Columbia River Carp

Last week I was looking for a place to fish, and the wind was calm so I
drove over to a favorite spot on the Columbia and was a bit surprised
to find the carp beginning to school. A couple hours of fishing with
my friend Jaime only produced one fish, but it was the biggest one I've
ever caught, including the fish I used to shoot with bow and arrow
years ago in Illinois.

It came up behind the clouser tied bunny and rubber legged thing I was
using, and I set the hook when I saw her suck in the fly. Not a huge
fight, a couple runs some splashing, maybe 3 minutes total. She was
very quiet for the pictures, and then swam off when I let her go.

I posted a picture on abpf

Chas
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Chas Wade wrote:
Last week I was looking for a place to fish, and the wind was calm so I
drove over to a favorite spot on the Columbia and was a bit surprised
to find the carp beginning to school. A couple hours of fishing with
my friend Jaime only produced one fish, but it was the biggest one I've
ever caught, including the fish I used to shoot with bow and arrow
years ago in Illinois.

It came up behind the clouser tied bunny and rubber legged thing I was
using, and I set the hook when I saw her suck in the fly. Not a huge
fight, a couple runs some splashing, maybe 3 minutes total. She was
very quiet for the pictures, and then swam off when I let her go.

I posted a picture on abpf

Chas
remove fly fish to reply
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html
San Juan Pictures at:
http://home.comcast.net/~chasepike/wsb/index.html



Nice Carp!

There's some variation on how they fight but overall I found them to be
extremely tough dogged fighters. When I lived up in Lake George, I used
to fish for Pike in the Spring. It was the same time that the Carp were
roiling in the shallows. The Pike would hide in the shallow roily water
waiting for a trout to come by. The tactic was to find the roily areas
and fish them. The fishing wasn't fast but the fish were big with an
average Pike close to 20 pounds.

One day I hooked a fish I felt sure was a State record Pike. On the
strike it blasted out to the depths, nearly spooling me several times.
After a lone battle, I finally landed the fish and it was a Carp of
about 20 pounds. Put ALL the Pike I had caught to shame.

Willi

Willi wrote:

Nice Carp!

There's some variation on how they fight but overall I found them to
be
extremely tough dogged fighters. When I lived up in Lake George, I
used
to fish for Pike in the Spring. It was the same time that the Carp
were
roiling in the shallows. The Pike would hide in the shallow roily
water
waiting for a trout to come by. The tactic was to find the roily areas
and fish them. The fishing wasn't fast but the fish were big with an
average Pike close to 20 pounds.

One day I hooked a fish I felt sure was a State record Pike. On the
strike it blasted out to the depths, nearly spooling me several times.
After a lone battle, I finally landed the fish and it was a Carp of
about 20 pounds. Put ALL the Pike I had caught to shame.


I agree with you, pound for pound a carp is as good a fighter as any
fish you can find in fresh water. I have caught a couple big pike up
north that went way into the backing at speeds aproaching a bonefish,
and that with 20 pound leader straining hard to stop them, but out of a
couple thousand pike, only a handfull fought as hard as a typical carp.

Thanks,

Chas
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On Wed, 05 May 2004 19:16:16 GMT, Chas Wade
wrote:

I agree with you, pound for pound a carp is as good a fighter as any
fish you can find in fresh water. I have caught a couple big pike up
north that went way into the backing at speeds aproaching a bonefish,
and that with 20 pound leader straining hard to stop them, but out of a
couple thousand pike, only a handfull fought as hard as a typical carp.

And I say the same is true between bones and barracudas.

The 'cudas are impressive/fearsome looking but the bones will be the ones that
wear you out...

/daytripper

Chas Wade wrote:

I agree with you, pound for pound a carp is as good a fighter as any
fish you can find in fresh water. I have caught a couple big pike up
north that went way into the backing at speeds aproaching a bonefish,
and that with 20 pound leader straining hard to stop them, but out of a
couple thousand pike, only a handfull fought as hard as a typical carp.


I usually fish for Carp during runoff. From the look of our rivers and
the very warm this Spring, I didn't think we were going to get ANY
runoff. I crossed the river this AM on the way to the paint store and
saw it was up a bit and carrying a little color. Hopefully this is just
the start.

The Carp are in the shallows this time of year and are getting ready to
spawn. I found that if they're spawning, they're uncatchable but if
they're in the shallows feeding, you can sight fish them in our clear
local lakes and ponds. They're tough fish, spooky in the clear water and
they can be fussy about what they eat. They're able to enhale a fly and
spit it out without giving you any indication, so seeing them is a big
help. I used to use big flies like buggers etc. but Charley W., who
fishes them alot, recomended soft hackle flies. They do seem to get
taken more readilly. I'm not too good at it and my success per fish is
low, maybe one in fifty, but since they're very plentiful and easy to
see, you get lots of chances. I'm learning to recognize when they're
actively feeding and not just cruising or chasing or spawning or ? and
if you find one that's feeding, your chances go way up.

PS for Jeff - I used to think they were butt ugly and hated handling
them. After fishing for them, I can see the beauty in their strength and
apart from the difficulty in unhooking them and their size, they're not
much different to handle than a trout.

Willi

"daytripper" wrote
And I say the same is true between bones and barracudas.

The 'cudas are impressive/fearsome looking but the bones will be the ones
that
wear you out...


That's a damn good analogy.

bruce h