Day Four

Or, we slink home with our tails between our legs. The truth is, we got crushed this trip. Last year we caught at least 80 carp...this year (with an extra fisherman) we caught 11. The fish were there, but not in a feeding mode. I couldn't tell you if they were about to spawn, or they just spawned, but they wouldn't eat. We did everything we could, pushed hard, walked far, tried every technique in the book, but we couldn't get them to eat consistently. Thankfully, these guys are not so complicated.

Recollections on the bass vary since we really didn't target them, just took the ones that sort of offered themselves up, or caught a few blind casting in bad light but I can say this with complete faith. On day two, we landed a minimum of 80 bass between the three of us. That was clearly the biggest bass total of the trip, but we caught bass every day, and with few extended dry periods.

The largest bass was between 19.5-20 inches. Many, many, many bass were 17-18...really high quality bass. They ate pretty much anything we threw, but a rust orange bunny leech was my best overall pattern of the trip. I landed the bulk of my fish on that fly, including five of my six carp. Yep, I only caught six carp. Big carp of the trip...two fish at 17 lbs. Tough, tough fishing.

Big thanks to a bunch of people for another fun trip. First off, my lovely wife and kids for letting me run off on these adventures. I miss them everyday that I am gone and can't wait for the kids to join me and Wendy. Big thanks to Wendy and Joe's families as well. We all have young kids and very significant others, and are fortunate to get to spend this time together. Lastly, thanks to Joe and Wendy. You could not find two better guys to spend four days with. When things are tough, we laugh it off, and when they are good we cheer each other on...till next year boys!