Clay34
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Posts posted by Clay34
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John, great thread on the other site. Hats off to everyone for acting like adults and having a nice exchange of ideas. While you might not change everyone mind, someone will read that and say that this John guy is making a nice, logical arguement and perhaps give it a try where they might not have tried if they never read that exchange. Good work man.
Macfish, absolutely on the C&R. Many people that are in their 50s thought of fish as food. I have even heard of a grass roots movement called "Don't play with your food". We must remember that when we release a fish we give it a chance to recover, more so than throwing it up on the bank or taking it home to eat. What some C&R fisherman don't acknowledge is that there is a certain percentage of mortality due to C&R. So who kills more fish in the following example? Fisherman one goes trout fishing where the daily bag limit on this piece of water is three. He fishes a half hour, catches 3 legal fish and takes them home for his family to enjoy. He doesn't fish every weekend but rather takes fish home to eat 4 times per year. Angler two is a passionate C&R fisherman. He is more like me. He lives to fish and spends 60 to 80 days on the water per year practicing his holier than thou C&R practices. He has days where he catches over 50 trout in an outing. He hooks, lands and photographs the fish. He practices good fish handling skills and is proud that he keeps his fish in the net in the water until right before the picture is taken. I would suggest that people like me actually kill more fish being an active sportsman who practices C&R than the guy that keeps a few fish per year and gets out a couple of times per year.
I enjoy eating fish unlike John. I love brook trout on the grill, with butter and onion wrapped in foil. I have a few fish in the freezer still so this year, I haven't kept a single fish. No need killing something when you won't use it. I tend to be a conservationalist. In other words I try to practice the wise use of the resource. I am not a meat hog, but I also realize that I practice a blood sport. Fish die because of me no matter how careful I am.
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Welcome to the board Jim and welcome to fly fishing for carp. I'm going to give you just two links to audio programs. If you are serious about learning these are some of the best presentations on this game that I have seen for FREE on line.
http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/brad/brad.cfm
http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers...ry-reynolds.cfm
Listen very closely to those two men, they literally wrote the book "Carp on the fly"
If fly patterns interrest you, at the top of the fly fishing section there is a "sticky" which shares some effective patterns - check it out.
Rick
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After the constant almost attack while fishing for carp by bystanders, I decided to call my local fish manager. Bluntly my local fish manager is very unresponsive (called in two fish kills in the last 3 years without him getting off his ass to check it out but that's another story) so I called his boss. What I am referring to as the almost constant attacks is when people find out that I am fishing for carp their next question is what are you going to do with that fish. Many think that the law says that you can't release the fish back into the water and must be killed. I go on to explain that it is illegal to leave the fish to rot and that disposing of the fish is required if you keep them and since I don't eat them, they are treated just like the bass, bluegills, trout and everything else that I have caught this year - they are released. This brings on such an emotional response from the uneducated that I am very tempted to start lying to everyone and saying that the fish that I am catching are called golden bones or just tell them they are brown trout. Don't know why the constant debate bothers me so much, guess I'm just not that confrontational. I also feel uncomfortable lying to people that ask me the question.
So to the questions asked of the fish manager. Is there a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources position on keeping/ killing the carp that are caught? He said that there is no such official position. My next question was will removing the hundred or so fish that I catch annually do anything to help the water quality in his opinion? He said that in the local area there is a lake with people that harvest carp / buffalo commercially. So guess what they net per year out of one body of water?
TWO MILLION POUNDS ANNUALLY was his answer. He said that if I kill the 100 fish that I catch per year it will not improve the water quality in any way and will have absolutely no impact on the carrying numbers in any of the waters that I am fishing.
Don't ask me why I even care what some on-lookers think of me and my activities. I should be use to these types of conflicts after chasing these wonderful fish for years with the fly rod. But I wanted to ask the question of a professional and see what kind of answers that I would get.
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Then this fish came on this pattern.
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After tying up some smallmouth flies I looked in my waste basket and found some small pieces of chamois left over from the crawfish patterns that I was trying. While San Juan Worms are a very successful pattern for many carp, I have never done well on them, probably for lack of confidence in the patterns that I have tried. Yesterday I made up some chamois sjw inspired flies and they did well. The first was just a dubbed nymph style pattern with a little chamois tail. The second was more of a true knock off on a sjw pattern.
