Sunday, February 04, 2007



Elia's grandparent's were kind enough to buy her this nice little fishing pole while they were visiting last week. This morning I decided to take Elia to the coffee shop for "steamer coffe" and I figured that I would take her out in the afternoon to do a little scouting for carp. Elia spotted me putting her fishing pole in the back of the FJ, and she was so excited we had to go right then! We went to the only place that I figured had a prayer of containing active carp. I left the flyrod in the car and tied a size 10 hares ear on to the end of Elia's little pole. The orange bobber is actually a strike indicator I use when fishing for salmon. I have no bait or worms or anything, so I stuck with a fly only I took a page out of Justin's book and dipped the fly in vanilla extract before tying it on the line! KB showed up and the three of us wandered around and we did spot 3 active fish. I had a heck of a time getting the fly to them with the Dora pole, and couldn't get a take. Too bad, Elia really wanted to catch something.

After we got home Kelly was talking to her mom on speakerphone with Elia and I heard Elia say "no, I didn't catch any fishies."

A little warm weather, and we will at least see more carp. Won't be long now...

4 comments:

Wendy Berrell said...

Wow... the ball is rolling now! Great news from the NW. I keep asking JD if he wants to go fishing - I get a YES every time. I like the idea of a kiddie pole with a HE and strike indicator.

V-A-N-I-L-L-A

Speaking of it - coincidentally, here is an entry from my fishing log that I just ran across yesterday:

August 30, 2004
Cannon River
8:30-10:30

Used special carp nymphs (tied by me). First cast - hooked and lost one in lane adjacent to Bridge Square wall. Second cast – hooked a big one – ran me downriver under bridge! After ~15 minutes landed it – had to be 8-9 lbs. Proceeded to catch four (4) carp – best ever outing – on nymphs – all took trailing #12-14 HE – every so often dipped in vanilla solution. All were big – one was okay… In the meantime – also caught four (4) great walleye – all 17”+, one was an easy 20-22”! They were taking nymphs – sometimes lead larger nymph. Landed every fish by hand, in relatively fast current – exciting! Really great day – only a couple misses/LDR – pretty steady action to hand. All fish were caught between Bridge Square wall and middle bridge pylon – none over by west wall. Details: short, thick leader; no indicator; no beadheads; no sinkers; just 2-nymph rig (each weighted with wrap); hares ears were fat and flashy – soaked up vanilla well. Made a conscious effort to be more “gentle” setting hook – seemed to pay off.

Wendy Berrell said...

She looks really excited standing with rod in hand... cool.

WT said...

Good to see you are posting again John. Four more months (give or take) until the flats will be jumpin.
BTW I've lost you're email, can you send me something so that I have it again.
Thanks,
Wyatt

John Montana said...

just shot you an email wt...been a busy couple of months for me, just haven't had time to do much posting.

you should have seen elia J. she was so excited, wouldn't let me touch that pole. the funniest part was watching me to try whip that fly out there when i spotted a carp 10 ft off the bank! for the rest of the afternoon elia walked around trying to cast that rod. it cracked me up.

i'll get a carp on that rod for her. just need warmer weather and i know i can sneak close enough to pull it off.