It seems that I have miles and miles of river to learn and no time to learn it so I hit a new section. The first hour I worked upstream as fast as possible. I took the occasional shot but was mostly moving and shaking.
On the way down it was a whole new me. On the hunt, focused and moving slow. If it looks like this carp has a sparrow attached to it's lip that's because the fly is large (size 4 Primordial Crust) and the fish is SMALL (4lb wet). It exciting though because I got this fish on a blind active swing through impenetrable shadow with just enough upstream mend to slow it down and small slow strips to give it some life. I have been working on that presentation and it has payed off several times over the past year.
Here is another picture of the same fish. I can't get over the size ratio of fly to fish. In size 4 the Primordial Crust is really almost obnoxiously large for a carp fly and I usually only hook larger fish on it.
On the way upriver I had intentionally passed on the fish ghosting in and out of the mess in the picture below because it seemed like too much work when scouting new water. And it was. On the way down=river I spent a good 10 minutes crawling on my butt, hands and knees down through the tangled flood-detritus until I could get into position and flick a Primordial Crust underhand to a carp tailing at the edge of the dead fall. If he had turned left I was out of luck but he turned right on the hook set and I was in business.
In business for landing it that is. A nicer fish but finding someway to get it out of the net and get a decent picture in this mess was a different matter.
After that I was out of time and out of likely water but on my way home a happy man. Two carp in three hours on a totally new section of river in the middle of summer. I will take it!
Nice work. I like that net...Do you have the maker/model by chance?
ReplyDeleteDavid - I happen to have that on hand because it is the second time somebody has asked today (Odd!). I have the 20" Promar collapsible trophy series. Perfect for fish up to about 27", after that it gets a little sketchy because of the bag depth. They also have a 24" model and Mclean nets has a similar looking design that appears to have a deeper bag.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.promarnets.com/promar/Products.aspx?Cat=2&Item=4
I just busted the promar 24. I had a good run with that net so I be getting another. Is that mesh snaggy on flies?? Thanks man.
ReplyDeleteI havent had any problems with the mesh snagging flies that I couldnt handle - BUT the mesh is the perfect size so that if the fwd spine on the dorsal fin is already split it sometimes goes through and cant come out because it is barbed. It has happened 2 or 3 times this year.
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