Conversations With Carp - Talks Cut Short... but,

Being in fine fettle yesterday morning, I planned to make it a day of extended talks with carp.  At five minutes after six, while dawn was still announcing itself, I was standing on the creek bank.  Within fifteen minutes two carp would come to hand.  At that point I was telling myself it could possibly be an outstanding carp-by-fly day. 

The fly yesterdays carp fell for.

But, an outstanding carp-by-fly day it would not turn out to be.  It seems one of the young hands at the mercantile store didn't make it to work, and this old man went in to take up the slack.  I should say this old grumbling man went in to take up the slack.

However, since I was giving time to the mercantile store I was deserving of a lunch hour and I quickly returned to the creek for a short hour reprieve.  In that hour one more carp would come to hand and this would be the extent of my carp-by-fly day. 

Even though my planned extended talks with carp was cut short on Saturday, I have nothing to complain about.  Last week was one of the more enjoyable weeks I can recall. 

A week ago Saturday, my youngest daughter Kempy married an outstanding man in Van Stacey.  As her father I could not be more pleased or proud of the happiness Kempy has found with Van.  Besides, Van likes to spend a lot of time in the outdoors fishing and hunting, so we will get along just fine.

On Monday I watched the Oklahoma City Thunder take one step closer to winning the NBA Western Conference by beating the Spurs for the third straight game.

On Tuesday, I had one of the best carp experiences of my carp-by-fly life in capturing five carp in less than an hours time on the water.  It was efficiency at it's best.

On Wednesday, I watched the OKC Thunder slowly dismantle the Spurs and win the Western Conference.  Now, these young talented men are on their way to the NBA finals.

The Thunder will face the Miami Heat for the NBA title.

On Thursday, the UPS driver delivered the replacement rod for my broken Temple Fork six-weight.  This rod has been missing in action for a good while and I've truly missed the rod.  How can we not love lifetime warranties on our fly rods?

On Friday, our friend Charlie waltzes into the mercantile store and hands me a Carp On The Fly window decal.  I love this thing!  Having a window decal like this makes a guy feel kind of official.  I wasted little time in slapping the decal on the prairie schooner along with other decals such as Fly Fish, Aztec Anglers, and The Fiberglass Manifesto.

Of course there was yesterday and I've already reported about Saturday.  Let me add that even though the outing was much shorter than I hoped for, any time spent on the creek chasing carp-by-fly is good time. 

And then there was this morning.  This Sunday morning, as most, the mercantile store owned my being.  Around 8:30 this morning the call of the creek was simply too much.  I inform the girls in the office I would be taking a break and would return within an hour.  Actually, I would be back at the store some forty-five minutes later.  So, it was out the door and to the creek, white shirt and all.

On the creek I would miss the first two carp sucks from simply not paying attention.  The third carp, a rather prodigious fellow, would snap my line like it was nothing.  This is the second time this week I've had my line broke by one of the larger carp that make Rock Creek home. 

Finally, I would capture a young carp using the same red tail stinger fly used yesterday.  The fly that attracted the two missed opportunities along with the broken line was Charlie's Biter Critter.  It was a fly I had just tied to replace the last one that was lost due to a carp breaking the line.

It's been a good week. 

Chapter 58 Day 31 - Trout Season

One Rod - Two Opportunities

There are a lot of articles these days about Euro nymphing.  At one time this type of fishing was generally referred to as Czech nymphing, but, then we learned the Polish, French, and Spaniards all had their own twists to this particular discipline of fly fishing. 

Euro nymphing consists of shorter, lighter, and thinner leaders using several flies with at at least one being a weighted fly.  With this practice the rod is held high, the line off the water and kept taught staying in constant contact with the flies. 

Generally, 10 foot or longer rods are used in Euro nymphing and small rivers or streams are often perfect for this type of fishing.   The angler is always concentrating and feeling for a pick-up on one of the flies.  These days even longer leaders are being employed. 

I don't know about the practicality of Euro nymphing on Blue River since it is such a diversely structured river.  However, without thinking too much, or hard, there are several good riffles and runs that come to mind where Euro nymphing could be employed or put into play. 

But, carrying a 10 foot rod, and only a 10 foot rod, on Blue River could cut us short to many opportunities and places we can fish on this river.  There are many places, runs, and pools on Blue River that are simply too tight for such a long rod. 

However, those clever devils at Temple For Outfitters have come up with a solution to such situations.  TFO has created a series rod known as the BVK.

The BVK was designed as a four piece 3 wt. dry fly rod.  Length is 8 feet.  However, with the BVK you can purchase an adapter kit that makes the 8 foot dry fly rod into a 10 foot Euro nymphing rod.  The BVK dry fly rod by itself is $225.00.  The adapter kit will cost you another $99.00, but, you now have one rod that will serve as two rods. 

The adapter or conversion kit replaces the butt section with an extra 24 inches of length.

As a 8 ft. rod, tight streams, small flies, and delicate and finicky trout can be pursued.  As a 10 foot rod, the fly angler will have better mending power, can high stick without becoming fatigued, and practice the art of Euro style nymphing. 

Find out more by visiting Temple Fork Outfitters.

Always Looking Ahead

Image via Wikipedia

In our fishing lives, I figure there are a lot of you just like me in the sense we have big dreams of things to come.  Even though we are in the middle of trout season at Blue River, I'm looking ahead to this coming spring. 

Of course, Charlie and I will be pursuing those wonderful amazing creatures known as the prairie bonefish, commonly called carp, but there are other species that also have my attention. 

This spring, I want to catch and set the next lake record smallmouth for Arbuckle Lake.  Why?  That's easy - there is currently not a lake record for smallmouth on Arbuckle title holder! 

Arbuckle Lake is well known for the big bass it produces and has the potential to produce the next largemouth or smallmouth state record. 

Now, I'm not trying for a state record smallmouth, but rather the lake record which is a program launched by the Oklahoma wildlife department.  Currently, the state record in Oklahoma for the smallmouth species is eight pounds and three ounces.  Sheeeeee... that ought to be a piece of cake, huh?  Well... maybe not.

A six pound smallmouth good easily become a lake record for Arbuckle Lake and will set a benchmark for other anglers to break.  I think it's achievable.  However, there are a few things that will need to be arranged before such an undertaking can be pursued.

To get to where the big bass are, a boat will be required and I don't own a boat.  However, I have a good buddy that does!  So, my plan over the next two months is to polish by patronization skills and basically kiss his butt, until it's sore, so he'll take me out on his boat quite often this spring.  Hey.... it's a means to an end...( no, not his end... you know what I mean.). 

As far as gear... another 8 weight will have to be acquired.  My beautiful Temple Fork Outfitters 8 weight survived exactly two outings before another friend accidentally stepped on it.  I have the reel ready with the sink tip and hopefully that will suffice, negating the need for full sink.

Over the years, I've amassed a good assortment of bass patterns from friends and fly-tyers from near and far. So... current offerings to the smallmouth should be ample. 

Think everything needed is pretty much accounted for, except a healthy supply of Chapstick... for all that butt kissing I'm going to be doing.