Both of these patterns the fish reacted to quickly when some other patterns were totally ignored.
Rick
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That's is a nice looking stick, thanks for sharing.
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Fantastic shots John. Enjoy that little girl while you can, they grow up quickly. This is Daddy's baby from an outting last year. She has better things to do this year like boys.
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For whatever reason my own son has better things to do than fish with Dad. Game counsoles and Ipods seems so much more attractive than chasing fish. Wish that wasn't the case but he has a friend that has a passion for fishing who I take with me. This young guy attended our TU fly tying class this past winter and the club donated a fly rod to him and every other kid that finished the class.
We haven't been able to match our schedules much this year but yesterday I took him along fishing. While he has had a fish or two on in the past, for whatever reason he hasn't been able to actually land one. Yesterday was his first official fish in the net and on shore. He caught it with a white bugger type of pattern tied with rabbit he tied himself. While the fish were not very cooperative, the difference between one small carp and no fish is a huge difference in the mind of a young person. He had a grand day and the smile on his face put a smile on this old guy's face.
While I love to fish with my normal fishing partners, I just wanted to encourage us all to either take our own kids out there with us or someone that shows an interest in the hobby.
Rick
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Cool deal on joining the forum and also on being willing to learn about good carp handling practices.
Welcome and I also look forward to seeing the shots of the rod. Go get the camera man and make it happen!
Again, welcome and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
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Spectacular! I often think that some of the best parts about fishing for carp is sharing the experience with someone else.
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I listened to this AGAIN, just last week: http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers...ry-reynolds.cfm In that audio interview with Barry Reynolds he speaks about grass carp and in one tournament the three largest fish were grass carp. I can't remember exactly what they were all caught on but I specifically remember him speaking to one being caught on a spinner bait. Definately not a vegatarian diet. The other two were also caught on hardware but I just can't remember which lures were used. While they might prefer some nice tasty veggies, I think it probably comes down to how hungry they are and what's available.
While I have never fished for them myself, I do dream of fishing for them. Sounds like a wonderful challenge.
Rick
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Congrats. I have yet to catch a koi on a fly rod. When I had goldfish and koi in the backyard pond, maybe 15 years ago I decided that I was going to go to just collecting koi and the goldfish had to go. I tried to seine those babies out of there and there was always the few that I could not catch in that small 3000 gallon pond. I ended up buying some small fly tying hooks and fishing for them. Took days but I caught every damn goldfish that escaped the net. I do remember fishing for the goldfish with the koi in the same pond and as one goldie was looking at my offering one of my prized koi ate the bait. he was pulling drag on the spinning reel as I was hoping that the 2 lb ice line that I was using would not break.
Hope to catch a koi one of these days on the fly rod and not one that I own.
Rick
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What rod was the 10' 6" Lee? Cork reminds me of a Beulah but not the blank. I have a 10' 7 wt, bluntly this rod for me is just too heavy. I did cast, but not fish an Orvis Helios in a 10' 6", 7 wt that I found to be spectacular and would love to try carp with that rod. I find the longer rods a little more difficult to net the fish with though.
Glad that you got the stink off and put some fish in the net. I am finally done with a home project that has kept me off of the water for a couple of weeks and an considering doing some fishing today. I hope to get out if not today, this weekend.
Rick
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Nice report John. I tend to fish one fly most of the time sight fishing. Every time I put two flies on I just run into more line management issues. Just another thing to manage and make sure the I present properly. I really do like the idea of presenting two different looks to the same fish. These days, on one particular body of water I am down to two flies for whatever reason. A silver beadheaded all white bugger or a black pine squirrel leach pattern. I could tie the beadhead on first and the action fly would be the simple leach. Might have to give it a go the next time out and see how it works for me.
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While I haven't fish a clam fly yet, RoughFisher, from MN has some wonderful patterns on his web site. You will have to page back through some pages, but I go there often for inspiration when I get bored with tying my own patterns. I had some time so I searched through 8 or 9 pages of his fly patterns then found this link: http://www.roughfisher.com/2008/09/how-to-fish-clam.html
Enjoy. Maybe JP will chime in on what are his best presentation skills for this pattern.
