I am DYING to get out and do some carp fishing. Justin and I have been planning our spring trips; I've been reading old reports and going through old pictures...spring can't come soon enough. I did some gear shopping to tide me over until the fishing heats up, specifically for a nice 6 wt reel and a lumbar pack big enough for an entire day on the flats. I ended up with a Fishpond Waterdance pack, it fits the bill and will keep me relatively light and organized when the weather finally lures the carp into the shallows!

In addition to the new pack, I got a great deal from the guys at River City Fly shop on a Lamson Velocity reel and Ridgeline fly line. The color of the ridgeline is nicely muted, a big key for carp fishing. I'm of the "cheap reels are fine" school of thought, but frankly, that doesn't work for carp. I've destroyed 3 Pflueger Medalists in the last 3 seasons carp fishing. They run so often and so fast that all 3 reels have developed grooves in the plastic disk drag. Plus, it can take a long time to reel in all of that backing on a small arbor reel. That sounds like a load of crap, but it isn't. I've had fish tear loose with tons of backing out and it can be real excersize just filling the reel back up one crank at a time. The lamson should help, it has a really large arbor and the line retrieval rate will be great.

Back to daydreams of big carp...Here is a picture of a best I found online. How far away is spring?