picture doesn't do this fish justice, but it tipped the digital scale at 30.5 lbs! I spotted the fish about 30 feet out, slow cruising directly towards me in about knee deep water. I dropped the carrot in front of him, stripped twice and he darted forward then just stopped. I set the hook and it was off to the races! While not an epic battle, the fish hit my backing on the first run, and played some serious tug of war when he got in close to me. With no nearby obstructions I managed to get him in the net for my second 30 lb common!

Later in the day I spotted 4 large grass carp...not General Sherman large, but probably mid 30s to 40 lb range. Big, spooky fish...I managed to get into casting range but before I even finished one false cast all 4 of the grasser bolted out the shallows...it was quite a ruckus!

I have a hunch my dad is close to his first 20 lber. We saw several today, and I think it is just a matter of time before he finds one willing to eat his fly. It won't be long now!

My dad...carping in style!

Elia and I headed out of town to meet up with my parents this weekend. They are staying in the rv and dad has been after carp all week. Fishing has been slow for him I think he had only landed one or two so far. We started out today with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. The fish were not around in huge numbers but in the right water types they were tailing and feeding nicely. My dad had some great shots but no luck in the morning. I kept going and he went back for lunch with Elia and my mom. I had caught some fish by then but started to get into them pretty good along a deep rocky bank. One tailer took the fly so deep I just about lost a finger trying to get my fly back! Some great aggressive takes over all including several strip takes where I had the fish chasing and just kept stripping until there was resistance. Dad came back and we finished the day together. For the day I landed about 15 with two fish a little over 14 lbs. Mo monsters today. Dad got a few and we have one great double pic thatt I will get online when I get home.

One pic worth showing is of Elia. We hit one quick spot on the way out of town and I hooked this fish. Elia fought it for a while and then chased it around in the shallows with the net. She managed to scoop him up though! I just love being on the river with my little girl.

Here is a quick and rather poor picture of the carrot I fish. Basically, this is Mr. P's carp carrot, with a split rubber legged tail and a more muted orange color. Great fly Mr. P!

I caught a lot of carp today. How many? Somewhere inbetween "Oh my god what a great day" and "Holy crap I can't lift my right arm." Closer to the latter actually. I saw a lot of this:

It wasn't that I saw more fish than I normally do, but they were a lot more aggressive. They flat out did not want to eat the worm. I caught one or two on a small crayfish pattern, but today was all about the carrot. Carp tailing up ahead? Put the carrot on it...bam...fish on. Carp slow crusing near the bottom? Drop the carrot, strip, strip...bam...fish on. Fast cruiser on the surface? Rip the carrot by it as fast as you can strip...bam...fish on! Sunning fish on the drop off? Watch that carrot sink and bam! Fish on...it was pretty crazy. All I had to do was show the fish the carrot (in motion) and they would move, chase, follow, and eat.

The vast majority of the fish were in the 10-13 lb range, with several in the mid teens and two big boys (get to those in a minute.) And the fish were HOT today. Nearly every fish went deep into my backing, and I broke off at least 5 fish. I was fishing in some pretty serious rock piles, and they were absolutely sawing my leader apart. I actually had to give 3 fish slack so they would swim off some rock piles just to land them. Of course, I had no extra leaders with me, so I had to make due with a knicked up piece of junk for most of the day. Three fish worth mentioning.

First, this beast. I spotted this fish tailing about 60 ft away, snuck to within 40 ft and started to make the cast. Just as I was about to let the fly go the fish stopped tailing, lifted up and moved directly toward me. I chopped the cast short and dropped the carrot about 3 ft in front of him and that carp charged like a bull moose and inhaled the fly. Awesome take and he was off to the races. I scaled the fish out at 21 lbs, but that weight doesn't do this fish justice. He was solid...he made me think of my son, JJ. Just a solid brick of a fish. Yes, I just compared a carp to my son, but if you had seen this fish and met JJ, you'd agree.

Notable fish #2...this big girl was in the midst of about 3-4 other carp that appeared completely uninterested in anything. These fish were holding in about 2 ft of water, not moving an inch. I snuck right up on them...probably because they were virtually asleep. Somehow I managed to thread the needle on a flip cast and got the single carrot to sink about 7 inches from the biggest fish's head. The fish stirred, stretched, and ate the carrot. It scaled out at 23 lbs.

And of course I have to mention the mirror. This fish was only about 9 lbs, but when I see mirror carp, I cast at them. In fact, I literally PASSED on a tailer that might have gone 20 lbs to put the carrot on this mirror. When Justin and Joe were here J hypothesized a peacock herl carrot. As if there was any doubt that a peacock anything would catch fish, this mirror chomped the peacock carrot.

All in all, just an amazing day on the water. The fish were active, aggressive and strong. My arm really does feel like it is about to fall off. I really don't know how many fish I landed, but I did bring 20 lbers number 7 and number 8 to hand...more where they came from!

Mr. P, the mythical carp anlger from WA now has a blog! Link to sidebar added, or go here. Good stuff Mr. P!