Fishing Report 6/21/2011 - Carping and Columbia Warmwater Fly Fishing

On solstice day, I decided to go drive east up the Columbia in search of those elusive and spooky carp. Without planning it, I ended up having a super fun warmwater day of fly fishing. I pulled up to a pond on the side of the river and looked down only to see a lurking largemouth bass in search of food. It turns out that I could not persuade that lunker into biting, but I did notice the sunfish that the bass was cruising by. I tempted the little sunfish with a small panfish popper, and they were all over it. 

Bluegill on mini popper

I ended up catching a couple of different species of sunfish, and the colors were really pretty on a few of them. It would be hard top paint a fish and have it end up looking like this one....

Nice Paint job on this sunfish....

After a bunch of those sunfish satisfied my topwater needs, I decided to move onto larger quarry. I wanted to catch a large Columbia basin carp, and I had to start looking for them. I got high up on the railroad tracks and immediately noticed some huge bombs cruising around. I started to feel my hands shake as I was attempting to tie on my fly. I slid down towards water levels and presented my fly to lots of fish, but they were being tough. I stuck one huge fish, but the hook pulled free on the first run. I was wild though, because you could see the fish gain interest in your fly, and then they would tip down to munch it off of the bottom. The tough part was seeing that part happen since they were a little deeper than I like for tailing fish. I noticed a pack of otters, and the action seized right away. It was time to move on to another spot.....

Carp taken while sight fishing with small wetfly

Luckily, I had a pond in mind that I saw some monster sized carp at on an earlier outing; so I was determined to find them again. It wasn't more than 30 seconds before I could see tons of fish cruising around at the next location, and they were blatantly feeding, and feeding hard too! I was stoked to present my fly to there fish. I walked down to water level and stuck a beast right away literally from dapping my fly in front of the face of a fish huddled in the grass. It torched me, and I did not even stand a chance, but what a thrill it was. I then managed to stick and land two more fish in the grass with the same technique. Fishing was hot!!

I moved down the pond and saw a ton of fish feeding on vegetation on the surface. It was wild to see, and they were gulping away gluttonously, and you could hear going on also. I would sit and watch fish come out of the weeds and I would then throw my fly right at the fish anticipating where it was headed. I would keep the fly in front of the fish for a few feet and then drop it through the water column, and they would plunge down to inhale the offering. It was totally insane fly fishing!!! I was hookup up like I was trout fishing, and they were actually sort of easy to get to take your fly. Fish on constantly and one after another. Like anything though, it had to wind down after a while. I managed to hook up with more fish than I have ever hooked in one outing. I managed to hook several huge fish that whooped me silly, and I lost many flies on many fish. There were many blown shots, and many quick hookups with long distance releases too. It was a day of carp fly fishing I will never forget. Go figure that I was all alone, and got to experience such a day by myself. That is the beauty of Carp Fly Fishing; it is totally untapped more or less. I love the fact that so many people do not even attempt it. After dealing with early wake ups, the intensity of andramous fishing, and crowds; it is nice to have a fishery to go to that has nobody out there......