My last carp outing, while short in time, had a strong result. Four fish in 90 minutes, including a beautiful mirror. I got a chance to get out this weekend as well though not for an extended period of time. The results were much more frustrating. In general, I saw quite a few feeding fish, but visibility was a problem everywhere. The water is really murky right now, so I spent a lot of time straining to see dark shapes in the middle of mud clouds or bubble streams. I hooked one nice fish while fishing blind to some bubbles, but didn't get a good strip set and lost him. I had a great shot at a really big mirror carp. The big fish was only 6 ft away, clearly a mirror, and easily in the mid to high teens in terms of weight. I put the fly right in front of him, he paused and then spooked. Looking back, the pause was probably a take. I could see his body clearly, but not his head and I think he sucked the fly in, spit it out and spooked. That was a great opportunity.

I hooked up twice more, both times with solid fish. The place KB and I were at seems to have bigger fish in general, and we both saw a few that were true monsters. I hooked a good fish only to have him break my 3x tippet on his first hard run, and then hooked another fish 5 minutes later only to have that fish dive into some weeds on the bottom. All I brought in that time was a fly full of muck!

I left and had barely hit the freeway when my cell phone rang. KB was releasing a beautiful 11 lb fish. He said it was golden orange, and just a perfect specimen. I think we have another spot to frequent, which is a good thing, but I will remember my missed opportunities from this weekend.