Foundation and Framing: The Carp Lodge Part II

Dear Common Carp,

The foundation for the Carp Lodge was poured and framing began. As you are aware this is a weekend and summer home for Katy and I. Please know that I want you to think of this as your lodge too my Common Carp friends. You and I will be spending more quality time together in the months and years to come. I am already picking out pictures of some of your Columbia River friends taken in years past. Their pretty faces will adorn the walls of the Carp Lodge. If you have a rotund stomach and you take my fly you too can achieve immortality on the walls of the Carp Lodge. I'm looking forward to meeting you; especially if you are just plain fat. I hope you are looking forward to meeting me.

P

Excavation: The Carp Lodge Part I

Katy and I have talked about owning recreational property for years. We have looked off and on during much of that time. The fact is, we could never really afford it. I have changed jobs late in my life (well sort of late) and I'm making more money.

Carp fishing, particularly on the Columbia, got me looking again for possible property in central Washington.

There is so much, actually too much, to say about how we came to finally make an offer on a piece of property on the Columbia. In June 2010 we did. The offer was accepted but we had to go back and forth with the listing agent about the septic "As-Built". Finally, we got it and the loan was approved. It took months. We had met a great builder early in the process.

What can I say except that Katy and I are building a home on the Columbia River. We will enjoy it together, we will enjoy it with friends and family, we will enjoy it with our seperate friends, oh and one more thing, I will enjoy it for Carp fishing. She is very patient with me when I refer to it as The Carp Lodge. Holey Crimeny when the Carp Lodge is finished I will be able to stay on the river for a week. Suddenly Carp fishing will be a series of day trips from my home instead of an overnight trip. I can fish for a few days and then rest my middle age knees for a day and then fish for a few more days.

Katy and I are very excited. The view from The Carp Lodge is wonderful. The Carp Lodge is big enough that we can have guests over and they can have their own bedroom and their own bathroom. Did I mention that the view is very cool?

Construction on the Carp Lodge just started in December. These pictures are from that first day of excavation.

Dear Columbia River Commons and Mirrors--Come this summer you and I will be dancing regularly. I'm looking forward to it; I hope you, my fish friends, are looking forward to it too.

Boom, Boom, Pow!--Before I blogged: Part III

BOOM!


BOOM!

POW!!!

Gotta get-get, gotta get-get, Gotta get-get,...
Boom boom boom, Gotta get-get
Boom boom boom, Gotta get-get...

Yo, I got the flies that rock
You got that bluff overload
I got the that rock and roll
That future flow

I like that boom boom pow
Them chickens jackin' my flies
They try to copy my swagger
I'm on that next trip now

I'm so 3008
You so 2000 and late
I got that boom, boom, boom
That future boom, boom, boom
Let me get it now

Boom boom boom, gotta get-get
Boom boom boom, gotta get-get
Boom boom boom, gotta get-get
Boom boom boom, gotta get-get

Boom boom boom, now
Boom boom boom, now
Boom boom pow
Boom boom pow...

Let the beat rock
Let the beat rock
Let the beat rock

This beat be bumpin', bumpin'
This beat go boom, boom...

I'm on the supersonic boom
Y'all hear the spaceship zoom
When, when I step inside the water
Them Carp go ape, uh yuh...

I like that boom boom pow!!...

"A Stomach with a Handle"--Before I blogged: Part II

Again, going through pictures and trips from before I blogged... This fish had such a fat stomach; it made his tail look like it was a handle. I worked the Washington Sportsmen's Show all day Friday and Saturday a couple weekends ago. I talked to scores of guys about fly fishing for Carp. A few had tried it, a surprising number said they were already planning to try it this season, some said they "had heard about guys who did that", and some asked, "Why would you want to do that? They're so ugly!"

Myself, "I think Carp lips are dang purdy; they ain't ugly a tall." The heck with their lips, look at the gut on this thing!

A Major Phattie in Black & White--Before I blogged: Part I

For years I resisted putting pictures of myself on the Internet. Even when I made posts on fishing forums not only did I have no desire to post pictures of myself and my fishing but I had an aversion to doing it. Somewhere back in time, 2006 I believe, I got talked into posting a picture of myself with a Grass Carp I had caught on a fly. Well one thing led to another and a few years later I started blogging.

I have been working a lot the last few months but I am still day dreaming about Carp fishing. Going back through some of my old pictures from before I blogged I got a good chuckle out of this one. The fish was large and he fought well. I had a new camera that I was learning to use. I didn't know that I had just changed the setting to black and white. This picture was also noteworthy because it was my first effort and editing an image. If you look "very carefully" you can see where I tried to blot out the background.

How much longer until the spring and summer roll around?

How much longer until the spring and summer roll around?

Did I already say that?

Sand Lance Minnow

Anadromous fish spawn in fresh water but migrate to salt water to spend most of their lives. Locally, our anadromous fish population includes 5 species of Pacific Salmon. They are Chinook (King), Coho (Silver), Chum (Dog), Pink (Humpy), and Sockeye (Red). They migrate to the ocean because there are zillions upon zillions of baitfish for them to eat and grow big. On the return trip to spawn in their natal stream they still are eating while they move through the Straights, and the Sound. Locally some of those baitfish the Salmon eat include Herring and Sand Lance.

This Minnow Pattern looks the most like a Sand Lance. Tying a bunch of these involves grumbling at the Angel Hair material because it is so wispy, stacking multiple colors of the angel hair on the hook, tacking on eyes, gluing them on, and then spinning them dry. Gluing the eyes on with 5 minute epoxy is as much work as tying. If I haven't tied this fly in awhile (and I hadn't) it takes me a few flies to remember how to get the glue even on the eyes.

I am looking forward to using these flies this coming fall. I fish this fly in the salt water as the Silvers and the Humpies are returning to look for "dates" in their natal streams. This fly has not produced well for me at all in the rivers but has been good to me in the salt.

Salmon Slammer

It's winter; we woke up to three inches of new snow this morning. It's snowing again right now. That makes it a great time to tie flies! Here is a fly I have tied for some years. Oh, I should mention, the fly works extremely well for Pink Salmon. Pinks are also called Humpies because the males grow a large hump when they migrate to their natal streams to spawn.

I start the body of the Salmon Slammer near the point of the hook. I leave more bare hook towards the shank than I might otherwise on another fly because the Salmon are very toothy. Those teeth just really beat up flies. I also counter rib the fly with wire, again, because the fish are so hard on the flies. For the Salmon Slammer sparse is good.



In Washington the Humpies run almost exclusively in the odd years. I'm hoping for a stellar year of fishing for them this coming fall. Just about the time I am starting to wind down on my Carp fishing the Humpies will wind up. It's time to stock up on several dozen Salmon Slammers.