Welcome To The Revolution Part II: A Bad Case of The 'Nids

I remember the exact moment I caught the 'nids.  It was the fall of '98 on the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids.  Or was it '97?  Actually I can't really remember that much about it,  Experiences that intense have a way of getting fuzzy.

What DO I remember?  I will never forget the pristine beauty, the fresh smell in the fall air, the isolation and the raw thrill of a fly-line flowing through the guides......

Have you been to the Grand River in Grand Rapids MI?  Heard about it perhaps?  OK, I will cut the romantic crap then.  That smell was probably the homeless guy fishing next to me for hours on end.  Forget about isolation, you fish shoulder to shoulder or you don't catch fish.  As for the fly-line, well you may have a fly-rod but you don't actually use fly-line.  The method of choice is called chuck-and-duck.  You typically use amnesia running line, large (occasionally a full ounce!) lead weights and some sort of egg pattern with a spawn-sac hooked on.  To call it fly-fishing is a stretch.

Which brings us to beauty.  What the surroundings and methods lack the fishing has in plenty.  There are so many varieties of Great-Lakes Salmonid runs in the Grand that there is something long and strong running at least 7 months out of the year. 
 

Not just Steelhead and Salmon!  Lake-Run Brown, Grand Rapids MI, Fall 2003

FlyCarpin's New Carp-Roll (and a question for fellow bloggers)

I am working on adding a new feature. The FlyCarpin Carp-Roll.  This Blog-Roll uses Yahoo Pipes to compile different blog feeds and then filter them for Carp content and then send it to Fly-Carpin.

I love all fish on the fly (I have caught 47 species and cherish each one - even trout) but the goal of this blog was to have a very carp-centric blog.  This feature should help Fly-Carpin participate in the greater fly-fishing blog community while still maintaining that carp-centricity.   

I have just a few blogs added so far.  Before I go through the effort of populating it with more blogs and adding some refinements (i.e limiting the number of posts, adding the published date etc.) I have a couple of questions for the community. 

1. Do any of my fellow bloggers find this offensive in any way?  For example, is it offensive to have your carefully crafted and varied content filtered down to just one area?
2. Do any of my fellow bloggers have a preference on being included or not?
3. Any general feedback?  

UPDATE:  FEB 25th
The following blogs are currently on the Carp-Roll:

Mr. P's Blog:

Fine Water:

This River Is Wild:

Carp on the Fly:

Adventures In Brown Lining:

Low Brow Angler:

roughfisher.com:

Colorado Fishing Reports:

Fly Fish Addiction:

Scum Pocket:

The SoCal Fly FIsher:

lariverflyfishing:

Urban Fly Ventures:

Michael Gracie:

Fishing Jones:

Updated May 17th 2011:  The seperate page for the Carp-roll has been removed indefenitely.

CARPTORIOUS: The Worm And I Have Some Fun

I had a chance today to do some field testing with the worm pattern I was working on last week.  For the most part it did extremely well.  There are some issues and I think the final pattern will get some tweaks to increase the durability before it earns a name and goes on the favorite flies page but it can clearly catch fish.   

It was a perfect day to hit the river.  We had great weather all week with a falling flow and increasing clarity.  My hope was that a certain flat would load up in the afternoon with feeding fish.  I love it when a plan comes together. 

ProtoFlies: Headstand worm

No time for fishing this weekend but I did have a little time to dink around with prototype flies.

I have heard from many people that they like the San-Juan worm or different variations of it for carp.  I experimented with the worm this winter without much luck (1 hook-up).  I think my main problem is that I lack confidence and quickly switch to a proven pattern.  Time to manufacture some confidence.   (Note: This picture is under-water in my sink looking down).  The fly will get a goofy name, a cleaner tie and some fine-tuning if and when it catches carp!  Otherwise it will sit in a box with all the other un-fulfilled dreams.

Zimmerman’s Backstabber Carp Fly

Some flies are standards.  Go-to flies that everybody uses.  Flies like the Wooly-Bugger for Trout and the Clouser Minnow for Smallmouth.  Flies that tie easy and imitate many different forms of prey at the same time.  These flies depend on profile, color and action more than fine detail.  They cross-over for multiple species (including carp) and across broad ranges of conditions. 

Jay Zimmerman’s Backstabber (his blog) will probably become one of the standard carp flies.  You could argue that the Backstabber is the best all-round carp pattern currently available commercially so perhaps it already is.  I would probably advise anybody just starting out fly-carpin to start with this pattern.

:  The Backstabber ties quickly and easily.  Adding the hackle in front of the eyes sometimes annoys me a little but that is my problem.  As you may be able to tell from the picture I am hackle challenged..

Carptorious: Winter throws a punch, I am still standing (Barely)

 The weather was tough today.  Somebody at Weather.com was delusional.  Their prediction?  49 and partly sunny.  Reality?  Most of the time I fished it was probably at least a couple degrees south or 40, completely overcast with snow flurries.  My goals for the day?  Get some outside time, maybe catch a fish and try not to kill myself slipping in the snow.  I was not very optimistic on all counts.  

Introducing Carp & Carpio

All winter I have had a vision in my head of a cartoon with two goldfish suffering through a fly-carpers crazed cabin fever.  After reading this awesome post on Colorado Fly Fishing Reports I figured it was time to get off my butt and give it a shot.