Some days you get your clock cleaned.

After all, this is Carp on the fly. No one said it was easy. Today...was very tough. I would like to chalk it up to the dead calm conditions, the complete and total lack of wind that made getting a fly to a fish without spooking said fish virtually impossible; but there were several other factors in play.

One, my piss poor casting technique. On a good day, I am an average caster (at best). Today, I was a novice. When I wasn't hitting bushes or trees I was lining fish or hopelessly tangling my two fly rig. Granted, the fish were spooking at the slightest plop of a fly in the mirror like surface, but I seemed to add to that problem by either hitting the fish in the head with the fly, or covering fish in a pile of fly line. Not my best performance.

Two, my incredibly poor decision making. Hmmm...two fish at 25 ft, inevitably one is more likely to eat than the other...usually I can tell. Today I just cast over the back of one to get to the other and blew both fish when the front fish was likely the eater anyway. Strong work.

Three, my general clumsiness. This one really irks me. On a day when stealth was paramount, and moving with no noise, no push of water, no clink of gravel meant the difference between a target and a spooked fish, I stumbled around like I was wearing stilts. I would love to simply chalk this up to a bad day, but in reality the last vestiges of my former athletic ability are slipping away. Getting old sucks.

Four...strip setting. I tried it twice today, and nicked two fish that quickly popped off. Either I suck at strip setting, or it just doesn't work on super picky, hyper spooky fish that refuse to do anything more than mouth a fly like an old man who forgot his dentures trying to eat corn on the cob. probably both.

Fifth, and most telling that today simply wasn't my day...a complete and utter lack of faith. Many times I found myself saying "I should have set the hook" as a fish bolted away. The fly would sink, the fish would turn, my entire body would twitch and scream "set the hook!" and my traitor mind would say "No!". And the fish would spook. You cannot underestimate the importance of faith on a successful day.

So yeah...none of this shit is easy, and despite my general grumping above, I don't feel too bad. I landed three fish, and David caught four, so really we did ok. We saw some big fish, and David landed one, a sweet 19 lber that just pounced on his soft hackle. David's big girl saved the day for both of us...watching that baby eat was some sweet theater. Carping is, at it's heart, a game of numbers. You need many targets. You need many opportunities. You need many presentations because you are going to screw them up! Accept it, move on to the next target. Find the next opportunity, and make the next presentation. If you do that, then even on a day when you get your clock cleaned, you can leave feeling pretty good.

 

Posted with Blogsy