It started out so promising...but!

The day started out so wonderful.  I slept in a bit, took the dog for a walk and the weather was just fantastic.  Over 80 degrees and partly cloudy.  I walked my favorite pond and landed some nice carp.  Even witnessed a new behavior for carp that I had never seen.

 I found 3 pods of carp actively pushing mud and brush.  There would be about 4 to 7 fish along with a largemouth bass or two on the outside of the mudding. These guys were really pushing mud and making a fool of themselves.  It was very impressive.  I wonder what was so darn good down there?  It had to be some really good type of food source for them to be so aggressive and carefree about their behavior.

 I found it easy to just cast past the mud ball and slowly stip my Minnow colored Zimmerman Backstabber that Erin suggested the other day.  Love love that color pattern by the way Erin, thank you.

I moved to my favorite flats to see what was going on.  Carp everywhere and mudding and shouldering.   I did manage this nice guy right off the bat.

I rounded the corner to rest the flats for a bit  and I hooked into a MONSTER!!!  It was a big brown sugar colored monster of a shadow and after two tugs on my fly rod...snap!  The biggest carp I have ever hooked up with and my CPX Redington 8wt snaps at the second section.  Crap! I lost the fish and broke my favorite fly rod at the same time.

 Well I called Redington and received instructions on how to send the rod in for get a new rod.  In my mind I have a horror story of this taking months to replace and I would be out my favorite rod for my trip to Beaver Island with Kevin, but the nice lady on phone said it really only takes about 5 days once the rod is at the shop.  I ran home, filled out the form and mailed the rod.  The only thing I have a beef with Redington is the 30 dollar shipping and handling fee, but thats not horrible I guess in the long run.  

I will report how the rest of the experience goes with returning a rod to a manufacturer.  My question to you out there in the blog-o-sphere, have you ever experienced a broken rod and had to return one for replacement?  I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

 I promised myself I would not second guess my actions that caused the rod to broke.  It broke and I was the guy at the other end and I accept that.  No excuses.

Lonny

Carp on the White Zimmermans Backstabber

Cottonwood fluff  is all around now.  You know, the white fuzzy stuff floating in the air, floating on the surface of your favorite bass pond, and most of all, getting your reels guncked up with white cotton.  Most bass fisherman hate this time of year due to that fact.  However there is one individual that loves the stuff.  Carp!

They just love skimming the surface vacuuming  up the white fuzz. Its not uncommon to witness pods of carp just wallowing and sucking up cottonwood, their funny toothless mouths wide open, hoovering up the white fuzz.  Of course this is the time also to start throwing Cottonwood top water flies if you dare.  I like to tie up a foam parachute with white hackle for my Cottonwood flies.  The fly floats high and I can see the white parachute better than just an all white hackle.   You can see an image of that fly  here.  I have to honest and say, its freaking hard to catch them on a Cottonwood dry fly and when I have no luck doing that, I switch to my backup plan.  A white Zimmerman Backstabber.

This guy turned and followed the fly to the bottom of the pond before sucking in the fly.  That's the thing with this type of fly. The initial splash will often times get their attention and the action of the marabou really makes them want to bite. I have seen carp take the Backstabber as it falls through the water column. 

After a bit your fly kinda of gets beat up. But even then the fly continues to produce.  

I did run into this guy while out hunting carp.  A nice 5 foot or so Bull snake just hunting along the shore with me.  

Lonny

A couple of firsts while Carp hunting.

While hunting carp at Riverbend ponds this evening I had an situation that I have heard horror stories about.  I had cast straight out to a small feeding common when he took the fly and ran straight instead of turning.  Two head shakes and my fly broke free and came screaming back to me...right into my sunglasses!  I have heard stories of guys getting hooks right into the eye but I never thought it would happen to me.  Wow, scary.   So lesson learned.  Always wear your sunglasses or some type of eye protection while fishing.  You never know when your cool little fly will come back to bite you in the ass!

But the day was not a loss.  I hooked into 6 carp and landed 4.  The second fish of the day was my largest yet on a fly rod.  He took a Zimmermans Backstabber in white.   I really don't know how big he was but it was a great 5 minute fight with several line screaming runs.  On the bummer side, he seems to somehow damaged my new Orvis Mid Access Reel.  I will be send that into Orvis for some service.

The carp in my area seem to be in summer time patterns.  They are close to the shore and in schools of 5 to 8 fish.  That makes it easy to spot them and pick out stragglers from the school.  Cottonwood are fuzzing up the surface of the pond.  That means its almost top water time for Carp!

