The Warmwater Season has Arrived

Though I use the term warmwater even to describe fishing for certain species in shallow lakes and ponds when the water temperature is well cold, right now I can use that term quite reasonably. Most lakes and ponds have edged past what I consider warm, and so have a lot of creeks. It's the season where I expect anything anywhere, and fish have filled out every little niche of stream and stillwater ecosystems. Basically, it's multi-species season. I divert a lot of my attention away from trout for their own safety and target true warmwater fish. Yesterday was an odd mashup for Noah and I, though it wasn't intended to be.

The initial target was grass carp. A target that has established itself as being almost absurdly difficult in this area. But here's one. Tailing. I'd not seen that before, and I was pretty sure it would be a somewhat less difficult to fool. Nope. I put five different flies in front of that fish, probably a dozen presentations, it never took.

The little commons that fill this pond were obliging as usual. Both Noah and I caught a few, a couple on flies and a five or six on bread. Annoyingly, we both also caught snapping turtles on bread. Including the same turtle twice. I caught three. I'll readily catch snapping turtles on purpose, but I hate leaving a hook in their mouth after they eat my fly or bait. Two of mine were successfully freed, the third broke off.

What I very much did not expect from that pond, though I knew it to be stocked, was to catch a trout. The water was more than 80 degrees! But it happened, and ugly little rainbow. He swam off, though I know his chances of surviving the rest of the day were slim.

After running out of bread to chum up the carp we switched gears and headed over to a small river with pretty good multi-species potential. That's just what we got. I fished a black hares ear and various small streamers, Noah fished a marabou jig, and we picked a few fish here and there. 

We found fairly quickly that there were still some trout around, things there haven't warmed up too much yet. Of course after getting a rainbow in 80 degree water I'm not really sure what to think.

This morning I wanted to get a better carp, size wise. With a north north-west wind I knew I'd have plenty of sheltered bank to sight fish. I got of to a slow start and there really weren't that many fish around. When I eventually did find a willing participant, it was far from the best looking carp I've ever caught. This year so far I just haven't done much carping, and subsequently I think my precision with it has waned. I need to put more time in and I plan to.