Sunday, April 24, 2011

Decisions, Decisions

The urban fly fisherman frequently faces some unique decisions that go beyond which fly, what tippet and where to flail.  I was confronted with some such decisions today.

Today I found myself perched precariously on a large (1 ton?) concrete slab tilted down the bank 10 feet above a small pool.  Large Carp where cruising through the pool every 15 to 20 seconds.  I had only decent cover and a single 4' wide window through the trees to flick out a fly.  It was difficult to tell, but they were either on to me or just not feeding.  Either way I had run out of time to find feeding fish and was relegated to hoping for an unlikely mistake by my cautious friends.

Friday, April 22, 2011

2011 South Platte Pro-Am Carp Slam Open For Biz

Registration just opened for the 2011 Denver Trout Unlimited Carp Slam.  Get your entry quick because I just got mine and the spots should go quickly.  Despite selling out nearly every year they made a cool decision to drop the price of entry just so that this poor guy (cheap bastard) could afford to participate.  That had nothing to do with it of course,  but cmon.  if I wasn't at least a little narcissistic and self-centered would I have a blog? 

The Carp Slam is a very interesting event and in 2008 it really saved my fly-carpin bacon.  It was my first full season of fly fishing for Carp back in CO and it was a total disaster.  It turns out that Carp are more difficult or at least very different in CO than in MI.  It had been nearly a full season and I was ofer.  My confidence was crushed.   

My old man to the rescue.  Somewhere, somehow he found out about the Carp Slam and gave me a call.  "Hey Tage, I know you love Carp but apparently you suck.  I hope you don't mind but you need help and I signed you up and paid your entry into the Carp Slam."

Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Student Exceeds The Master

Over the past couple of years I have been slowly trying to teach my brother-in-law to fly fish.  It has been a bit of a struggle.  Not through any lack on his part, he is one of those natural fishermen who usually just believes he is going to catch fish and therefore does.  Having pretty much only taught one other person to fly fish, and being nearly 100% self-tought myself I am just clueless as to how to go about it.  Today we had a very good day though, and the student exceeded the master!



HOW NOT TO GO ABOUT IT?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

To Move or To Wait?

This weekend I learned a lesson I have learned many times before.  I am sure I will have to re-learn it over and over. When fly fishing for Carp, every once in a while you have to let the Carp come to you.

I stopped off at a local pond around 3:00PM and quickly found nirvana.  Six mid 20inchers tailing hard on a small flat.   This pond and I are good friends and until recently I was sure there was nothing in there over 20".  It is quite likely these were the 6 biggest fish in the pond.

Between a blown shot (lined him) and a blown take (barely stung the lip) they were all gone pretty quickly.  For once I decided to wait them out and let them come to me.  This is not how I usually operate.  I almost always just move on in search of new fish.  Well, eventually a 25incher finally came ghosting slowly back onto the flat.  I dropped the worm two feet in front and waited until the carp came into range.  At 6" I gave some twitches to get the tail wagging and the Carp did the rest.  It's not too often you get to honestly believe that you just caught the biggest Carp in a body of water.

Sometimes it pays to let them come to you.  Eventually I will really learn that.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Fly-Carpin Wins the OBN / MFC Fly Designer Contest!!

Victory, Thy Name is Stench!

The MFC Fly Designer Contest Announcement is out and it seems that the folks at Montana Fly Company like the Carp-Stench I am dealing.  McTage's Primordial Crust has been declared the winner and will now be included in the MFC Catalog.  I will become a designated MFC fly designer and receive royalties!  To top it all off they are sending me a hat and MFC Madison Reel.  One of those cool fancy patterned jobs.

I honestly have no idea how profound this is in the grand scheme of things.  I do know that it was a ton of fun and is in no way hard on the ego.  I also know from experience that the only thing more gratifying than catching a fish on one of your own unique designs is watching or hearing about somebody ELSE doing so.  This certainly increases the odds of that happening!

Thanks a bunch to Outdoor Blogger Network for setting this up.  If you are an outdoor blogger and haven't checked them out yet...do so.  They are constantly inventing creative ways to enrich the outdoor blogging experience.  Thanks to MFC for taking some Carp Flies seriously.  Finally, thanks to the other competitors.  Going through the other submissions (1st, 2nd and 3rd place) was a significant part of the fun.  Now that I have provided links to the entire universe I will sign off to hang with my Mommasita who just got back from a well deserved vacation in Germany!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Sneaking Up On Sleeping Carp - Carp Ninja Style

Sometimes when fly fishing for Carp it seems that they know you are there before you do.  That they mystically sense your presence and intentions.  You begin to think the Carp are smarter, better smelling and even better looking than you are.  Time to watch this video from a couple of weeks ago to dispel any illusions that they posses super-fish powers.  I didn't just touch them with the rod, I had to whack them pretty good to wake them up!


The still-water season is officially here in CO.  I had 8 very good shots to nice sized Carp feeding in the shallows in half an hour at a local lake while my son was in Karate class this afternoon.  No love!