I just havn't felt the need to do any other fishing as of late despite the fact that the Carp have been a little moody the past week. I did get out with Dan Blanton on Wednesday. This wasn't his first carp on a fly but he had never targeted them. We have been trying to hook up for a while and give it a go so this was as good a day as any. We weren't faced with really good morning conditions but we both had shots on fish and I really enjoyed getting out with him. Since we live minutes of each other we'll be getting out again I'm sure. It was a lot of fun and i'm pretty sure Dan will be catching lot's of Carp from here on out. He is pretty stoked on it.
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| Dan Blanton |
The past couple of days were spent looking for better quality fish. It usually goes with out saying that the good ones, regardless of the spiecie are always in the toughest most challenging places. Around here, with heavy bait pressure, the Carp definitly have a sense to know where to be to avoid humans. Over the past two days I was rewarded with some great shots on nice fish, a few nice grabs and sore body. I'm burnt with all the bush whacking and hill climbing!
This morning I picked a stretch that has always kicked my ass. There are strong numbers of nice fish, which keeps me coming back, but the damn Hydrilla is a huge problem and will often choke out with weeds in late summer only leaving small lanes. It's one of the larger slow moving rivers in my area. The fish that come out of there are black as tar with clear shallow water and strong as hell. I poked around for a couple of hours and scratched three shots one some nice fish. Landed two and the last one busted me with a bad cast. At around 9:30 am a endurance running event came through on a tiny trail and I found myself standing there with a fly rod amidst a mass people stomping through huffing and puffing. That was buzz kill to an otherwize quiet morning! After that I spent the rest of the day looking at some new water that I know has a good Carp population but I didn't see any life and it was hotter than hell so I headed home for the cement pond!
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Layed up
Gravel flats
California King Snake
Tight fit!
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Iv'e never been a fly tier. It's time consuming and I like to be able to just buy what I like and be done with it. I'm sort of being forced into it now since I go through them and at 2 bucks a pop I have no choice.
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My crude attemp at something that will move water
They actually liked it Ha!
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5 comments:
I have read Dan for years, good to see you two linked up. I could not imagine not tying, it's as much a part of fishing as fishing for me. So saying, your fly was great! Even if it had not produced it was well done. Nice pictures, loved the king snake.
Gregg
Nothing like "a shit load of sweaty people stomping through huffing and puffing" to ruin a perfectly good fishing day. Kind of like bicyclers on a windy mountain road.
Mark
That is sweet, Mr. Blanton has been a hero of mine for a while. When I used to be a saltwater dreamer I would slobber over anything I could find that he wrote because it just always seemed to make sense. Pretty cool outing, but I must warn you. Probably only 1 out of every 10 guys that does it actually saves a dime tying thier own flies. You gotta go total guide style i.e. a few simple and well developed patterns.
I get what your saying Gregg and I admit it is pretty cool feeding a fish something you turned out. I suspect Trevor is dead on that I wont save any money! Dan is certainly a well acomplished angler but more importanly, he's a good guy I look forward to getting back out on Carp water but also Striper grounds. It's hard to find compatable fishing partners that share the same passion. He is also a wealth of knowledge.
Congratulations...
Fever Carp is around all the fly world...
Carlos from Spain
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