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MajorGeek

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    Carping The Mid-Columbia

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    It's been unusally warm last weekend, so I knew there would be some carp around at the usual ponds connected to the Bonneville Pool on the Columbia River. At two I struck out, but one had a number of carp milling around, acting pre-spawn. The water was a little high, just above the tops of the culverts. I crept through a flooded grassy flat with just enough blackberry snags to piss me off. Some carp were behind me in the grass, but there was no way I could sneak up to them, and no way I could keep them on. I finally got one to bite a beaded San Juan Worm. Drug my line through lots of grass. As I was trying to get a better picture, she drove through a muskrat tunnel and broke me off. But anyway, first of the season.

    IMGP1441-001.JPG

    Pdf From Washington Dfw

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00207/wdfw00207.pdf

    Mentions Ben Hur Lampman's Coming of the Pond Fishes. "In that year [1880], a Troutdale, Oregon sea captain

    received from California a shipment of 35 “genuine German carp and perfect beauties.”

    These fish soon spawned in their Troutdale pond, and before the year was out the Captain

    estimated his increase at 7,000 carp. In late May of 1881, Mother Nature played a cruel

    trick. An unusually high spring freshet invaded the carp nursery, and several thousand

    “perfect beauties” escaped into the Columbia River. Within 12 years, the Oregonian

    newspaper reported that commercial fishermen were offering to supply carp as fertilizer

    in any quantity to farmers, for $5 a ton."

    Mulberry Hatch On The Mid-Columbia

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I was back at it today, this time with more flies. There were lots of berries dropping, lots of fish. Caught lots of fish, including this big one. I didn't think he was ever going to give up:

    IMGP1149.JPG

    That's a solid 36 inches long. What would that weigh?

    Had a huge grass carp notice my fly, and slide over to push it with his nose, but I couldn't get him to bite.

    Mulberry Hatch On The Mid-Columbia

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I went down to the mid Columbia last Saturday, June 25, to see how the mulberries were coming along. The water was still high but you could see a one foot ring around the shorelines. Some mulberry trees were almost dead from the root inundation, but the ones that were slightly damaged were squeezing out some ripe berries ahead of the trees on higher ground, and the carp were eagerly waiting for some fruit drop, delayed by this cool spring.

    I positioned myself downwind of a tree hanging over the water, and after three or four casts, put my fly right into the branches, too far out to reach with my rod tip. Couldn't get a exact location of my fly because it was hanging there with thousands of other berries. I had to break it off, but the line wouldn't break. I grabbed the reel, pointed the rod right at the fly and backed down the shoreline. Wouldn't break, so I reeled in a little line as I walked back towards the fly, then tried it again, grabbed the reel and really leaned into it before the 10 lb. tippet finally broke off. The branch whipped back and hundreds of mulberries, ripe and green, scattered over the water. I hope the fish appreciated that.

    I tied on a new tippet, then looked in my chest pack for another fly. Oh crap! What I had though were more mulberry imitations were some black bass flies or carp woollies. How the hell do you go fishing the mulberry hatch and not bring any flies? I had to trudge all the way back to the truck. Searched through my fly boxes to find just ONE mulberry imitation. I thought I was in good shape for flies for the mulberry hatch, but I could only find one.

    I walked all the way back down to the pond with my one mulberry fly. I had made quite a commotion at my first fishing location, so I walked to the second mulberry tree overhanging the water. I quietly waited downwind until a fairly decent fish, about 12 lbs. came cruising by. I slapped the fly down out in front of him, and he immediately was attracted to the plop but seemed to have a hard time locating the fly. I picked the fly up gently and laid it back in front of him. This time he came right at it, lips above the water, and sucked it down. Fish on for a short while and then the tippet separated from the leader at the knot. Broke off. When just before I was nearly unable to break the leader when I was snagged up in the tree. My last fly! I again trudged back to the truck, a dejected failure.

    This week I've been trying to catch up at my tying bench. Wednesday night I had a chance to kick out four copies. But what was totally weird was I found one mulberry fly in the kitchen sink back in Yakima.

    I'll be back at it again this weekend, this time with flies.

    Mid Columbia 6/12

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I tried out the mid Columbia yesterday. Not very windy, but it got cloudy and even rained a bit in the afternoon.

    The water level in the Bonneville Pool is even higher than last week. It is getting close to the old high water mark painted on some rocks. The culverts are now 5-6 feet underwater and produce vortexes as the water drains out like someone pulled the plug on a bathtub. Many of the mulberry trees are standing in several feet of water. The ones high ground still have hard green berries. The most depply submerged trees have curled dying orange leaves and the fruit production disrupted. But some trees in the barely submerged group have areas of dying leaves and the fruit development accelerated, like they are desperately trying to get some seeds out before they die. These accelerated fruits were just getting red, among the orange dying leaves.

    There is no way to wade the shoreline without being right in the blackberries and poison oak. The normal flats are 6 ft. deep. If you could get out on the point, any feeding fish would be in the tall vegetation, willows and grasses, hard to find fish and hard to pull them out successfully.

    I found two narrow slots in the blackberries where I could walk down to the water. The water was too deep to find feeding carp on the bottom. The only thing I could think of was to try a surface presentation. I tied on my black deer hair mulberry imitations. Even though they haven had any berries this year, a few fish remembered them from previous year. I had three fish come up with their lips out of the water, but they turned away, not convinced. One fish jumped back as if he saw the leader or hook.

    Perhaps I'll have to launch some kind of water craft next week.

    The bass fishing along rocky shores was pretty good.

    High Water Carp Report

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I was out there Saturday. That was enough. I didn't go back Sunday or Monday. A caught a nice smallmouth, but the high water and low temperatures have the smallmouth fishing delayed and normal flats are too deep. I'm working on a project on characterizing backwater habitats along the Columbia and which are connected to the main reservoir, but the water is so high, I can't locate the culverts. And it will get worse: http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Oregon-and-much-of-Northwest-brace-for-flooding/Kr7gx6-LR0OGjW7xN5s_VA.cspx

    Mid Columbia

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I found a couple smallmouths, but it's still too early. The carp fishing was harder. Sun wasn't consistently out, water high and muddy. Some fish milling around, but I finally gave up on them, didn't seem to be feeding. Closer to the bank, I got a hookup, one run, then came off. Then in the afternoon, it was wind, rain, lightning.

    Early Mid Columbia Carping

    in Carp on the Fly

    Posted

    I did a drive by of a mid Columbia pond on 3/25 that always get active carp early for some reason. Sure enough, there were a few carp in the shallows. Since the rivers are going out, and the snowboarding is crappy, I'll probably try a little carping on 4/2. I can always get into some good carp fishing a month before any smallmouth show up.

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