I got out for two more days of Carp fishing. I left home committed to trying new water no matter how many fish I was catching. (Or not catching) The first day I saw a shoal of sunbathers that had several fish well over 20#. Not a ONE of them had his nose down like he was the least bit hungry. Actually, I'm not sure they were even sunbathing. It was more like napping or comatose. I know those fish are bad targets but I had to cast to them since I had been stalking for an hour and hadn't seen a single tailing fish. I would love to say I cast so carefully and perfectly that I was able to selectively worked my way through the shoal and got three of them over 20# to take my fly. Well, I made a few casts, woke up a couple fish, they woke up all their shaolmates, and that was that. I walked for another 90 minutes and only saw three cruisers and that was my fun for the morning.
I headed up the river to try some more new water. Yikes, there were a lot of weeds where I stopped. I was seeing a few tailing fish but was cleaning my fly off on virtually every cast. Even my "totally excellent" casts were for naught because when I stripped the fly I was almost always pulling salad along with it.
I was able to get some hookups after lunch and that always makes me happy. One of the fish I had clearly turned to the fly. I set the hook and was pleased with myself. When I got him in he was hooked on the outside of the ridge on his pretty Carp lips. The outside is so close to the inside that I think I should be able to count this one. Its not like I hooked him on a fin or something. Plus, he turned to the fly. I know Carp tournament guidelines allow something like one inch from the mouth to still count the fish as a capture. You can see the Carp Woollie just on the outside of the lip in the underwater picture.
Another one was way up in the teens and took me a good ways into the backing. That's always fun.
The next day, once again, I made myself go to water I had never fished. There was one spot I have been eyeing for 5 years and I finally stopped there. Last year I came upon a spot like this where there are just way too many Carp. There were so many fish that the water gets cloudy and you can't see them until they begin a "Carp Exodus". The sky was overcast, so along with cloudy water, spotting tailing fish was almost impossible unless a tail came out of the water. Even then it was difficult to tell which way the fish was moving as soon as the tail went under. Most of the time I was blind casting to fish I knew were there but could not pinpoint exactly. I would spook one when the fly landed on it and it would take off. In a situation like this where there are too many Carp, when the first fish bolts everyone near it does also. It is as if the first fish says, "Hey let's get out of here, something just landed on me." Everyone nearby takes off and tells the other fish they pass, "Hey get out of here, someone says there's things falling on him." And in a matter of seconds the water boils with a Carp Exodus. I tried to get a picture of a good example but never did. Another time.
While I did get some fish to hand (I'm only counting the ones that had the fly inside their mouths.) it was not as satisfying as other days when I can sight fish. The fish I caught were ones where I could see the tail and the direction they were pointing but I had to wait to feel the strike rather than see it.
St. Croix Legend Elite 8 weightA good two days all in all because I saw new water and did get some fish.
