In 2010, Charlie and I called our carp by fly adventures the Carp Crusades. In 2011 we came back with the Carp Redux, but, 2011 was a disaster because of the severe drought and temperatures.
In 2012, our carp by fly effort will be labeled Conversations With Carp, and today... Charlie started the conversations early.
I say he started early because generally we don't begin to fly fish for carp until March. To tell you the truth we don't see a lot of carp out and about during the winter months. However, this winter has been weird to say the least. Yesterday morning I was freezing while on Blue River. Today, it is somewhere in the sixties.
Charlie sent me a message earlier today saying he was going to go to the local creek and at least scout for the carp, so I decide to join him. When I catch up with Charlie he is armed with his fly rod and has spotted carp.
The wind today was howling at 35 miles per hour or more and it created a terrible chop on the creek. Standing high on the bank we could see the images of the carp, but, once you got on the same plane as the creek you lost that visual. So, Charlie went down to the creek and I stayed high trying to spot for him.
The first eight or ten casts produced nothing except I'm quite sure one carp picked his fly up and we were just late recognizing it.
Soon however, Charlie would holler "I've got one!" And, he did have one.
Charlie was using a make-shift hastily tied bonefish shrimp pattern I tied last year. We didn't get to use it much at all.
The difference in the one Charlie was using today was that it was predominately white with a red sac instead of pink.
Charlie hooked up with this carp on the blind. About eighty percent of the carp we catch here on this current of the prairie ocean is by sight, but, we've come to catch more and more on the blind.
With the prairie schooner being lame and me not being able to drive out of town and get to Blue... Charlie made my afternoon with his antics.
The only thing that could have been better is if the result turned out differently.
Great video, break off or pull free? When I can't be sure of takes due to terrible sighting I use an indicator, as I've preached a hundred times, usually with an egg tie, that they seem to hold on to. Also your worm cluster more and more. I have several January fish up here also. (not this Jan., yet.)
ReplyDeleteGregg
Gregg, I'm curious if you have ever experience how the carp will wrap one of their pectoral fins around the leader during the fight? It has happen to me alot and that was what happen yesterday with Charlie. I could see it when the fish came close to the bank. When it happens it seems to give the fish more leverage and they often break free or sometimes the hook pulls out. They do have large pectoral fins.
ReplyDeleteSure Barry!
ReplyDeleteI include that in exclamation marks because this is what my partners (my grown boys) always expect with a long fight and a large carp. They tend to begin to roll and often the line will slip off the pectoral fin and have you think, briefly, it came off or came out to foul the body, but carp have the perfect mouth to hold a fly so we know what it is about, a tired big carp beginning to twist and roll. You are right about the leverage thing, just like a fouled fish. We use heavy tippets, even in very clear water, 1X, 2X at the least,but everyone has their preferences. The ponds I fish have provided one sure 30 lb. fish, many in the high teens, so I feel confident with what I use. (of course many smaller fish.)
Gregg