Tuesday, September 14, 2010

September Carp







I saw an awful lot of this today.

I headed out today thinking that this would be my last outing of the season. The weather is about to turn cool and the rains are coming, but today I had full on sun and just enough wind for a tiny chop on the water. Just perfect conditions. The water temp is definitely down a bit and while the carp are there, I didn't see the insane numbers that I had been seeing this spring and summer. Instead of groups of 10-30 carp I saw a lot of single and double fish. As the day wore on I saw larger groups coming together to sun, but most of the day was about spotting individual tailers.






The fish were all good size with a ton of 12-16 lbers. I landed two that were right at 20 lbs and several in the upper teen range. I did spot some bigger fish and had a few chances to put it together but man! Those real pigs are tough! Even when I put the fly in the perfect spot the bigger fish seemed to sense the tippet sinking and simply bolt. Next spring I might go down to 2x tippet and see if that helps, though landing a 25-35 lb carp on 2x tippet could create it's own challenges.






I didn't keep track of fish landed but it had to be somewhere between 20 or 30. It seemed like the fish were aggressive and with the light chop on the water I got great shot after great shot. Just a fantastic day of fishing.






Two words on the buff. Love it. If you fish in the sun a lot, throw out the sunscreen and go long sleeves, sun gloves and a buff. I find it very comfortable, not too hot and I never feel sun or wind burnt. Plus, it makes you feel like a ninja when you are sneaking up on a big tailer.






I caught this nice mirror on a little gravel bar. The fish had it's back completely out of the water.






I was struck with how thick the fish looked today. No fat spawning bellies but every carp was big and broad with heavy shoulders. With the large number of teens fish I was shot by the end of the day. 12-14 lb carp are like the 6 ft 6 inch two guard on an NBA team. Fast and powerful but still plenty agile. The 15-17 lbers are the real studs though. Think the 6 ft 8 inch small forwards like Lebron James. Those fish absolutely light you up and rip line from your reel like you hooked a semi truck on the freeway. I caught a few lebrons and carmelo's today, as well as some Dwayne Wade's and Brandon Roy's. Still looking to land a Shaq though.


















A few athletes there.

All in all, one of my better trips this year. Nice to end the season (maybe) on a bang. Something about carping just gets me. The hunt, the stalk, the cast, the take...it just feels right. Even after a satisfying trip like today, I am ready for more. But maybe I should wash my hat first.








6 comments:

Smithhammer said...

Right on, John.

Feather Chucker said...

I know the best time to get a carp is when they are mudding. I found out it's a good time to get cats too. I noticed yesterday both a carp and a cat stirred up mud, I beleive with their tail then circled gobbling up whatever they could find. I ended up catching a cat probably 30inches or so. He got off at the bank, but it was a nice 5min fight.

Mark said...

thats a great day on the water!

Unknown said...

Wash your hat? Are you crazy man? You'd wash the good stuff right out of it.

Wendy Berrell said...

Great outing. And great report. Nothing like that going on here. And so looking forward to spring/summer over there.

Agree that you can't wash your hat.

Carlos Del Rey. said...

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Look my blog.

www.barbosconmosca.blogspot.com