[ray helaers]

Ok, I'm thinking about taking the plunge and going to Banks to fish for carp. So I've got a few questions. As I understand it, the coves along the SE shore are good. Is there anyplace in there where it would be practical to launch my driftboat and row around looking for the things? Is wading the area better, worse, even practical? I could use some advice on flies and retrieves. I take it this is a skinny-water exercise, and the fish are spooky. Is it all floating lines and long leaders? Would a clear intermediate be useful? I could use a fast 6-wt or a faster 8-weight. Which would be better? If the 8, would the 6 work as a backup?

If the boat sounds like a good idea, I might be intersted in making room for a heretofore land-bound expert.

 

[Paul Huffman]

I don't know my I should chime in, because I still haven't actually caught one yet. But I have read the
book. Last Friday I was in the Blue Dun in Spokane and ran into Jim Moss hisself, the obscure famous
carp guide.

I was down at the mouth of Satus Creek last night, splashing through the brush, looking for carp. The high
muddy water was making it difficult here too as well as making trout fishing impossible in the canyon. Suddenly, a slurping sound. There they were. Bumping around the
base of tules in a shallow flooded roadway. Then I saw a pair of yellow lips slurping the surface. Just as I
got off the perfect cast, my two chocolate lab puppies bounded forward and scattered them to the depths.
At 16 weeks, their "STAY!" only lasts about 15 seconds.

 

[fishnfella]

Fish till ya drop.
Then suck it up
and fish the evening hatch.

I too know not enuff about actually catching the damn things,but I do know Banks and where they hang. You are definately NOT better off in your boat. The best areas are E. of the hwy., muddy (because the Carp stir them up) side slews to Banks. They have no boat launches but are so shallow they are easy to wade or shore fish.(be aware of rattlers)

Another fair area is just North of Coulee City where you come close to the lake and see a gravel bar from an old roadbed out in the lake. You can park on the shoulder and fish off this gravel bar.

Sometimes I see them crusing near the earth fill dam just south of Coulee Playland at the North end Near Electric City, but that's mostly deeper water and they come in there later in the summer. Right now they like those shallow slews (spawning?).

 

[o mykiss]

Ray, why drive all the way to Banks Lake when one of the most carp-invested bodies of water (Green Lake) is in your own back yard? They're spawning right now too (or were a couple of days ago, the last time I was there). Some scary big mothers.

 

[ray helaers]

What? My own backyard!? and have someone I know see me fishing for carp!? :WINK

 

[Paul Huffman]

The Blue Dun guys described to me their most productive Banks Lake carp fly. They didn't have any one hand to show me. It's on a #8 heavy 2x long (seems big to me) front half weighted. Black chenille body with a grizzly palmered hackle. Or maybe it's palmered grizzly hackle. The hackle is on backwards so it curves forward. They strive to get the right sink rate to put the fly right on the bottom in front of a tailing fish in a foot of water.

This fly is much like my most successful fly, a olive bodied, grizzly hacked woolly worm with brass chain eyes on a #12. Looks like Maggie Simpson. But my success has been limited to getting them to turn and follow it.

It seems to me a black bead on the front of the big black woolly worm would work just as well as weighting the hook, but then, I don't know nothing.

 

[wrench]

Ray,
Can't help you with Banks itself, but can helo with carp. I would use your 6wt, the 8wt is overkill and will splash more than the 6. I started "carping" with a 7wt, then wnt to a 6wt, now use my 5wt all t he time. Don't need to go nuts on leader length most the time, 9FT will work fine, really a waste of flies to use light tippet, I use 2x and 1x most the time. That black with griz wooly worm is a good choice. Use very little, if any weight, the less splash the better. Most of my carp flies have no weight, sometimes tiny bead chain eyes. A bunch of carp flies at www.wwjournal.com , mine is "carp bug"
Anyway, retrieves, you reallly don't retrieve. Cast past the fish, pull fly back so it settles right in front of him, twitch, or just wait and let it sink. Carp will allmost never "jerk"
your line, zen is the bast way to tell when they take. When it looks like they are near your fly, slowly lift or slowly strip just enough to see if their is anything other than a fly on hte other end. Learning when to strike is the hardest part of carping. Lines...just stick with a floating line. In some places I have had carp cruise up to my line, stop and turn around, but in most cases the carp I am fishing for is not near my line. I am in Libby Mt, used to live in Kennewick Wa, will be over that way the 14th thru 18th, would be fun to hook up, anyway, if ou need more info let me know.

 

[Paul Huffman]

So, any luck at Banks Lake?

I keep trying while the local rivers are too high and muddy but haven't been successful. I've read the book now and talked with the Blue Dun carp guides and tied up their flies. I've been working Chamberlain Lake and other ponds between Lyle and Bingen along the Columbia River. Now I know to stop casting to the hovering sunbathing fish and have started looking for tailers. But the closest I've been is to have them turn and follow woolly worm patterns.

Yesterday I fished Chamberlain in the rain for a couple hours. When I thought all the carp had vacated my end of the lake, I put on a small flo pink and white clouser minnow to see what the bass thought of it. After releasing a couple dink bass, a carp the size of a Trident submarine came poking up the bank. He was too close for
me to change flies without spooking him, so I flipped him the clouser. He turned, followed it down, then lowered his head, held his tail up, hovered inches from it in that tailing position for an eternity, then turned and swam on. So close and on a clouser!

 

[Brad Niemeyer]

After hearing all the hype over the winter, I made the trek out to Banks lake. 3 scaly monsters( King Carp) were battled into submission on Sunday afternoon. Upon fighting the third fish for over 10 minutes I began to experience spasms in my right arm and was unable to continue casting.

I estimated the fish to be between 5-9 pounds. When they felt the initial sting of the hook, the surface of the water "erupted" as if someone had dropped a bowling ball from the sky. This was followed by several blistering runs. The struggle was a bit like a tug-o-war with a 300 pound sumo wrestler.

I spent about ninety minutes total on the water. The only downside was the long drive out there. Needless to say this was a lot of fun...
I should be ready for 2-3 pound Montana trout now...
:HAPPY