Today I headed down to “the bridge” to do some bait fishing for carp. I like to use corn with my fly rod because it is easy to detect really lite bites with my bright white line. So I hooked up with 10 pounder early on and landed it. Then, I went under the bridge, saw bubbles and cast. A second later, the line takes off. And it didnt stop taking off. Problem is, It aint attached to the rest of my line anymore! So Im steaming, watching these carp feed and not havign anymore mono to use as a leader. I looked in my tackle box and found a literally 6 inch peice of old 8 pound test mono. So I attach it to the fly line and the hook. By the time i cut the tag ends, it was a one inch leader. My confidence level was zero, but i cast in and the line started moving! I had a 5 pounder! Now carp are far from stupid, but in such a river even a person might confuse the line with a peice of trash. Moral of the story: always bring spare leader material. Here is a picture of the fish I caught while on a bridge.
Good question. I have to run to the bank and climd down it all while I have a fish on the line. If you know carp, you know that when you are sure they are tired out for good, they can take a powerful run.
And I cant quite decide what it is, but fish fight 100 times harder when they go under the bridge and head behind you. Maybe its the angle of my rod from that position, but a 5 pound carp fights like a 15 pounder would from the bank
I am not using bait instead of flies, I am using the fly rod instead of my spinning rod.The carp in this murky river have learned to seek out food by scent, which is not good for fly fishing.It is the best way to detect bites. At this river, a fly rod and a spinning rod fished next to each other both with the same bait, the fly rod will get(or show) all of the bites.
Of course if you took me to mystic, I would opt for the fly rod. I fish whatever works.
And yes, the fish put up a vey nice fight for its size
[This message has NOT been edited by Anthony (edited 08 May 2006).]
[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 08 May 2006).]
Some fly anglers use real flies, for catching fish. It is an old custom that is still practiced on some trout streams in England. The angler gets up early in the morning, and picks Dun May Flies off of the trees and bushes, while their wings are still moist with dew, and deposit them into a flybox design to store the selected flies that will be impailed on the hook for fishing in the stream or stillwater.
Is it still fly angling, to use a real grasshopper impailed on hook, to catch a fish? I think it is!
~Parnelli
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 08 May 2006).]
In Ernest Hemingway’s famous story “Big-Two Hearted River,” which basically is just a story about a guy camping and fishing on a river in northern Michigan, the main character wakes up early so that he can catch the grasshoppers before the sun dries their wings. Once he has a bunch in a can (or bag, I forget), he starts fly-fishing by sliding the still-living grasshopper onto the hook. And surely no one would deny that Ernest Hemingway was a real fly-fisher, right? (He’d challenge you to some fisticuffs, in any case, if you did! Haha).
Mike
PS Whatever you think of his method, you should check out the story, which is great. It’s in his collection In Our Time.
‘BaitAnglersOnLine.com’ did poorly. Who or what are you defending? Bait, Hemingway, Anthony, Parnelli, flies, grasshoppers, drunk authors, insect molesters, youth, old age, carp?
I used to do that same kind of thing, but I tied a fly, a real fly, that looked like several pieces of corn on a hook. I then soaked the flys in canned “corn juice”.
Caught a lot of carp, as well as MANY stocker trout.
Each state determines what a ‘fly’ is for their fishing. I do not find any; food (new or old), garbage (fresh or aged), live or dead insects, or stinky stuff.
A 4 oz. sinker and a lit M-80 will bring results when carp are ‘off their feed’. *caution, use a long leader.
If your goal is to become a great flyfisherman than this “bait thing” may be a stop along the way. Remember that it is the journey and if you stop too long you forget where you were going.
On the other hand if your goal is to catch fish then bring on the bait and have a good time.
We here, by and large are a bunch of feather and fur type people without bait and without scent. So this is the direction most feedback will take.
FYI
JC actually started baitfishersonline.com by due to lack of response he took up flyfishing and made this site instead. G
Confession: I fish with bait every once in a while, usually icefishing or for flounder in the salt, but for me it has its place.
Castwell:
I’m not defending nuttin’. Just adding to the lively conversation. I do think it is interesting that two icons of fly-fishing history (i.e. Hemingway and British chalk stream, dry-fly fishermen) seem to have at one time used live bait on a fly line without feeling too guilty about it. We can take that or leave it, of course, but it does make it hard to argue that there is some dependable historical standard that defines what exactly fly-fishing is.
As far as defending carp, I have never caught one: but I’d be delighted to land one of the slimy-lookin’ buggers if only they’d stop sniffing at my fly and turning the other way!
Time for confession: I had a fly on my spinning rod. I was fishing with my father in northern Colorado when I was less than 10 years old. (I recall that because we drove to Alaska the next year…when the Alcan was all dirt…but that’s another fishing story.)
I was mystified by his fly collection and the number of his fish for dinner vs. mine. Later that evening at my request, he took my rod, fashioned it as best as he could with what he had available, and I fished with his flies the rest of our trip.
I used that silly rod until I outgrew it a few years later. A few years after that, I started tying my own flies. (Having hooks, feathers, and thread on your Christmas list seemed amusing to some relatives.)
Is it still fly fishing if you have bait on the end of the hook on a fly rod? Is it bait fishing if you have a streamer on the end of your spinning rod?
It seems that bait fishermen don’t have as much fun as fly fisherman. Maybe it’s the act of standing there, challenging yourself to land that fly in that perfect spot near the swollen water-logged trunk or another selected spot. During the summer, our nearby pond has their share of baiters. They sit on their little stool or lean over the edge of the boat ramp railing, just looking at the water, watching the bobber. The upside is they can have two, three, or four together and carry on a merry conversation.
If words have meaning …seems to me Warren is correct.
It also seems to me that just because a couple of famous people occasionally did things a certain way doesn’t mean they “defined” it…or maybe I should say “undefined” it.
You know, I’ve been fly-fishin’ for over 18 years and ain’t caught a fly yet!
(Anthony, if it cranks your tractor, have fun…and give us the pleasure of the story. I used to use a poppin’ bug on a cane pole. Was I fly-fishing with cane? Did I care?)
