Its been a heck of a ride. Two and a half months (9 outings) without being skunked fly fishing for Carp. In the off-season! Nearly every opportunity to get out seemed to match up with prime conditions, feeding carp and me on my game. There were even days mixed in there that would nearly rate as banner on my home river - which is among the most challenging bodies of water for fly-carpin that I have fished.
Well...it was 70deg yesterday and then snowed last night and then melted off as the morning went on. This made for odd conditions today and I made the wrong strategy choices on when / where to go. Like the old cowboy in The Big Lebowski said "Sometimes you eat the bear and well...sometimes the bear - he eats you".
As a general note the behavior of the Carp in both the ponds and the river I am focusing on right now seems to be shifting rapidly. I think they are moving towards a late afternoon feed which is odd since I was expecting that all winter and it never came around. Man I can't wait for the lakes to start producing. Sometime in the next week or two hopefully.
What is your current rod and tippet setup? How light do you think you can go without being undergunned?
ReplyDeleteAll winter I have used 7.5lb and 8.5lb Rio FlouroFlex plus, but 7.5lb is sometimes undergunned in the warmer months.
ReplyDeleteI attach my tippet with a bimmini twist creating a doubled-line surgeons instead of just a plain blood knot or surgeons. Makes a HUGE difference. If you use tippet connected with one of those knots you are under-gunned at 8.5 flouro and have to either go mono or 10lb+. Or you can just always use a full tapered leader but that gets expensive replacing it too frequently.
Whopps, missed the rod part. I use a 9' 8 weight St-Croix with a Billy Pate Bonefish anti-reverse reel. The reel costs 2-3 times as much as the rod! Priorities. I wouldn't mind having a 7-weight but the 8 works great and I am too cheap to buy another rod. I sometimes use a 5-weight but only on ponds.
ReplyDeleteI am in the "anti-Tippett" crowd. Knots and carp don't mix...at least with my shitty knot tying skills. Straight tapered one x, rinse and repeat as needed.
ReplyDeleteDude, you have had quite a winter run. I am anxious to get it going out west. I fish a 7 out here but you won't feel over gunned with your 8 when you make the trip...we have some big girls in the Columbia.
John: Our taxes are done...refund should be on the way. I will be buying the tickets to Oregon soon!
ReplyDeleteNon-typcial: Johns fish are a good example that requirements are regional. You would DEFENITELY be undergunned with 7.5lb on the Columnbia and probably much or even most of the time with 8.5lb. It tends to depend a little on the size and strength of fish you have available.
I'll take that "off-season" any day McTage! Interesting discussion about leaders and tippets. I use a tapered leader and usually add 2 or 3 feet of additional tippet to come up with a leader around 10-12 feet long.
ReplyDeleteHeck of a run there McTage! Mucho envy from the rest of us anti-establishment fly for carp tramps. I learned the hard way about knots and go straight 2X tippet or leader. It is more pricey, but when I count all the flies I've lost with knots it sorta balances out. The carp we have to fish for are not quite as big as yours and John's so we can get by with 2X and 6 weight rods. Heck... any size on a fly is fun.
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