Spring in OR is pretty outstanding. The sun comes out (sort of) and people flock to the outdoors. This past weekend I managed to get together with some carping buddies. David, my long time carping friend had just returned from Mexico (5 permit!), Travis is always game and Brian was anxious to get his carping season started so we hit the river together.
Any weekend wearing waders and carrying a fly rod is a good one, but we exceeded the minimum this time around. Brian stuck his first mirror, and we all saw some incredible takes and had fantastic shots. There was a nice stretch of spot, stalk, cast that was pure spectator sport, and we gladly took turns doing the stalking and watching.
Fish were caught, rods were bent, stories were told...all in all, a great time with my friends. Two takes stick out in my mind. Late on day one I spotted a tailer on a mud flat. The clouds had rolled in and with zero sun all I could see was the tail on top of the water...no body or head in the glare. I snuck to about 30 feet, head to head with the carp and laid the two fly rig just to the left of the fish. The big tail pushed out to the right and I set the hook, figuring the fish had turned to the fly. After a couple of great runs Brian slid her into the net.
With the high winds, the water had gotten really turbid as day two wore on. I was slowly picking along a flat when I saw a patch of water that was a slightly lighter color of mud than the rest of the flat. I studied it a bit, and decided it looked sort of like a fish, and that one end sort of looked like a head...so I cast the flies just in front of that end. The lightly lighter colored patch of mud changed colors (it got even lighter) right about the time my flies would have hit the bottom...so I set the hook. That fish ran to my backing twice.
Thanks to Brian, Travis and David for coming out. Always great to fish with those guys!
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