Throw off Your Bonds

Fly Fishing For Carp - Long Live the Revolution.  As a motto it is ridiculous.  Perhaps even mildly tasteless given world events of the last several years. 

Nevertheless fly fishing is in the middle of a cultural revolution.  Over the course of the twentieth century our sport entered bondage at the mercy of none other than our fore-fathers stomachs.  Fish species earned the label sport or trash at the dinner table.  When I speak, or joke to a certain degree, of revolution I mainly speak of resisting these old and obsolete cultural biases.

There is another aspect to the revolution however.  Even as we begin to value fish species on their sport merits versus their caloric quality there is are still decades old misconceptions to overcome.  One of them for me was the idea that carp are strictly a warm-water species. 

It was February 2009 when carpin changed forever for me.  March perhaps.  My memory of the timing is a little vague.  A rumor?  A faint whisper on the wind?  Some clue on the Internet?  I had of course discarded notions of trash versus sport years ago but it was not until then that something inspired me to throw off the oppression of winter and start my carp season early.

I caught several small carp in small ponds that late winter and for me it was a seminal moment.  Suddenly I feared winter not and have now targeted carp on flies the last 30 months without a break.  Furthermore I have been successful 27 of those 30 months.

Look back in the archives of my blog and you will find that it was the next January that I started this blog.  I wanted to participate in the fly fishing for carp revolution on the front lines but I also wanted to share in the idea that revolution knows no winter. 

Ty at finewater has thrown off his bonds.  If memory serves correctly when I started this blog he would shelve his carpin gear in September.  His season now officially extends to mid November and counting.

Tim Creasy has likewise resisted the urge to throw in the winter towel.  By all appearances, his carpin has not only extended through November, it has actually gotten better!

Most surprising of all my friend Miles from the frigid north (SE Michigan) has also refused to give in this year and recently caught this football.  Not only was this latest carp by almost three months, it certainly does not appear to be starving.

Miles Latest Carp by Three Months!

As for me.  The revolution continues, and with 60 degree temperatures it was a good day for the resistance today.

So go on ahead.  Give it a shot.  Discard your misconceptions and take a serious look around because there just might be some winter carp to be had in your area.  Current?  Warm-spell?  A warm-water discharge?  Spring fed pond?  Even something as minor as a sewer drain can raise water temperatures to the point where carp will feed.