Elia and I headed out of town to meet up with my parents this weekend. They are staying in the rv and dad has been after carp all week. Fishing has been slow for him I think he had only landed one or two so far. We started out today with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. The fish were not around in huge numbers but in the right water types they were tailing and feeding nicely. My dad had some great shots but no luck in the morning. I kept going and he went back for lunch with Elia and my mom. I had caught some fish by then but started to get into them pretty good along a deep rocky bank. One tailer took the fly so deep I just about lost a finger trying to get my fly back! Some great aggressive takes over all including several strip takes where I had the fish chasing and just kept stripping until there was resistance. Dad came back and we finished the day together. For the day I landed about 15 with two fish a little over 14 lbs. Mo monsters today. Dad got a few and we have one great double pic thatt I will get online when I get home.

One pic worth showing is of Elia. We hit one quick spot on the way out of town and I hooked this fish. Elia fought it for a while and then chased it around in the shallows with the net. She managed to scoop him up though! I just love being on the river with my little girl.

Here is a quick and rather poor picture of the carrot I fish. Basically, this is Mr. P's carp carrot, with a split rubber legged tail and a more muted orange color. Great fly Mr. P!

I caught a lot of carp today. How many? Somewhere inbetween "Oh my god what a great day" and "Holy crap I can't lift my right arm." Closer to the latter actually. I saw a lot of this:

It wasn't that I saw more fish than I normally do, but they were a lot more aggressive. They flat out did not want to eat the worm. I caught one or two on a small crayfish pattern, but today was all about the carrot. Carp tailing up ahead? Put the carrot on it...bam...fish on. Carp slow crusing near the bottom? Drop the carrot, strip, strip...bam...fish on. Fast cruiser on the surface? Rip the carrot by it as fast as you can strip...bam...fish on! Sunning fish on the drop off? Watch that carrot sink and bam! Fish on...it was pretty crazy. All I had to do was show the fish the carrot (in motion) and they would move, chase, follow, and eat.

The vast majority of the fish were in the 10-13 lb range, with several in the mid teens and two big boys (get to those in a minute.) And the fish were HOT today. Nearly every fish went deep into my backing, and I broke off at least 5 fish. I was fishing in some pretty serious rock piles, and they were absolutely sawing my leader apart. I actually had to give 3 fish slack so they would swim off some rock piles just to land them. Of course, I had no extra leaders with me, so I had to make due with a knicked up piece of junk for most of the day. Three fish worth mentioning.

First, this beast. I spotted this fish tailing about 60 ft away, snuck to within 40 ft and started to make the cast. Just as I was about to let the fly go the fish stopped tailing, lifted up and moved directly toward me. I chopped the cast short and dropped the carrot about 3 ft in front of him and that carp charged like a bull moose and inhaled the fly. Awesome take and he was off to the races. I scaled the fish out at 21 lbs, but that weight doesn't do this fish justice. He was solid...he made me think of my son, JJ. Just a solid brick of a fish. Yes, I just compared a carp to my son, but if you had seen this fish and met JJ, you'd agree.

Notable fish #2...this big girl was in the midst of about 3-4 other carp that appeared completely uninterested in anything. These fish were holding in about 2 ft of water, not moving an inch. I snuck right up on them...probably because they were virtually asleep. Somehow I managed to thread the needle on a flip cast and got the single carrot to sink about 7 inches from the biggest fish's head. The fish stirred, stretched, and ate the carrot. It scaled out at 23 lbs.

And of course I have to mention the mirror. This fish was only about 9 lbs, but when I see mirror carp, I cast at them. In fact, I literally PASSED on a tailer that might have gone 20 lbs to put the carrot on this mirror. When Justin and Joe were here J hypothesized a peacock herl carrot. As if there was any doubt that a peacock anything would catch fish, this mirror chomped the peacock carrot.

All in all, just an amazing day on the water. The fish were active, aggressive and strong. My arm really does feel like it is about to fall off. I really don't know how many fish I landed, but I did bring 20 lbers number 7 and number 8 to hand...more where they came from!

Mr. P, the mythical carp anlger from WA now has a blog! Link to sidebar added, or go here. Good stuff Mr. P!