16 lber from the other day...

A couple more pictures of the 30 lber.

Pretty good sign that you are into the carp here.

Great day with my dad. While I actually took this picture scouting on the way home after fishing with dad, we saw about this many carp when we had flies in the water! Too tired for a full on report right now, but some large fish were seen, and caught. My dad landed a 17 lber, his 2nd biggest fish ever on a flyrod. I caught a 16 lber and this fish that stole the show.

The picture doesn't do this fish justice, but it tipped the digital scale at 30.5 lbs! I spotted the fish about 30 feet out, slow cruising directly towards me in about knee deep water. I dropped the carrot in front of him, stripped twice and he darted forward then just stopped. I set the hook and it was off to the races! While not an epic battle, the fish hit my backing on the first run, and played some serious tug of war when he got in close to me. With no nearby obstructions I managed to get him in the net for my second 30 lb common!

Later in the day I spotted 4 large grass carp...not General Sherman large, but probably mid 30s to 40 lb range. Big, spooky fish...I managed to get into casting range but before I even finished one false cast all 4 of the grasser bolted out the shallows...it was quite a ruckus!

I have a hunch my dad is close to his first 20 lber. We saw several today, and I think it is just a matter of time before he finds one willing to eat his fly. It won't be long now!

My dad...carping in style!

Elia and I headed out of town to meet up with my parents this weekend. They are staying in the rv and dad has been after carp all week. Fishing has been slow for him I think he had only landed one or two so far. We started out today with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. The fish were not around in huge numbers but in the right water types they were tailing and feeding nicely. My dad had some great shots but no luck in the morning. I kept going and he went back for lunch with Elia and my mom. I had caught some fish by then but started to get into them pretty good along a deep rocky bank. One tailer took the fly so deep I just about lost a finger trying to get my fly back! Some great aggressive takes over all including several strip takes where I had the fish chasing and just kept stripping until there was resistance. Dad came back and we finished the day together. For the day I landed about 15 with two fish a little over 14 lbs. Mo monsters today. Dad got a few and we have one great double pic thatt I will get online when I get home.

One pic worth showing is of Elia. We hit one quick spot on the way out of town and I hooked this fish. Elia fought it for a while and then chased it around in the shallows with the net. She managed to scoop him up though! I just love being on the river with my little girl.

Here is a quick and rather poor picture of the carrot I fish. Basically, this is Mr. P's carp carrot, with a split rubber legged tail and a more muted orange color. Great fly Mr. P!

I caught a lot of carp today. How many? Somewhere inbetween "Oh my god what a great day" and "Holy crap I can't lift my right arm." Closer to the latter actually. I saw a lot of this:

It wasn't that I saw more fish than I normally do, but they were a lot more aggressive. They flat out did not want to eat the worm. I caught one or two on a small crayfish pattern, but today was all about the carrot. Carp tailing up ahead? Put the carrot on it...bam...fish on. Carp slow crusing near the bottom? Drop the carrot, strip, strip...bam...fish on. Fast cruiser on the surface? Rip the carrot by it as fast as you can strip...bam...fish on! Sunning fish on the drop off? Watch that carrot sink and bam! Fish on...it was pretty crazy. All I had to do was show the fish the carrot (in motion) and they would move, chase, follow, and eat.

The vast majority of the fish were in the 10-13 lb range, with several in the mid teens and two big boys (get to those in a minute.) And the fish were HOT today. Nearly every fish went deep into my backing, and I broke off at least 5 fish. I was fishing in some pretty serious rock piles, and they were absolutely sawing my leader apart. I actually had to give 3 fish slack so they would swim off some rock piles just to land them. Of course, I had no extra leaders with me, so I had to make due with a knicked up piece of junk for most of the day. Three fish worth mentioning.

First, this beast. I spotted this fish tailing about 60 ft away, snuck to within 40 ft and started to make the cast. Just as I was about to let the fly go the fish stopped tailing, lifted up and moved directly toward me. I chopped the cast short and dropped the carrot about 3 ft in front of him and that carp charged like a bull moose and inhaled the fly. Awesome take and he was off to the races. I scaled the fish out at 21 lbs, but that weight doesn't do this fish justice. He was solid...he made me think of my son, JJ. Just a solid brick of a fish. Yes, I just compared a carp to my son, but if you had seen this fish and met JJ, you'd agree.

Notable fish #2...this big girl was in the midst of about 3-4 other carp that appeared completely uninterested in anything. These fish were holding in about 2 ft of water, not moving an inch. I snuck right up on them...probably because they were virtually asleep. Somehow I managed to thread the needle on a flip cast and got the single carrot to sink about 7 inches from the biggest fish's head. The fish stirred, stretched, and ate the carrot. It scaled out at 23 lbs.

And of course I have to mention the mirror. This fish was only about 9 lbs, but when I see mirror carp, I cast at them. In fact, I literally PASSED on a tailer that might have gone 20 lbs to put the carrot on this mirror. When Justin and Joe were here J hypothesized a peacock herl carrot. As if there was any doubt that a peacock anything would catch fish, this mirror chomped the peacock carrot.

