Monday, April 15, 2013

Vegas Baby

I was in Vegas last week for a poker tournament.  Unfortunately my tournament ended early when my A-K lost to A-10.

Day 1 - When I was probably among the chip leaders for about 20 minutes
Fortunately my wife and I had a wonderful time and I even found the time to go on a four hour Vegas carp quest.  What I learned:

1)  I would have to be a total a-hole to hot-spot somebodies carp-hole ...BUT... I will say there is at least one body of water in the Vegas metro area with a very healthy and accessible population of carp.  
2)  Don't forget to set your alarm.  It is critical that you get your fishing done during business hours.  There are allot of people in Vegas who like to fish and not many fishing holes. 
3)  Don't forget your fishing license.  There are at least two game wardens in Vegas and not many quota holes. 
4)  Don't forget your bread flies and / or egg patterns.  There are allot of people in Vegas who like to feed the ducks and not many duck holes.
5)  Don't forget your patience.  Between the heavy pressure and wonder-bread diet these carp are TOUGH!  And yes, I did rather lamely run out of hole references.
6)  If nearly domesticated but also paranoid carp are not your speed make the time to get to Lake Mead instead.  

Now, concerning item 6.  I did not have time to take a shot at Lake Mead with my fly rod on this trip.  I did visit the Hoover Dam with my wife Thursday morning and we even took a helicopter ride above it.  I highly recommend it.  Not only is the Hoover Dam a marvel of early 20th century engineering but there were hundreds if not thousands of 20lb class carp clooping in the scum-lines behind the dam.  Since the TSA, FBI, CIA or SEC (Somebody Equally Scary) would probably eliminate you from the gene pool on the spot the second you pulled out a fly-rod on top of the dam there is absolutely nothing you can do about these carp but it was a gas to watch.  




8 comments:

  1. Cool to see the more "wild" carp, but how did you do with the paranoid domestic fellows? Better than the poker perhaps. And, I love the story of Hoover Dam.

    Gregg

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  2. They paranoid domestic treated me rough Gregg. In order to pack light I only carried one box and it was NOT my egg box. I am not positive an egg or two (representing bread) and an indicator would have made a difference given how pressured these fish are BUT they certainly wanted nothing to do with the various crayfish, nymph and work patterns I had on hand! I probably put my fly on 30 to 40 tailers. I THINK I got one take that I was early or late on. Tough.

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  3. The "paranoid, domestic" ones are smart. Any of us would have had trouble catching them.

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  4. Trevor, do you think something super small, like a #18 something or another on a light tippet would have taken those fish? Maybe you tried that, but I'm curious.

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    1. Certainly an option. The problem was that they didn't seem to be spooking on the flies I was presenting, for the most part they were just ignoring them. Usually I don't peg that as needing to be smallter but a different color, profile or action instead. They would spook hard if you cast anything resembling directly at them which a small fly would help with but I managed to get plenty of flies on target with indirect drag and drop presentations.

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    2. I have giving this some thought. I have bread flies from size 2 to a small 10 in various shades, all sunk types. With a lot of experience in one park to bread fed carp I do believe in honesty that if you had some of that selection you would have done well, or caught some anyway. We have found them even here to become wary, then the smallest morsals do best.

      Gregg

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    3. Yeah, I am pretty sure I could have caught some. We have at least one bread spot in town here, maybe I will work on it this summer.

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