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Friday, August 5, 2011

Cubans & Carp--Do They All Look Alike?

In the middle of July I was supposed to connect with John Montana Jr. and John Montana Sr.

Senior calls himself the "real John Montana". I think Senior is the real John Montana. And I think Junior is too.

John Jr.'s high school basketball coach is Julio Delgado. Both Jr. and Sr. became friends with Julio and they have all fished together.

John Senior hurt his ankle just before we were planning to get together so we weren't able to fish the day(s) we had planned. I was disappointed about that. Some days later John Sr., the "real John Montana", sent me and a few other people an email with some pictures of Carp he had caught on the Columbia.

John Jr., also "the real John Montana", responded to his dad, "We need to teach you how to take pictures. I’m reasonably sure that is the same fish in every picture too!"

John Sr. replied, "They are like Cubans...they all look the same. Oh hi Julio!"

Well good grief Sr., what kind of talk is that, saying they all look the same!!? I mean the Carp and the Cubans. Julio, please accept my apology on behalf of John Sr. He is a great guy; he can be just a tad bit rough around the edges sometimes.

I know Cubans don't all look the same. I looked on the Internet.*












The good natured banter between John Sr., John, Jr., and Julio did give me some pause to think about taking pictures of Carp. An ordinary Carp on the Columbia is about 8 or 9 pounds. In some of the still water I fish an ordinary Carp is about the same size. And in some of the still water an ordinary fish is 5 or 6 pounds. I can fish all day and just get a fish or two. Some days I get several and some days I get a whole bunch. A 16 pound Carp clearly looks different than an 8 pound Carp. I wondered what it would be like to take a "parting" picture of each Carp on a couple trips. Last Thursday I decided to take a picture of each fish as I was putting it back in the water. I knew I would only get one chance on each picture. Even if every fish was exactly the same size and shape all the tail shots would be different. It has been a week since that trip. I remember that I caught a lot of fish but I don't remember how many since I have been out twice since then. I counted the pictures and I see that there are ten fish. I had one other fish in the net. The net was laying on the tube of the Zodiac while I reached in my shirt pocket for the camera. The fish just squirmed a little and he fell in the water. I didn't get his picture. I lost two others in the weeds but I don't count those.

The shutter response time or exposure delay is long on my camera so some of the fish are still sliding out of my hand, some are part way in the water, and some are just below the surface leaving only a disturbance to show their path back home.








These next two shots are the same fish. The only difference is that my hand is just opening in the second shot. I knew I missed the previous fish so I was trying to press the shutter just a bit sooner.




This Carp let me know what he thought about being caught. What can I say except this one crapped on me.



A little late on these next two.



I caught this one just a couple casts after the previous one. He was the weakest fish of the day. He was a slug.



Just about the right timing.




A little soon on this one.



This one was too big to hold with one hand. He was strong and took me well into the backing--just a wonderful fish.



The timing was good on this last fish.



I believe that I have successfully demonstrated that both Cubans and Carp do not all look alike.

Again Julio, please accept my apologies for John Sr.'s behavior. Even though you and I haven't met; I got your back man.

John Sr., if you get to WA again this year let's connect. Hope you can make it.

(I am respectful of other people's content and images so I am showing the links to each place I found a picture. My understanding is that none of them require permission to post but I am acknowledging them anyway.)

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Gloria Estafan, the woman after her, and Paquito Rivera.

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