The Most Remarkable Event

Once again I arose early, and in a daze strolled under the streetlights to the nearby carp spot. I cast a nice big woolly fly to bubblers. Eventually, after a few misses and a perch, I hooked into a big one. A REALLY big one. On the first run the fish bee lined for a log. It got caught up, so I began plucking the line. I didn't actually think it would come off, so when it did I had my hand on the reel handle. Something was going to go. And it did. And it just happened to be the backing-fly line knot. In the distance, I watched the green line disappearing under the surface, and my heart sank. That put an end to my chances. At least, that is what I thought.

When I turned to leave, towards the feeder creek, I saw four gently waving tails. For a moment I was extremely disappointed. Although I check this channel frequently there were never any carp in it. Except today. Here I was, in the perfect sight fishing opportunity, without fly line. Then I got to thinking. Backing is not exactly light. I had plenty of 8lb tippet. Maybe I could still cast a fly.

Of course, it would be hard to turn over a leader with a seven weight and the equivalent of 1 weight line. So I just tied on a little more than a foot, added a dragonfly nymph, and crawled up the creek. During this process, the two smaller fish calmly exited through the mouth of the creek. The bigger two continued vigorously vacuuming away at the gravelly bottom. Eventually I got the cast right, and the bigger of the fish took. I stood abruptly and tried to get in front of the fish to keep it from exiting the creek. It saw a gap. I handled the rod with speed and agility, feeding it through my legs and turning at the same time. Then the a knot in the backing got caught in the guides. The line tightened, but I was already running towards the fish. When I could go no deeper in the mud, I stopped and the knot freed itself. The backing peeled away. I was very concerned. Not having the 100 ft of fly line meant I would have keep the fish from going too far. I ended up with a few turns left on the fly I turned the fish. After a while of the give and take typical of carp I finally, against all odds, landed a nice common. What are the chances of something like this happening again?