Day 2--Near Perfect Conditions

This is a follow up to my previous blogpost.  I fished Thursday, May 9, and Friday, May 10.

With such a stellar session on Thursday one would think I could not wait to get out early Friday morning and repeat the experience.  Rather than starting earlier, I ended up starting a half hour later.  I was enjoying moving at my own pace but still definitely looking forward to gearing up and casting to tailing Carp.  It took 20 minutes for my “speedy” electric motor to get me to one of the spots I had fished the day before.  It was as if the Carp had spent the night there and were waiting to see if I would be back.  I was glad to see them and some of them acted glad to see me.  In less than 10 minutes a Carp took the size 8 Black Betty.  Unlike the day before, from the start, I believed I was going to have a great day.  And Lordy I did!

Not sure exactly how many fish I had caught the day before, I made a point of counting carefully today.  I said the number out loud when I released each fish.  When I turned the last Carp out of the net I said, “Seventeen”.  I stopped an hour earlier today.  I was sated.  I never get tired of the takes but I can get tired of playing fish.  My stomach was sore from pressing the fighting butt against it.  I had moved down the reservoir quite a ways from where I started the morning.  It was more than a half hour back to my truck.  There were tailing fish in sight and there were shoppers; I knew I could have caught more fish.  I had just reached a point where I wanted to sit on the patio at the Carp Lodge, watch the sun set, and savor the day more than I wanted to catch another fish.  Not being able to do that would have diminished my enjoyment of the day considerably.  To keep myself in check and make sure that I got my patio time, not only did I reel in, I clipped off the Black Betty and broke down the rod. 

Epilogue: 

Gregg Martin, an Idaho Carp angler for whom I have tremendous respect, wrote a comment in my previous post about numbers that he couldn't hope to achieve.  I also received an email about my previous blog post and the numbers.   While I have had days like these in the past, and I expect to have them again in the future, these are NOT typical days in the sense that I always have these kinds of numbers.  I have actually caught more Carp in a day than I just posted about.  For these two days I just wrote about the conditions were  ideal and I happened to be there.  In the interest of fairness and full disclosure there are plenty of days when I work very hard to get just a few Carp.  There are days when I get blanked.  I have blogged about those kinds of days too. 

I was also asked in the email if there was anyone else on the water I was fishing.  The answer is definitely yes.  There are usually people there fishing for Carp though they are almost always bait fishing.  There are also bass fisherman there too.  Both days there were people there fishing for Carp with bait when I fished.  The second day a guy pulled up as I was taking out.  He was very friendly.  He laughed at me (politely) because I fished for Carp with a fly.  He asked me if I caught any and I told him I put a few in the net.  He asked me where they were and I told him I release them.  He said he was “bow fishing” for Carp.  He had a $45K truck and a large bass boat to go with it.  He said he always gets some when he goes out.  I asked him if he releases them and he said, “Well yeah, they have an arrow in ‘em and their gonna die, so yeah”.  I’m not going to get started on “bow fishing” for Carp.  I’m just saying that there were other people there.   I do move away from them however. 

I did not get a fish over 15 pounds today or yesterday.  The fish were willing to take the fly, they were extremely "hot" (lively) and they were plentiful.  What else can I ask for?