Rick
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I've had many, many days that I logged this year when I didn't catch fish. I can live with that when I can't locate the fish for whatever reason or I can't see them at all (I prefer to sight fish for them), but when I can see fish and can't catch them - those are the worst days. I've had many of those this year. Sometimes I know that they spot me and I have pressured them in that area too much. Other times though I just can't find that piece of the puzzle that is missing and that's what keeps me coming back. That challenge DRIVES ME.
Thanks for sharing the "real carp adventures" that most of us experience more often than we would care to admit to.
Rick
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That water is dark Lee! Love the camo pants along side the stripping basket. Nice to have some fish on the end of the line just for fun.
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what would be a good shirt color for shallow flats
I like a light blue, tan or green. I say this often because you often see guys on the front covers of the fly fishing rags in these bright shirts. Perhaps that is fine for a pretty picture, but I really think that the carp are sensative and smart. If they know that the thing in a blaze orange shirt is after them they will avoid you. If you blend in, life is just easier. Maybe you will catch a fish or two in blaze, but I bet after one or two fish they will avoid you like the plague. Some fly fisherman don't like the hunter theme but I would rather see a fly fisherman in camo than in a pinkie orangie fly fishing shirt. Just me, if your opinion or choices are different and they work for you - cool.
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I liked the report and the concept of pushing yourself to fish new waters instead of becoming entrenched in the same patterns of fishing the same places. What I really loved was the photography of the shots. They were a bit off normal and from a different perspective and they were very enjoyable to view. Thanks for sharing.
Rick
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Will third the above recomendations. I always say that you have to cast not just at the fish, but at the feeding end of the fish. Yes, some fish will chase down your fly, but carp are way different than trout, bass or even brim in this situation. I also many times refer to this process as force feeding. I was nodding my head with agreement as I read iCarp's description of his retreive in that many time I love to have the fish quartering toward me, cast beyond the fish swim the fly up to and into the fish's sight picture and drop the fly right infront of the fish with a twitching action. If the water is moving water I use a tungsten beadhead to allow the pattern to drop and stay infront of the fish without the fly drifting off too easily but in still water, love a simple pine squirrel zonker tied leach pattern the just hesitates and undulates infront of the fish as it so slowly sinks.
In that crystal water do your false casts to the side a little and not directly over the fish and then your last cast for presentation to the target. No blaze orange shirts either in that stuff. Drab is good. Tell us how you do and I look forward to a cool report.
Rick
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Nice report. I think that we have bumped into each other on the TX fishing forum. My son was stationed in San Antonio and I wanted to try some fishing while in the area, but it just never worked out even though I met a bunch of really nice people on that forum.
Please post the emerger on the sticky about fly patterns at the top of the fly fishing section if you are willing to share.
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Nicely done Dave. I've heard of the trees in our area, but have never noticed one while fishing. I think that it would be great fun. It's cool when a fly that you make catches fish. Enjoyed the photos.
Rick
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I've tried solar tables, love to fish early and late but these days the truth is the best time to go is "WHEN YOU CAN". That's not meant to be some cutsie joke either. If I didn't go fishing because it wasn't what the solar charts said was a good time I would be missing out of many good fishing days. Same goes for lunar charts or time of day. While I am almost embarrassed to say this, my last two outtings started about 11 am and went to about 4 pm and I would not consider these the best times but each trip yeilded some great fishing. It's funny how it works but the MORE times that you are on the water, you gain experience and if you have a keen eye and observe and listen to what the carp are telling you, you will learn on each outting.
So go have fun and catch some fish. If you must narrow it down, I do like early morning until about 9 am and then the last couple of hours before dusk, but again you might be missing some grand fishing at noon if you only fish these times.
Rick
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Size is really relative especially for fly fisherman Phone. For guys that throw 22 to 18 dries most of the time a size 10 is huge. I have fished and done well with size 14 (Mustad R90 Salmon hooks) to about size 6 on scud type hooks. Last time out did really well on an all white bugger in size 8. To me that was a big fly. No size 2 though.
fly tying scraps
in Carp on the Fly
Posted
The podcasts should be a grand primer Jim. Let us know if you have any specific questions and tell us how your pond adventure went.