Big carp - released

Well today I saw some carp sipping some stuff off the top and decided I would go after them. Realizing that this was a low percentage shot and considering my aching back, I only cast a dozen or so times before giving up. Later, while showing my family the school of fish, I looked around and realized that the fish were taking, of all things, ELM SEEDS. They are about 7 by 5 mm, oblong, light brown and have a tiny stem. I decided that, backache or not, I was going to give those fish an opportunity to manke my day. Because there was also a lot of pine pollen on the water ( and everything else ) I went with yellow. The only pattern anywhere close in my collection was a size 14 yellow beetle with pheasant tail legs ( see the fly of the week archives to look at a black one ). Well after a few casts, I dropped the fly amoungst the pod of rising fish and let it sit there. A subtle movement of my line or intuition or blind luck resulted in my raising the rod. FISH ON! Well After about 5 minutes I realised that my wife was back in the house (50 yards away) getting a supper ready that would be cold when I landed this monster. As luck would have it, I had my cell phone in my pocket and called her. She brought my 2 boys and the camera out just in case I landed this fish. After about 20 minutes, the fish wrapped around a sunken tree in front of my dock and I knew the battle was probably lost. Indeed, a minute or so later the hook broke and released this beauty I estimate to be about 36 inches long. We did get a look at it as it was wrapping around the tree and it was awesome, certainly the largest fish I have ever had on. When I got back to the house I realised that the fly was tied for bream and was on a size 14 3x fine dry fly hook. I am surprised that it lasted as long as it did. Maybe next time.

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Chuck Hitt

Chuck, I discovered elm seeds last year and had a BALL!!!! I tie an elm seed fly now and love fishing when the seeds are falling. This year hasn't been as good down here in TX, but I did run into some seed-sipping carp last Saturday.

Sounds like a grass carp to me. They can be tough, so that deserves a pat on the back.

Chuck,
Interesting reading. Nice job. Sounds like you had a ball.

Elm seeds seem to be a staple for the sipping carp up here in the Red River Valley area around Winnipeg. So much so that the local ff expert (Stu Thompson) came up with a pattern:

• Small light hook (sized to the seed you tie)[/*:m:4c1c6]
• 1/8" or thinner close cell foam, we use the thin stuff used for wrapping packages for shipping[/*:m:4c1c6]
• Zap-a-gap[/*:m:4c1c6]

Stu simply cuts/punches out the foam to the desired size (5 - 7 mm sounds about right) and glues the hook to the foam. For authenticity, he will mark one end with a black marker to look like the stem. I actually do a bit of a wrap with white thread so the hook doesn't show up as much, but that is just me.

[This message has been edited by stephenjay (edited 07 April 2005).]

Thanks, stepenjay. Welcome here.

stephenjay, sounds a lot like the pattern I created for them too! I went to a little more detail but not a lot.

Okie; common carp eat them like crazy. I caught around 20 of them last year on elm seeds in 3 days. This year I only caught up to elm-seed sipping carp once, and I caught one but had spent the rest of the time photographing them. By the time I stopped taking photos, there were only a few seeds left and I got the last carp in there.

I went out yesterday and the only carp I could find were in 5 inches of water doing the mating thing. Lots of noise no eating and impossible to cast to since there were trees and bushes all around them. guess they wanted some privacy.

I need to learn how to hook these bad boys.