|
I went out to the lake of the first day of
June. The wind was blowing about 30 mph, but
it is better than sitting in the office. I
went to the jetty first, where I could cast
with the wind some. No fish were interested
in anything that I pitched at them. I did not
see any crappie trying to spawn and no fish
even followed the fly.
My guess is that the spawn is over for the
crappie. I decided to move about 300 yards
from where I was at. I knew casting would be
harder, but I would be casting out over a flat
with about 3 to 4 feet of water for about 40
feet before it hits a drop off. I thought there
might be a few gills coming in to feed and get
ready for the spawn.
I had pulled out a few flies from swaps that I
have been in that I decided that I needed to try.
I made a couple of copies and had those with me.
I tried casting a few with very little success.
I switched to a larger fly with a beadhead. I
did a little better with this but still was not
getting out very far. I put on a size 8 green
marabou damsel nymph imitation. It had two white
legs on each side. This I could get out about 30
feet by over powering the last forward cast. I was
slowly bringing this in when I felt some weight
on the line. I did a strip set of the hook as I
was afraid to try to raise the rod to do it. I
thought I might pull the hook out of whatever
was biting.
After a brief tussle I had a bass that was about
15 inches long near the shore. I did not have a
net with me and when I tried to swing her up the
hook came out of her lip. I guess I had not set
the hook very well. I decided to try the same
area again. On the next cast I got a nice gill
that was about 9 inches long and had his full
regalia of colors showing. The next few casts
did not produce any bites so I moved a little
way down the shore.
The wind slowed for a moment and I got a fairly
nice cast in. I let the fly drop for about 5 to
6 seconds and then started to retrieve the fly.
The line did not feel right so I set the hook
and had a 14-inch catfish decide that she did
not like being on the other end of the line. I
was using some 5 X tippet so I knew that I could
not force the issue on this fish. It took about
10 minutes to get this fish in. I was a little
surprised to get a catfish during the noon hour
in fairly shallow water, but that is part of
what makes fishing fun.
With the disturbance this fish had made I decided
that I would move down the shore again and see if
I could find another fish interested in eating
something olive colored. I cast a few times but
the wind gusted each time so the fly either fell
very close to the shore, or caught one of the
weeds in the area.
When I got another decent cast, the fly was
still dropping when the line took off sideways.
I was trying to get some of the loose line
collected, when the fish tightened the line.
At the feel of the hook, the fish kicked it
into high gear. In a very short time I was
into the backing. I slowly put some pressure
on the fish. I was still using the 5 X tippet,
not a good choice with a large fish.
I slowly gained some line, by getting the fish
to swim parallel to the shore. I had about half
the fly line back in when the fish decided that
it was time to run again. This run was just about
as long as the one before. It was slightly easier
to gain line this time but was still a slow process.
This pattern was repeated about six more times.
At this point I was starting to gain a little
more on the fish. I finally got it up to where
I could get a look at it and saw that I had
hooked a carp.
I think the fish saw me and took off for parts
far from where he was at. I was working the fish
in again when another guy showed up. He asked
what I had on and when I told him a carp he got
excited. He wanted to know if I was going to
keep it. When I said no, he wanted to know if
he could have it. I said OK but I did not know
how I was going to land it. He said he had the
solution.
He went and got his long-handled net and some
rubber boots on. I continued to work the fish in,
slowly, as it swam parallel to the shore. I
finally got the fish about 10 feet from the shore.
As I brought it by this gentleman, he tipped his
net up, it had been on the bottom, and netted the
fish.
It turned out that is fish was 22 inches long and
very heavy. I had not seen any carp moving around
but that doesn't mean that they can't be there.
It was great fun catching this fish, but it also
was time to head back to the office and go to work.
Hopefully I can tie into a few more fish like that!
Hope you can get out on the water. ~ Rick ziegeria@grm.net
|
