Clay34
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Posts posted by Clay34
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JHM3, like the patterns that you posted. One note, on my last outing, I did exceptionally well on an all white bugger type pattern with a silver bead. Fly patterns I find to be important yes, but in the totaly package only about 20 to 25% of that total package for me. Yes, sometimes the pattern can move up to the 70% bracket but I think that people think too much about fly pattern. Truth is that carp are opportunistic eaters and they will eat whatever morsel of opportunity comes by. More importantly for me is the approach to the fish. If you see them clearly, they see you too. They are not dumb, if they spot you fishing for them they are done.
I have caught many carp dappling though, no casting just using the fly rod like a cane pole and presenting an offering, but undected by the fish. John Montana use to have some cool video on Youtube or his blog doing just this, couldn't find it now, maybe he will post it for us. No yellow or bright pink fly fishing shirts, not false casting over them 15 times before you present the fly, no talking. The fish in my area and I would suspect other areas are very sensitive to noise.
Think of hunting for carp with a fly rod and doing a very nice stalk. If you are a hunter, think of deer or turkey hunting for carp.
While I am not that big into pattern I do really like what JHM3 touched on and that is weight of the fly and presentation in the water column vertically. If it sinks too fast and moves pasts the fishes window of opportunity to quickly they usually won't chase it. In still water I like something that almost suspends at the depth the fish are.
This past weekend fishing a stream I had to change flies a number of times on the same 300 yard stretch of stream to match the fish vertically. Some were in a current and I used tungsten bead headed flies to get down to the fish and keep the fly right in front of the fish without the current moving the fly, but in still water areas of the same stretch I switched over to a pine squirrel zonker strip type of bunny leach pattern. This was nothing more than a pine squirrel zonker strip and thread and absolutlely hovered in front of the fish with movement. It was deadly that day.
Get to the fish undetected and quietly with little movement, get a fly infront of the feeding end of the fish and close to the feeding end of the fish. Then in those heavy pads I might use some pretty heavy tippet. Of the eight fish that I caught on my last outting I landed 7. One broke me off after wrapping me up in heavy weeds and the 8 pound flurocarbon wasn't the thing for that heavy of weeds.
Good luck and let us know how you do.
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Bart for me it is more about presentation than pattern. Getting the fly where it needs to be, on the eating end of the fish and close enough to the eating end for effect. Then bluntly if they bust you, know that you are fishing for them, it's almost impossible to catch them. So just like fishing for that big brown on your trout stream, stay low, don't skyline yourself, don't false cast directly over the fish, don't make uneccesary false casts. While many fly fishing magazine covers have pictures of fly fisherman wearing bright peach colored shirts, wear subdued colors.
Then after you work on your presentation then fly pattern can be important. If they are tailing you HAVE TO BE on the bottom, try a tungsten beadheaded pattern. I find matching the fish in the water column to be one of the areas that I work on often. I've been fishing for cloopers lately and I need something that suspends very high in the water column. Dries work but I prefer something that fishes in the film.
Rick
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Wonderful post JP, always enjoy your responses. I have to sit down at the vice and fill in my collection a little with some more of your inspirations.
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Little guy but got the new father's day gift wet.
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Nice fish Dave, Congrats!
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John,
All the buffs posted in this thread, prior to this post, are bigmouth buffalo. You're right, I didn't mean to imply they only feed midwater. Bigmouth buffalo can be caught throughout the entire column. Again, they are quite agressive to artifical baits.
Someone need to post a picture of a smallmouth for compairison.
Phone
Never caught one but use this Wisconsin fish ID site often: http://www.wiscfish.org/fishid/frames.aspx
Looks like in Wis we have Bigmouth, Smallmouth and Black buffalo
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They can be had but are a treat.
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Fun to read your reports Lee. One novice question. Why would you use 50lb Jerry Brown braid when the break strength of most fly line is 30 pound? Is it for abrassion resistance on the rocks? If the drug is the tug, it looks like you had your share on this trip. Nice pictures.
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Congrats Bam! Cool story of the mulberry bite. I have never even seen a mullberry bush that I could ID as one but have heard grand stories of fish bitting around them. This is one of my favorite Youtube videos:
Rick
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I have a friend who is my fishing partner. He's in his 70s and I consider him a great resource. He is from Mass and tells me often that if I could chase saltwater species I would leave the carp behind. It's interesting that you have the opportunity to chase saltwater species but also carp fish. Can you comments on the differences Lee? I have yet to fish any salt and probably won't have much of an opportunity in Wisconsin but I often dream of big fish. The drug is the tug for many of us and I imagine that saltwater provides a good dose of that.
