My hands smell like fish, and it's nice
First, get your head out of the gutter.
Now that we got that out of the way, first fish-on-the-fly of '08 came today. The skunk is off...kinda....
OK, so I cheated. The trout aren't where I want them to be, and I haven't had time to go exploring. OK, so I had time to go exploring last weekend but was far too lazy. By no means have I given up on them, but it was time to find some easy fish. And man were they easy.
This week I've been scoping out potential lunch-time trip locations. Not fishing, just looking. Of 4 options within 5 miles of the office, 2 were a bust, 2 showed potential. One is a very hidden, very nice looking pond not 100' from a busy road, completely screened by trees and with 2 residential properties on the "far side" of the easiest "public" access (in this case, public means private but not posted; I promise not to make a mess...might even pick up some beer cans for you). The other is a (well, actually 2) very busy, very public park(s) on the Mohawk, with many options as to where to fish and what to target. One of the several ponds at the park was the option I took after work today. And it felt good.
It was cheating, plain and simple, and it was just what I needed. A fish on every cast of the 3 wt. makes it hard to mind that they're all 6" pumpkinseeds. Add a couple of small largemouth (on my own fly) and a chance to work out some remaining winter kinks, all while in the warm sun, and it makes for a pretty good afternoon. I didn't even mind the swarms of mosquitoes. There just wasn't enough time to swat or scratch.
This is how it went down; couple sunfish on a blood midge larva, switch to small stimulator to see if anything bites (anything did not), about 20 fish on a black BHGRHEN, then a few more (including the bass) on my fly (essentially black marabou leech with krystal flash). All in under 90 minutes, including walking time and waiting for cars, bikes, roller-bladers (already used that joke last week) and pedestrians to pass between casts. Decided to hang it up after finally losing my leech-fly on a tree (better that then a biker I guess).
Now for the exciting part...leaping carp. There are carp EVERYWHERE back there (as well as some large bass I couldn't seem to interest). At one point, as I was walking along the edge of the water, there were dozens of large wakes just keeping ahead of my shadow. Apparently one of them was having trouble swimming straight (or he wanted a closer look at what was making the sky so dark), and came clear out of the water several times. What I need now is a fly that a medium-sized carp will eat that a small sunfish will not. I don't know that such a thing does or ever will exist, but if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears...er eyes, until the interweb goes audio.
Friday it is off to the Great White North, which is hopefully not white at all any more, for some general purpose leanto camping. If the weather (and luck) holds out enough to melt them, I'll be fishing Adirondack ponds for browns, bows, brookies, and maybe even splake. Now, if I could just find a repository of the secrets to successful fly fishing and brush up by then...
Now that we got that out of the way, first fish-on-the-fly of '08 came today. The skunk is off...kinda....
OK, so I cheated. The trout aren't where I want them to be, and I haven't had time to go exploring. OK, so I had time to go exploring last weekend but was far too lazy. By no means have I given up on them, but it was time to find some easy fish. And man were they easy.
This week I've been scoping out potential lunch-time trip locations. Not fishing, just looking. Of 4 options within 5 miles of the office, 2 were a bust, 2 showed potential. One is a very hidden, very nice looking pond not 100' from a busy road, completely screened by trees and with 2 residential properties on the "far side" of the easiest "public" access (in this case, public means private but not posted; I promise not to make a mess...might even pick up some beer cans for you). The other is a (well, actually 2) very busy, very public park(s) on the Mohawk, with many options as to where to fish and what to target. One of the several ponds at the park was the option I took after work today. And it felt good.
It was cheating, plain and simple, and it was just what I needed. A fish on every cast of the 3 wt. makes it hard to mind that they're all 6" pumpkinseeds. Add a couple of small largemouth (on my own fly) and a chance to work out some remaining winter kinks, all while in the warm sun, and it makes for a pretty good afternoon. I didn't even mind the swarms of mosquitoes. There just wasn't enough time to swat or scratch.
This is how it went down; couple sunfish on a blood midge larva, switch to small stimulator to see if anything bites (anything did not), about 20 fish on a black BHGRHEN, then a few more (including the bass) on my fly (essentially black marabou leech with krystal flash). All in under 90 minutes, including walking time and waiting for cars, bikes, roller-bladers (already used that joke last week) and pedestrians to pass between casts. Decided to hang it up after finally losing my leech-fly on a tree (better that then a biker I guess).
Now for the exciting part...leaping carp. There are carp EVERYWHERE back there (as well as some large bass I couldn't seem to interest). At one point, as I was walking along the edge of the water, there were dozens of large wakes just keeping ahead of my shadow. Apparently one of them was having trouble swimming straight (or he wanted a closer look at what was making the sky so dark), and came clear out of the water several times. What I need now is a fly that a medium-sized carp will eat that a small sunfish will not. I don't know that such a thing does or ever will exist, but if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears...er eyes, until the interweb goes audio.
Friday it is off to the Great White North, which is hopefully not white at all any more, for some general purpose leanto camping. If the weather (and luck) holds out enough to melt them, I'll be fishing Adirondack ponds for browns, bows, brookies, and maybe even splake. Now, if I could just find a repository of the secrets to successful fly fishing and brush up by then...
Comments
-ditty
All I've heard for carp any time anywhere is nymphs or bread flies. You might try a small legged brown and orange bugger... bounce it in the dirt where you see them rooting. All of that is hearsay though... just what I've read while thinking about chasing them.
As far as ponds in the ADK's... as far north as I've been, they should be open after this week. They were almost open last weekend...
Good luck this weekend. I think I'll probably be chasing some bows and browns this weekend too. Trying to break that 8 month bad streak.