They Call Him Mello Yellow

Fishing time has been a tad scarce lately and the weather this weekend did not help.  I did manage to get out long enough to land one small carp locally but for the most part I am living vicariously through others.

I was very excited to read about John Montana and his first 30 pounder of the year this weekend.  First of many hopefully!  It also got a nice rush from the following email from Will Rice about one of the fly-swap flies he received:

Who tied this fly?  And why are fish chasing it down and crushing it?  Please tell the tier in question: "Will Rice owes you a brewski..."

Will Rice

PS: feel free to use any of these pics.

Well, that there is the Mello Yellow tied by the DSP's own Nate Taylor (visit Nates carp fly page with a Mello Yellow Tying Video).  And since I certainly don't have any pictures as sweet as this lately, don't mind if I do!

 

Nate Taylor's Mello Yellow - Photo by Will Rice

 

Fish and Photo By Will Rice

Fish and Photo By Will Rice

Fish and Photo By Will Rice

Thanks Will.  The fly swap may end up being the coolest thing I ever have done or will do with this blog.  Keep the truth alive brother.



Photo without a fish but about Will Rice

Carp Pond C meets Gregg's Eggs

Ponds are a good finger to scratch that still-water itch this time of year.  Larger still-waters can produce occasionally but are extremely hit-or-miss.  While pond carp are usually (but not always) small the fishing can be really interesting. 

My favorite ponds are a series of three that impound a small stream nose-to tail with a 30 foot walk from one pond to the next.  Those 30 feet may as well be miles because each pond fishes completely differently.  This weekend I had a couple of hours here and there to give it a go.  Only one of the three (call it Pond C) had anything going on.  Pond C nearly always has something going on, for all the good it has done me.  Nearly half of this pond is a shallow mud flat.  The fish are numerous, very small and have no fear of man.  For 8 months out of the year you find fish tailing there in 3" to 6" of water and you often get close enough to touch them with your rod tip.

Sounds easy right?  Well, while fish in Pond A and B are butter, these fish are TOUGH.  It is by far and away the most difficult of the three because these fish are doing something I think of as sleep-feeding.  They just go about their business grazing through the muck with virtually no interest in whatever flies you might put in their way.  It doesn't matter what fly and what presentation.  Your fly may as well not exist.  I have been fishing this pond for four years and everything in the arsenal has accounted for something on the order of 10 fish! 

Well, the arsenal didn't have eggs in it.  It isn't very glorious but they went nutso for the egg I recieved from Gregg in the fly-swap on a lob-drag and dead drop.  I had more takes in 4 hours of fishing this weekend than I had all last year there.  The takes were very very slow followed by an instant ejection and I couldn't figure out the timing until I got to see one suck it and eject it head on but after that it was absolute mayhem by Pond C standards. 

I think I need a smaller egg for these fish but I have at least one solution for Pond C. 

This unusually stout and healthy fellow took line.  That is a first in this pond and earned him another first.  An itty bitty hero-shot.  Trout-palm style.

NOTE:  Just realized today was Easter and I broke out the Eggs.  Just a freaky coincidence, no truth to the rumor that the Easter Bunny took the photo.

Legion of Dooooooooooooommmm!

Hide the women, children and adorable pets, the Legion of Doom is in the house!  No thanks to the USPS Wendy Berrell's submission to the fly swap has finally arrived.  I love the flattened wide profile of this fly and in case you haven't noticed I am a big fan of soft fur on carp flies.

Packages are on the way, the first nine went out today first class parcel with tracking thanks to my beautiful wife.  I made the executive decision to hold the rest off in order to give the LOD a fair shake and if you aren't in the first wave it probably means you get one or provided them.  Those packages will trickle out over the next week or so.

Just remember I didn't promise fancy packaging.  As a matter of Zack made the foam circles I am using to keep the flies from tangling for a quarter a piece.  Don't tell his Union Rep I told you, but the little money grubber got the best of Daddy and pumped those things out at a 20 buck an hour velocity.  That's me boy!  And yes, I am cheap enough and was amused enough to sit down and calculate it.  

Fly Swap Progress

Alright, alright, alright.  Things are getting ready to get messy with the carp fly swap.  The Roughfisher's flies arrived today and I think we are ready to start sorting return packages.  If I thought I could (or would have a clue how to) snort carp crack I might because I am going to need some serious go-juice.

Roll the music, Carp Crack is in the house and we are ready to rock!

All the fly pictures are done and the summary page is too barring minor details. I have to tell you, the summary page was a load.  I think there are over 80 pictures?  It was a ton of work but I am really pleased with the end results and I think it does a good job of showing off and documenting all the great hard work the participants put into making these flies.  Anybody who wants me to tweak the text or links drop me a line but the pictures are what they are!

Just an awesome selection of carp flies.

In the end the most painful part of making that page may have been deciding on the order.  All these flies are worth taking a look at but can you picture putting Barry Reynolds or John Montana at the bottom of the page?  Me neither and they got top billing and I tried to mix it up a little from there.

