This little sucker has been deadly of late. I have been fishing it mainly in a size 12.

Elia saw her first carp at about 4 months of age, and dunked her first basketball at about 17 months of age. Nothing like an early start!

Those of you that know me and not my wife correctly assume that she is a saint. She puts up with my fishing mania extremely well, especially when you consider that of late my fishing mania has turned into carp fishing madness...it is a rare disease, and much worse that people think.

My lovely wife was kind enough to send me out for one more full day trip before our second child is born (July 31! Can't wait to meet my son!) KB was kind enough to join me and we headed out for a marthon day of carping action!

The water level was great, the sun was high, and the wind...NONE AT ALL! Perfect conditions, and it turned out to be a great day. I hooked tons of fish, but lost many to straightened hooks and the big weed beds that you can't keep the carp from running to unless you put enough pressure on the to straighten the hook. Still, the best part about fishing for me is the strike. As Mr. P from CAG says: "The take is the premier moment!"

All in all, I landed right around 10 carp (and about 30 panfish. Frankly, the panfish were a bit of a problem. I'd be stalking a nice fish and make a great cast only to have a bluegill dart from the weed bed and take swip at my fly! As revenge, KB and I hammered a pod of bluegill for 20 minutes, catching fish as fast as we could release them. Great fun!) KB had a solid day as well, but I don't know where he ended on fish landed. Some of the takes were spectacular, and the fly of the day was my crayfish pattern on a size 10 hook, tied all in green for a change. The big fish of the day was a 14 lb monster that ran well into my backing, and managed to wrap me around the same stick twice! I had to pull the slack line trick on him both times to get him off the debris, and was surprised I managed to land him with an extra 3-5 lbs of salad on the fly line. To top the day off we spent an hour or so fishing to 4 of the biggest carp I have ever seen. My honest estimate of these fish...somewhere between 25-35lbs, and KB thinks I am underestimating. They were completey uninterested in eating anything, but when you see fish that big, you cast...and cast...and cast...truly big carp.

Thanks again KB for a great day!

Here is a picture of KB's monster carp. Living where we live, a 20 lb carp is a real trophy, especially on a flyrod. We see a lot of fish in the 5-10 lb range, and plenty of fish in the low teens, but the big boys are much tougher to find around Portland. Next spring I'll make a trip to Eastern Oregon to chase down rumors of 20lb AVERAGE size carp. I've seen the pictures to prove it, and hopefully the 30 lb barrier will be tested next spring. Something tells me I won't have trouble talking KB into joining me!

Great fish KB!

Breaking news! KB just called from a local spot, and he broke into the 20lb club! He just landed and released a monster carp that scaled out at 20.2 lbs on his digital scale. It sounds like it was an epic battle as he took the beast on a small, lightly weighted hare's ear and fairly light tippet. After numerous attempts at diving into the weeds, KB managed to corral the big fish despite only managing to fish 2/3 of the fish into his net! Congrats to KB and I will post the pictures as soon as I can!

After scaling his pig, KB now estimates Highway Cone at closer to 30 lbs, than 20 lbs. I can't wait to see the photos!

Another neat picture from my trip to MN with Justin back in May. I love chasing carp with a flyrod, and it is tough to beat the thrill of stalking a big carp in shallow water, but the delicate nature of trout, bamboo, and mayflies can be a lot of fun as well. They are completely different ways of fishing, and variety certainly has its place!

I went out for an hour tonight after Elia went to bed. With all the fish I saw last night, I figured I could get another big one! So of course, I saw 3 carp total...all of which were cruising fast, and not interested in eating. I did spot a nice bass in the shallows...bass are MUCH easier to catch than carp!

Quick report from the weekend.

Headed out with Elia Saturday afternoon. It was too hot to stay out long, but we managed two fish. One a little 5 lber that made a screaming run, and one big boy that i basically had to feed the fly to. I put that thing RIGHT on his nose. after 30 seconds his gills flared and he sucked it in...lazy fish. The big one weighed in at 9lbs. Nice to finally get one of the big ones out of that lake!

Tonight I went to another spot for an hour and half. Missed one fish right away. I dropped the fly front of his very active tail (couldn't see anything else) and felt him take the fly. I always miss them when I feel the take! A few minutes later I spotted a monster in the shallows. I snuck up on him, dropped the fly about 6 inches away and when his tail turned him toward the fly I set the hook! I was glad I brought the 6 wt tonight! This fish bottomed out my 14 lb weight net, and I would estimate him at about 16-18 lbs...really nice fish.

I'm not sure how well this will work, but we'll give it a shot. Here is a link to a video Justin took of me hooking a 9 lb mirror carp last weekend. I had to cut the video way down and take out pretty much all of the fight and netting the fish. The file was way to big to upload. This version barely fit, but it shows me make a couple of casts to the fish (which you can make out if you look hard enough) and it shows the take, hookset, and initial run. Try as I did I couldn't keep this fish out of the weeds, so I had to settle in to a long tug of war. It was a great fish, and Justin captured a great video!

http://media.putfile.com/carp-on-the-fly

Check out the difference between the mirror carp below (caught in the desert) and this local fatty from around Portland.