Last week I again went out looking for bowfin, and just like the prior trip they didn't seem to have moved into the shallows yet. I spent hours slowly paddling around the flats and weed beds hoping to see that tell-tale long, undulating shape, but all I saw was more carp. This time most of them were sunning themselves, and fish like that are difficult but not impossible to catch. I did get one to make a move for my fly and I'm sure it would have eaten had I not drifted pretty much right over it.
Right around where I hooked the rod breaking fish I wrote about last week though, I found another big trailer. I had on a mop fly, and was using my 5 wt. I made my cast, the fish stopped tailing, and I made a slow strip that came to an abrupt halt when steel found lip. I lifted the rod and the fight was on. This time, the rod didn't snap. However this fish performed a far more dramatic display of speed and power than the other one had. It's initial run was blistering, the first run into the backing I've had in quite a while. I got to shore as quickly as I could, but had a lot of work still as the fish made a second longer but slower run. Then there was that typical carp give and take before I got my hands on the fish and basically bear hugged it into submission. At an estimated 24 pounds, it was another high caliber specimen. Clearly there's something special in the water here.
Evidently I ought to be specifically targeting carp while I wait for the bowfin to start spawning. More likely, as soon as I switch gears to carp it'll be the bowfin that steal the show.
Until next time,
There are those that fish for nothing but carp. It's their obsession. Carp certainly grow to prodigious sizes and fight like billy-oh.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beast. I can only imagine how the bear hug went. Well done.
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