Anybody curious about the black market value of 300 plus carp flies?  Yeah, me too.  We better not even play that game though, Zack's got a college fund and Daddy needs a new pair of wading boots.

Bidding will open at.....

Carp Fly Swap - Deadline!

All you slackers without flies in my grubby little mitts are now OUT!  Just kidding of course.  Being a bit of a slacker myself I asked the magic 8 ball if all the flies would get here on time.  It said hell no, so I put in a little wiggle room on the schedule for slackers. 

We are actually in really good shape and have 17 out of 22 packages in and the rest are en-route.  Today we got in Austin Anderson, Chris Galvin and Barry Reynolds. 

All us Reynolds fans will be happy to know that he sent two sets of 10 and everybody will get one of his flies!  Really, if you think about it, he should have written books about rock and roll.  I mean, stinky smelly fly fishing for carp groupies from the 35 to 45 male demographic can't be what he pictured!

Tailchaser and Barry's Carp Bitter.  And yes, that is foam.  Very interesting. 

I haven't really been able to keep up with everything lately except making summaries, but in some other vaguely carp fly-swap related news:

• Sean Hudson learned that the more people like your fly the more they seem to want to change it.  Just a funny thing.
• Hide the women and children, the Legion of Doom is on it's way. I am almost glad they are a smidge late, because I am truly terrified.  Actually I really like the looks of this one and can't wait to get my hands on it...and change it. Just a funny thing.  
• The swap has triggered a flood of creativity and artistry for Lonny Garris.
• I can't be late with John Montana's package.  If he doesn't get something carp related in his hands soon he might not make it.
• Speaking of not making it, I am pretty borderline myself.  Ty Goodwin had to go show off how good his submission is by breaking in January.  Show-off.
• ThirdCoastFly made a fun post about the swap.  Massive (for me) traffic ensued.  Guess I am blind deaf and stupid because somehow three weeks ago I didn't even know about what is apparently one of the big-boy blogs with lots of fly fishing for carp content.
• The Roughfisher's will likely be the last package in.  That's cool because, well, he is sending in a full set and basicly offering to get us all hooked on carp-crack.  Come to think of it, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Carp Are From Venus, Carp Are From Mars

I am working on a more comprehensive update for the carp fly swap but wanted to share something fun real quick.

As far as I can tell Alonzo is a likely no show (I can't figure out how to contact him) so I let in the first alternate Kevin Morlock from Indigo Guide Service and Third Coast Fly.  Kevin already delivered his flies and let me tell you, If Lake MI carp are from Mars, my carp are from Venus!  I have allot of experience with SE Michigan carp and can tell you that they might as well be a different species, but the beasts in Lake MI must be from a different epoch!

Kevin Morlock's Submission Next To A Carp Stew!

I know several of the swappers (4 or 5 at least?) are planning a carpin pilgrimage to Lake MI this year, I will probably try and rig it so that they get one of his flies.  Let me know if you are visiting the holy land and I will try and work it out!

Goings On

First off the fly swap is progressing nicely. I received several more shipments including a full 21 fly set from Pat Cohen. Just about everybody involved has indicated that the check (flies) is in the mail or will be soon and out of shame I put in a valiant effort to mess up my tying desk something good.

Where The Magic Happens

A batch of Carp-Stew resulted. We will see if I have the time and energy to man-up and take the count to 21. Seems unlikely since I will be getting allot of flies in the mail over the next week and a half.

Bowl of Carp-Stew Anyone?

I also spent a considerable amount of time getting caught up for the summary page.  My super-duper professional fly-studio looks like this:

Professional Fly Studio, Don't Try This At Home

Betcha didn't know you were dealing with such a pro eh?  So far it seems to works pretty great though.

I did do a little fishing on Friday.  Once again I pounded my head against the fly fishing for carp in the Winter wall.  Once again I came away with a headache.  Man, it was not nearly this hard last Winter, I am not sure if the fishing is worse or I am.  Regardless the day started on a depressing note as I found a 200 foot (at least) length of 20 or 30lb Mono hanging down the current seam.

I can't even imagine how or why.

OK, so that is depressing but hardly earth-shattering.  Unfortunately what was tangled on the end of the mess hanging in the current was a little shocking.  I am sure this was a simple case of inexperience by somebody because no experienced carp angler (bait or fly) would get spooled like this but it highlights the importance of using appropriate leaders and not just leaving long lengths of mono in the water.  What a terrible way to go, and very creepy.  As I struggled to pull whatever it was up-river I was expecting a tree branch.

What a terrible way to go.

Fly Swap Summary Page Preview

Alright fellow swappers, here is a free preview of the summary page for the fly swap in progress.

There it is, my shortest post ever. I have been too busy tying flies and learning how to massacre HTML! A little fishing might go down tommorow, it might not. We will have to see.

NOTE: This page will be in constant update as I receive flies. If the URL does not work it is because I am in the process of tinkering with it or adding participants.