Catching up

Since my last post I've had my ass handed to me on water. I fished carp in May and landed 1. I got into a load of them on a local river, but they were too interested in their reproductive process to bother with my feathered concoctions. I took a few trips out for Bluegills hoping to find them on their beds (which makes for some wicked good popper fishing). I went early and thought they hadn't spawned yet and fished a number of days until I waded the shoreline of one of my favorite local lakes and found empty nests...I missed it. I fished the hex hatch on my home trout stream and was blanked on consecutive nights that followed hot sticky days in late June...a text book Hex omen. I opted for Small Mouth on the big river only to find it running at 13,000 cfs when optimum is around 3,000. I launched Jon Johnson and hooked two small fish. Utterly frustrated I waded into a local lake one late June evening to find that not only were there no fish rising, the whole lake smelled like a porta-potty...when the mosquitoes started eating me alive and I hadn't felt a tug, I reeled up, drove home, and told my wife she should be prepared to move, or at least prepare for my move. I have one thing that drives me in this life and that night it amounted to spending and hour in a bloodsucking outhouse...there was nothing pastoral or meditative about it. I drove up North, got blanked on two outings trolling for Lake Trout, spent a day on one of my brother's local lakes and caught 2 or 3 smallishSmall mouth (to be fair, I was so happy to be on a tea stained oligotrophic northern lake surrounded by boreal forests that I didn't even care). I took a boat ride to the mouth of a very secluded North Shore stream and watched my Father in Law hook and release 1 (read one single) 8" Brook Trout while I tried nymphs, streamers floating lines and sink tips and caught zilch (again, to be fair, a nice back-drop for a skunking). I tried the hex hatch for walleyes and either caught the beginning of the hatch season or it was blown to hell by a cold snap. Of the 12 rises I saw on the lake during the meager 20 minute hatch I managed 2 decent (but not big) walleyes on dry flies. This of course is an excellent batting average (although, catching 1/6th of all rising fish on a normal hex night on this lake would swamp your boat). I went to the mouth of my favorite north shore stream at 7 p.m. one evening and had big plans to hook a Lake Trout or an anomaly Coaster Brook Trout. I caught a 5-6 pound Northern Pike on my first drift through which caused the crowd from the rock skipping convention to pause in their throwing long enough to mutter, "My, that didn't take you long!" and caused me to wonder where the hell the Lake Trout went. (Again, to be fair, a Northern Pike is a great fly rod fish...just not here.) I was considering picking up something igneous and wailing on him, but I didn't want to frighten the conventioneers and I had more fishing to do. So I released him and caught nothing else. Perhaps I've paid my penance...I journey'd back to the big river and finally, finally found a school of 13-17" small mouth waiting for me to cast my streamer to them. I caught every last one of the bastards (approx. 15 or 16) and went looking for more. Am I back on? Have finally hit my stride? Perhaps...Stay tuned, with your high expectations in check.

My one carp for the year (Photo courtesy of my 5 year old daughter)



This should have been my 2nd carp of the year. Nope.


These should have been my 3rd through 11th carp of the year.
I couldn't convince them that their pending spawning ritual was over-rated.


12th carp of the year?


When this guy motored up and asked me what I was fishing for I said, "same as you."
A carp bow-hunter. This guy thwacked 2 fish and then was kind enough to let me use his spare bow to shoot high and miss two fish...damn refraction!


My one 'gill for the year...obviously post-spawn.


I snapped this hex photo with high hopes that a heavy hatch of his cousins would provide me with total fricken glee. Nothing happened. Shoulda been here last night.


The sulphurs didn't even elicit a surface response...


The coolest thing about mojo is...mojo. My bro and I discussed the mystery of walleyes on the fly during non-hatch periods, while we drove up to a lake he frequents. He captained the boat to a "spot" he knows, gave me the first couple of throws and then caught this fish on his first or second cast. That's mojo.


One 8" Brook Trout was caught here...My wife's father isn't above drowning a worm.


A white bass falls victim to my streamer during my trip to the Big River last weekend.


I caught every last one of them. Finally some bona-fide CATCHING.
I'd forgotten how hard these fish can pull.
An 8 weight is NOT too much rod for a river Smallie.