Ambush Style

This was one of the first things I filmed with my new GoPro the day after Christmas.  As a result it is a little rough, but the presentation is cool, you can see the fish tailing and moving on the fly (if in 720P) and it happened to be one of the biggest carp I have ever hooked on the South Platte. 

I hadn't published it before because of the quality (I will learn) and I lost the fish shortly after a botched net attempt.  I am fairly certain it would have been my DSP personal best common carp if I had landed it, so that had me a bit bummed out about the video.

Eventtually I decided I have to publish it because it should give fans of Fly-Carpin a better idea of what I am talking about when I talk about "Ambush" style carpin.

The fly was an Olive McLuvin presented with a one-handed bow and arrow cast followed by a short drag and drop.  Notice that after I dropped the fly I never moved it again until I set the hook.  In the winter I rarely impart much action, and the tail of the McLuvin sticks up and waves in the micro-currents on it's own without imparted action anyways.

Weather and Fishing and Carp

 The weather is honestly irrelevant for most fisherman.  We pretend to obsess and worry about it but most real people living real lives don't really get to pick and choose when they get to fish.  Really. 

This weekend I had the pass for a full day chasing carp on the fly on Sunday with my friend Mike.  As early as Thursday it was clear that a 15 to 20 degree cold front was moving in Saturday night.  I should have bailed and I knew I should have bailed.  But, well, you know.  Obsession and all that. 

When I do have the flexibility to pick and choose my time on the water there are really only three and a half things that I pay attention to when it comes to weather and catching carp on fies. 

1)  Yesterday:  Unless the temperature is going to be relatively cold (<50deg) or really really hot (>100) I don't actually care much what the daily high is going to be but really care about how it compares to yesterday.  Carp seem to prefer stability above all else and it seems like the best days happen when the weather is just like it was yesterday and preferably the day before.

2)  Sun:  Sun is a paradox in Colorado.  For sight-fishing you want pure blue skies and mid-day sun but in Colorado the high altitude makes the sun very harsh and it turns out that carp are fairly light sensitive.  In Colorado it seems like the best sun for sight-fishing is often the worst sun for sight-catching.  While too much cloud cover can be a disaster the best days are just barely ever so slightly over-cast.  Those seem to come around about 3 to 4 times a year in Colorado and weather reports don't tell you when they are coming so they are barely even worth hoping for.

3)  Wind:  Carp can demand extremely precise presentations and nothing hurts your presentation like the wind.  For bass and Pike I used to set the limit where I knew I was going to have a tough day somewhere around 20mph.  For carp my threshold seems to be somewhere around 15 or even 10mph.  I may still manage to catch carp at 15 but I am going to be one frazzled SOB by the end of the day.

3.5)  The night before Christmas:  As you may know I fly fish for carp all Winter.  People are always curious about what weather I look for in the Winter.  This time of year I am very concerned about the trends but also pay particular attention to the overnight low.  A stable or warming trend of above average temperatures gets my attention but combine that with an overnight low above 50deg and you are talking vacation day.

So how did we do Sunday?  I would rather not talk about it but the month of the mirror seems to be going strong since the only fish we landed in 13 man-hours of fishing was this cool little mirror Mike suckered into taking an egg pattern.  Weather.  Sucks.    

Mike's Small Mirror

Nothing to Say Here, Nothing To See Here

About this time last year I ran into Jay Zimmerman doing a fly tying presentation at Charlie's Flybox.  I consider Jay one of my carpin heroes so I introduced myself and we talked a little about carpin and blogging.  I mentioned that Fly-Carpin was turning out to be allot more work than I had pictured when I naively pushed that innocent looking "start a blog" button.  His outright laughed with (at?) me and then said something along the lines of "Let me guess, you figured heck, it's just like having your fishing journal on-line right?"

Well it turns out that in many ways a blog is an absolutely terrible fishing journal.  First off your typical fishing journal is BORING.  Boring to write and even worse to read so you end up leaving out allot of important stuff that might help you in future years.  Second of all eventually you don't want to share everything.  Some days the fishing is so bad that you really have nothing to say.  Some days you fish poorly or make a rookie mistake and are a little embarrassed.  Occasionally something about the day is so absolutely perfect that it just turns personal.

Today was all of the above.  The fishing kinda sucked, I kinda sucked.  I spent 98.9% of the day looking for feeding fish or screwing up the few I found.  I spent 1% of the day catching what will undoubtedly be one of the coolest carp I will ever catch on the perfect fly on the perfect presentation on the perfect take and the perfect hook set with a great extended battle to boot.  I spent the final 0.2% of the day making a rookie mistake, screwing up the photo-op and coming away with nothing but fond memories.  That's fly-fishing for carp, if I wasn't so damn stubborn I would quit while I was way ahead.  Or way behind.  Hard to tell which, but I sure feel great.

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.

Fishin Mojo Is Running LOW

The carpin has been tough lately.  I know it is winter and all that but I have been runnin on skunkty for the last month.  My difficulties stem partially from not lining up fishing time with good weather but I haven't been on my game either.  Since I decided to start fishing through the off-season I have fly fished for carp the last 20 months in a row, I may need a break.  Unless I get a shot at some really sweet weather I think I am going to take the rest of January off.

Today was rough.  The temperature dropped roughly 20 degrees between yesterday and today, and for reasons mysterious to me the river has turned several shades of felch.  I didn't really expect to stand a chance and I was right so I quit after three hours and headed to the International Sportsman's Expo to check in with some friends and enter the casting accuracy competition.  I entered mainly for giggles and because I have been thinking allot about improving my casting this year.  

