Carpin with the Smother-In-Law.

My mother in law(smother in law) and I have been out the past two mornings trying out hands out at Carpin with fly rods.   Yesterday was tough as we only landed one carp but we were able to cast to well over 20 fish.  I still seem to have that 'put the fly right on his head' syndrome, and I spoked more that I should have.

This morning we awoke earlier, 5am, got to the pond around 6 am and started catching carp.  I landed three and Joan caught her first carp but it popped off as we were dragging it into shore.  We kept the three and gave them to a work friend who is from the Ukraine.  Her mom evidently makes a mean Carp stuffing.  Hmmm.

Enjoying the Stalking of the Carp. Hunting the Big Goldfish!

The last two days have been hot, hot and muggy.  The sun is intense, and there is humidity that we usually dont have to content with here in Colorado.  Reminds me of Michigan.

Carp fishing for me has been incredible, not that I have landed large numbers of fish, but that I have had the opportunity to stalk and cast to so many fish.  I have developed a a skill where by I plop my Backstabber fly... right on top of the carp, over and over!  Hey what about that cast in front of and past the carp!  Hmm I need to work on that.

Often I would walk up on Carp in just inches of water, tailing, rooting in the mud.  If the carp was facing me it freeze and wait for them to change direction.  Nothing like trying to blend in and pretending to be a tree.  At least I had a fly rod that is green, right?

Carp were very easy to spot, thus making it really easy for them to see me.  As long as I was able to stay quite, move slowly, I would sometimes be able to sneak up and make a proper cast.
Each one of these guys took a rust or orange color Backstabber.  I love to put a darker color hackle on this fly to create some contrast.

While I am running at the ponds I always try to stop and smell the flowers like this little bumble bee.

Some Recent Photos after a Photo Class Project

I've been taking some photography classes to help improve my exposure and composition.  Not being an artist I have struggled with getting the correct light, I am either way overblown or just downright dark.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was how to use a 'grey card' to help determine exposure and assist with  white balance.  Since the camera wants to turn everything grey, this tool helps the photography determine what is true grey and expose correctly.  This small piece of cardboard has really helped improve my photography.

One of the last lessons I worked on dealt with Composition. I understood that to center an object tends to be wrong.  The other rules...who knew there were so many rule, kind of escaped me.  I would always place an object to the side, looking straight down.  Kinda of boring.

As I learned more, I started to experiment.  Let me know what you think.