Dry Fly Carp For Garth

 A little while ago my good friend, nicknamed Garth, booked me for a short carp trip that ended up blown out from the crazy July rain. I'd almost considered suggesting a reschedule, but I thought one area in Rhode Island would drop fast enough. I was mistaken and we skunked, so I had him come back out with me a week later for free. Of course I intended to make a couple casts too, but the whole goal was to make up for the previous trip by getting Garth his dry fly carp. Conditions were prime and we got on the water early. 

Fish were plentiful, very plentiful. The high water had also seemed to move them around a bit. I wasn't recognizing fish in their normal haunts, unlike prior trips. Carp have relatively small home ranges in any given body of water, so it's very typical to recognize the same fish feeding in the same general areas if you fish enough. My home lake is a great example. It's huge and has both mirror carp and koi, but I'd never seen either variants fishing the accessible beats. When, for a short time, I had easier kayak access there though, I found some of those koi. They were always in the same stretch of shoreline. I didn't see a mirror there until this year's span- carp ditch their home range for the spawn. Big storms and changing seasons and food availability alter the range and distribution of the fish, and the big rain had very much refreshed this canal. Fish were in new areas. 

Despite an abundance of shots the fishing wasn't easy- carp fishing rarely is anyway. Garth was picking up a lot of the advice and tricks I was feeding him, and I watched him improve throughout the day. Eventually he nailed it under one of the berry trees and a gorgeous mirror charged his dry fly. 

I made a few shots too. I was intentionally picking tricky long shots, seeing if I could get my accuracy down just a little better. I stuck two fish. One broke off in a deadfall, another made it to hand. The one I caught was actually a specific mirror I've been after for a while. I've seen him a bunch of times but never got a good enough shit. He'd moved about 80 yards but wasn't too far from his typical beat. I really like this fish, I think he's a particularly pretty one. Noah's was also a familiar face too, actually, and one I'd missed a few weeks prior. Both were top tier fish in terms of looks. Really clean, healthy, with nice patterns... really great looking little carp.

I'm far from done with carp trips for the season, I've got plenty of space if you're interested. I'll be fishing primarily in mid-state Connecticut and Northern Rhode Island, tailored towards whatever sort of trip you may be interested in; moving water, lakes, ponds, creeks... whatever. There are a lot of options. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.