Carp + Suspicious

was out in LI this past weekend to visit my mother-in-law, and decided to try my hand at catching those carp in that nearby public pond.  you can see that the pond is fairly weedy, but pretty shallow.  i was fishing an area that held the deepest part of the pond, at 5 feet.  bluegill are rampant, and there are bass up to 5 lbs in this very spot.



i tried using fly patterns that imitated crawfish, eggs, damselflies, and worms (san juan), but the carp would come and inspect the fly, and then move on. i'm sure they were suspicious.  argh.  it was hard to present them with a fly that requires some minor stripping since one strip would pull the fly into some weeds (even with some mono weedguards).  i think the issue was either that my presentation was wrong, or the fish had become so used to people feeding them bread, they just weren't that aggressive (so i've heard).  i think it's more likely the first scenario.

frustrated, i ended up deciding to switch to the spinning rod, and landed a 10 lb.  of course, it was the smallest one that i spotted.

 


on a side note...is it weird if someone decides to fish next to you, and then spends a lot of time eyeing your gear? i had my fly rod, fly boxes, and spinning gear/lures on the ground next to me, and this person who decided to fish 5 feet from me, kept staring at what i had. it made me so suspicious, but should i have been?

Lessons Learned

this past weekend, i was out in long island visiting my mother in law who was recently admitted to an acute rehabilitation center after falling and breaking her hip.  i knew that i would have some time to spare, so after a few minutes of research, i took off to a local spot to to try and catch some carp on the fly.

i got to the pond around 3:15 pm and the conditions were okay because it wasn't too hot, but was a bit overcast.  while walking the shoreline, i met this older gentleman who walks the pond daily, and he actually showed me two carp hangouts.  he doesn't actually fish but on his walks he stops and tries to spot birds or fish. within minutes, i spot a lone carp, probably between 10-15 lbs.  he knowingly said that they don't like noise, so he left me to it.

i must have spotted a dozen different carp, all probably exceeding 10 lbs.  some were absolutely enormous, and some actually tailing a few times.  i must have has around 50 shots.  so what went wrong?

first, the water was stained, so it was hard to spot the fish in the first place.  i had to wait until they rose to the top of the water column, or search for streaming bubbles.  secondly, and more significantly, there was just not enough room to cast.  i had about 4 feet of clearing behind me and about 6 feet above me.  the carp were only 20-25 feet away but i couldn't get the fly in front of them.  i tried roll casting (which I'm not very good at) but to no avail because i couldn't get enough line out to load the rod.  anybody have any advice on how to deal with this? 

frustrated, i go check out the other spot the gentleman mentioned, but I didn't see any fish after about 30 minutes.  i thought, "never leave fish to find fish", so i head back to the first spot and i run into two anglers headed to the same destination.  they were there to catch dinner, and were going to use worms to catch panfish.  i could feel myself get snobby while saying that i was there to catch CARP, on the FLY.  as i said that, one of the anglers said that there was no way i could catch carp using a fly.  i needed to use bait, such as corn, and chum the area first.  he was incredibly condescending.

so i guess snobbery goes both ways.  mind you, i don't usually look down on bait fisherman...in fact, i will will often use bait myself.  i am not sure why i felt that way then, but perhaps it was because i was pushed out of my spot.  i decided to fish about 20 feet away from them, which happened to be the only other shoreline accessible spot.  as i was changing my fly, one of the anglers made his first catch, and proceeded to catch a sunfish.  they quickly followed with 4 more panfish.  5 fish before i even changed my fly!  that's crazy!  i guess he felt sorry for me, and offered to share his worms with me.  it was this gesture of kindness that really put me in my place.  i was there to fish, and hopefully catch fish.  why was i so adamant on catch carp, and why was i so stubborn to use a fly rod.  i had brought along my spinning rod, so why was i hesitant to use it?

lesson #1:  don't be prideful

i actually pulled out my spinning rod, put on a plastic tube, and within 5 minutes, caught myself a bluegill (let me know if i misidentified it).  in truth, catching it just didn't do it for me, so i decided then i would rather not catch anything while trying to catch carp on the fly, than to catch panfish using a spinning rod (panfish on the fly is fun, but again, i wasn't able to cast a fly far enough to get to where they were).  this doesn't make any sense, but the saying that popped into my head at the time was, "it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all".

i pride myself on being a problem solver, so as i was driving home, i put my head to it, and tried to find a solution to my casting problem.  i thought, i just need more room above me.  i also needed to use a heavier line, so that what little line that was outside of the rod could carry the fly. 

i went back to the pond around 7 AM the next morning with a plan.  i changed my setup from my 8' 6" 5wt rod, to my Sage smallmouth bass rod.  the Sage rod is 7' long, and comes with a 290 grain floating line.  using this setup, and rollcasting while kneeling, i was able to cast far enough.

however, did i catch anything?  nope.  the conditions were horrible.  it was completely overcast so i couldn't see anything, except for the reflection of nearby trees.  also, the few carp that came to the surface were not feeding.  perhaps it was just not the right time of day.  for some reason, i didn't mind not catching a carp as much as i had the day before. 

lesson #2:   fishing, is a metaphor for life.  you need to learn how to adapt when presented with tight situations

lesson #3:   you need accept the factors that you cannot control.  some days you just lose without a fight.

anyways, i'm probably headed back out to LI to visit my mother in law again this weekend.  hopefully, the conditions will be better, and then it'll be on me to do my best.

until then, stay salty.  XXA

Weak Sauce

has it been more than a month since i last posted?  how can that be? 

blogging is like a muscle.  if you don't exercise it by posting often, it will deteriorate and get weak.  i am the first to admit my blog has become weak sauce. 

truth be told, my fishing has been uneventful. since my last post, i've been out a handful of times, and all i have to show for it is a sea robin.  there are reports of bunker as far as the eye can see, and that is also the truth.  i've seen pods and pods of bunker, flip flopping on the surface, but nothing working them.  they are the happiest bait in the world...frolicking lazily in the sun.  hopefully, at some point (if the weather cools down a bit), it's going to be mayhem (the good kind). 

i did get to see the "crab hatch" as well.  scores of tiny tiny crabs, but nothing slurping them...at least where i was at.  how bad can my luck get? 

my life, in contrast, has been somewhat crazy.  first, my 11 month old son got sick, then my wife got sick (which is twice as hard than when the kid gets sick), and then i got sick, and then my son got sick again.  to top it off, my mother in law broke her hip and has been in the hospital for the past few days.  hopefully things will settle down soon and everyone will be healthy.

until then, stay salty.  XXA