Kind of a frustrating day today. Dave, Kim and I headed to Sauvies Island to chase some carp. My fishing times of late have come in short, hour to two hour long increments, so I was excited to spend a good portion of today out on the water. While I've had some success lately, there is just no substitute for time on the water.

We checked out a pond that Dave had found full of carp last week. Not the case today though. The water was clear and perfect, but we saw only a few carp. This is the type of water that would be a dream if the fish were in at the same time you were there. Clear water, grassy reeds, some open patches...just a fantastic spot to stalk through the shallows looking for carp.

We drove around and hit a few other spots, and we did see some fish. Unfortunately most of the places we saw fish were so murky it was impossible to really fish for them. It was great to fish with Dave and Kim, and we found some good water to hit at a later date.

I got home and played with Kelly and Elia for a bit, then decided to head out while the sun was still out and look for Highway Cone. I got to his lake and headed down to where I expected to find him. Once there I noticed a big tail sticking out of the water, and bubbles floating to the surface. I got excited and hurried to rig my rod up, and in my hurry I completely knotted my leader. It was so bad I had to clip it off and retie a new leader...all the while the sun was dropping. I got re-rigged and put a crayfish pattern on in time to spot several more tailing fish. All of the fish I could see were large, but the sun was at a terrible angle, so I could not make out more than just a tail, and that only if the fish were really close. I messed up quite a few of these feeding fish but finally got in a good position with a really big fish close to shore. This was a huge carp...Clearly a big female. I dropped the fly in and her tail sped up so I set the hook. Fish on! After a minute I realized that this would be the biggest carp I'd ever caught. This fish was huge and kept running out line only to be brought close to shore where she would thrash so much I got wet from the splash. I started to think about how to get a good picture of this big girl, so of course, I screwed up and broke her off. She made a big run and I must have palmed the reel a little too hard...Pow...It was over.

I hooked two more fish that night, one another really nice fish that had to be between 15-20 lbs, the other a male in the 10 lb range. Both fish broke me off. The funny thing is, the only leader I had with me after the mess earlier that night was a 3x leader. One size bigger than I usually fish.

Still a fun, but frustrating day. No carp to hand, only a few hooked, and 3 flies left in fish. I'll be back for that big girl.