And winter is officially over. Once again, I found myself stalking the flats of the Columbia in search of clamshells, pockmarks, movement, shadows, shapes, tails...and lips. Big puffy carp lips sucking up any morsel of food they can find. It is a tough thing to explain properly to someone, this fascination with shallow water and fish so ugly they can only seem beautiful in the perfect light, or when only seen in bits and pieces. With the sun hitting a patch of scales at the right angle, the gold color can be dazzling, but take a step back and view the fish as a whole and it is not as easy to argue with those who call the carp ugly. Still, there is beauty in the pursuit. With carp, you can't wait for the fish to come to you, you have to find a way to the fish. Moving up the flats today I was reminded that you can't just stomp up to a carp. Only after a few forceful reminders did I slow myself down and find the right tempo...the careful stepping, the constant scanning in all directions. It didn't take long to get my mojo back.

I don't care who you are...that fish there is 6 months off the flats, dozens of hours at the vice, and 26 lbs of pure beauty.

After several hours of searching today I finally found that patch of warm water in the cold, cloudy Columbia. And that little area was loaded with carp. They ate the worm, I caught two on that all time great pattern. Without a doubt, a serious carp angler could carry a fly box full or worm patterns, and nothing else. Fish flat out eat that fly. I forced myself to fish another slutty little pattern I'd tied last night using some fancy new tungsten beads, and some hareline wiggle dubbing I found on line. Fish eat that little monster too. Still, the winning fly of the day was the venerable Montana Carrot. Once again I am amazed at Mr. P's carp carrot. I fish mine with a little more motion and some rubber legs, but it is basically the same fly and carp love it. I found myself fishing to hordes of carp in large pods, prepping to spawn. Most fish ignored every fly, but every once in a while a big mouth would open up and suck that carrot in as it fell to the bottom. Just deadly.

As carp openers go...this one ranks pretty high. The smallest fish of the day weighed 12 lbs...the largest that 26 lb beast pictured above. Most of the fish were between 15 and 19 lbs...and I did get a second "over 20" fish (21 on the nose). 11 fish total, and probably over 200 lbs combined weight. I find that beautiful too.


It is going to be a good year.