Shaq’s Perspective: 90 degrees in the shade on a humid afternoon and wrh and I were heading out to a trout stream. Any self-respecting trout would have his nose gill deep into a spring or have traveled to the nearest cool tributary. We had decided that this would be a guaranteed fishing expedition and could not cancel for the next one we would take together might be a while. As we discussed strategy in a convenience store parking lot we agreed on an unconventional game plan. Something we had been hatching for weeks. We will head for the lower river. Our quarry will be wary, spooky as trout. Our flies will be scrutinized and if are were lucky, sucked in ever so slightly. On the hook-set, the water will explode. One will act as spotter, the other will lay delicate casts in still water with the brutal heat and sun beating us down. Our glasses will fog up and sweat will sting our eyes as we pull long gulps of water from our camelbacks. Tight lines will straighten violently, ripping from our fingers and will be pulled loudly from the reels. Tippets will part from the flies and some big fish will be landed. Everything will go according to plan. It’s going to be sweet.
Wrh’s Perspective: The plan was simple; I was going to fish several spotsuntil I met up with Shaq at 3:30. I hit the mouth ofthe river hoping to meet Mr. Smallmouth. Unfortunately the high waters this summer have madefinding the smallies very challenging. I headed up toa trib. that runs cold and got a couple of small wildbows and scouted out some other spots. The heat wasbrutal so when I met Shaq I told him that wet wadingwas the way to go and that the waters were hot. Wetalked about options and decided on a new quarry, onethat we had been talking about for a while. I havebeen fishing the mid section of river and seeing lotsof fish so we headed into the inferno and entered intoa new adventure.The odds were stacked against us. Large spooky fishin shallow water in the blazing sun were the quarry wethe hunters. Shaq and I worked as a team; onespotting fish, directing the caster, while the otherhunted and stayed out of sight. This is an infectioustype of fishing with visible takes and explosivereactions to the hook set. After this primer I can’twait to do more in the future.
AWESOME work. Never imagined that the carp fly fishing was like that! Which brings up a very interesting point…and one that is long over-due that I wanted to bring to the table….. I will try to keep it as short and to the point as possible… Here goes..
please visit THIS FORUM POST – feel free to comment ..
Excellent! You guys captured the true essence of carp fishing. Sometimes the “Golden Bones” can be just as challenging as a wary trout on an English chalk stream. Great story and vid!
you guys never mentioned what flies you used … curious as to what they were eating? and with that said, what is there primary diet? bugs or baitfish? do they even eat baitfish? thanks.
Nice work guys. It was definitely a real boiler out there that day. Some days it is just way to hot for trout to actively feed. Nice to see how your backup plan came together. Those fish were flexing the rod for sure.
I believe carp eat anything they can get their sucker around. Insects, baitfish, bread, we used to catch them on french fries when I was a kid. These fish were on crawfish big-time and a brown and yellow woolly bugger did the trick. We weighted them enough to be less than neutrally bouyant but not too much that they plunked and sank to the bottom.
Glad you like the video guys, we just loved making it. If you saw the raw footage, you would hear us laughing and chuckling through the entire thing. I believe this will be done again.
probably a dumb question but … do we have carp here in maine?
i remember when i went to school in boston and fly fishing within the boston city limits was … lets say … limited .. i would go down to the charles river and carp were ubundant … but i would always go for the stripers in boston harbor … to be honest those were some great memories .. i would fish boston harbor with the cityskyline in the background and just catch unbelievable amounts of striped bass … and actually some really nice fish … but when riding my mountain bike towards the saltier boston water via storrow drive (charles river bike path) …i would always see the huge carp laying in the water … wish i would have seen your video then .. cuz .. i might have stopped and chucked a few flies at ’em.
Just finished a day of carpin in the Northwest. Sounds like a redux of you experience. 112 degrees and willing carp.
Great video.