Catch and Release all Wild Steelhead!

Thanks to Matt Klara from Sexy Loops for reminding me of this...if you love fishing for steelhead, please click on the link and check it out.

I should have known better. You always pay for saying something stupid, and it was just a few post ago when I said words no self respecting carp flyfisherman should utter. "Carp fishing with a flyrod is easy." Yep, that came back and bit me right in the ass this weekend. Fortunately, the total butt whipping I received at the hands of the carp was tempered great by some outstanding company. I was lucky enough to fish not only with my dad, who is an excellent carp angler and companion, but the legendary Mr. P. Actually, he is more of a myth than a legend, as no real photos of Mr. P exist on the web...instead there is just word of mouth from people who say in a hushed whisper..."He's real...I've fished with him." This is as close as I came to actually getting a picture of the famous carp angler:



As I mentioned, the fishing was rough. My venerable "super" worm was rendered useless by no wind and ultra calm, clear water. The fish ran from it before the worm even reached the bottom. Thankfully Mr. P was there with his infamous Carp Carrot, which went a long way towards saving the weekend. So did this guy:



In fact, this turned out to be the weekend of Mirror Carp. That in itself added a special flare to the fishing. I know Mr. P landed at least one mirror, my dad got at least one, and I landed 3 that I remember. The fish above weighed in at 13.5 lbs, just a hare bigger than Mr. P's fish (also above) and took the honors as the big fish of the trip. I should say big fish landed. I was in big fish hell today, which is really a strange place to be. I couldn't seem to find any fish under 10 lbs, and had shots at some real monsters throughout the day. At one point I had a great fish right up to the net. As I lifted his head I could see the worm BARELY hooked in his lips. I thought to myself "you better take a shot with the net." Of course, the fish turned back down, made a short run and the hook pulled! At another stop, I found several large fish tailing on a gravel bar in between two massive weed beds. It was fun, but tough to close the deal. I hooked 4 fish, and tried to hold each one from the weed beds. In all 4 cases I had to put a new fly on the end of my tippet after the carp reminded me that BIG FISH > 1X TIPPET. Mr. P had a good look at a monster fish as well, but couldn't get a hook up and my dad had two casts at a tailer that I am positive was over 30lbs. The fish was about a rod length away, and I had 2-3 minutes to check him out. I think the reason my dad didn't hook was was that he was afraid to hook him.





Great fishing with Mr. P and my dad. They are both excellent anglers, and we had a great time fishing, eating, driving, and just hanging out. We never did manage to get a picture of a "triple" but there were plenty of laughs and a good time was had by all.

Till next time Mr. P and the Reel John Montana!

Just got back from a day and a half of fishing with my dad. Elia made the drive with me and we stayed in my parents RV. Elia had a great time with Grandma (I think my mom is exhausted) and I had a lot of fun fishing with Dad. Too tired for a full on report, but in short...the fishing was great. I caught somewhere between 40-50 carp total, my dad landed 15-20. He got big fish of the trip honors with an 18 lb pig...his biggest ever fish on a fly rod! I landed 2 fish over 16 lbs, and one at 15...most of the fish were typical 7-9 lbers. As usual, some stunning takes, and some takes so subtle you had to be on your game to hook them. Great fun...here are some pictures!






Love the shot of my dad trying to net his fish for the "double" photo. Keep in mind that I had to set the camera, hit the button and run back to get my fish out of the net for the photo. All dad had to do was hang onto his fish! He dropped it and scrambled up stabbing after it with the net. Pretty funny. He nailed it though! Gotta give him credit for that. The next photo went a little better.

Congrats on that 18 lber dad...beautiful fish!

The San Juan Worm. Until Zen Piscator talked me into using it, I hadn't even thought about that fly much. It just wasn't on my radar. Now, it is far and away my go to fly. This is how I tie it...of note, I use a huge tungsten bead to get the fly to sink. I'd rather risk spooking the fish throwing rocks than deal with the frustration of trying to predict a random path to give your fly time to sink to the fish. I'm also partial to these hooks now...for info on that, contact Matt Klara of Sexy Loops...he hooked me up with these hooks and I'm a huge fan. They've replaced all my scud hooks.

All you need:

Putting the Bead through the Chenile:

Putting the Bead/Chenile on the hook:

Securing thread behind the Bead/Chenile:

I pull the chenile back, and criss cross the thread forward, securing behind the Bead:

Whip finish, and that is it. I'm too lazy for head cement, though it would help. Here are the hooks...I dig them. Contact Matt, link on the sidebar:

JJ wanted to catch a carp today. He kept telling me..."Catch a carp, Yes!" Hard to resist that so Elia, JJ and I headed out. Unfortunately we did not bring one to hand, but we did spend some quality time walking around a couple of ponds. I hooked up twice, with one take being so perfect I almost couldn't believe it. The fish had 1/3 of his body out of the water, working the bottom of the shallows. I crept up, hid behind a tree with a kid clinging to each leg and dropped a carp wooley to the side of the carp's head. The second the fly touched down, the fish leapt sideways and ate it. I set up well on him, but he ran through several loose branches floating in the shallows. While untangling all of the tree limbs, he ended up getting loose.

Another highlight of the day was the running commentary from Elia. She made it clear that I need to be watching for 4 things: Frogs, Turtles, Carp and Golden Dorado. We saw two out of four. In addition to that laundry list, I was treated to a 20 minute story about the big carp she caught Tuesday. Apparently the big fish shook so hard when she picked him up he knocked her in the water. She caught him anyway, and took him home and put him in a big bottle with water in it so he could swim around. It seems the fish is at Elia's house...not my house. Near as I can tell Elia has a house a few blocks away.

All in all...a nice morning.