Carp Lovin'

After the last carp trip I was reluctant to go after them again for fear of the heartbreak. But in the end that's all part of it, so I rose before the sun this morning and was on the water right when I wanted to be. There were a lot of big carp feeding! They were grouped in tight schools, and sunfish and perch were following them. I was set up for heartbreak.

The middle one with it's back out of the water is over 20 lbs.

 Eventually I found a solitary fish, and a big one too, but it was in tight quarters. I put a couple casts in front of it and eventually it ate. I fought it carefully, because I new that if I made it frantic it would run right out of the canal and into the main lake. If that were to have happened, it's bye bye carp!

I did pretty well, tiring the fish a little bit at a time. Eventually I pushed it into a corner and grabbed it. It reacted violently and damn near broke my hand. I got it to calm down enough and a passing jogger offered to take a picture for me. Many thanks ma'am

 I walked a little big more shoreline, but not spotting any activity I got in the kayak and went to the back bay, which at the time was still in the shade. The first fish I saw gave me an interesting insight on carp behavior. I spotted a nice one tailing beneath a dock. As I adjusted position to get a shot at the fish it turned and tailed along a retaining wall. As I began casting it turned and came right towards me. I plopped the fly to its right and watched it react to the sound, turning towards it and examining it's creator. I'm certain it would have taken but I was already pulling the fly away from it. i made another cast to the left, and again the fish reacted with a clear turn. This time the fish ate, but I missed.

That was OK, because I got another chance further into the bay. Two carp were angled diagonally to the shore, both head down and tailing. I cast toward the bigger of the two and it took, though imperceptibly. The result was obvious though, the fish had felt the hook but was not alarmed and both were now re-positioning to feed again. I made a cast in front of the other fish and it came to a stop from it's slow cruising and very clearly picked up the fly. I set the hook and it went for open water.

After the first run I was able to beach myself and properly fight the fish. It was another good one, and like many carp would not let me touch it until it was ready to give up.

The carp bug is hard to cure, it just keeps you coming back time after time.