Blog
May 2, 2009
Humiliating Day
I'm not very good at fooling anyone, and when my incredibly transparent attempt at asking my wife if she thought it would be a good idea to head to the big city to get some groceries at Trader Joe's, her immediate response was "You want to try catching carp in city park don't you?".
I really do not need to bribe her to go fishing, but sometimes I just like to think I am sneaky.
We loaded up the car and headed out to a park pond that has some gigantic carp in it (one I am pretty sure is a bighead, you will know if I ever land him...) We got there and I ran like a kid to the water fingers fumbling to tie on a swimming nymph, ready to chase after fish that I had seen actively feeding a couple of weeks earlier.
It has recently rained and the water was fairly stained, so spotting was very difficult, but I managed to see a few fish.
The first fish I tried my hardest to knock out by plopping the fly right on its head. Needless to say I did not see that one the rest of the afternoon.
The second fish was crawling along the bottom, feeding here and there. I made a perfect cast, put the fly a few feet in front of the fish and let it settle. The carp swamp up, tipped its head down to take a look. I did a couple small twitches, and I swear I heard that carp laughing at me as it casually turned and swam slowly away.
At this point I considered myself already beaten. I mucked a few more casts and spooked more feeding fish, including a heavily feeding street gang of 3 nice fish. Stared slack jawed at the behemoth (bighead) carp, and started to slink my way to the dock to throw bread to the bluegills with my kid and hand over the rod so my wife could show me up again.
Mixed in with the bluegill were some juvenile carp eating the bread, so I hastily tied on a white glow bug yarn, greased it with fly flotant and landed my ego saver for the day!
With my confidence restored I headed back to the big fish area and found a stationary fish that needed a fly cast at it. First two casts were way off, but the third was right on the mark and I swam the fly right in front of the carp's face. It turned ever so slightly, my wife yelled "Set the hook!" And I was attached to a really nice fish! A couple of huge thrashing head shakes that stirred up the bottom, then the stron run to the deeper water. Moments later the line went slack, the bend came out of my rod. Right before I casted at the fish I had run my fingers down my tippet material and noticed a fray.
I felt shame. I was bested again. I handed the rod over to my wife and called it quits.
I really do not need to bribe her to go fishing, but sometimes I just like to think I am sneaky.
We loaded up the car and headed out to a park pond that has some gigantic carp in it (one I am pretty sure is a bighead, you will know if I ever land him...) We got there and I ran like a kid to the water fingers fumbling to tie on a swimming nymph, ready to chase after fish that I had seen actively feeding a couple of weeks earlier.
It has recently rained and the water was fairly stained, so spotting was very difficult, but I managed to see a few fish.
The first fish I tried my hardest to knock out by plopping the fly right on its head. Needless to say I did not see that one the rest of the afternoon.
The second fish was crawling along the bottom, feeding here and there. I made a perfect cast, put the fly a few feet in front of the fish and let it settle. The carp swamp up, tipped its head down to take a look. I did a couple small twitches, and I swear I heard that carp laughing at me as it casually turned and swam slowly away.
At this point I considered myself already beaten. I mucked a few more casts and spooked more feeding fish, including a heavily feeding street gang of 3 nice fish. Stared slack jawed at the behemoth (bighead) carp, and started to slink my way to the dock to throw bread to the bluegills with my kid and hand over the rod so my wife could show me up again.
Mixed in with the bluegill were some juvenile carp eating the bread, so I hastily tied on a white glow bug yarn, greased it with fly flotant and landed my ego saver for the day!
With my confidence restored I headed back to the big fish area and found a stationary fish that needed a fly cast at it. First two casts were way off, but the third was right on the mark and I swam the fly right in front of the carp's face. It turned ever so slightly, my wife yelled "Set the hook!" And I was attached to a really nice fish! A couple of huge thrashing head shakes that stirred up the bottom, then the stron run to the deeper water. Moments later the line went slack, the bend came out of my rod. Right before I casted at the fish I had run my fingers down my tippet material and noticed a fray.
I felt shame. I was bested again. I handed the rod over to my wife and called it quits.
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