Hobby Sports

I woke up Thursday morning at 3am and for whatever reason I could not get back to sleep. As I tried and tried to fall back to sleep I laid there in bed watching the sunrise around 5am.  By 6am I was fed up and packed the Rover with my carp gear and headed out to the local trash water.  I thought about packing the waders but I was too lazy to get it out and just took my wellingtons.  I later regretted that when I arrived at the water.  Water is high and muddy which is surprising for this time of year and since we are in a drought. Where the hell is all this water coming from?  With all this water it was going to be a pointless endeavor without my waders.  The water is up to the tules and on the far bank the vegetation is overgrown.  Despite that I managed to cross the river to the far bank as it would be my best shot at a fish.  The fish must be spawning as there was a lot of ruckus coming from the tules and there was a lot of fish along the bank rolling around.  I did manage to finally hook up on one that ran me around until I got too cute and popped the fly out of its mouth from pinching the line too tight with my trigger finger.  I got out of there about 8:30 when I realized it was pointless.
Later in the night one of our local forums which is moderated one of the members of The Calico Syndicate hosted a fly tying night, Man Craft Night III.   It was great fun and good to see some familiar faces and meet some guys I only knew by their forum handle.  We were also rewarded with a 17 minute teaser for their upcoming DVD towards the end of the night. The movie was supposed to be out already but has been delayed but when it comes out I plan on picking it up.  I did manage to tie a few shad patterns for Perris on Saturday. 

A well put together film showcasing carp in a more sophisticated manner normally reserved for more elegant fish.  This video actually makes fly fishing for carp look respectable.  I like the idea of putting the reel in the water as the fish runs.  Too bad if I did that here my reel would probably melt from all the toxins in the water. 

Looks like I shit myself

Not long after I managed a 4.5 pounder.  After releasing it, I hadnt noticed I was in some sinking mud.  I was at least shin deep in the mud before I moved and lost  my balance.  I feel right on my ass landing in some of the nastiest black mud ever.  Although I couldnt see I could only imagine what it looked like-as if I shit my pants.  To clean my pants I squatted over the water as if to take a dump and started scooping water on my ass while trying to clean off the mud.  I only wished one of my fishing buddies were around to witness this as it must have been hilarious.  Thankfully this area is not widely used by joggers or morning walkers as I cant imagine what they would have thought I was doing.


I started to make my way back to the truck looking for tails on the way back.  A pod of 5 of so rather large carp were on the other side of the river.  I double hauled to reach the other side.  I lost connection with the fly line with my stripping hand.  The carp took it on the drop.  I set the hook with only one hand by rotating my waist to the right.  Surprisingly the fish was on.  This one was about 3.5.

While trying to cast in front of a cruising carp I spooked it but continued to strip and felt a light bump.  As I pulled him in I noticed it was a baby bass.  Its nice to see that the bass have successfully bred.  This is only the third bass Ive ever caught out of here.  All fish caught on a BH Rubber-Legged Hares Ear on a Sage 6 wt XP with Abel Pt5.