A Long Morning Wade

A half-hour before sunup, I was tying on the Carpola Charlie aided by the canopy lights at the gas pumps. As I moistened the tippet and drew the knot tight I had a craving for a hot chocolate-coffee mix, so I quickly fetched one and headed for the creek.

I arrived at the south side of Well Springs just as the sun was breaking the eastern horizon. I knew very well that the creek would probably be quite off-colored since we received five inches of rain Wednesday. Sure enough, it was cloudy... more cloudy than I expected. It was tough seeing, but I could make out several images of carp so I tossed the Carpola to one across the way. We hooked up, but upon turning him the hook pulled out. Looking at the Carpola I noticed it was looking quite battle fatigued so I changed to the Carp Carrot.

In fly fishing for carp, the sun can be, at times, our best friend and at other times our worse enemy. This morning the sun was not a friend. If the cloudy water wasn't enough, the glare of the sun didn't help a bit. I left Well Springs and went to the Bend.

At the Bend, the water was even cloudier because the carp were mudding the wide pool. I decided to cast blind and missed the first suck of a carp. Going upstream I found more carp and would miss the next two sucks also. Finally I hooked up with the second carp of the morning and once again the hook pulled out.

Further upstream I saw a pool of water that I just knew held carp. It also held Rock Bass... a lot of them, and I kept pulling the little dudes out one after another. The carp that were in this pool moved out with all the excitement going on. The perch and carp robbed me of a number of perfect opportunities to catch carp this morning. Although, I came to the creek to catch carp today, I also had another project in mind. I decided to go elsewhere.



Driving over to the north side of Well Springs, I parked in the parking lot of Flower Park. Here there is a ledge that's about six or eight feet above the water, so I decided to sit on that ledge and see if I could spot any carp. Sure enough, in the middle of this pool was one big bad boy. Now, I knew if I hooked that fish it would require me to jump off that ledge into the creek. But, I just couldn't stand it, so I showed the carp the carrot and he sucked it up right away. And yes... I hollered "Geronimo" as I jumped from the ledge, hoping I wouldn't come away with a sprained ankle or worse.



I waded across to the other side where I could beach the creature, and he turned out to be a dandy sized carp. Now, it was time to start the long wade because my plans were to wade all the way to the Wynnewood Street bridge, which is about a mile.

I fished the big pool at Well Springs, but it was cloudier than most other pools. Continuing upstream, I waded a fairly long stretch of really tight and murky water with few opportunities to fish.





I make it to the boulders at Shipwreck and see a few carp, but due to the glare it's almost impossible to sight fish these creatures. I leave the boulders with no fish. Charlie has caught fish here, but I have yet to capture one.



Working my way under the Broadway bridge, I get another chance for a carp and we hook-up, but once again the Carrot pulls out. Making it to the pool where Charlie caught his nice carp on camera the other day, the perch keep robbing me of opportunities for carp.



Even the smallmouth get in on the action of intercepting flies.



I head for the area Charlie and I call the Courtyard, and this stretch of water is actually muddy. Spotting one carp in the shallows, I toss the Carrot one more time and he takes it. The dog-gone hook pulls out once again and sails past me into a tree. I just broke the darn thing off after having lost four fish to the particular fly. I have no idea why this particular fly or hook would not hold fish today.

It was time to call it a morning and I had covered a lot of water for one carp to hand. However, I said earlier I had another project in mind and I'll share that in the next posting.