john montana
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Posts posted by john montana
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Justin just left this morning after 4 days of fishing various locations in OR. Frankly, there is just too much to tell at this point. Fishing with a good friend is pretty much the pinnacle as far as I am concerned, and then when you top that off with beautiful scenery, big trout, wily carp and the splashing of waves against a drift boat you are really into something special. We had a fantastic journey through some of my favorite waters in OR.
Friday we spent the day fishing the water I love around Maupin. We nymphed most of the day and the highlight came at about 230 in the afternoon. Justin was stationed in a spot that always seems to hold one nice fish, but instead of one he hooked 3 fish in the 17-19 inch range. He brought all three to hand, with the third fish popping off as I grabbed the leader to land it. I was thrilled to see Justin hook those big redsides, and while the rest of the day was outstanding, that 10-20 minute stretch will go down as one of my favorite fishing memories. We closed the day down near Rattlesnake canyon, watching the water get darker and darker as the sun sank behind the walls...all the while hooking trout and whitefish almost at will. At that point in a great day, everything seems to come easier.
Day two found us fishing my all time favorite carp haunt. I had been telling Justin stories of this water for quite some time, and it didn't dissapoint. We were able to stand up on the high bank, looking down on cruising carp and throwing our flies into their paths with hopeful hearts. On many occasions those fish would ever so slowly move to the fly and without any fanfare and barely a heartbeat's pause the fly would dissappear. Justin was enthralled with the visuals, but not so much that he couldn't close the deal! In all we hooked around 20 carp. With the high water we only had about 10 feet of room between the bank and the heavy weedline, so any fish that could pass that 10 foot barrier was gone. We went down to 2X tippet, and figured any fish big enough to break off 2X or make it to the weeds deserved to get away. Out of 20 some fish hooked, all but 7 were up for that challenge. Still a great day of carping, with many memorable movies to play in our heads down the road.
On the third day we stuck closer to Portland. We took my daughter Elia out and hit some of my local carp spots. Elia loves Justin, and today after he left I asked Elia (all of 17 months) who Justin's friends were. I was hoping for a response of Emily (Justin's wife) or James (Justing 21 month old son) but instead Elia proudly proclaimed "YaYa!" while patting her chest. The local spots were tough, but we still managed to hook some fish, and I landed a beautiful 9lb Mirror Carp. We topped the evening off with pizza and game 5 of the NBA playoffs. Not much fishing, but still a solid day!
For our final day in OR we arranged to drift Warm Springs to Trout Creek with friend and guide Chris O'donnell. Chris did a great job of showing us some great little spots that most of us would normally walk by. We threw big salmon flies all day and despite it being the tail end of that hatch, we sure brought up a lot of fish! Justin caught his biggest ever trout on a dry fly, and I had a blast peperring casts up under trees and into tiny slots. We spent a good portion of the day trying to put holes in our waders by crawling around on our hands and knees while searching for ways to present our flies to the most difficult to reach trout. It was a stunning close to the weekend to sit quietly listening to the water as we floated down the river, with the only other noise being the occasional splash of a big trout sucking down yet another salmonfly. A big thanks to Chris for a memorable day for us both.
Each year when Justin and I get together to fish we talk about how we won't top the last trip we made, and yet each year we do. Most of the time it is the little moments that make our fishing trips so great...pointing out a huge salmonfly on the water and laughing when at that exact moment the fly is demolished by a fish...fighting over who pays for coffee in the morning...standing in the river together watching the water go by and the sun go down, neither of us in a hurry to cast...or smiling as Elia brings Justin a book for him to read to her. It just seems that these small moments get better each year; and now with James and Elia growing, I hope we can keep finding time to make these trips, and to bring our children together to see and enjoy some of the moments that make each of us who we are. Thanks again for a great trip J.
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well said Mr. P!
I hope you don't mind, but i snatched some of that for my blog.
http://carponthefly.blogspot.com/
just a great post Mr. P!
