Blue River Fly Classic

Blue River Fly Classic
A One Pattern Fly Event

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Damp Debut For The Prizefighter

With little over a week to go before trout season arrives at Lady Blue, I'm still creating different Carpola Charlie carp flies.  Last night I tied one called the Prizefighter.  So named because of the colors black, blue, and purple... the same colors most of us would be if we were silly enough to call Mike Tyson a chump. 



Today I wanted to send the Prizefighter on it's maiden voyage, but a rather severe thunderstorm came roaring through about mid-morning.  The storm was short in duration, but intense enough to blow away Miss Carol's Halloween-themed backyard. 

My thinking though was I could get to Rock Creek before the creek blurred with the storm being as short as it was.  Arriving at the creek a short while later, I found out just how wrong I was.  The creek was already milky and the strength of the storm had dislodged thousands of leaves that were near their twilight. 

Trying to cast the Prizefighter and not catch a leaf looked to be nearly impossible, so I decided to find me a spot and just wait for the shadow of a carp to come by way.  This process was a totally agonizing and slow venture.  However, there was a shadow about fifteen feet out, so I sent the Prizefighter sailing.  It wasn't long until the tippet starting travelling downstream and I set the hook - so I thought.  The hook-set didn't hold and the carp swam away.

The rains came back suddenly, but I wasn't ready to quit my quest for a carp to test the Prizefighter.  For the next hour I continued to try and find a carp somewhere between the fallen leaves and teardrops from heaven.  It was a daunting task. 

A little ways upstream there was a narrow channel.  The current was much faster than normal and quite milky color, but here was a group of eight or ten young carp.  Each carp was somewhere between 14 and 18 inches in length.  I put the Prizefighter amongst them and one youngster took it.  By the time I got him to the beach, I was in a downpour and decided not to risk getting the camera wet.

I stood in the pouring rain another ten minutes or so before grudgingly hollering calf rope.  The Prizefighter will have to wait another day to show his stuff. 

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