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All the other stuff / Fish Tails — 1 Comment
19
Oct 13

Kryptonite Reservoir

Twice I managed to head to this reservoir and catch the elusive carp. The last one was to hand at least two years ago. Since then, I’ve been back here six or seven times and I have only hooked one. Today I wasn’t even lucky enough to hook one. i did catch some tiny bass though.

All I got.

All I got.

I know the spot isn’t ideal. The clarity is most often measured in inches… usually under six. I don’t know of many other options. Maybe there are other spots I could try, maybe there aren’t. The SF Bay Area is not a fish-drenched destination. We mostly travel to our fish, we don’t find too many in our back yard.

This reservoir is kicking my butt so badly. It’s making me wonder how I ever pulled a fish out of here. I know it wasn’t a fluke, because I repeated the performance. Since then though, it has had my number. Yesterday was no different.

I saw a few breaching carp, large fish, jumping out of the water and crashing back in a display I’ve seen often here. You just have to be lucky. If one breaches in range and  you get a fly to the ring within 5 seconds, you have a shot. Otherwise, the fish disappears as soon as it enters the murk and you can’t find it, cast to it or catch it.

Maybe next time I’ll just go somewhere else… anywhere else. This clearly isn’t working.

 

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All the other stuff — 6 Comments
08
Jul 13

Carpland

I found Carpland. I could see dozens of the fish, milling around. I could just see them, as the water clarity here is next to nothing, but still more than nothing, so, there was hope.

Carpland, open now.

Carpland, open now.

I stood next to some of them and they didn’t seem to mind. They also didn’t seem terribly interested in what I was doing. Sadly, while I found Carpland, I wasn’t good enough to get on the ride.

I hooked one and had a few good, solid runs out of it… better runs than I’ve had out of a carp to this point, really, and then it just came unbuttoned. It was my first carp hook up of the day and it would be my last.

My consolation prize and the only fish I brought to hand was this little bass.

Basslette.

Basslette.

In the end there were several take aways…

  1. The Clear Int Sink line really didn’t do the trick. It put me in the weeds way too fast.
  2. The flies I had were too heavily weighted and contributed greatly to the end results from #1.
  3. I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to really stalking carp.

I found them. I could even see them at a distance at times, but a fly stripped in their face wasn’t working. I don’t know if it was the size of the fly, the color of the fly, the speed of the strip, the cadence of the strip or if was just the carp being, collectively, kind of dickish.

I have much to ponder… and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep (figuratively speaking).

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Fish Tails — 5 Comments
19
Apr 10

Golden Ghost

I walked out on the flat and inadvertently spooked a couple of fish, the swirl of mud and wake heading away from me were pretty classic bonefishing. Even more classic bonefishing were the tails… dozens and dozens of them waving away all over the flat.

The weather was perfect… mid-70’s, clear, slight chop on the water.  The water was less than ideal… murky and full of bits of weed and grass pushed to the far end of the reservoir by the wind. 

Wait… did he just say “reservoir?”  What is he talking about?

Switch “Gray” to “Gold” and you are on the right track.  Carp. On the fly.

Today it happened.

I’ve tried a few times over the years, but it has never come together for me… until today.

I was amazed to see carp tailing, but tailing they were.  The carp were sucker-mouthed tight up against clumps of grass and other plants about 12″-24″ deep. I don’t know what they were eating, but it was right on those plants.  I couldn’t get a fly in-between the plants and the fish so I just had to stand there, tails wagging all around me, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do.

I saw one fish crusing toward me.  I had about a foot of fly line out and simply extended  my rod and drop the fly (orange half-back) right in front of the fish.  I saw it look up and inhale the fly.  I set the hook and was tight to the carp.

Now… here is where I have to make a comparison… folks have told me for some time that carp are like bonefish, that they make sizzling runs.  Maybe this carp had a full belly or  stayed up late the night before, but it didn’t really run.  If I loosened the drag it would take line off, but anything resembling a moderate drag and the fish wouldn’t take an inch of line.

It was a big, big fish… a beast by most standards.  I didn’t have a scale, but I think the fish was about 15 pounds.

Carp #1

I caught a second fish, smaller… maybe 10.  The second act was similar to the first.

Carp #2

So, Carp are now officially in the book.  They are 5-15 minutes from the house and will surely be targeted again and soon-ish.

There are some things that are similar to bones… shallow water, sight fishing, tailing behavior.  However, the strength of the  fish is really more weight than the explosive power of the Gray Ghost.

I’ll take the Golden Ghost.  It is exciting and interesting fishing, but I still wish I was on Andros.

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