"Eureka" I thought to myself as I neared my in-laws' farm in Loveland, CO. I had been out running some morning errands and on the way back I stopped at the 40-acre pond that borders the farm to see if the carp were out. They definitely were. All along the rocky eastern shore (where the easy access was) there were dark shapes and fins swirling about with the occasional splash. I hurried to the farm and strung up the 8wt that I had brought to do some steelheading on the way home. I thought about it for a sec and put on the floating line because the water is perhaps 5 feet deep at the most. I tied on a hopper for an indicator and then 6 inches under that, a BHGRHE. Now, I've never even fished for Carp before but I hear its all the rage, and ever since I saw Zen's picture I wanted a piece of that action. So it was with some excitement that I approached the pond. I stayed back from the edge of the water so the fish couldn't see me and began casting toward the dark shapes. I could hear vulgar, sucking sounds and see reeds shaking on the shore in front of me. It took me a few minutes to realize that a carp was sucking on rocks and spitting them out again! With his face out of the water! What strange creatures! No takes for some time, and then, oy! the wind started to come up. All of a sudden the shapes were gone, except for one carp who was busy doing the rock-sucking thing to my right. So I cast the hopper/dropper combo and let the wind push it toward him, slowly. Insanely slowly. My heart was pounding so hard I could barely hear the wind or the sucking sounds. The carp backed up, saw the hopper, and slowly lifted his head to take it. But somehow, the fly ended up on his nose! He looked like a dog with a biscuit on his snout! He feebly tried to munch the fly and I swear he was cross-eyed trying to see it! I was freaking out! Slowly, he submerged and the fly floated free. I couldn't believe my awful luck. But then, the fly disappeared so I set the hook by reflect. The fish made a massive sworl and took off for the middle of the lake. "Ha ha! I did it!!!" I thought. Then my line came shooting back at me a second later with the hook bent. Serves me right for using a #10 trout hook. I unwisely bent the hook back into shape and gamely walked down the bank toward another group of the huge beasts who were concentrated at an outlet. There were so many of them, just lazily sworling and moving randomly. Every now and then they'd put their heads up in unison and their little lips would be sticking out of the water mouthing as if they were singing the silent song of the golden ghosts. I tried casting into their mouths but the wind would have none of it, so I let my combo drift over toward some likely-looking candidates. Suddenly the hopper disappeared! Instinct took over and I set the hook, but not too hard. Fish on! The fish made a big splash and started heading for the middle of the lake. All the nearby carp disappeared. I worked the big golden shape over to a nice beach. I knew that I couldn't muscle the fish because of his soft mouth and my already-bent trout hook. So I played him gently and he responded the same way. He took about three runs out into the pond but mostly he just swam back and forth, very lazily. He kept surfacing more and more often and finally I just swung him over to me and beached him. He was about 2 feet long and very angular. His face was very catfish-like and his scales were huge. It was a moment of triumph. I couldn't believe I had done it on the first try. Definitely easier than steelheading. I bent down and slipped the hook free and watched as he sort of rolled into the water. He looked kind of bored. Weird fish. I laughed again. Ha ha! I started heading back to the house but I kept running into more pods of fish. I'd cast to them and several times got some near-misses but didn't hook any more of them. Several times a fish would rise to the hopper and open his mouth right in front of it only to turn away at the last possible instant. I think the fish were assuming the fly would get sucked in but it wouldn't because of the dropper. This is something to think about. Anyway, I'm planning on going back to the pond tomorrow. I know there are 30" carp in there, I've seen them. Huge fish. Mwuhahahahaha!
Way to go bro!!! Funny how most of us loose the first carp to a bent hook or a parted tippet. My first 2 hook ups on carp ended up the same way. These fish can really put a hurt on you and your tackle. Hope you have a great time getting those monsters to bite! John
Well, its rainy and windy here. Probably about 55 degrees. No carp to be seen anymore and tomorrow I leave for Las Vegas. So that carp was probably my one and only for a while.
I braved the rain and cold and caught two more today, both on the hopper. Lost a couple more on bad hookups. How can you beat sight-casting dries to huge fish?
Well I grew up as a Carp fisherboy in Michigan. Matter of fact, I'll be there in a couple weeks. Here's a VERY secret hint:! The night before, chum a small can of sweet corn where you want to fish. Next day, put on a "Corn Fly" and put it out there (bottom sit drift?!!) Hang on to your rod because it will get pulled in - I'm not kidding man, I've lost a few. Have fun - It's my form of white trash Salmon fishing when I go to Saginaw!! Regards, S Miller