Looks like a grand time, I'm jealous.
Rick
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I also appreciate the longer handled nets. For chasing smaller fish on spring creeks I use this. I had many photos of the net with a fish in the bag but they didn't show the total length of the net. My wife snapped this shot one day while chasing trout on this small spring creek. I still like the photo even though it doesn't have the greatest detail of the net. It still shows how long the thing is and it does make landing fish easier.
The Brodin Coho is a BIG net so it doesn't look that long. It is actaully 34" overall length but the hoop itself is 16 X 22". Thanks for the comments John.
One note on the custom LDH net. I reread my original post and it almost sounds like I sold that net. The thing was stolen and NOT sold. That one had a nice longer handle too but worked fine for wading. Wish I had that net back.
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Might as well add a photo of the Brodin Ghost Coho, while I am on a roll.
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The Frabil:
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I had a wonderful custom net a couple of years ago but someone thought that they needed it more than I needed it so I no longer have it. I hav enclosed a picture and a link; it was the Steelhead version which was 32 1/2" overall length. Not only did they help themself to my net but also a Mayfly XL magnetic release, just another $30 slap in the face.
I have been using a very inexpensive Frabil net for a while now. The price is right and the size is perfect but I WANT MORE. I want something a little nicer. I like the idea of the rubber bags but have never used one. So what do you guys think of this Brodin Ghost Coho net? http://www.brodin.com/Coho.html
http://www.ldhnets.com/steelhead.htm
This is a link to the 19 X 23" Frabil: http://www.frabill.com/store/landing-nets/...-nets/3674.html Damn cheap, light and does a fantastic job.
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Thanks for the comments on the net guys, it corresponds with my own experience, just wanted to make sure. Enjoyed your blog entry on carp flies Wendy. Rick
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Fantastic news Bill. Sometimes it's about confidence. If you believe that it helps, it helps! You have to live in your comfort zone. Glad that you are having a grand time.
Rick
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One more pic that Wendy took.
John, just noticed this picture and it brings up a question for me. Do you use a net often or do you prefer to beach your fish? I'm a net guy but when I talk to people about salmon fishing, many of the spey type fellows prefer to beach their fish. It's hard to land a fish with a 12 to 14 foot rod in a net that you carry around while wading by yourself. Sorry for the twist on the thread.
Rick
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Wood ticks are common and turkey hunting, sitting on the ground in the spring in the woods and you can just expect them to feed on you. They really don't bother me so much. The deer ticks are the biggest Lyme carrier and they make my skin crawl. I try to be a tough guy, but I just don't like them. I have seen their effects first hand. Another outdoorsman I know was in his mid 50s when he came down with Lyme. He was a taller thin man to begin with and always in shape. I remember seeing him and asked him if woman and drink finally caught up to him, putting the crap on an old friend is just good sport you know. Anyhow he began to tell me about his adventures with Lyme. Last time I saw that man he looked about 25 years older than he actaully was. Damn shame indeed.
Be careful out there and buy something specifically for ticks. The Permanone is what the electrical line guys use that work in the field everyday. They are always in the tall grass and have a lot of expose. That's good enough of an endorsement for me.
Good luck and be safe everyone.
Rick
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actually i can't stand these people! especially the ones who dump the dead fish back in the water...
i'd like to call them bow-fish-killers because the word fishermen does not apply here...
how's killing spawning fish different from killing other pregnant animals or even women?
they're a bunch of sissies who can't think of a better way to boost they fading masculinity...
Here we go. Just like with the bowfisherman, perhaps I should just shut up and take it and move on but something in my little pea brain says that if I don't stand up for my beliefs I agree with their disrespect of me and your statement. I do think that I very well might be opening a can of worms as is a popular saying in the states by addresses this on this board but I still want to make my point.
I'm NOT and animal rights tree hugger type. I believe in the wise use of the resource. In my area there are so many carp, if you want to shoot them and use them in a garden or eat them that is legal and fine with me. I also go around and around with the Trout Unlimited guys (I'm a TU member too). I don't bow down at the alter of the trout or the carp. I make a point to eat trout a couple of times a year because they are food even though I consider myself a catch and release fisherman. I make no relation between a pregnant food animal a my pregnant wife or any other human. I do not follow the belief that a bug is a rat is a boy and that they are the same. I am of the solid belief that PETA is not my friend.
