Didn’t think I’d make it out flyfishing this weekend…but turns out I DID manage to go!
Broke my record of catching 13 grass carp in one day (twice), by catching 14 today!
Started off good, with a Grassie on my first cast. Then no more for an hour-and-a-half. Then a third an hour after that. And a fourth over an hour later. Considered packing it in. Then fishing finally heated up, with 5 in the next hour. And 5 in the final hour. Those last 2 hours were on a section I hadn’t fished before, might be why it was so good. I’m at 85 for the year so far, 106 lifetime Grass Carp on fly.
Also caught a nice Goldeye:
And a nice Channel Catfish. I measured it at 23", but it sure looked a lot longer than that.
Also caught a bluegill, lost some other grassies, including one big one, and lost a longnose gar at the net.
Yesterday was my birthday…and I try to always take the day off and go fishing on my birthday.
I needed 15 more Grass Carp to reach my “100 Grass Carp in a Year on Fly” goal. My previous best day ever was 14 Grass Carp. Wasn’t sure I’d be able to reach the goal in one day, but figured I’d put a good dent in it.
Goal reached & exceeded! I caught 17 Grass Carp, 2 small Channel Catfish, and one Shortnose Gar.
Here’s a picture of one of the grass carp…I turned it to get a different sun angle…and liked both pictures, so…here it is.
Indeed it is, Dale! I had some success with it on Grass Carp earlier in the year, and have just stuck with it. The combination of the microjig and indicator… gives a nice “splat” when it hits the water, which attracts these fish that seem to be used to eating things falling into the water from overhanging trees, etc.
They don’t always rush over, sometimes they “mosey” over…the fly suspended beneath the indicator gives them a chance to swim over and eat the fly, without it sinking too fast out of sight. This means that : 1) My casts don’t need to be too close to the fish, which might spook them; and 2) I don’t have to worry about missing the “dinner plate” zone often required for Common Carp.
So far, I’ve experienced all manner of strikes from these Grass Carp. Aggression I never would have expected from these fish.
I’ve had a few that chased down the fly as I was rapidly stripping it in to re-cast. I’ve had them appear to spook, only to then turn around to see what spooked them, and hit it. I’ve had ones that were nosing along the edge of the water on the far bank that would turn and come out 10-15 away from the bank to where I’d cast my fly and hit it. I’ve had pods of them gang-rush/swarm the fly and indicator. Many that just ate the indicator. Lots of them follow the sound of the “plop” of the fly and indicator hitting the water to investigate and eat. Many invisible fish that hit along laydowns or under overhanging trees, or in faster current areas. And I’ve cast near a visible fish, watched it slowly swim towards the fly, only to watch the indicator sink from the strike of a deeper fish I couldn’t see!
Last year I had a stellar year, I thought, on grass carp…I caught 2 in Iowa before moving to MO, and then 14 more in the remaining 1/2 year in MO! So, 16 Grass Carp last year! But yesterday I caught 17 IN ONE DAY! That just blows my mind!
I’m sure I could have caught Grass Carp using topwaters or other flies, both of which caught grass carp for me last year…but with the microjig/indicator taking visible and invisible fish…there just wasn’t a good reason to change. Now that I’ve reached my goal, I can probably experiment more just for fun.
