Third Time's the Charm

Sunrise this morning marked the start of the third attempt for Kirk to catch a carp on the fly. There was life everywhere. Small fish rose to eat caddis and midges. Bass and pickerel jumped as the fed on the smaller fish. And, fantastically, the carp both fed on the bottom and sucked on caddis on top. I have never found surface feeding carp in this lake before, but we found two today and Kirk even managed to get one to take a Goddard's Caddis, as I had luckily packed along the small stream fly box. That fish, however, was not hooked. The next good opportunity was not missed out on though. A carp bubbled away next to a buoy. Kirk made the perfect cast and let his little orange pattern, tied on a bonefish hook, sink down to the fish. I said "If it takes you'll see the leader going out..." and that was already beginning to happen. The hook held firm, and the fish took off past the buoy. I went out to pull the line off and the fight commenced perfectly. Eventually the fish gave up and I tailed it. Boy was it a beaut!

Kirk was very happy with having, in his words, the monkey off his back. I can say with certainty that he had caught only the fourth carp on the fly out of this lake ever. I caught the first, second and third. I think he'll be a total fly carp nut now. I stuck around for a while and managed to eek out a pumpkinseed, but I was plenty happy with the outcome.