Make no mistake about it, if you fish, it is a blood sport. No matter how fancy of a mat you put the fish one, no matter how careful you are with any fish release, mortality will occur from the act of catching a fish. We do everything that we can to minimize the mortality rates, but they still do occur. I believe in choosing my friends carefully and supporting groups that support me as a sportsman. I do this at the election polls and with my wallet.
Off my soap box now and will say that if your opinion is different than mine, that's fine, but I couldn't let the comment go about the pregnant women.
Rick
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I tend to be PRO sportman's activities as long as they are legal. While bowfishing isn't my thing I will defend their right to do it. The anti hunting, anti fisherman anti sportsman groups are doing everything that they can to cause us to fight amongst ourselves. I would have had the same issue with another fly fisherman if I had been fishing a stream and a guy walked right up to within 20 yards of me and started fishing when no one else is on the entire stream. We are mostly lucky in our state in that there are many many places to fish. Most of the time on the small streams that we have, if there is another car parked at the entry point, typically a bridge, I will go to the next stream which is only a mile or two down the road.
I have a problem with the guy's eithics and respect for his fellow sportsman who is sharing the same resource. The second thing that I have an issue with SOME bowfisherman is that they kill them then let them rot so I and everyone else has to smell the rotting fish. That drives me nuts. If you shoot them, you take them and plant them in your garden not just left to rot.
For the record, I'm a catch and release guy on trout and on carp. The bluegills now, make a nice deep fried treat a couple of times a year but even those I don't try to fill my legal bag limit day after day. Like I said, if that guy was another fly fisherman I would have been PO'd just the same and if he called me and ITCHY OLD FLY FISHERMAN, I would have still wanted to kick his rear.
Rick
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I'm out with a young guy and we are chasing carp. I'm trying to set a good example. We are on a very sharp peninsula and only one of us can even cast from this location at a time but there are many fish clooping right in front of us.
Two guys in a John boat launch in the lagoon hundreds of yards away from use. Yep, you guessed it, they row all the way across straight at us and shove an arrow into the exact group of fish that I am casting to. I could have put a fly in their boat. I tried to restrain myself, but I just lost it. I starting saying things to those two men that actually surprised this normally mild mannered fellow. You have to understand that we had roughly 3 square feet to stand and cast (maybe slight exhaugeration), but again only one of us could fish at a time. There were carp all over but they had to row over and shoot into the showl of fish that I was casting to. I was handled most of the comments directed toward me, but when he called me a itchy, old man with my fly rod I wanted to give the young man some instruction in how to become older but he was in a boat and that was good for everyone I guess. I turned around and left. They had the whole river out of that boat and they had to shoot the fish that I was fishing to, what a world. Some people could use some instruction on ethical fishing.
OK done with my venting for the day. I did many a couple of fish but don't want to post pictures of nice fish on a thread about some unethical jerks.
Rick
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Those are spectacular. Nice to see some news about Wendy, he's been quiet lately.
Nicely done on the photography.
Rick
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I see that you are Lee are both shoping in the same circles with the ninja gear. I first thought that it was Buffwear but didn't see that pattern anywhere on their web site. I do see a redfish pattern with scales, but that is much smaller and that MIGHT look like a carp. I kind of like the brown trout pattern. Now we have to get a CAG colored carp pattern.
The fish look fantastic, congrats John.
John very politely showed me the way: https://www.buffwear.com/catalog/product_in...roducts_id/1511
Thanks man.
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I see that you are Lee are both shoping in the same circles with the ninja gear. I first thought that it was Buffwear but didn't see that pattern anywhere on their web site. I do see a redfish pattern with scales, but that is much smaller and that MIGHT look like a carp. I kind of like the brown trout pattern. Now we have to get a CAG colored carp pattern.
The fish look fantastic, congrats John.
Blind casting for Carp
in Carp on the Fly
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I'm a sight fisherman, it's what I enjoy. My local river has been so dark this year that my success level on it is down. This past week I went to a new area with clear water and plenty of carp. My success went way up. I love the eye candy. Bluntly there are guys here who love to dredge for carp with weighted nymph type patterns and do very well. I think JP does well with this, John Montana and Lee. My success ratio goes way up if I can see the fish, so if I don't see fish, I go somewhere else. I've never chumed and fly fished. While it would probably be effective, that's just not my thing. I prefer the battle of whits, one on one with my impressionistic flies and the fish. Scents, bait and other food offerings are just not my thing. If you want to try that, it's cool with me, just what trips my trigger is fooling them with my hooks, feathers and bits of material I bind to a hook.
Let us know how it all works out for you. One thing that worked for me this past week was finding a feeder into the main river that was much clearer and here I could challenge the fish by sight fishing. Good luck.