Not an easy day on the water today. Looking at the weather last night I knew it could be tough, but didn't expect it to be a complete weather fiasco. Instead of partly cloudy, I got a complete blackout. Nothing but dark cloud cover the entire time on the water...it even rained on me off an on throughout the day. I didn't have one single ray of sunlight touch me all day. Not exactly what a guy looks for when sight fishing for carp. Still, with Wendy Berrell closing in on OR soon, I needed to check out some water and see if looked promising, so I went, and I hoofed all over the damn river with no visibility. At first, I stuck to the shallows and looked for tails, but unfortunately none of the fish were in close enough to shore for me to see any activity. I found a section with a high bank, and got into my first fish by spotting it from above and then zoning in on it at water level like a radar guided missile. Turned out to be a decent mirror carp, the first of several I would catch today. Eventually, I started to find a few fish, but for the most part I was spooking them. Nice fish too...the water I checked out today held some good fish, and a larger population of mirrors than I'm used too. I landed 3 mirrors (out of 11 total fish) and saw several more fish that sure looked like mirror carp, but it was tough to tell in the darkness. This nice 14 lb mirror took the new green fly that has been so deadly that past couple of weeks:
I got into a rhythm, slowed WAY down. I took tiny, steps, and paused between each footfall. That seemed to work and I started getting close enough to fish to at least see a shadow. I lost 4-5 fish that I'm sure were snagged, no scales back but when casting at dark shapes that are basically blobs, you are bound to snag a few.
Late in the day I finally spotted a tailer on the bank. Turned out to be about 4-5 fish milling around. I snuck in there close and pulled a 12 lber out of the scrum on the green fly. Literally hauled his ass backwards to get him out of the feeding frenzy. Landed him, snuck back in there and stuck another 12-13 lber in the face with the green fly. Hauled his ass out of there even faster than his buddy. Landed, released, and 10 stealthy steps back to the honey hole found a big dark blob poking around. I dropped the green fly right on her nose and set up pretty quickly. I didn't even try to haul this fish out of the spot. There were still a few fish there but this one was the one I was after all day. I fought the fish for while then brought her to the net. Just a shade over 21 lbs:
A great fish considering the conditions. I had seen bigger dark blobs throughout the day, but it was really tough out there. Nearly impossible to get a good sight picture put together.

Lastly, this was obviously the maiden voyage of the new buff. Dig the carp scale pattern. I figure this will replace all that nasty sunscreen, and it worked pretty well. Didn't need it for the sun today, but it felt great to have my face protected from the 15 MPH winds. I don't feel all ripped up like I normally do after a day in the wind...kept my neck warm too. I think I'll like it but am anxious to see how the buff does in the sun.