john montana
-
Posts
557 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Articles
VIDEO'S & other MEDIA
Forums
Store
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by john montana
-
-
Thanks everyone...Lee, we were just out in Door County in late August. We got crushed. had one shot in 3 days of fishing (only seeing 2 total fish!). Beautiful water though, i'd love to get back and try again.
-
Check out buff wear.com. They have a ton of cool patterns.
-
With the season winding down I made a late run to some flats. The fish were there but not in the numbers I am used to seeing in the spring and summer. The water has cooled considerably and there were some go to spots that were devoid of fish in the morning. As the water warmed the fish came in and I started to get into some action. I had been dreaming of one long gravel bar in particular and that bar paid off in a big way. I landed 9 fish for the day, with one right at 20 and the biggest fish at almost 24 lbs. Both of the big fish came off the gravel bar, and as I walked back out I caught this great 18 lb mirror on the same gravel bar. Three really nice fish...I think I have my new favorite stretch. Great day on the water but I dropped my reel on a rock as I was leaving and now the rim is bent. Adios to my lamson radis!
-
Whoops. I meant pheasant died green.
-
Not a great picture but the fly is really simple.
Erstaz body and peacock hackle died green. Basic, but it has been deadly this year.
-
Try Buffwear.com...they have a ton of patterns. I had to go with the carp scale one.
i'll get a picture of the green fly up as soon as i can.
-
The cold weather and rains are just around the corner but today was perfect! Sunny, enough wind to put some chop on the water and plenty of targets. I laid into the carp today. Most of the fish were between 12-16 lns but I landed two that broke the twenty lb mark and a few in that upper teen range.
The green fly/worm combo is still the ticket out here. Having the option to strip a fly into the zone has a definate impact on my hook up ratio. I cast that combo at a group of three fish today, and when none took the worm I started stripping the green fly pretty quickly...the middle fish of the group stopped tailing and darted forward to chase the fly down. Fish on!
It was a great day to be in the water. I am not sure if I will get the chance to head back out this season, but if not, at least I ended with a bang.
-
Sjw...yep. The fish were pretty evenly split on the green fly and sjw.
-
My saint of a wife gave me the green light to hit the river today. I covered a lot of marginal water in search of big fish, and did hook the largest common I have ever hooked but it found a weed bed and came unbuttoned. Man, that kills me...it was a true beast. I caught plenty of typical columbia river carp, with the biggest landed at 16 lbs but I will remember that big one for a while. The wind was a major issue today, it was so bad I was nearly knocked over a few times. There was no way to cast directly I to the wind so I had to be careful to get an angle on the fish. Worst wind I have fished in, but it was still a great day o. The water. The sun was out and the carp came to play.
-
I still fish the worm. Just get it close and leave it there. I usually fish a two fly rig and the back fly is a "motion" fly. Put the worm on their head and if they don't eat I strip the back fly past em. Works well enough out west.
-
Congrats!
I am firmly in the anti head cement camp as well.
-
Good stuff Mr. P. Love the sushi grass idea...classic.
-
The 20 is the third pic down in the first post. Just barely over 20 lbs though. I got two around 17 this trip as well. We saw some really big ones but they were out deep sunning, hard to find the big ones feeding right now. Haven't seen you out at all this year Paul...hope tomsee you soon!
-
A few more pics!
-
So for years now Coleman has told me he would carp fish with me but only if he didn't have to take the hook out. After a good report from Dr. Cane I finally got Coleman to the water and yes, he did catch, carp, and yes, he took the hooks out.
Turns out that Coleman is a heck of a carp fisherman. He is downright deadly with a San Juan worm. Let me tell you, fishing with these two on a carp flat is quite the experience. Dr. Cane is simply one of the best casters I know and Coleman can detect a strike as if he has been fishing for them for years. He must think like a carp.
