On Sunday I was without the ladies and had a day of possibilities. I thought I might as well check out the local reservoir and see if I could find some carp. When I got there, it didn’t look particularly promising, as visibility was just a few inches. I figured I should go see if things were any different in the shallows. It was a good choice.
California at this time of year is really beautiful. In two months time all this green will be brown and the wildflowers will be gone.
Purdy.
I saw a few fish breaching and found a little cove out of the wind. Blind casting produced a mighty impressive hookup… the thing came to the surface and I saw it roll. It was bigger than is reasonable. Sadly, the fly I had on was not up to the task.
We're gonna need a bigger gun...
It wasn’t long before I had my second hook-up… and my second lost fish (although it didn’t bend the hook out). A short time later and… it allllll came together.
First Carp of 2011
This fish was beeg. It was long and it was fat. I figure it was about 30″ long and it had a belly like an offensive lineman.
Some perspective.
GOLD!
I caught two more fish and decided to call it a day. My fishing hunger had been sated.
Of course, people make all sorts of comparisons between carp and bonefish. In my limited experience with carp I can say that I see almost no truth to those comparisons. If any of the fish I caught had been that size and bonefish the run would have been 200 feet. In this case, I only had a little bit of line taken out. Sure, the fish were strong and heavy, but more the latter. This is early days and the water I was fishing might have been too cool to produce a blistering run, but maybe that’s just me rationalizing. Carp are carp and bonefish are bonefish. I don’t need to turn one into the other to enjoy it. I enjoy both, but, as you might expect, I favor the bonefish.
It isn’t a value judgment. It is, like so much in fly fishing, a personal matter.
– paid ad below –
Learn everything about boating safety at BoaterExam.com
- Unique Post
I have many frustrating years seeking the Golden Bone and have never had a take. I fish the river behind my home. These fish are very wary and have come close to the eat but NO they always sense it’s a fake. Good on ya!
I have yet to hook up with a carp on a fly rod; I have caught one with a spinning rod when I was younger. I hear of them being compared to redfish more than bonefish too. Sometimes people around here call them the “golden drum”.
Either way, that’s pretty awesome. I think I need to go to the local municipal pond.