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great post eich...i was unaware you were having health problems, but i'm glad to hear you are back at the carp with a flyrod in hand! i hope you are feeling better! great fish...you guys have some really nice mirror carp out east. they are neat looking fish!
so tell me more about the hookup! did you spot him and stalk him? sight cast that fly to him, or just know he was there and strip it back feeling for a take? as Mr. P says...the take is the premier moment!
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i tried a variety of patterns yesterday. fished my crayfish fly, carp wooley, copper john, highway cone fly, peacock hackleback, and of course the rubber legged hare's ear amongst others. all of my fish were caught on rubber legged hare's ears though. 2 on a size 8, the other 6 hookups came on a size 12. there were lots of fish around, but they were mostly cruising. i know there were lots of feeders in there, but the water was deep, so our best luck came when throwing to cruiser near the surface. generally these fish aren't the most productive biters in my experience, but we cast at what we could see!
had the water been lower, i think we would have had an absolutely epic day.
here is the big boy i'm battling in the picture above.
here is a good tip when it comes to pictures. make sure you fishing partner is a commercial photographer for a living! heh heh...thanks for the great action shots KB...
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thanks guys...i'll put up some pics of the big one tomorrow, it was a really nice fish. that is only my second mirror carp.
on another note, the grass carp were all over the place. saw 4-5 of them, but they spook everytime i throw a fly at them. there are some monster grass carp out there though.
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Just a great day on the water with KB. In preparation for Justin's arrival next week, I needed to scout out my favorite carp lake. KB was gracious enough to keep me company! Arriving at the lake I was immediately disappointed. The water level is way to high for my taste, and while the fish were definitely up on the flats, the flats were 4-7 ft deep! We waded out there and gave it our best shot regardless, and the results were excellent! I hooked 8 fish, landing five including this beautiful mirror, and a beast of a fish that you can see me fighting in a great picture taken by KB. This fish made an initial run that left me with 2 or 3 wraps of flyline on the reel. I got him back in to me only to have him run about 50-60 feet into my backing on his second attempt at escape. He wasn't done yet, and after getting a look at my feet blasted out a third run, this one about 30 feet into my backing. It was a monster carp...pics to follow, just waiting on another email from KB.
KB fished hard along with me all afternoon, and had a couple of great takes bringing one nice fish to hand. It was his first time at this water, and it can be a tricky place to detect a strike, especially when the fish are little more than shadows on the bottom, 6 feet down! Still, something tells me he'll be back!
Looking forward to Justin's visit, and we may hit this spot despite the hot water. Out of the 7 fish that I had on (the 8th was on for about 2 seconds) 4 fish went into my backing. My arm is tired!
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Now I'll be the first to admit, I've had a great couple of weeks fishing. I got to fish with my best friend for 4 days, caught some beautiful brown and brook trout, totaled 23 species on one trip, caught a bunch of carp while listening to my daughter put "baby" and "geese" together to describe goslings, and I watched while a couple of friends of mine completely succumbed to the carp craze, to the point where KB actually referred to carp in one locale we fish as "just LITTLE 5 lbers." Good stuff!
That said, the one thing I haven't done lately is land any big carp. I've hooked them, and had knots fail, tippet break and hooks pull, but I just haven't been able to seal the deal with anything over 11lbs over the last few weeks. This weekend I did the normal morning trips for small carp with Elia in the backpack, and we caught some fish, watched the ducks and had several memorable takes in small water, but I was itching to go after some big boys!
I anxiously watched the rain come down this afternoon, and cursed while the clouds continued to roll in. Finally I decided that I wasn't going to have a shot at any big carp sitting at home, so I headed out in spite of the poor conditions. Good decision!