We spent two days hoofing around the big c in 95 degree heat, full on sun and zero wind. The carp were there and for periods of the trip they were downright active and feeding hard, but they were also spooky. we had to be precise with out casts and picky about how big of a splash our flies made or all we saw were fleeing tails rather than waving tails. No wind in my opinion is almost as bad as too much wind. Like most things, a middle ground seems to be the best and having a little ripple on the water sure makes things easier for a carp guy armed with a flyrod.
We saw lots and lots of fish, and caught enough to be happy. The biggest fish was just over twenty but the majority were around 9-10 lbs. I spent a lot of time just watching. The nice thing about carping is that it is visual show, and watching Coleman and Dr. Cane stick fish was nearly as much fun as sticking a few myself. Coleman worked the San Juan worm almost exclusively while Dr. Cane and I had luck on worms and a green nymph pattern. All in all it was mostly about proper placement without spooking the fish...which was pretty challenging in and of itself this past weekend.
Great to fish with these guys, it had really been too long since I had fished with Coleman. The three of us made for a fearsome trio on the carp flats. I am sure the fish were trembling! Thanks again Dr. Cane and Coleman for a great weekend.
-
Hope this is a great success! There seems to be naive community of carp fly guys in CO..
-
Welcome to cag! Interesting that you mentioned carp as a different species. When I first started reading about it all the info was on great lakes carp. The Columbia fish are far less aggressive (from what I have read,never fished the great lakes). It took me a while to figure out how to catch them out here. You guys have some great carpets in co! Would love to do some fishing with you guys sometime.
-
I hear all the time that i should be killing 'em, but i'm with Phone. I don't like to kill just to kill. I will say this however...if i could take all the invasive species OUT of the columbia river to improve the native fishery, i'd be 100% for it.
Of course, the smallmouth fisherman might have a problem with that.
They are here to stay on the Big C, throwing some fish on the bank to rot is a waste in my opinion. You are not going to affect anything.
Check out this thread...been a very cordial discussion, but I'm on a freaking island out here in OR people!
http://www.oregonfishingforum.com/fishing-...12634-what.html
-
sweet rod!
-
Great post! Nothing like seeing a kid light up when the fish starts shaking and running. Here are some shots of my 5 year old Elia...she loves carp!
-
I met chris several years ago and he helped me make a cane rod. He makes beautiful rods...just stunning gear that is an absolute pleasure to fish, but as I told Chris...when carp fishing, better bring a warranty. I was into Cane big time a few years ago, and only fished cane rods...i actually caught my first carp on a 6 wt cane rod, but i was terrified the entire fight. switched to graphite after that for carp. Even with graphite, i've broken 7 rods in 4 years.
-
Several weeks ago chris and I got the families together for dinner and we noted how long it had been since we actually fished with each other. We finally got a chance to fix that and had an outstanding time. Dr. Cane left his beautiful cane rods at home since neither of us wanted splinters or kindling, and armed with an arsenal of San Juan worms and plastic rods we stalked the flats and scanned the waters.
The good Dr. took to the carp flats in no time. If I said to put the fly six inches in front and four inches to the left of a slow cruiser, then the fly landed six inches in front and four inches to the left. His casting was uncannily accurate which translated to caught fish. The truth is that carp eat a fly very well, but on the big C they don't move to a fly very well. If you can feed it to them, you can catch them. Chris could feed 'em.
With lots of targets, blue skies and clear waters we took it to the carp. The truly big fish eluded us but we landed our share of 10-13 lbers. Two fish topped 18, the one above and this monster mirror.
Bigger fish were stuck, but the weedbeds on the edges were downright cruel. Overall, some outstanding fishing with great company. Always good to fish with Dr. Cane!
-
I caught one in FL on a leech pattern and one out here (general Sherman) on a San Juan worm. They are ultra spooky! Very tough to catch. I have heard of guys chumming with grass or bread to get them going.
-
Hi Keith!
Glad you guys got out. Always better to be fishing than not fishing!
October carp
in Carp on the Fly
Posted
Mike, my corporate office is in lake forest (moving downtown this spring). I am in Chicago several times a year and would love to chase some fish! If you are serious, shoot me a pm and we can get some contact info exchanged. I know you guys have some big carp out there!