Largemouth Bass Lineup

Largemouth Bass Lineup

Thursday, August 4, 2011

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.



4 comments:

  1. My poor knot tying skills have lost me lots of fish....and flies. Sigh...

    Good fish in the end though! Nice!

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  2. As tempermental as trout and pull like a freight train, give them a chance and carp will grow on you. Beatutiful cat.

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  3. Gotta keep that tippet fresh and those knots well tied... but I forget to heed that advice when I get fish fever too. We all do it. For me it's usually tippet that gets too worn and I know I should replace it. There's always next time.

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  4. Gotta love cats on the fly. They pull like a freight train and give your equipment a workout. Nice catch!

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