Starting the 2017 Season

Thanks Kevin, Sam, Jessica, and Jeff for asking why I have been lazy prodding me to get back to the blog.  Here you go.

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

When Carp Fishing is Heavenly

There are days when turbid water, wind, and the devil clouds conspire to make carp fishing darn difficult. There are days when the water is clear, the wind blows lightly and the sky is blue; oh, but wait, there are almost no fish to cast to.  Heck that's even worse than the bad conditions!  I have to remind myself that if carp fishing was easy everyone would be doing it.   

There are days when the conditions are tolerable and there are still very few fish.  There are days when the conditions are tolerable but I'm still seeing a good number of targets and getting hook ups; those are great days.  There are days when the conditions are good and I'm getting lots and lots of shots.  When I can cast to those fish rather than reaching out and just dropping the fly in front of them, those days are heavenly.

On my last trip to the Carp Lodge I fished several days.  One of my days was heavenly.  It sounds like kind of a silly word to describe a session but when I got back to my carpwagon as I was getting my boots off I said to myself, "That was heavenly".  It really was.  I was getting so many shots and hooking up so often I just didn't want to get out of the river to take any pictures where I was holding the fish.  I was fishing a two fly rig with a Chocolate Cherry on top and Black Betty as the dropper.  They took both flies.  There were virtually no clouds, the wind was light and the water was clear enough that I was casting a fair distance to tailing fish.  

All the hook ups made me feel more clever than I actually am.  Lets be objective here--I don't have a 20+ fish day when I only see 10 or 12 fish.  It just isn't possible to catch more fish than I see.  On this day I was blessed to be fishing in a very target rich environment with receptive fish.  Indeed, it was heavenly.  

Not your typical carp

An ordinary Columbia River carp is a common, is about 28-29 inches long and weighs 8-9 pounds.  Some, not many, are smaller but typically not very much smaller.  Some are larger.  Some are way larger.  A Columbia River carp can be 29 inches and weigh more than 9 pounds because his tummy is fat.

An ordinary Columbia common.

This common has more girth so he tips the scale over 10 pounds.  

This Columbia River carp is not ordinary.  He is a mirror and he is longer than 28 inches.  When I see a group of fish and I can tell one of them is a mirror I will virtually always target the mirror.   There was a group of three tailing fish but I could not tell this one was a mirror.  He was the largest of the three so I cast to him.  He picked up Black Betty just like I wanted him to.    He was an extraordinary fish; he reminded me how very fortunate I am to be a carp fisherman.  Damn, I love my river! 

Ella the Carp and the Land of Mirrors

The Blackfoot Reservoir appeared on my radar back in 2005.  The body of water has only Mirror Carp.  Seeing pictures of large Mirror Carp made me wide eyed and I knew I would fish there one day.  In 2006, I corresponded with a Euro-style angler from California who had been there with some of his friends.  His stories and his pictures cemented my determination to travel to the Land of Mirrors.

This is Ella the Carp.  She is a Common Carp.  She lives on the wall in the Carp Lodge next to Harry the Heron.

Ella was made by a word worker who lives very near the Carp Lodge.  She has 244 separate pieces.  Each scale is an individual piece.  (Guess how much we paid for Ella.  Seriously, guess please; you won't be offended.)

I am guilty of personifying things at times.  It works for me.  Sometimes it makes perfect sense to me.

Ella is anxious for me to go the Land of Mirrors.  In anticipation of leaving for this trip she and I posed for a picture together awhile back.

Is it that all of the Carp in the Blackfoot Reservoir are Mirrors that piques my interest so much?  It is that in part, but the Carp in that water are big and that really piques my interest!



Yes, I want to catch Mirrors but I want some major phatties!  And I know Ella wants me to hook up with those hogs.  Oh, and John, Ella and  I want you to catch some big ones too.

I have tied some extra Carp Carrots, Chocolate Cherries, Salt & Peppas, and Black Betties just for you.
See you soon fat Idaho Carp...

Klint's Comment about the San Juan Worm

This is a continuation of my conversation with Klint from Washington State. Klint wrote in two emails: "My best fly has been the SJW. I have tried quite a few other patterns but the fish just react better for me when I am fishing a worm. I have yet to find a fly other than the SJW that carp will even look at." The SJW is definitely a consistent producer--as consistent as any Carp fly can be. Nothing works all the time. Some flies work some of the time. Some don't work at all. I started a blog post months ago about great flies that don't work for Carp. I have experimeted with flies for Carp that have produced well for other species and can't get a take from a Carp. I'll finish that post someday. I think that the seasoned Carp fly rod angler, at least in the Pacific Northwest anyway, should always have some SJW's in his box. They don't always work and sometimes other flies do actually work better. Somedays the SJW definitely works better. I would say one thing about the SJW worm versus most other Carp patterns. I fish them differently and so do the guys I know who also use them. I tend to be willing to let the SJW sit longer than I do a Carrot, a Carp Woollie, or pretty much anything else I use. I fished a few days last week and did not get a fish on the SJW. I got them all on Carp Carrots and Black Betty's. It probably was an even split. I would also say that if you come on what my friend Keith calls, "a violently tailing fish" and you can put the SJW on his dinner plate then you have as good a chance of getting that fish to take as with any other pattern and maybe better. Think of the space around the front and sides of a tailing fish as a dinner plate or spaghetti platter. They typically won't move far to pick up a fly even when they see it. If it's on their dinner plate then get ready to set the hook. I do think that fish that are cruising slowly, or more importantly, ones that are what I call shopping, are a bit more likely to pick up something else than a SJW but I'm not sure of that. A fish that I see stop and pick something up and then move a bit to look for something else to eat, are what I call shoppers. When it comes to picking up fish in the water column versus on the bottom, I think that the SJW isn't as effective here. John Montana, what's your take on this? All of that said, at any one time I always have 3 dozen SJW's with me when I'm Carp fishing. It's a go to Carp fly to be sure.