Believe me, it was freaking hilarious because I sucked!  I did notice one funny thing though.  As I cast to every single target except the one that was a mile (65 feet) away I actually felt like I totally nailed it.  The casts were on-line and they FELT the perfect distance.  I was surprised each and every time when the guy called out that I was just a smidge long.  As far as I can tell I was between 21 and 25 inches long of the bulls eye just about every time.  Habit I guess!

At any rate for the first time in my life I think I am actually going to spend some time actually practicing and maybe even get some lessons like I have been threatening to for the last year or so.

The Carp Spririts Are Angry

It has been a heck of a month and an incredible season fly fishing for carp.  As a result I have been feeling pretty full of myself.  I think this has displeased the carp spirits.  Call me pagan, but sometimes I think the carp spirits are speaking to me.  The conversation Friday morning would have gone something like this:

CS:  "Feeling like hot stuff lately aren't you?"
McTage:  "Yeah, pretty pleased.  Heading out to target some big fish."
CS:  "Repent!  You are just a man!  How would you like a 15deg cold front?"
McTage:  "Well, OK.  I can adjust to that."
CS:  "Hundreds if not thousands of carp in relatively shallow and clear water."
McTage:  "Now your talking!"
CS:  "Except these will be ultra spooky carp that detect you to 30 feet."
McTage:  "I can be pretty sneaky"
CS:  "On an overcast day where you can only detect the carp to 4 feet."
McTage:  "Torture!"
CS:  "While we are at it lets throw in a thunderstorm that rains and lightnings over you and only you.  At about a half mile in diameter you will be able to see dry people on the far side of the lake.  When you give up the storm will immediately dissipate."
McTage:  "Plan B?"
CS:  "Yeah, we better algae bloom plan B while we are at it."
McTage:  "I repent!" 

I better wash my lucky hat or something.  It worked in March on a day where I felt similarly eaten by the bear.

The Moment

A recurring vision of futility kept jumping in and echoing through my skull at random times all day yesterday and on into the night.

 Part of the vision is painless or even pleasurable.  I see my hastily attached olive ostrich-hearl fly plummeting for the bottom.  The grass carp is casually tailing in some moss when the falling fly catches her eye.  She goes oddly still until just before the fly hits bottom and then she explodes in a blurred shape across a foot and a half of mossy bottom. 

For a take over such a distance you must pause.  You must control the urge to set the hook immediately and endure the moment.  The moment lasts a split second but it seems longer.  The moment is full of suspense and slightly disjointed as a compartment of your mind steps back and coolly watches the action in slow motion while holding another more predatory and instinctual part frozen like a cat just before it pounces.  Eventually an alarm goes off in your head, the predator part of your brain is freed into jolting motion and you set the hook.   

This time my vision of the moment is haunting.  As the scene progresses the part of my mind watching the action seems to go blurry and hazy.  I can still see the carp in motion but there is no recognition or meaning to the scene.  The moment flows over into eternity.  No alarms, no bells and no transition.  I feel repeatedly impotent and powerless as over and over again I watch my suppressed predator give nothing but a feeble and belated hook-set.  With just the barest sensation of fly bumping mouth the fish reverses direction and thrusts for deeper water.

I have not yet caught a grass carp, or at least not one that counts.  At 20+ pounds this particular grass carp is the only fish in my favorite pond that is over 8lb and I have only seen her 6 times.  I have only had three shots.  I have now botched two incredibly aggressive and visually stimulating takes from this supposedly vegetarian carp.  Sometimes in life we only get a couple of chances at something special, here is hoping for another.

In case anybody is curious here are the two flies that this particular grass carp has attacked.  They couldn't be more different.

The Grassie that Didnt Count

The Good:  I had much to be grateful for on this day.  Getting a day pass from the Mommasita was wonderful.  I love my lady, she treats me so good.  It was hard to find feeding fish today, but any day were you catch some carp on a fly is a good one.  Even if it is just one 23" common.  Late in the outing my friend Mike called me up with a line on some grass carp.  It was a generous move for him to take me to this spot and for this I am extremely grateful.  There were at least six large grass carp feeding furiously in a relatively small area and within 20 minutes I had hooked and landed a big one (32lb, 40").    

The Bad:  Unfortunately, after winning an epic battle with said grassie I was dismayed to discover that my large olive MMF with the eyes cut out with pliers on the spot (best grassie fly I could come up) was just too light and had not gotten down as deep as I thought.  These carp were tailing with an amazing amount of forward velocity.  As a result the rapidly moving fish had tailed right under the fly and was hooked right in front of the tail. 

I feel like a bit of a shit for being bummed out after all the things I have to be grateful for.  Therefore I am going to just let it go.  It happens, we will get em next time.  I really don't need to be obsessed with another species thank you very much but I am pretty sure that Mike and I will be back.  With a box of carefully weighted grass carp flies of course!

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.

Eaten By The Bear

Its been a heck of a ride. Two and a half months (9 outings) without being skunked fly fishing for Carp. In the off-season! Nearly every opportunity to get out seemed to match up with prime conditions, feeding carp and me on my game. There were even days mixed in there that would nearly rate as banner on my home river - which is among the most challenging bodies of water for fly-carpin that I have fished.

Well...it was 70deg yesterday and then snowed last night and then melted off as the morning went on. This made for odd conditions today and I made the wrong strategy choices on when / where to go. Like the old cowboy in The Big Lebowski said "Sometimes you eat the bear and well...sometimes the bear - he eats you".

As a general note the behavior of the Carp in both the ponds and the river I am focusing on right now seems to be shifting rapidly. I think they are moving towards a late afternoon feed which is odd since I was expecting that all winter and it never came around. Man I can't wait for the lakes to start producing. Sometime in the next week or two hopefully.