And winter is officially over. Once again, I found myself stalking the flats of the Columbia in search of clamshells, pockmarks, movement, shadows, shapes, tails...and lips. Big puffy carp lips sucking up any morsel of food they can find. It is a tough thing to explain properly to someone, this fascination with shallow water and fish so ugly they can only seem beautiful in the perfect light, or when only seen in bits and pieces. With the sun hitting a patch of scales at the right angle, the gold color can be dazzling, but take a step back and view the fish as a whole and it is not as easy to argue with those who call the carp ugly. Still, there is beauty in the pursuit. With carp, you can't wait for the fish to come to you, you have to find a way to the fish. Moving up the flats today I was reminded that you can't just stomp up to a carp. Only after a few forceful reminders did I slow myself down and find the right tempo...the careful stepping, the constant scanning in all directions. It didn't take long to get my mojo back.

I don't care who you are...that fish there is 6 months off the flats, dozens of hours at the vice, and 26 lbs of pure beauty.

After several hours of searching today I finally found that patch of warm water in the cold, cloudy Columbia. And that little area was loaded with carp. They ate the worm, I caught two on that all time great pattern. Without a doubt, a serious carp angler could carry a fly box full or worm patterns, and nothing else. Fish flat out eat that fly. I forced myself to fish another slutty little pattern I'd tied last night using some fancy new tungsten beads, and some hareline wiggle dubbing I found on line. Fish eat that little monster too. Still, the winning fly of the day was the venerable Montana Carrot. Once again I am amazed at Mr. P's carp carrot. I fish mine with a little more motion and some rubber legs, but it is basically the same fly and carp love it. I found myself fishing to hordes of carp in large pods, prepping to spawn. Most fish ignored every fly, but every once in a while a big mouth would open up and suck that carrot in as it fell to the bottom. Just deadly.

As carp openers go...this one ranks pretty high. The smallest fish of the day weighed 12 lbs...the largest that 26 lb beast pictured above. Most of the fish were between 15 and 19 lbs...and I did get a second "over 20" fish (21 on the nose). 11 fish total, and probably over 200 lbs combined weight. I find that beautiful too.


It is going to be a good year.

Just waiting on some sun!

For Pete...and because it is a cool fish.

It won't be long now boys and girls! This pretty little 22 lber was the first big fish of 2008, caught in Mid April. My hopes for an early season are waning with each weather report, but any way you look at it...days on the flats are just around the corner! Maybe I can find some slobs like this girl?

For the record, I saw a tailer on Sunday. It won't be long now!

Ward's comment on a previous post prompted me to track down the "Headstand" fly. I found it here:

Headstand

Great looking bug for carp. I tied up a few today, and actually REALLY like this in smaller sizes. I tied some 2x short size 10 hooks and I think they'll be perfect for days when the carp are spooky and you need to downsize. I experimented a bit with the peacock sword on a few...used some crystal flash and flashabou instead to add a little more shine to the fly. I think they'll be deadly! Now if the weather would warm up a bit, I'd go look for some targets.

I like all the different "carpy" elements to this fly. Peacock herl...check. Rubber legs...check. Dumbell eyes...check. Burnt orange color...check. A few more of these and my main flybox will be complete.

The flies from the Rocky Mountain Fly Swap are in! Fantastic job by all involved, especially BigTree who hosted the swap and created these fantastic tins. Really nice swap, some definate winners here!

For details, check out the Rocky Mountain Fly Swap.

My last few Monday evenings have been spent reorganizing flies while my wife and her friend Jen steal the TV away. I pulled all my flies out, moved marginal flies to another box and put some go to flies in my primary carp box for this spring. I'm pretty happy with the results. Here are a few pics, though these are just the reorganized flies...since these were taken I filled in the empty spaces with another dozen Montana Carrots and close to a dozen of the venerable SJWs. In addition, I whipped up not one, but two dozen flies for a fly swap in CO. My first set of flies got lost in the mail(thank you us postal service!) I should have some pictures of the fly swap up soon...can't wait to see the full results as there are some serious carp anglers in CO. They flat out know their stuff down there.