Right away, I spotted a big fish. It was actively feeding, and moving around a 20 ft area seemingly at random. Every minute or so the fish would tilt up and suck down some vegetation off of the surface, or tilt down to grab a morsel off the bottom. I tied on an algae fly (yes, I do have some!) and put it in front of the fish a few times with no luck. I changed to a small hare's ear with a tiny black bead to help it sink, and snuck a little closer to the fish. It didn't take long before I saw the head turn quickly in the direction of my fly, which at the time was at least a foot away. On a hunch, I set the hook when her head turned, and was rewarded with a hookup! That fish had sucked my fly in from at least a foot away...really amazing.
With all the recent weed growth I fought her with a ton of pressure, trying to keep her out of the big weed patch about 70 ft away. She got there anyway. I dropped my rod tip to the water, crestfallen. Once again, I had lost a big fish, this time when she buried herself 5 feet into a weedbank. As I stood there surrounded by slack line I noticed some movement in the weedbank, and the tip of my fly line started moving across the lake! She was still on! I quickly picked up the slack and thanked the fish gods for making this carp decide to swim back out of a batch of weeds that would have doubtless been the end of my 4x tippet. Renewed, I quickly battled the fish back to the bank and prepared to land her.
Once again, the small net I carry became a problem. Even a bigger problem this time as I had inexplicably left it in the car! I looked around and spotted a small opening in the bank, that led to a circle of water about 6 ft in diameter, forming a tiny bay along the bank. The opening to this area was about 2 feet wide, and I figured I could steer the big carp right into the little bay, where I could land her. She slid into the opening with surprising ease, but the water in the bay was deeper than I planned and I was back to square one. No way to beach this fish, but now I had a monster carp slowly swimming in circles in the 6 ft area. I lifted her head up as high as I could to try to get her where I could grab her with one hand and POW!!!! The hook broke!
I reacted with lightning speed and dropped to my knees, grabbing for the carp's tail. I had it for a second and she slipped out of my grasp and headed for the opening to the lake. I reached out as far as I could and dunked my arm into the water right in the middle of the opening. The fish bumped my hand and swam back into the little carp pen I had created. I quickly repositioned myself next to the opening and used my hands to form a gate, blocking her escape. The carp didn't panic, just continued to swim in slow circles around the pen, while I bodily blocked off the opening.
She swam in circles for about 30 seconds while I figured out what to do. Frankly...I was drawing a blank. I have to admit I was poorly prepared to be playing as a human gate on an improvised carp pen. At this point I probably should have given up...I almost landed this carp...close enough right?
I had one last plan though. When the fish was on the back end of her circle I knelt way down and dropped both of my elbows to the bottom of the opening, with my palms up and ready. The carp continued around the pen and suddenly found the way out unobstructed! She eased over the threshold and as soon as she was on top of my arms I scooped that big fish up in both arms and hugged it to my chest! I staggered to my feet, arms loaded with thrashing carp...somehow I managed to get a grip on her tail and I put my other hand under her belly. Now that is how you land a carp boys and girls!
I laid her quickly on the bank by my rod and snapped a few pictures. This was a big fish...maybe the 4th or 5th biggest I've landed. After a few quick shots I gently released her to the lake and watched her swim off...
So in case anyone was about to ask...this is why I don't fish for big carp when Elia is in the backpack!
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nice! carp are a great fly rod species...glad to hear you got a nice fish!
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justin and i landed those two fish almost at the same time, so we took that picture.
for the record though! i was fishing a 2 nymph rig and did hook two carp at once! i hooked one and it had just started making a run when i felt the line jolt and sure as heck...another carp had grabbed the trailing fly. the two fish zipped across the river together. after a long battle i got them back to me and justin took about a 2 minute video of my trying to land the two carp. i managed to grab the bigger fish (on the top fly) but i bumped the line while doing it and the bottom fish popped off.
i figure that has to be a first of some sort! wish i could have pulled it off and held onto them both!
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grass carp are next on my list. i've only had one opportunity to really catch them, and they spooked when they saw my fly. i found a golf course lake where they are thick, but i think it would be tough to get in there to fish!
hopefully i'll find an answer for this one before too long...if so i'll let you know!
