Catching Fish, Having Fun

Mark Alpert and I went out today with carp being the main target. We did catch some carp, and we caught some other species as well. It's hard to beat landing a good bunch of fish, some of them large, on a hot muggy summer day. Warm water fish on the fly. Its just fun.

The first pond we fished is one Mark fished quite a bit last year, and  joined him a handful of times. t gave up one fish for me. Today the bass were going bonkers. Both the fish I photographed messed up shots at bubbling carp.

Eventually I got a shot that wasn't messed up by a bass. It wasn't a big fish, but it was in nearly perfect condition and gave a good run after the hookset. No backing... it has been a good long while since I saw backing.

After that we went for grassers and found a few of these little guys. No grassers hooked. This is quickly becoming a dangerous obsession. I find myself getting short of breath, shaky, and with very high heart rate when I see the giants come up, and it doesn't feel good.

Out of bread and tired of those frustrating grass carp, we went after something more immediately gratifying. Bass and panfish in a small river. It was much more comfortable there in the shad anyway.

See that little rock bass there sitting on the bottom? That's what a lot of the fish were doing. For some a slow sripped fly was an easy meal. A few came up for the dry fly. This guy, however, and a few of his buddies, took the fly slowly dragging right along the bottom. Here he is:

I like rock bass. Not because they fight hard, or get particularly big. They fight like wet socks and a 1 pounder is giant. They just look cool. They're fun fish. What else do you need?