All in all, just an amazing day on the water. The fish were active, aggressive and strong. My arm really does feel like it is about to fall off. I really don't know how many fish I landed, but I did bring 20 lbers number 7 and number 8 to hand...more where they came from!

Mr. P, the mythical carp anlger from WA now has a blog! Link to sidebar added, or go here. Good stuff Mr. P!

The long awaited OR trip...Wendy Berrell and his brother JOe showed up in OR on Wednesday night for 4 solid days of chasing carp. There was never even a discussion of finding colder water fish, instead we did nothing but chase big, warmwater goldfish. Many words are needed to describe this 4 day event, but for now, a few highlights followed by some pictures.

48 hours on the water.

A triple.

A momentary quadruple.

Visual memories.

Dirty backing.

Carp carrot...carp carrot...carp carrot.

800 total pounds of carp.

Is it wrong that I'm ready to go fishing again already?
















Get the picture?

Despite a few mishaps and some weather issues, I managed to put 20lbers #5 and #6 in the books today. I did quite a bit of exploring this morning, checking some likely spots without rigging up before getting to the place I planned on fishing. I rigged up my brand new Gary Borger Targus 7wt (impulse buy, sweet little rod though!) and headed down the flat. The goal was to break in the new rod...Well, I did that. Fish #2 for the day turned my new toy into a warranty experiment. I was reaching for the fish with the net and the rod snapped about 6 inches below the middle ferrule. Crap.

I did enjoy the rod up until that point! The worst part about breaking the rod was I had to hoof back to the car to get my sage, and in the time it took me to get back to the area I was fishing the clouds had rolled in and visibility had gone from bad, to impossible. I stood there for a while, trying to decide what to do. I literally couldn't see anything, and the wind was picking up, making matters worse. It was still early in the day, I had two fish to hand so I could have called it good and headed home. Instead, I decided to just move really slowly and see if I could somehow spot a tailer or two before spooking them. Turned out to be a good decision. I spotted this mirror, mainly because it was in just inches of water. He ate the worm with no hesitation.

There is something about mirror carp...just cool looking fish. I kept moving, but conditions got even worse. The cloud cover turned dark, the wind got heavier and I was basically fishing in whitecaps, getting hammered into the shoreline. At one point I lifted my outside foot just as a big wave came in and it actually tripped me up and I went down in knee deep water. The river is still cold! I got into a wamer, mud bottome area and started moving even slower. Spotted a dark shape about 6 ft away and dropped the worm/stonefly nearby. I wasn't sure if the shape moved or a wave made it look that way, but I set the hook...lucky guess. The fish ended up weighing 21 lbs even.

I kept fishing for a while, but didn't cover much ground. In order to see the fish, I had to nearly stand still. I hooked probably 5-7 more fish, but they all popped off so I'm assuming I snagged them. Bottom line, when you hook a carp in the mouth you usually land them, or break them off. I didn't get any scales back, but all the pop off's likely meant I was snagging fish. I just couldn't see...I was casting at shapes and setting the hook when they moved...pretty tough.

The last fish though...it made the entire day. I had finally given up and was hoofing up the shoreline, calling it a day with only 4 fish to hand when I saw a dark shape surfing the waves up ahead of me about 30 ft. The fish looked like a viking ship marauding the coastline...it would zoom in to the shallows on a wave and dart around briefly, then zip back out before the next wave would break. I've never seen a carp act like that, but it was pretty exciting to watch. I timed the cast...waited until the viking ship was on the way into the coastline and then made my firs, last, and only cast of more than 10 ft today. The moment the flies hit the water that fish lit up like a christmas tree and hammered the stonefly. I absolutely charged the fly from a good 3-4 ft away, still riding an incoming wave. Just a phenomenal take. I couldn't see well enough to watch the fish eat the fly, but there was no doubt what was happening. I fought the fish, and it scaled out at 21 lbs on the nose. To be honest...I think it might have been the same fish! At least 2 hours had passed, and I was a minimum of 1/2 mile from the place that I had caught the last fish, but check out these pictures. The first pic is of fish #4 for the day, the second of fish #5. They both weighed 21 lbs, and had that strange mouth...



Hard to tell, but they sure look like the same fish to me.

All in all a good day...I just hope the river drops and clears and we get good sun when Wendy Berrel and his brother get here!

I spotted a strange hit on the blog today which lead me to a forum for fly fishing in Quebec. The original text:

salut Mahmoud,

ici sur le blog Carp on the Fly du copain John Montana tu trouveras pas mal d'infos.

les carpes peuvent prendre en surface mais ce sera surtout au fond que tu les trouveras.
c'est là qu'elles se nourrissent le plus.

and the translation, courtesy of Wendy Berrel's wife Emily:

“Hi, Mahmoud,

Here on the blog Carp on the fly of your friend John Montana you will find a lot of information (news?).

The carp can be taken from the surface, but you’ll mostlyl find them in deeper waters. That’s where they find the most to eat.”

I suppose there are carp everywhere!