No pictures to go with this report...I kind of had my hands full. With JJ (all 23 lbs of him) in the backpack, and Elia following along carrying my net I hit the local carp pond for an hour this afternoon. The spawn is on. Most of the fish I saw were grouped up in the shallows. For every large female there were 2-3 smaller males avidly following her around. The fish seemed to have 0 interest in eating...can you blame them?

I did find one feeding fish. It was a typical 4-5 lb carp, but it was feeding in an impossible position. This guy had tucked himself up under the willow trees, surrounded by a virtual screen of overhanging branches. To top it off, he picked the trees with the steepest bank. I decided to give him a shot anyway, so I told Elia to sit down and watch, then reeled up all of my flyline and left about 10 inches of tippet and the fly hanging out of the tip top on my 4 wt. I snaked the rod through the branches, just managing to avoid snagging any leaves and gently dapped the fly right in front of the feeding fish. I literally fed him the damselfly nymph, and like any self respecting carp...when the food was put on his plate, he ate it. I set the hook with a flick of the wrist, then pointed the rod right at the fish and let him rip my leader and flyline through the guides for me. As soon as some line was out of the guides I moved the rod under water to get around the branches, stood up and was in business! This fish made a great initial run and I saw my backing on a day where I didn't even expect to see any fish! Always a nice bonus.

After netting the fish I let Elia pet the carp. I asked her how it felt to pet the fish and she said "It felt good." Smart little girl!