 This little guy hung around for a quick photo.

This was the view from Riverbend ponds with the Hewlett Gulch fire.  Smoke came billowing down from the canyon into Fort Collins.  Local authorities are issuing warning for those with respiratory issues.   Hope no one gets hurt fighting this fire.

Lonny

Shouldering Carp on the flats.

 I spent the evening stalking carp at Riverbend Ponds.  I witnessed shouldering carp and many mudders.  Thinking this would be a nice repeat of some of previous trips I tried an egg pattern, but nope not this time.  Eggs were not on the menue.  Tonight it was a Merkin style Crab fly.  The carp were picky and spoked real easy, but I still had a blast casting to and casting on top of carp all night long.  I can honestly say I have mastered the art of putting the fly right on top of them! Oh well its great practice for Michigan and Beaver Island this July.

A Carp on the Egg, Greggs, Eggs!

A small video of the carp swimming back to the flats after taking an Egg pattern.  I hooked into 3 other carp but this guy had the best release.  All were taken on an Egg pattern.

Spinney Mountain Opening Day Success

This was my first experience attending the opening day of Spinney Mountain State Park in South Park Colorado.  Shoot I grew up in Buena Vista where the trip to Spinney would have been a quick 1 hour drive, but NO!!!, I had to start fishing the area when I live 5 hours away! Talk about doing things the hard way.

When Mike and I arrived we were expecting huge crowds and long lines at the park entrance.  What a pleasant surprise to only wait about 5 minutes before the gate opened and we were let in. I have heard stories about long lines and crowded fishing conditions, but with the opening being on a Monday and the weather forecast of cold and snow, the lines were short.

Most of the crowd seemed to focus on the dock and along the damn.  We had some success here but nothing really big.  We moved after about 2 hours here.   The weather held for a bit, just windy and cold.  South Park is known for one thing, Wind!  So far none of that.

We moved after some lunch to the damn side.  Wow, wind, snow, and lots of getting sand blasted.  But the move was the best thing we could have done.

 Up to this point this was the largest rainbow I have ever caught and landed.  He took a Barr's Slumpbuster in Black.  The fish were concentrated about 10 to 20 feet off the shore.  This guy missed the fly the first cast.  I was able to quickly cast back to his area and bam!  He slammed the fly.  Love that Slumpbuster.

Another bow on the Slumpbuster.   I lost this fly after making a huge rookie mistake.  For some reason I had it in my mind that these fish would be leader shy so I had on 5x tippet.  I was lucky to land the fish that  are shown here, but the next fish was big, really big.  He busted off the fly and took the tippet with him.  Damn!  After talking with a few other fly guys, I learned they all had on 3x.  Duh!  What a silly error.  Oh well, live and learn.

So some lessons for next year.  Bigger tippet, 3x at least, and tie up a huge number of black Barr's Slumpbusters.  And dress for the worst.  Its cold and windy out there in the Park!

I did switch to a large October Splender streamer and they also liked that.

 This guy was so cool. He borrowed all his gear from the guy in the background.  He caught fish after fish with a black wollybugger while his buddy never even had a hit.  When we finally left for the day the guy in the sweatshirt finally landed a nice size rainbow!  Way to go.

 Spin fishers were having luck with gold Castmasters and black Panther Martins.

He took the October Splender.

Mike and I hope to make this a yearly adventure.  If you can, get out to Spinney Mountain State Park and catch some hogs!!!

Lonny

Another Nice Carp on the Fly Day

 Flat at Riverbend ponds.  I have fished this area often, but only for bass.  Not anymore!  This flats was unknown to me until today and I think I have a new favorite carp flats.  The water temp was near 60 in the early afternoon and the water was shallow and crystal clear.  The other pond was the same as yesterday, 58, clear and full of suspending carp not interested in any thing I had to offer, not even Greggs Carp Eggs. Bummer, those eggs are my new addiction and I hope I can reproduce a few soon. Heck after talking back and forth with Gregg I think I might be able to produce a few crude eggs.  Thank you Gregg.

There were many many tailing carp, many jumpers and a few carp doing something I have not read about.  Every few minutes in this large group, a few would roll and scrape their sides on the bottom of the pond.  It was really easy to see their entire profile while doing the behavior but to be honest I have no idea what they were doing.  What do you think this behavior is?  What came to mind for me- maybe they had some type of  parasite or bug and they were trying to shake it off.  Or like McTage witnessed the day before, its just CARP BEHAVING BADLY! Here is his post. http://www.flycarpin.com/

Good times and get out and catch a Carp!
Lonny