Carpin'

Been out three times so far.
June 7, 05
The first day was a bust. Direct sunlight is required to sight fish to carp. There was plenty of that while Sven, Leonard and myself readied our gear. The sun continued to shine as we walked out to the flats. But as soon as we got out there the clouds rolled in. What the fuck are ya gonna do?

June 9, 05
I finally got the Family Carpster out on the water yesterday. The Family Carpster is my new flats boat. She needs some modifications but those can wait, I'm still getting to know her. Top speed was impressive, I estimate Mach .225 with just me on board though I'm sure she'll slow down a touch when T-Hole slides his lard ass aboard.
I cruised around a bit before I anchored the FC near a little carp hole I know about. The sun was out but there were a few clouds threatening to cast their shadows onto the flats.
After a short walk up the reef I found a few carp mudding in waist deep water. That's when the first cloud blotted out the sun. The importance of direct sunlight cannot be overstated when it comes to sight fishing for carp. You have to have it.
From then on the clouds came and went keeping me in the shade about half the time I was out there. I've been out there when the lighting was worse but I didn't catch anything.
I did manage to hook a few at that location, during short sun breaks. They were stong fighters but I don't think they are in prime shape yet. By July the carp will be ready for battle.
When a giant cloud parked its pillowy ass over my flat I got back into the boat, cracked a beer and did some reconaissance.
I found another carp hole where tarpon sized carp had mudded up a cloud of silt big enough to obscure an underwater basketball court. Along the periphery of this cove more carpon poked and rooted amongst rocks and boulders.
The sun had come out once again and I was able to land four more goldies. A couple of them reminded me what my backing looked like as they torpedoed out of the cove with my fly line in tow.
After a time the sun had slipped behind the clouds again. I got back into the boat and explored more water.
I found bays and coves, rocky points, sandy beaches and a few smallmouth bass.
The biggest bass I almost caught might have been 17 inches or so but I'll never know because she snapped off when I tried to land her without a net. Amongst other things the Family Carpster needs a boat net.
The wind started to pick up so I motored back to the launch, loaded up and drove home.

June 15, 05
I picked up Bubba at 0710 hrs, right on time. Three minutes later I stopped in front of Sven's house. Sven threw his gear into the rig, took one last puff from his poop stick and then we were off.
Over the river, through the woods, across a desert and half way through a county sized swamp we drove. Carp Fisherman: We drive farther and catch bigger fish than anyone else in the biz.
The water was high when we first go there. High water is either good or bad depending on who you ask. Those who don't like high water say that the fish are more concentrated and easier to find in low water. The rest of us like high water because it might put fish up on the shallow flats and reedy edges. There are pros and cons to each scenario, the one thing that they both have in common is that one will change into the other before the end of the day.
Sven landed his first carp of the year soon after we got out the flats. From where I was standing it looked like Sven had a biggun' on so I waded over to help him land it.
Three days earlier I had bought a new Boga Grip. I picked up the smaller one with the 15 lb max because I thought that most of the carp we caught were under 10lbs and because it was more compact and lighter thatn the 30 lb model. 'Ol Sven talked me into taking it back and exchanging it for the 30lb model so that we could "weigh the big fuckers too!"
Back on the flats I landed and weighed Sven's big carp with my newly aquired 30lb boga grip. At fourteen pounds this carp justified the larger, 30 lb max, Boga Grip.
By mid afternoon Sven had landed four, myself three and Bubba zero. So far everyone was having a decent day except for Bubba. In the mid afternoon sun the flats were looking empty and Bubba's prospects were looking grim.
The water level had dropped condsiderably since we got there. The receding water left flats high and dry, bays and coves low and shallow. The carp had relocated to the muddy bottoms and Bubba was the first to figure it out.
"Fish on, come and take my picture!"
Dutifully I waded over to Bubba, helped him land his fish and took his picture. Bubba's carp weighed 13 lbs, which would have to do because it was the only fish he landed all day.
A high haze drifted in from the west, obscuring the lowering sun and signalling day's end. By the end of it three anglers landed well over one hundred pounds of wild carp, a good day by anyone's standards.

March browns in Early April

March Brown Mayfly

Montana Dailies

These are the daily reports from the buddy trip to Montana last fall. I found the stationary on the frig in the Spanagal's cabin. I figured I better write some things down before I forgot them. The first half was written on the second Friday. Subsequent reports were recorded daily. On the back of the page are reports from Rock Creek for Monday and Tuesday

