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!