I think the river is still a few weeks away from any serious carping...but I am officially ready to go. I added a 9 ft 6 wt Echo 2 to my collection, primarily as a backup but with as sweet as this rod is, I'll find reasons to fish it!

Today was a case of "should have gone yesterday." My dad and I decided early in the week that if the weather looked decent, we'd make a run at a few trout. Well, the weather looked decent, but in actuality was merely not terrible. The sun hid all day and temperature stayed in the low 30s. Not cold enough to chase you off the water, but cold enough to have you looking for a patch of sunlight. The previous few days had sun and 40s, so the sudden cold spell had an effect on the fish and it was tough to find any real action. Still, I'm glad we went. Alway good to fish with my dad and he had a new fly rod (switch rod) to try out.

We hit a money spot to start and dad lined up in the pocket with his new 11 ft 7 wt TFO switch rod. He bought the rod to chase steelhead on the clearwater, and I think he's happy with the results. Moments into his day he brought this great redside to hand and he rod had that factory stink off of it.

It took me a lot longer to get going. As expected with a LONG layoff with regard to trout...I was pretty rusty. Fortunatley the rust didn't show itself in the usual manner, in other words I wasn't covered in tippet with a fly stuck in the back of my hat and split shot dents in my forehead. Mostly, I had trouble focussing. I told my dad that I never did feel like I was properly "zoned in" to nymping. I went through the motions, flipped, mended, high sticked, naked and with indicators but overall I knew the sixth sense was missing. It didn't help that I fount a massive leak in my waders and basically fished one day with my left foot in the river. That was the only part of the day that ranked as "not pleasant."

After an hour or so I stumbled across a few trout dumb enough to be fooled by imperfect drifts, and hungry enough to make the indicator move like something was chasing it...I landed a few, took some pictures and marveled at their color. I didn't really feel like I deserved the fish, I felt more like they found me. Later in the day I added a venerable whitey to the tally...another gift from the fish gods because at the time I swear I was watching a line of foam float downriver a good 10 feet away from my indicator.

It was a beautiful, cold day. Always great to fish with my dad but I spent most of the time on the river on my own, a few hundred yards away from dad. I fished, but mostly I just enjoyed being on the river waving a stick. That sounds simple and lacks the true poetry of the moment, but its true. Most fly fisherman will tell you they don't care if they catch fish, or how many fish they catch or how big they are...some days they mean it.

So this is the new place:

The purchase of this place is a large part of my complete lack of online activity of late. Typically the winter is spent talking fishing online, tying, fishing, tying, and more talking fishing online. Instead, I've spent this winter arguing with a builder, yelling at a lender, and lifting boxes. We officially moved in last Saturday, and the place is pretty liveable right now...not too many boxes lying around, but many empty rooms at this point. The good news...we now have a "craft" room. That is code for "fly tying room" I don't think my wife is fooled. I actually knocked out 10 montana carrots for a swap on the Rocky Mountain Fly Board last night, and have already chatted with Wendy Berrell about web cam tying sessions involing visual instruction, plenty of BS and a bottle or two of the drink of choice. Should be fun. Actual fishing is still a distant 5th or 6th at this point, but there is an off chance I'll be out after trout this weekend. The Reel John Montana is on his way to PDX to see the Gonzaga game with me Thursday night, and I hear he's bringing a trout rod. We'll see how the weekend goes!

Pictures of the Montana carrot will go up at some point...I just need to find my camera.

Three months without a post...I owe apologies to the three people that read this blog! Bottom line, life has been crazy. The kids are growing (even when they refuse to eat, they keep growing) work has been busy (Oct. was another record month) and life in general has conspired to keep me away from any water...I have not touched a fly rod, reel, vice, etc. since my last post. Ugh. I hope to change that with a trip to the Big D in Feb. to look for some blue winged olives. Chances of fishing before that hypothetical trip = 0.

I took JJ to the fly shop today and we bought some sweet looking carp flies. I'll get some pictures of the flies up here in a week or so. I also intend to hit the vice and tie up an army of SJWs, carp carrots, etc. This year I plan on starting the search for carp even earlier than I normally would. I just can't wait to get on the flats and look for tailers!

These are not the flies I bought today, but I liked the patterns (found them online...can't remember where!)