The Yakima River in March

Two days after I returned from Belize I found myself in the Lower Canyon. The sun had already dipped below the western rim when I got there. There wasn't much time so I went straight to the Tomato Juice Hole. I had pulled my last fish of the '04 season from that hole so it was fitting that the first fish of this year came from there too.
Sven had fished all afternoon to rising trout right in front of the camp site. He told me that the baetis hatch started at "noon-thirty" and went for at least a couple of hours. After supper we sat around the campfire and drank a few beers, some single malt scotch and a little Jaegermeister. Just before Sven retired to his tent he forecasted a great day of fishing for the next day.
The next morning was beautiful. The sun warmed the canyon floor to above freezing almost negating the need to re-ignite the campfire. The wind was less than a gentle breeze. It was all more than I deserved. I made a couple of egg sandwiches for breakfast. After coffee I donned my waders and grabbed my fly rod as did Sven.
We crossed the river and walked up the railroad tracks on the far side. All the water looked good but we continued to walk upstream looking for chukars in the breaks above us and trouts in the water below.
One quarter mile above the camp I skidded down the bank and gently stepped into the river. Working my way upstream I cast a skwala imitation to all the likely holding spots. You never really see a lot of those skwala stoneflies but the trout take them when they are present in any number. I took a few fish with the skwala pattern before I noticed the mayflies that were beginning to come off.
I clipped off the big fly and tied on a #18 polly winged dun. After only a few minutes the polly dun, or Pauly as the pattern has since become to be known, had proved to be a very effective baetis imitation.
Armed with the appropriate fly and the tactical knowledge of the situation Sven and I caught many trouts as we leap frogged each other up the river.
For now there was plenty of water, by the weekend the 9 to 5'ers would be spraying casts all over the canyon. But the weekend was days away. We had this stretch of the river to ourselves and fully took advantage of it.
There wasn't much to complain about for the rest of the month either. The weather was about the only thing that changed, that whole "in like a lamb/out like a lion bit' proved itself true yet again. The mayflies didn't seem to mind as they kept on hatching everyday, though never at the same time more than two days in a row.
Ken, Karl and myself camped out one weekend. It was of course the first rainy weekend of the month but we managed to catch lots of fish and have a good campout. Many beers were drank and stories told, the usual campfire scene. Saturday night we were all suprised by the sudden appeareance of JT. JT was in the country for only a few days so we were all real happy to spend time with him around the campfire.
By the end of the month I had spent seven or eight days on the water. If the fish weren't taking baetis, they would take a skwala. I only had to resort to fishing with a nymph one morning and it worked so well that it was almost as fun as fishing a dry fly. I camped out three times and fished with at least four different people and while it aint about numbers I feel obliged to mention that I did catch dozens of trout.

First Bull

I still remember the date; December 6, 2002. It had been a very dry autumn and the Devil River was flowing below 1500cfs. I took advantage of the low-water conditions and headed up there to hopefully catch my first bull trout.
I found what looked like a fishable run; even, slow current and medium depth over a cobble botton. being new to fishing rivers I wasn't sure what good water was suppose to look like but I was confident that it might look something like this run.
I was casting my 9' 9" 7 weight rod with a floating line and #6 white streamer. I don't remember much about the streamer except that it had lead eyes and some rabbit fur tied into it.
I do remember when that first fish hit. My fly was swinging through the current until it just stopped. I raised my rod tip and felt the dull throbs of a fish's head shaking back and forth. I knew that a fish was on I just hoped that it wasn't a chum. In years since I have discovered that this is a familiar feeling when fishing for bull trout during a early winter.
The fish put up the sort of spirited battle that convinced me that it was not a half dead salmon. Right on!
What I remember most about this fish was its invisiblity. Though the river ran crystal clear and I could see exactly where my leader ended I could only bare see that bull trout. The sunlight played off of her iron grey flanks and pale yellow spots as if the she was the rocky river botton itself.
I have a couple of photps of my first bull trout but I like this one the best. It shows how I was so nervous and excited that I couldn't wait to land her before I took her picture.

Belize: Bones, Jacks, Snappers and a few Good Groupers

Our second trip to Belize lasted for twelve days and began on February 16. We spent the first seven days at a small resort eight miles north of Placencia. From that location I took two guided fishing trips. The first day resulted in nine bonefish to hand. They took silver, tan, and yellow crazy charlies and blue/white clousers. The second day we tried for snook and tarpon in Monkey River. I only caught two little tarpons. A sinktip line would have been advantageous for this river fishing.
Robin and I spent the next five days on Tobacco Caye, twelve miles out from the mainland town of Dangriga. I was disappointed to learn that the flats around Tobacco Caye are devoid of bonefish. But I did managed to spend a couple of hours every day harrassing the reef fishes. Snappers, jacks and groupers to 16 inches provide great sport on a 7 wt. rod. Casting a clouser or crazy charlie to coral heads provided non-stop action remniscient of bait fishing for bluegills. I would usually finish out my days on the beach with a One Barrel (rum) and pineapple juice. Life is good.

Rocky Ford, Feb. 3 & 4, 2005

Sven, Madison an I got out there at about 2 o'clock or so, lines in the water shortly thereafter. This was Maddy's first camping trip and she seemed to thouroughly enjoy it (as any golden retriever pup should). I landed four or five fish that day, Sven probably landed about ten.
On friday I managed to land three. Sven said that he "prolly got a dozen."
I managed to leave my rod on Sven's roof rack when we left so I'm now down one 6 weight rod and a reel that had a #7 intermediate line on it. What can you do?

Tying Journal 1/30/05

Over the past few days I've tied up some stimmies to immitate skwalas and crazy charlies for my trip to Belize in a couple weeks.