I had some errands to run on Sunday morning. Okay, it was one errand. I needed to get food, and by that I mean go to the supermarket. K.C. & Lilly were over at “Uncle Andy’s,” (K.C.’s brother/Lilly’s uncle) and after I exhausted the last jar of peanut butter for breakfast, we truly had nothing left to eat in the house. Well, except a box of Uncle Ben’s and some couscous. What the hell is couscous anyway? I wasn’t eating either for lunch.
So after a grocery outing, I came home, ate, and parked it in front of the TV for a little bit of football. The early game (Jets vs. Dolphins) was pretty much unwatchable, so around 2:30 PM I decided to sneak an hour or two of fishing at the local pond in before the Eagles game started a little after 4:00.
Cabela’s C.G.R. in hand, the sunfish had no chance. They were absolutely killing Kiwi’s Royal Kebari…fish after fish…after fish. What? Yeah, I used a tenkara fly with a “standard” fly rod and reel. Somewhere there’s a Japanese fishing ninja crying. Oh well.
I upsized to a bugger to try to get down and get into some bass, but they weren’t interested. Had a few follows, and one unsuccessful take due to a poor hookset on my part. I think this bass (below) is like the pet dog of the pond. He’d swim right up to your feet (I suppose looking for table scraps), but absolutely would not take a fly. Oh well. Screw him.
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| Rover |
Oh, and one more thing…it’s more of a question…do carp launch themselves out of the water to feed? I’m not a carp guy, but something BIG jumped vertically out of the water about half of it’s body length I suppose to feed on something in the middle of the pond. I only saw it quickly with my peripheral vision so I didn’t get a good look. Could have been a friggin’ tarpon for all I know, but it was damn big and made a bigger splash. I might need to invest in a float tube and a fishing gaff.
After that, I packed up and headed back to the car. Turned on the radio and the Eagles were already down 17 points in the 2nd Quarter to the Cardinals. Ouch! The Cardinals…really? I headed home to watch the second half knowing the whole time I should have stayed at the pond. Us Eagles fans are masochists that way…
I've seen buffalo jump out of the water and make a big splash at my pond. But I think it was more to attempt to rid themselves of lice or some other irritant.
I was once fishing near a culvert that dumped water into a strip mine lake. The culvert was located above the water level, so water was falling from it. Carp were repeatedly launching themselves around 4 feet onto the shore and bouncing downhill back into the water. I assumed they were feeling the culvert's current and trying to go upstream.Or maybe my fishing prowess is just that frightening.
Pretty sure carp just jump for fun or stupid. When they actually eat stuff I usually just see them pucker up to the surface.
Gotta be you.
Yeah…being a Dolphins fan…that game was pretty un-watchable. Glad that the flies worked out for you. Just like you can use most western flies on a tenkara rod, there is no problem using tenkara flies on western gear.
Be a Maverick, use Tenkara flies on regular fly rod. You're in good company.
When we lived in Georgia, the carp would be jumping like that just before they started their spawning parties in the small bay behind my house. I assumed it was part of a mating ritual, but I could be wrong. They would come into the shallow water off the main creek to spawn and then stay there all summer feeding. I broke down one summer and tried to get some to bite a fly.The water was fairly clear, but they would stir up the mud while they were feeding and it was difficult to get them to see the fly. In a whole summer of trying, I managed to get five fish to bite and landed two of them on a four wt. One was a good ten pounds, and why he didn't just swim away and take everything, I don't know. He fought hard, but just swam in circles until I was able to wear him out and land and release him. Sorry I didn't get a picture- it was as big a carp as I've seen in the creek. Got him on a brown woolly worm,I think it was a #6.
These are amazing fish… I really want to start catching up with some new species. Gotta love the bass attitude…and yours! Haha.
Nice sized gills! I've seen big carp jump but I've never known why. I've never fished for carp, but one time I hooked one in the back only to have him spool the ultra light I was using. Never even slowed down.
They usually jump pre-spawn…as far as I know!