Stories

Midway through day two I hadn't stuck a fish. I was happy as a clam (though I doubt clams in the Columbia are happy...major carp fodder) and had spent most of the morning running back and forth netting fish, taking pictures and giving out high fives to a pair of smiling fisherman. It wasn't red hot, but we were doing ok with a few nice fish, including this great double.


Note the blue sky...that always makes me smile. We had some rays, and the boys were taking advantage of the light. After moving through the mud flats we came to series of small, rocky bays. Normally this is one of my favorite spots on the river but given the water levels we were struggling. The fish were there, tailing in the boulders but the wading was brutal. Repeated slips and falls and one badly bashed shin marked our efforts, with just enough shots to keep us moving down the treacherous water. This is big fish water though, and it did bring us our biggest "to hand" fish. As we stumbled along I spotted a big tail waving amongst the boulders. WFF was on my right and quickly put a fly on the fish but an errant gust of wind contributed to a nasty tangle and ended his attempt at the feeding carp. I looked over at Wendy but he was too far away to risk the movement in the slippery conditions, so I flipped my two fly rig to the fish. As the flies sank I snuck a glance at WFF and said "he is going to eat that." A second later I set the hook and the fish screamed out into the river. This was one of the few fish we hooked that had room to run, and it felt good to see my backing. Approximately 45 minutes later (in dog years) Wendy deftly netted this nice carp.



The fish tipped the scales at over 15 lbs, and while we all hooked bigger fish, this was the biggest we managed to net. It came on a perfect situation...an actively tailing fish in amongst the boulders, a soft presentation and a short, sharp head turn to the fly...memorable.