Starting the 2017 season near the end of May? Well hell yes! I'm talking about the carp season of course. Normally I would have started sooner but it has been cold this year so the beginning of the season has been delayed. Oh, and one more thing, I was distracted, or completely unavailable. Unavailable........because....................... I went fishing in Cuba. What an adventure that was for this old guy! More on that in another post coming soon.
My first fish of the day, and of the season, was a fully scaled mirror; I sure liked that. It was nice to hook up just minutes after starting. I thanked the carp for taking my fly. The first fish being a mirror boded well for the day, for the season, and I think perhaps for all of my life. Black Betty tricked this wonderful fish. (I only fish the red tail version anymore.)
We don't see that many mirrors on the Columbia so my friends and I covet them. If I see more than one fish and I can tell one of them is a mirror I will cast to the mirror. Much of the time I can't tell if the fish is a mirror or a common until after they slosh or until I get them near me.
Well heck, my second fish was a mirror too. He was nice and chunky and had almost no scales on his sides. In this picture I have lifted him up with my left hand and am trying to use the camera with my right hand. For an old guy like me, that's multi-tasking and it ain't easy.
This same fish had two rows of scales down his back. He looked a linear mirror with the scale lines moved up on top.
The "hog of the day" award goes to this next fish. Lets pretend the reason you don't see the whole fish is because he was too big to fit in the picture rather than me not setting up the camera correctly. Either way he's a porker.
I saw and caught fish in spurts. I had a good number of shots and had three fish to the net within the first hour. That makes me feel way more clever than I actually am. I kept stalking and then didn't see a single fish for an hour and a half. After that I got two shots and didn't connect. I kept moving and started seeing fish again about 30 minutes later. I put several more in the net and thanked the Good Lord for a wonderful day.
#blackbetty, #carplodge, #carponthefly, #flyfishingforcarp, #mirrorcarp
