Hooked My First Carp Tuesday......

and lost it all in the span of about 10 seconds.  Carp lovers don't get too excited.  I am not sure if I loved it or not but I will say it was interesting.  As apparently is the story of my life currently, work has kept me from tying and fishing.  I have been busy which has left little time to do anything else.  I had off for once on Tuesday, 08/02/11, and I had a look at the weather.  Wednesday looked like it would be raining, which it did, so I decided to head out for a couple of hours Tuesday evening.  I decided to go back to the Monocacy River.  Shocker I know right??  Anyways, I settled on working a small run while the wife and youngest played on the play equipment at the park.

I worked my way down the run without much success.  This area is easily accessed and therefore sees a lot of fishing pressure.  On the far side of the run close to the far bank there is a rock wall and a "deep" hole.  This area usually produces red eyed rocks, smallies and long ears.  Last year this spot produced my biggest smallie of the year.  The last few outings where I have gone here I have actually hooked up with some catfish.   I made my way across the river and got in a nice position to cast to this spot.  I started picking up long ears and one red eyed rock on the Monocacy Bumble Bee here.  As I was casting, I happened to look down and out about 7 feet from when.  I noticed a rather large white object making its way up the river.  I then started to see puffs of dirt come off the bottom.  I knew it was a carp.  I stripped in my line and decided to try a white Road Kill Nymph.  Here is when I screwed myself so to speak.  I use a bastardized version of the improved clinch knot to tie my flies to my tippet.  My tippet was rather rough looking so I of course didn't replace it.  As I tied the Road Kill on instead of doing the usual 15 or so wraps around I only managed to do four.  I don't know why.  I think maybe it was carp fever not that much of a difference from buck fever for you hunters out there.  I know I rushed and I remember saying to myself that there was no way this knot was going to hold and then convincing myself it would work.  I threw it out right in front of the carp.  I stripped it once and watched my line rocket down and up river.  I knew I had the carp.  The problem became that as soon as I put pressure on the line, it broke and the carp swam off.  This all occurred in less than ten seconds.  I watched as the carp swam up stream turning on its side to try and get the fly out of its mouth.  I just sat there and watched and thought to myself "Laziness cost you the fish!" 

I tied on another white Road Kill Nymph.  I short while later I managed to hook and land a decent sized catfish.  As soon as the fly hit the water, he took it and ran.  I was quite surprised to see it was a cat.  It did put up one hell of a fight.  I worked him back across the river and then up the river until I could find a place to beach him for a photo.  I might have gotten a new camera for work but I am not taking it out with me.  So, these photos were taken by my cell phone camera.  Eventually I will get a camera for use on the water but until then.....sorry for the crappy photos.  I ended the night with 14 long ears, 2 smallies, 1 red eyed rock and 1 catfish.  Most caught on the Monocacy Bumble Bee.