Rush Hour

I was hoping to have much more time this morning at Charlie's Pasture, but Miss Carol required a breakfast out, and therefore I made short order of the fly-fishing.

Arriving at Charlie's Pasture just as morning was breaking, I went to the upstream shallows. As the sun was beginning to kiss the tree tops; casting a sheen on the smooth-as-glass water; I watched a thousand insects dance and hop in the reflective light.. where they looked like prancing crystals on the surface. However, the carp were not in the shallows, so I ventured back downstream to the big pool.

At the big pool there was also an absence of carp. I found the lack of activity as strange, but figured the community was hiding on the far bank, thirty-five feet across, laying in their den, waiting for a call. So, with a roll cast I knocked on their door and they answered.

Using the olive and orange Carpola Charlie I immediately hooked-up with one of the Leviathan carp of Rock Creek. Our meeting would be short and sweet though, and in less than a minute the carp would bid farewell to this fisherman. The short, but frantic, fight aroused the rest of the community as they come to the middle of the pool to investigate.

I spotted a lone carp that looked of significant size and cast him the Carpola offering. He sucked it up right away and from thirty feet away I went for a hook-set. The hook-set was successful and the fight begin. These carp know their territory well, and with this fellow he kept going for the far bank, the root balls along that bank, and any structure he could find that would play to his advantage.

The fight came to an end ten minutes later as I immortalized the carp by picture that will go in my archives. He was a hearty fighter and very nice fish.