Grass Carp Flies: Part III

I had been out on Wednesday, August 4, and had virtually killed my battery. Instead of fishing on Thursday I had to learn about bringing back deep cycle batteries. I was reminded of Miracle Max in Princess Bride when he said, "It just so happens that your friend is MOSTLY dead. There is a big difference between MOSTLY dead and ALL dead..." Miracle Rick at the battery store told me that I had discharged my battery to such a point that my charger would not recognize it. However, it was likely not all dead, it was mostly dead. I had to put it on a different charger and it took all day but indeed it had been only most dead, not all dead. I didn't get to fish on Thursday but Friday was sure looking good.

Because I had some hookups on Wednesday, I moved faster on Friday morning and skipped the cinnamon rolls. Still not the break of dawn, I was on the water by 10:00 on Friday. I was also equipped with fresh flies from some time at the vise. Dang those things looked tasty.

Again, I had three hookups but this time I got two of them to the net. They were 11.5 pounds and 12 pounds. They measured in at 28 inches and 28 1/4 inches. They don't run anything like the Commons and Mirrors do. They run back and forth around the boat and down towards the bottom but not into the backing. I did slowly move out a ways from the reeds after hooking up so they fish couldn't break me off.

The goal of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is to reduce the number of Grass Carp in the lake. Since they have eaten too much of the vegetation there is now toxic algae in the lake. That means we are required to remove the fish we bring to the net. This next picture is not your typical handle the fish with care and respect kind of picture. The fish are dead.



Oh, the fly, well I would love to say that careful trial and error went into this fly. Actually I just did it without giving it much thought. I felt a little funny doing this but I just had to try it. It is such an incredible work of creativity and tying prowess.

Here it is, Mr. P.'s Grass Carp Grass Fly:







Here are some from the morning's tying session. The one at the bottom is beat up from being in a fish's mouth.



These flies are sort of fragile. I carry them in a saltwater fly box. They also don't exactly last long so you would have to tie them "fresh" each day.

Tying recipe:

Hook: Tiemco 5262 size 8
Thread: Olive
Body: About 12 strands of grass trimmed from next to my fence.

I'm sort of self-conscious about tying grass to a hook but the Grass Carp ate it. Having them eat it helps me to steel myself against my own embarassment. I will be trying this again next week. My neighbor has a more nicely manicured lawn than I do. (He doesn't fish) I wonder if I cut a few blades of grass from his yard if I would catch more fish. We'll see.

Grass Carp Flies: Part II

On July 15, 2010 I made a post explaining that I was participating in a Grass Carp reduction program at a lake in my area. In that post you can read the background of why the Grass Carp were planted there, what the effects have been and why the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wants the number of Grass Carp reduced in the lake.

I am taking some time off and wanted to try and catch some Grass Carp. I got up somewhat early on Wednesday morning with the intention of getting a good start on fishing. I had breakfast, packed a lunch, loaded up my truck and almost was ready. I read the paper. Then I decided to tie some more "basic" Grass Carp flies just in case the ones I had didn't work. So it wasn't exactly early anymore.

To get to Lone Lake I have to take a ferry to Whidbey Island. The line was short and the weather was wonderful. I was in a very relaxed mode. The drive from the ferry terminal to the lake is not long. On the way I really started to crave a cinnamon roll. Knowing that if I drove right past the lake I would end up at the Langley Bakery in about 15 minutes I just kept right on going. I know a person might say that cinnamon roll isn't much of a reason to add 45 minutes to the time before I started actually fishing and I agree. To that end I bought two very rich brownies to take home. Surely that made the 45 minute delay worth it.

I got my boat ready and was on the water promptly at 12:40. Not exactly first light but so what. I headed down to the more shallow end of the lake and watched for fish. I started out with my Scum Fly and fished it for a bit just casting blindly in the shallows. A bit in this case means about 5 or 10 minutes. I switched to one of my more "basic" flies that I had tied that morning. Within another 5 minutes I saw a fish working near the reeds. I cast to him and there was nothing doin'. Ten minutes later I saw another fish, I cast to him and BAM, he took my fly. I had him on for several minutes and actually was close to netting him. The rod was in my left hand and the line was in my right hand. I had let the boat drift into the reeds while I was playing him. Maybe that was a bit careless. The Carp got into the weeds and broke me off. Dang it!

I wondered if that fish would have taken my Scum Fly but it was too late now. I wasn't willing to experiment since I wasn't seeing many fish. I put on another one of the morning's handiwork and starting stalking again in the margins. It would be hour before I got into another fish. I got this one to the net.



As participants in the Grass Carp reduction program we are required to report our fishing time, our method, and the weight and length of our captures. He weighed 9 pounds 13 ounces and was 27 3/4 inches.

I would get one more hook up later in the afternoon and that was it for the day. I lost that fish also.

I have a small electric on my boat and the battery was giving up. It was either dying or I had forgotten to charge it after my last outing. The battery was so darn dead I couldn't fish anymore and had to row back to my truck.

I had planned to fish the next day but was going to have to solve the battery problem first. And tie some "fresh" flies for the Grassers too.

Grass Carp Flies: Part I

Here in Washington State there are Grass Carp in a few lakes both public and private. The Grass Carp that are here are all supposed to be certified sterile so they can't reproduce. Stocking Grass Carp in any Washington lake, both public and private, requires the permission of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Lone Lake is a place I have fished since the early 70's. Yikes, is that possible? I have fished it for Trout. It is on an island here in Western Washington. Through the years the property around the lake has been developed more and more as has the rest of the island. Some years the Trout fishing has been better than others with some years being disappointing and not worth the effort and some years being quite amazing for a lake that a guy can drive to.