Gerhard's Questions and a Few Answers

This post and the two preceeding it are answers to emails from readers. I have cut and pasted the emails.

Caller three is Gerhard who is from Aurora, Ontario. Go ahead caller:

"Mr. P.,

I tremendously enjoy your web site and the information provided.
My fishing is primarily done in Southern Ontario, Canada and the metropolitan Toronto area, where favourite spots are storm water ponds with sometimes impressive and very picky carp. The Great Lakes also hold very big fish but they are hard to find in the summer, especially in lake Ontario with the exception of the Bay of Quinte maybe.

The carp carrot is very good fly in some areas, especially with crayfish I believe, but sometimes other colours might be preferable, like olive or green or even black. In your blog you mention different colours, but it does not say anything about what goes together like the orange body and yellow hackle for the carrot.
Do you use yellow pheasant for all other body colours as well or are there other combinations recommended? It would be interesting to get your view on this as when I switch colours now it also means a different pattern. I really would like to see how far the carrot could go, even around here.

Thanks for your thoughts and please keep up the excellent site."




Some answers (and a couple questions of my own):

Thanks for the props about my blog Gerhard; I'm glad you enjoying reading it. I enjoy writing it. Is the water you fish clear, somewhat cloudy, or muddy? Do you wade or fish from something that floats?

Yes, I have tried several other body colors of the Carrot. Variations I have used successfully are red, brown, black, burgundy, white, green, olive, and peacock.

For the hackle on these other variations I have used natural pheasant, pheasant dyed olive, wine, black, green, crawfish orange, purple, and black. I have tied Carrots and the variations with partridge and like using it also.

Natural Pheasant:


Pheasant Dyed Yellow:



As to preferences I still like the orange body with the pheasant dyed yellow best of all. Olive and peacock versions have been good to me along with black and burgundy. I didn't start this blog until 2009 but had been fly fishing for Carp for many years before that so I have had a chance to experiment with a lot of different patterns before I was blogging.

It sounds funny to me Gerhard to call a black version of my Carrot, a Carrot. I don't know what to call it, a Black Carp Carrot I guess; I don't know. I have tied the black bodied version with natural pheasant and black pheasant. I like them both.

In my typed fishing journal, the first time I used the green version I wrote, "I caught some fish today on a 'Green Carrot'--what do I call it, 'Celery'"? Heck a guy could fish a topper and a dropper and be fishing with Carrot and Celery.

I have tied the green and olive bodied ones with green, olive, black, and natural pheasant. What do I like in this group? I think the olive body and olive hackle in this group.

I have tied the peacock bodied fly with an olive and natural hackle, along with a black hackle. Pheasant died black turns out in a surprising way. It has a peacock kind of shimmer to it and changes color as it catches light differently. I use the heck out of the pheasant died yellow but also really like the black. The black is easy to find by the way. A peacock herl body with a black pheasant rump hackle is my favorite in this group. It's not really all black but I call it Black Betty.


Pheasant Dyed Black:





Here is a Black Betty.




And here it is with a red tail.

As an aside, I have fished a peacock body fly with a palmered brown saddle hackle for decades. I tie it very sparsely by stripping barbules off one side of the feather. For durability I counter rib it with fine wire. I have used this for trout and am going to try it for Carp this year.

For the red, brown, black and burgundy, I have used mostly the natural pheasant hackle and also a partridge hackle.

The white version I have only tried half heartedly. My friend, Keith, fishes a white fly that looks like a grub with a tail. I have tied this and fished it but honestly not very much.

I have experimented a bit with purple, crawfish orange, and wine hackles on brown and black bodies and I've also tried the wine hackle on a burgundy body. I haven't done this much so I don't have any thoughts on them.

A Whole Skin Dyed Purple:



Pheasant Dyed Crawfish Orange:


As I said, I use the heck out of pheasant dyed yellow. I use it for Carp flies but also for Trout flies. Several years ago I took a couple "empties" back to the fly shop and told the owner I was there to complain about a couple bad pheasant rump patches he had sold me. He showed genuine concern and asked what was wrong with them. I took them out of the bag and told him they didn't work anymore; they were empty. He laughed and told me he sold refills. I bought two refills and put them to work the same day.

Two Views of An "Empty":




I am committing myself this year to at least one, three day trip where I only fish new water. On that trip I have been telling myself that I am going to really work to fish two or three flies, or versions of flies, that don't usually get first billing when I'm out. If I'm getting shots at tailing fish and they won't take, well then it will be a good day of learning for me with some new flies, or flies I am revisiting. In particular I am going to fish Black Betty, the peacock body fly with the pheasant dyed black, and the olive body with olive or black hackle. I have caught Carp on these flies before but they have taken a back seat the last few years. Its time to bring 'em back.

Thanks again for your email Gerhard.

It is drizzling lightly here at home. I am dreaming of warm Carping days in the weeks to come.