Some buddies of mine have become real fans of carp fishing.
They bolt a wooden step ladder in the front of a wooden driftboat
and float several warm silty stretches of river here in Montana that have
big carp. 12-15 pound carp are smart, extra-spooky and very hard to catch.
They are in some ways a lot harder to catch than trout.
My buddies like to fish from 3 steps up on the step ladder where it's easier
to spot cruising brutes. So it's all sight fishing. Once you spot one
you point where it is to the rower, call out a distance and sneak up
as quietly as possible. And then make as quiet a cast as you can,
usually with a black leech of some kind. A 15 pound carp on an 8 wt flyrod
is a heck of a tussle.
So about a month ago my buddies Pete Tommy and Chad were doing
just that. Pete hooked an extra-big fish. But something was different.
It didn't fight the way carp usually do. Still it took a long time to get in.
When they finally netted the fish it was a 12-1/2 pound walleye.
They weighed it photographed it baked it and ate it.
And two days after that they found out 12-1/2 pounds on 8lb test would
have been a world flyrod record for walleye. But it was too well digested
by that time.
They bolt a wooden step ladder in the front of a wooden driftboat
and float several warm silty stretches of river here in Montana that have
big carp. 12-15 pound carp are smart, extra-spooky and very hard to catch.
They are in some ways a lot harder to catch than trout.
My buddies like to fish from 3 steps up on the step ladder where it's easier
to spot cruising brutes. So it's all sight fishing. Once you spot one
you point where it is to the rower, call out a distance and sneak up
as quietly as possible. And then make as quiet a cast as you can,
usually with a black leech of some kind. A 15 pound carp on an 8 wt flyrod
is a heck of a tussle.
So about a month ago my buddies Pete Tommy and Chad were doing
just that. Pete hooked an extra-big fish. But something was different.
It didn't fight the way carp usually do. Still it took a long time to get in.
When they finally netted the fish it was a 12-1/2 pound walleye.
They weighed it photographed it baked it and ate it.
And two days after that they found out 12-1/2 pounds on 8lb test would
have been a world flyrod record for walleye. But it was too well digested
by that time.