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thought this was appropriate!
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carp, brown trout, sculpin...i use a pentax optio w10...6mp and lots of features, but the best part is that it is a waterproof camera. the guys on westfly.com turned me onto it. it takes great underwater shots, and even underwater video, with sound. i've got some great video of fish being released and you can hear the water rushing by the camera...really neat stuff. that sculpin shot was taken by justin, the fish thought it was hidden and justin stuck the camera right next to it in about 2 ft of water...here is a good one i got of a nice brown justin caught:
this was the first big trip using the camera...my old one wasn't waterproof so i picked up this pentax a few weeks ago. well worth the money to know i can't drop it in the water and wreck it!
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I will post more pictures in a day or two, I need to get more storage space on my computer! my cd burner is broken, so the computer is full and I can only put a few pictures on there...here are some shots, and a brief recap of a truly incredible trip!
Anytime you have the opportunity to fish with a good friend, you know the trip will be a great one...combine that with great scenery, eager fish, the NBA playoffs, and a wide variety of species that a trip like that quickly leaves the territory of great and becomes unforgettable. Justin and I had a special couple of days fishing in MN. We hit trout streams, tailwaters, and warm water rivers. We caught 22-23 species at last count with something for everyone thrown in there somewhere. The last day alone brought a huge variety of fish, all taken on flies while blind fishing nymphs in a tailwater river. We caught predators such as brown trout, brook trout, catfish, smallmouth bass,even northern pike! We caught roughfish from carp (35-40 carp caught between us!) to redhorse, quillback, even the elusive buffalo! At one point on day 4 I hooked and played 2 carp at the same time, eventually losing the fish on the bottom fly when i grabbed for the fish on the top fly (for the record, the top fish was the bigger of the two!) It was simply put, one of the best trips of all time.
Here is just a quick sampling of some pictures and fish that we caught. I will put more up over the next few days as I recover from vacation and prepare for Justin's trip out here to OR. While I doubt I can match the few days of fishing we just had, I am sure we will once again have a great trip together.
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I was thinking of the secret carp lake above bonneville. I could be talked into chasing shad on the way though. I am not 100 percent though...have to see how kelly is feeling. I might get out monday morning for a bit with elia...
I will give you a call next week.
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tigard carper...good handle kim!
I will be back sunday...may go to the gorge next weekend...
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I would add that when fishing subsurface flies it helps if you can see them. I add white rubber legs to most of my flies and it helps to see exactly where the fly is and makes it much easier to detect the strike. in general runner legs seem to help generate strikes and being able to see the fly generates better hookups!
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here is a link to some pics and a better report from my buddy's blog:
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just finished 4 days of fishing with justin in MN. fished a lot of beautiful trout water, some tailwaters and a warm water river. today alone we landed over 125 fish between the two of us...i landed at least 25 carp...justin landed over a dozen carp.
for the trip we finished at 20 different species of fish....including a catfish, northern pike, quillback, buffalo, 3 species of trout and plenty of smallmouth bass.
more later including pictures when I get home...but what a few days of fishing!
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couple more pictures from today...
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Good company can turn any day on the water into a great day, and today I was fortunate enough to get to fish with David, KB, and Elia. It was a beautiful day for carp fishing!
With Elia in the backpack we hit our first stop and the carp were active, so we spent much of the morning chasing tailers in the shallows, and casting to fish feeding in amongst the rocks. Everyone hooked up or landed fish including a couple of nice ones. I got one great take in about 8 inches of water where the fish practically leapt straight up and turned while out of the water to grab the fly. I'm sure that is not what happened, but it was a really great take.
