The Prizefighter - Round Two

Yesterday, the new Carpola Charlie Prizefighter got his first taste of Rock Creek, but his debut performance was cut short due to a sudden onslaught of rain.

Today, the Prizefighter returned to Rock Creek for round two.  "Let's get ready to rumble......!"

It didn't take lone for a challenger to step forward and put on the gloves, but the Prizefighter scored a TKO on this 22 inch carp. 

The creek was in surprisingly good shape today, still somewhat blurred however.  A steady wind causing the surface to riffle increased the difficulty in seeing the carp.  I didn't have the luxury of standing on the bank, an island, or sandbar.  Today, I had to wade the creek, which is not a good thing when chasing carp.  When we are in the creek we start to push water and that's like a siren to the carp. 

It didn't take long for the second challenger in the form of a smaller and young carp to come forth.  This fellow was one of the many young carp I've been seeing lately.  Seeing the abundance of young carp is encouraging because it tells me their community is healthy.  Carp grow quickly so the youngsters I'm seeing now will be twenty plus incher's by next spring.

The Prizefighter made short order of the second challenger and we continued upstream.  For the next quarter of a mile or so, not a carp was to be seen and the creek seemed to get more blurred.

It was time to call it a day and wait for the creek to clear a little more.

I gave thanks and left the water. 

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.