The Spookiest Fish

[John H]

I am starting to think carp are the spookiest fish I have come across. You need to find one in just the right situation to be able to get the fly in their feeding window without spooking them. I think their eyesight only focuses on things within about 10 inches so you have a very small circle you need to land the fly in for them to see it. If they are cruising you need to cast ahead of them and drag it into their path and hope they react. If they are rooting in the mud you need to land it on the bottom less than a foot in front of their nose. If you do it just right and have a cooperative fish they will spot it, swim over, dip their nose down and then you set and hope they have it. Rooting fish are the most vulnerable because they are mostly stationary and are distracted and less likely to spook. Bunches of carp can be tough because if they are rooting they can stir up so much mud you can't see any of them and if one in the bunch spooks it can alert all the others. I saw a bass while carping, threw a fly 10 feet in front of him, he saw it and swam right over and grabbed it which was kind of refreshing after struggling to find and approach spooky carp.

My only other thought on carp right now is you are probably sick of me talking about them and posting pictures.

I caught this one yesterday. I have never done the rod in teeth shot and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to have some fun with it. That is a Sage LL 5 Wt from about 1987. Fun stuff.