At the Dutch oven cook-off I prepared the recipe Chicken In Cherry Sauce and it was good enough to win the People's Choice Award. I am quite thankful for that honor.
This morning, after leaving the mercantile store, a trip to the creek was in order to see what the carp, if anything, had on their minds.
To say the least it was a cloudy affair today. The sun was somewhere hidden behind a slate of blue-gray. The color of the creek this morning is hard to describe - somewhere between green tea and tannin color. Yesterday winds dislodged a flotilla of leaves and with a southerly wind this morning there was a steady riffle on the surface. In other words, it was difficult to see.
Today's offering to strike up possible conversation was Charlie's Biter Critter pattern. About ten feet from the bank was a lumbering carp and the Biter Critter was put slightly upstream of this lallygagging fish. It was easy to tell the carp came to the fly, but seeing the suck was another thing.
We have to rely on those gut feelings we get when seeing is difficult. Lifting the rod tip, pressure felt, a sudden and resolved upper heave of the fly rod, and the fish bolted downstream.
Not knowing it at the time I had waited just a second or so too long to go for the hook-set. When the carp finally arrived at hand, the hook was about an inch or little more down the fishes mouth. However, with the forceps the hook backed out rather easily with no damage to the creature.
This was by no means a big carp, probably five or six pounds, but the creature was thick and had some shoulders. The conversation was extremely awarding and seemed to serve as enough for the day.
After lugging heavy Dutch ovens yesterday this body was in need of rest and I returned to the prairie home to do just that.
No comments:
Post a Comment