Several years ago the lake began to be infested with Brazilian Elodea. As it proliferates it can just choke a lake.

I am a member of the Evergreen Fly Fishing Club; many of our members regularly fish Lone Lake for Trout. As the Elodea problem became worse and worse our club, along with the local Homeowners Association, another fly club, and the WDFW, worked to remove the weeds. Elodea is just darn difficult to eradicate. After much research and consideration it was decided that the WDFW would plant Grass Carp in Lone Lake. The goal was to keep the elodea down but not eliminate all aquatic plant life.

Grass Carp are vegetarians; they love their salad. They will eat a bug but not very often by comparison. Well, in a matter of just four years the salad eaters have cleaned out the lake. There are no plants left growing from the bottom. There are some cattails and other weeds at the margins but that is it. The lack of aquatic vegetation is now causing other problems in Lone Lake. To help mitigate this the WDFW has approved a Grass Carp removal program at Lone Lake. People who are participating in the removal process had to be part of a permitting process. We even have to carry a sign and a badge of sorts while we fish.

I have caught a good many Common Carp and Mirror Carp. I have caught a grand total of 5 Grass Carp on the fly. That was several years ago. I know a guy who has some private lakes on his property. He had a permit to plant some Grass Carp in his water. He asked me to try and catch a few of them to move them from one lake to another to help with weed control in the lakes where they were not getting the job done. I spent a couple hours one day observing their behavior and then returned with my son to have a go at it.

We fished the better part of the day; those Grass Carp are not easy to catch. They are very spooky. We were only able to catch them when we were hiding behind the cattails, casting very carefully, and then letting the fly sit for awhile before stripping extremely slowly.

We fished floating lines and 1X leader. I believe we caught 7 total; it may have been 8. I tried some Olive Woolly Buggers and a few other leech style pattersn. We caught our fish on my Scum Fly. We just let it sit there. I should add that later in the day we started greasing the leader so it would float which helped keep the fly near the surface.

Knowing how hard the Grassers are to catch on the fly I was not terribly optimistic when I went to Lone Lake a few weeks ago. The weather was cloudy and cool. I had some Scum Flies but I also was trying something new, the Grass Fly. Katy brought home some Sushi. A few of the pieces were sitting on a strip of fake grass. I went to the grocery store the next day and asked the guy if he would sell me a few strips of fake grass. He said no but he told me where I could get 60 piecs. It cost me $1.50. I cut it in to grass blade size strips and tied it on a #8 5262. Dang I thought that fly would look tasty to a Grass Carp.

I spent a couple hours slowly moving around the edges of the lake looking for Grassers. I cast to where I thought there might be some but not knowing for sure reduces your odds considerably and they aren't good to start with.

Remembering my time from 10 years ago on the private water I finally saw evidence of a Grass Carp. If I hadn't seen it several times back then I wouldn't have known what the heck was happening. I saw the top of a reed moving slowly through the water. It would move, stop, and then move again. Then it would sink a little and then disappear. I remembered that Grass Carp can pick a two or three foot reed, hold it in their mouth, move for awhile, eat some of it, move some more, and finally eat it all. They can root around in the margins and pick a reed off like breaking off a celery stalk. Sometimes after they break one off they will move away before they begin eating it. Kind of like a Sea Gull or a Crow trying to get away from other birds before it begins eating whatever it has found. I also saw something else that I knew told me there were Grass Carp in the area. A reed would appear to be floating flat on the top of the water. It would slowly move even against the wind. It would slide across the top of the water with one end slipping below the surface.

Picture yourself with an two foot french fry in your mouth. You are holding the loose end with one hand. You don't move the fry with your hand, you just nibble it a bit at a time. You nibble in half inch to one inch increments. Slowly the french fry moves towards you as you eat it. That's what it is like when a Grass Carp is nibbling on a 2 foot reed. The fish will be just subsurface and the only evidence you might see is the moving french fry. If the sun is out and the sky is clear, and of course it helps if the water is clear, you can see the Grass Carp eating. They do NOT like company. They don't like noise, they don't like shadows, they don't like movement. Don't take this personally but they don't like me or you either.

I did not catch a Grass Carp in Lone Lake when I was out a few weeks ago. I hope to try again but alas, I am very distracted by my friends the Commons and the Mirrors.

I am anxious to see if my Grass Fly will work when the Grass Carp are more active. I may have to resort to tying lettuce to my hook. Maybe I'll tie a bit of bacon and a small tomato wedge with the lettuce and I'll have the BLT fly. Probably not.

Mr. P.'s Scum Fly

Hook: Tiemco 5262 size 8
Thread: Black or Olive
Body: Olive Crosscut Rabbit Fur
Scum: Scribbles 3D Hunter Green Paint

Tie the rabbit fur on near the bend of the hook. After each wrap seperate or pull the fur out from the hook shank. At random points spread the paint in the fur with a toothpick.

Here are pictures of the same Scum Fly from four different angles. In the water it looks like scum or algae.






All five Grass Carp I have caught were taken on my Scum Fly.

Here is a picture of my Grass Fly.



This is a picture of the box the fake grass comes in with one piece sitting next to it.



Grass Fly:

Hook: Tiemco 5262 size 8
Thread: Black or Olive
"Body": Fake Grass

Cut blades of fake grass from the sheet. Fasten them in different directions.