I dropped Elia off at home for a nap and headed back out to another spot where David was fishing. KB didn't join us either so it was just David, myself, and about 50 carp. We cast at sunning carp for a few hours. Sunning carp are really tough. If you don't put the fly right on their nose, they ignore it. If you are too close the spook. With large pods like we had around us this afternoon if one fish spooked the entire shoal would bust out of there. At one point a low flying bird sent 20-30 carp fleeing in one big mass. It was really a challenge, but we both managed some fish. I caught 3 or 4, with one great 11 lb fish. David caught a nice carp on a rubber legged hare's ear.
All in all a great day, made only better by fishing with some great people. Elia had a good time in the morning talking to the ducks and helping her dad spot fish! For the day I ended up with 8-9 carp, the biggest was 11lbs, and I did see my backing at least once today!
Thanks David, Elia and KB for a great day of carp fishing!
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wow...quiet around here lately!
i found a couple of hours to take elia out today after a few carp. hit one of my favorite spots and the fish were active, but mostly cruising around, not a lot of feeders. elia rode in the backpack and we walked slowly around the pond until i finally spotted a feeding fish about 30 ft out. generally on this pond, that is too far to hook up. i use a small size 14 hares ear (no bead or legs) and it is just too tough to detect the strike from that distance. elia told me to cast anyway by pulling my hat back against my head really tight (at least i took that to mean..."dad, cast at that fish!") i lined up the cast and made a good one...dropped the fly about 2 ft in front of him, and about a foot past him. i made one quick strip, and he picked his nose up and eased forward. i didn't see his head move again, or gills flare, but the way he had looked, then just slowly moved toward the fly made me suspicious, so i made a quick strip set and fish on! i was fishing my 4 wt in this pond (lots of small fish) and he gave me a great battle before coming in...about a 5 lb fish.
on the way out i checked another little pond across the street that i'd never fished. right away i spotted two nice fish in the shallows, just a rod length away. i dropped the same fly right in front of them and immediately hooked up...this was a better fish, around 9lbs! great afternoon!
of course i couldn't leave well enough alone, so i went to see how highway cone was doing. found him, threw flies at him, and he laughed his little fishy laugh and swam off. i did hook one nice fish on that same hare's ear, but he broke me off on the hook set...i think the tippet was frayed from fighting the last fish...they do rub that tippet on their fins while running!
great day with elia, not only did we catch a few fish, and chase highway cone around, but we saw a bunch of baby geese. now elia is a smart little thing, and she can say baby (she says all kinds of words) and she can also say geese (whenever she sees one she goes "honk...honk"). she knows a lot of words, but today she saw the small geese with the big geese and pointed at them and said "baby geese."
like i said. it was a great day.
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i like this picture:
this fish was still in the net, and mostly in the water. plus, i think it looks cool!
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this type of discussion is always appropriate, so i see no need for an apology. i wasn't offended so much as surprised...again, my perceptions has always been that carp are tough, so i'm looking to learn more about them.
lots of good insight in this thread.
hopefully i can put some of this to use this weekend...i think highway cone needs to be taken for a "walk!"
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i was a little shocked to see this post. probably still part of my leaning curve, but i always thought carp were one of the tougher fish. i'd appreciate a lesson here.
that said, i do my best to treat any fish with respect. trout, steelhead, salmon, even endangered fish like bulltrout (caught legally on the metolius river) are all handled with care. i treat carp no differently, but didn't realize it was a problem to lay them in the grass on a bank. i don't have, nor will i buy an unhooking matt, because most of my carp fishing is primarily spent walking looking for fish, and i carry as little as possible. with that in mind i unhook most of my fish while in my net (soft mesh) and release them without touching the fish.
i'm not trying to be defensive here, i do want to learn if i am doing things wrong, or simply any better ways to handle the fish. i respect all the fish i chase, and certainly want to sustain them, not cause a decline. i'll watch this thread with interest in the hopes of improving my techniques!
Finally got out!
in Carp on the Fly
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good fish!
what kind of rod/reel is that? i love the wooden fighting butt. did you build that rod? i have built several graphite rods, and one cane rod...nice to fish something you built yourself!