66F, check.
Good sun, check.
Leaker waders in trunk, check.
15 to 20mph winds, gulp.
It was a bit of a stretch with the wind and all but I traded a couple of hours of vacation for a couple of hours on the river today. I was hoping to find all the carp in a winter warm-snap induced feeding frenzy like last weekend. Whoops. I refuse to recognize the truth because the fantasy is so much more fun, but on really nice days in the winter things can go one way or the other. Sometimes the carp go on the feed and life is good. Sometimes they just go on the chill. Like New-York vacationers in Florida in January. Picture a pool some sun, a cheap vinyl folding chair and a drink with a funny little umbrella.
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| On and Odd Day, Perhaps the Oddest Piece of Random River Junk Yet |
Fortunately I too was relaxed. I took my time, kept working it and eventually slipped tripped and dropped my fly into something interesting. I had found a large pod of carp in a section of slow current behind some post-apocalyptic looking man-dumped shoals. These carp looked like serious trouble. Dead still at the top of the water column. A hundred times out of a hundred they are dead-money. Any and all time casting to carp in that mood is wasted time. Well, to heck with it, I worked my way slowly in tight and dabbled a heavily weighted trouser worm in front of the biggest of the bunch. I will be damned if that carp didn't go ape-crazy in a comically pathetic kind of way. That carp wouldn't move an inch but for the entire drop she was frantically pulsing her lips and gills over and over in a desperate attempt to suck in some long distance protein. With a 3.25mm tungsten bead and bead-chain eyes that Trouser worm was absolutely bombing for the bottom so it was hopeless of course. Well, I may be an old dog but I know road kill when I see it and seconds later I had a lightly weighted Trouser worm on and was into some serious action. These were one and all some of the oddest takes I have ever had and they were almost impossible to time but for a good half hour every single fish I put that fly in front of TRIED to take it.
It is hard to say how much of it was their ineptitude and how much was my own but I only ended up hooking three and landing two of those 15 or so takes before blowing up the pod and losing my only lightly weighted Trouser Worm. That single fly had caught at least 5 or 6 carp in various odd circumstances since August. I was sad to see it go.
Looks like the murder weapon has finally been found, or caught.
ReplyDeleteOK McTage, that's great! Now then, try an egg, not because that would have been my first choice, but you can clearly see the fly as it slowly sinks down. Just a thought. I must admit to using both carp swap flies my last little trip, but eventually settling on what was most comfortable to me. We are creatures of habit and some, me, fear change more than others. I want to use the trouser worm to a sighted fish, more often here I cast to signs of feeding fish. I'll let you know when it works for me.
ReplyDeleteBut you are catching a lot of fish-so way cool!
Gregg
Chris - That possiblity hadn't occurred to me. Kinda creeped out right now.
ReplyDeleteGregg - Yeah, I need to start breaking in some of the swap flies. Didn't even think of the egg in that situation, pretty interesting idea actually.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteBizarre. Never seen a carp do that. Dem carps is some funny fish.
ReplyDelete