Saturday 5/24/08
“I’m done, Dad.”
As I pulled the inflatable boat my son was in to shore, I had to smile, despite not being ready to pack up.
My daughter was having some friends over for her 10th birthday party. The boy and I quickly made plans to avoid the circus by hitting the local river till it was time for cake and ice cream. I helped him get his tackle box in order before pumping up my inflatable boat for him to fish out of. The water isn’t deep, but it’s mucky. I figured I’d wade the boat around, while he fished for smallies. I pumped up the boat, dug up worms, popped a hole in the boat, patched the hole in the boat, got all the gear in the car, and strapped the boat on the car- while he took a nap.
He carried his Ugly Stik and tackle box down to the bank while I carried the boat and the worms. He hopped in and I waded him out to a spot where his casts would be able to reach the outlet of a small creek entering the main river. He’d cast out his bobber and worm while I held the boat in position, sitting on a 50 gallon drum that the current washed in.
Who knows what was in it.
After about five minutes, he asks me how work is going…
20 minutes of conversation later, he called it a day.
Tuesday 5/27/08
What’s happened to me? A couple years ago I worked in a place where temps routinely topped 100ºF as I shoveled oil soaked sawdust, and performed other labor intensive tasks. Now I’ve got a cushy desk job, testing stuff in an of air conditioned lab as I wait to punch out each day. But the AC broke, and it got all hot yesterday. I tried to tough it out, honest, but being handcuffed to a desk in a stagnant 100ºF room kinda sucks. So I left early.
I must be getting soft.
I had a little time to kill, so I headed to a local carpin’ spot. We’ve had some warm days this year, but it hasn’t quite felt like Summer yet. With all my windows down, I cruised down the highway with the radio cranked, enjoying the warm breeze whipping around my still sweating, shaved head.
Sublime’s “Doin’ Time” came on the radio.
I like to name the spots I fish.(There’s The Bat Hole- lot’s of bats. The Swimming Hole- where Geoff swam after his canoe.) I like to call this spot, “The Maze”. I’ve fished it enough that working my way between the flats shouldn’t be a problem, yet I always find myself backtracking as I navigate the pocket water separating them. Yesterday was no exception.
Before I tell my fish story-
Does anything take you off guard more than walking around a bend to a goose sitting over a nest, just a few feet away, fangs exposed, hissing and flapping it’s wings at you? There must be, but not yesterday. The instigator that I am, I thought about trying to reenact the whole situation while video was rolling, but something told me to keep walking, maybe it was the other one with it- that was making a bee line right at me.
I hiked up a small cliff to look for fish, and get a good idea where to start. I felt like all the odds were against me. No spotter, no polarized sunglasses(anyone seen em’?), high winds, and a curfew. Suddenly a gold flash catches my eye, then another, and another. The fish seemed to be concentrated around an area where the warm surface water was getting trapped by a small point as the wind pushed it upstream.
I started out with a fly I got from one of this winter’s fly swaps, a rubber legged nymph thing with bead chain eyes.
ZZ Top Carp Bug
Even without my glasses, the dark plumes of mud weren’t too hard to spot with the sun at my back. I played with a few retrieval speeds and missed the first strike. 20 minutes later the line stopped again. Before I could even set the hook, I was broke off. Carp have no mercy for 6# test.
Quickly, I made up a new leader- 3′ or so of 12# followed by about 7′ of 8#, and tied on an olive Mixed Media. The fish didn’t seem interested so I switched to a wool/schlappen crayfish. Nothing. Time was running out, and I went back to the Mixed media, only in a copper/brown flavor.
It feels so good to watch the pile of line you just stripped in flying through your fingers as you’re backpedaling towards shore.
Makes ya wanna grow a mustache, doesn’t it?
The fish below didn’t really run right away like all of the other carp I’ve caught have. It was almost like it didn’t know it was hooked at first. I actually wondered if it was foul hooked for the first run. But after pumping it in after it took me into my backing, was happy to see my fly sticking out of it’s mouth.
Only for a second though…
It took me all the way into my backing again after seeing me. Forearms burning, I got it in again and thought I was starting to get the upper hand before it took me into my backing for a third time. After about 5 minutes of short, repeated 20′, bulldog runs- I beached it.
I couldn’t help but admire the size of it’s spread out tail as it swam away.
The sun, the warm breeze, Sublime on the radio, water warm enough to wet wade, and hungry Carp.
It must be Summer
Wednesday 5/28/08
Although the boss man is cool, he has a business to run. Since I need to use my Get Out of Work Early Cards wisely, I decided to get out early the hard way, and went in at 4:30am. I shot Geoff an email seeing what he was doing and we made plans to meet at The Maze at 1pm.
On the way to the rendezvous point, The Sex Pistols’, “Anarchy in the UK”, came on the radio. As my head bobbed to the beat, I knew we were gonna have a good day. Radio stations don’t play kick ass songs on days that fishing will suck.
Geoff was already in the water when I got there, and showed me a cell phone pic of a 4-5# smallmouth he had just caught.
We navigated the maze and as we were walking along the bank, Geoff spotted a mud plume a few feet off shore.
“So how’d you and Robin do last night?” I asked as Geoff stripped a few feet of line out.
“Not bad, Robin got one Brown.” He said as he flipped an olive woolly bugger into the storm of mud.
“Any size to it?” I asked as Geoff set the hook
“It was about 16″, a fat 16″ too” He said as the fish was tearing line off the reel.
“Those fish are all so healthy, there’s gotta be some monsters in there” I said as he went into his backing.
First fish of the day
We walked to the spot we crossed the maze for and Geoff climbed the eagle’s nest to take spotting duties. He started directing me to fish and as I looked around I could see fish feeding just about everywhere.
“Get down here and fish” I yelled, after thinking that we only had a couple hours.
15 minutes later we were doubled up. As I got the upper hand on my fish, I saw it was the ugliest carp I’d ever seen. A cross between a carp, a dark King Salmon, and the Crypt Keeper.
My first Mirror Carp
I guess it’s a Mirror Carp. After getting home I hit the search engines and found out the lack of scales is widely believed to have been bred in by monks in order to make the fish easier to prepare for the table.
Last fish of the day
After all the commotion, the fish on our little area of flat were on high alert. It wasn’t till we were on our way out that one of us hooked up again- Geoff of course. Then it was a sprint through the maze to get back to the real world without it noticing we were gone.
Thursday 5/29/08
My favorite fish…
Saturday 5/31/08
I got skunked today. I did get some good video of a carp tailing in some pocketwater though. I’d like to think I would have caught something if I didn’t have to be home for a date with my wife celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary( I was still 35 minutes late), but I doubt it.
Sunday 6/1/08
On my way out the door right now…
