At the vice...carp carrots, worms, and some new rabbit strip bodied monstrosities. Yum!

I owe a huge debt of thanks to legendary bulldog basketball coach Julio Delgado. A year or two ago I was at the NCAA tournament with Julio and mentioned that I've always wanted to see a Zag game in K2. Julio contacted Mike Roth, the Gonzaga AD and I made the trip to Spokane this past week to see the Zags take on Portland. I'm a huge Gonzaga fan, and to see them play a big game at home was truly spectacular! GU dominated the game with outstanding defense and some great offensive plays...anyone that follows the Zags knows that Coach Few is extremely creative on the offensive end of the court, and this game played out much like I expected. Gonzaga was just too much for Portland, and ran away with a 27 point win. Big thanks for Julio, now all I need to do is figure out a way to go see Duke play at Cameron!



I broke up the long drive to Spokane by stopping at a few carp haunts and taking a look at the water. Talk about wetting your appetite! In some cases I saw a few tell tale pock marks, but no fish were spotted. Overall though, wow did the water look good. Everything was clear and the water was low...I did my best to fool myself into seeing some fish, but the temperature is just too cold still. In a month or two those fish will be in the shallows, and the spots I visited on the way to and from Spokane will be teeming with carp. It won't be too long now!

Oct. 18th...been a while. Unfortunately for me, that post is also the last time I touched a flyrod. I haven't had a glimmer of fishing opportunity since FL. I did put on my waders the other day and took the kids splashing around in the flooded basketball court. I guess it is a sign of age that I put on waders, and the kids were happy to just get wet.

Along with being away from rivers, rods, lakes, etc. I haven't tied a single fly. Very strange for me as fly tying is kind of like fishing without leaving the house. I supposed I'll bust out the vice pretty soon, my go to flies are getting low and I need to stalk up for a greatly anticipated spring season. Life has been busy out here.

Along with work keeping me in the office and on my phone a lot, Elia just turned 5, and JJ is becoming quite a little boy! Kelly and I are reminded daily of how lucky we are to have such enjoyable little people to be around...but the challenges are there too. I can't wait for spring, as I can see that this year it should be much more rewarding for JJ and Elia both to come to the river with me and fish. They love to be active, and this summer on the Columbia should be a lot of fun!

I'll get out fishing soon, probably a Feb. run to the big D for some tiny little trout...be nice to recharge my batteries and fish some Cane. For now, some more pics of the kids.

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.