What ate that Carp?

Otter? Raccoon? Maniac mutant squirrels? Whatever it was, that was a nice-sized carp. That's my minnow bucket above it for scale. It's intact head is to the left, and to the right you can see it's anal fin and how it's tail curves upward just behind that. The view of the skull is from beneath 'cause it's a little twisted.

little girl catches Carp by hand!

I did this once at a rock dam on Pine creek. I saw the Carp's tail sticking out of a hole so I grabbed it. 'Course, if that Carp was proportionate in size to me that this one is to the little girl, it would've weighed about 165 pounds!

I caught a Wiper!

It was a beautiful couple of hours yesterday, the fish were very cooperative and I met a cool fishin' buddy who just moved here from Florida.

PLUS, I fish the Ohio River for Hybrid Striped Bass normally, and get some monsters out of there. I know people have had a love hate relationship with them in Lake Arthur for years. Me, I'd never caught one there for some reason.

Saturday changed all that. Finally, I caught my first, rod-bending, reel-screaming, baitfish bustin' Hybrid Striped Bass in Lake Arthur!!


Awesome eh? :D

The Serious Fisherman

Ken Abrames has done great things for salt water Striper fishing, things that obviously can be extrapolated to apply in various situations. In fact, one of his flies has become one of my go-to flies when I'm chasing our inland Hybrid Striped Bass.

I just read the current article on his site and here's a portion:

Serious fishermen seldom try to draw attention to themselves, as a rule they are clandestine and avoid large groups of spectators. They often come out only at night and cannot be identified by the bumper stickers on their vehicles or by the display of rods and reels attached to the front or top or back of their off road 4X4 super duper fishing trucks because they don't often own one. They mostly walk by themselves or with one or sometimes two other serious fishermen that they have known for twenty years or more. They are not actually stand-offish but they are truly going fishing when they appear on a beach and so they are not likely to join in a group of spectators who are there primarily for the companionship of staying out all night with brother 4X4 beach riders.

They seldom listen to the radio or watch television when they fish and are more prone to fish than to socialize. They never sit in lawn chairs and their equipment is often old-fashioned which now-a-days means two years old or more. When observing Human Being behavior on a beach it is easy to overlook their movements but for the careful observer the patterns of their behavior and the results they achieve while fishing can identify them as aberrations to the norm. Overlooking the obviousness of their fishing results and speculating about the next blitz will comfort those who prefer the companionship of the herd to the adventure of discovery.

Read the rest here. It's good! In addition to a description of the wily Serious Fisherman, Ken offers some tips to get you one step closer to being that guy.

How to tie a Wooly Bugger

Oh man, can you tell how long it's been since I had any fish fun? My poor blog has *stomp* spider webs on it! Lemme change that. The Woolly Bugger is one of those universal fly patterns worldwide because the pattern is that good. It just works!

You can buy some if you need to, and by the way you can use them on a spinning rod too, but if you're able to tie your own you'll be a whole lot more confident getting them down into the weeds, rocks and timber where they should be fished in order to coax mr mouth down there into biting!

Chasing one, catching another

If you want peace in your heart at the end of your fishing day you sometimes have to be willing to compromise. I've learned to be happy as long as something is tugging my line, so when I set out last Saturday to fly fish for Pike, I was prepared for the possibility of few bites by bringing a rod outfitted for panfish so that if need be, I could make the switch.

After 3 hours of not seeing even a glimpse of Pike I considered exchanging my 8wt for my 4 wt, but first I decided to downsize my fly from the 3/0 Rabbit streamer I was throwing to a 1/0 Calcesieu Pig Boat (black and Grizzly) to see if maybe the bass would come to visit. Lo and behold, they did!

I caught about 4 like this, then they seemed to disappear. So THAT was when I switched to my 4wt and caught enough Bluegills to end the day on a very happy note. Hey, 4 bass like this on the fly and a bunch of Bluegills should be good enough for any man. :)

Sometimes you get the fish...

...sometimes the fish gets you!