Carp yet again

In real life, besides a flyfisherman, I am a veterinarian. That means night and weekend shifts as well, they didn’t tell me that in the first year. J This weekend I was on call again and apparently most animals stayed in healthy condition so I got the opportunity to roam around the neighborhood with a flyrod to see if I can spot some carp. The weather was perfect, although during the daytime it can be a bit difficult chasing them.
Spotting them was as easy today as spooking them, I spotted a good bunch of them all fairly nice sized but they seemed very occupied with things. They were cruising around and none of them were feeding very actively. In the beginning I had trouble distinguishing bream from carp, but after you spot your first carp you’ll know. Carp are way broader then bream en bream have a forked tail and a triangular dorsal fin.
I tried several egg flies as well as pheasant tails and cornballs, alas nothing worked.
Whilst walking back I noticed a big carp lying relaxed on a weed bed , not that jumpy and more importantly not moving so much. I guess laid up carp are better to entice then moving carp, seems that moving carp are pre occupied or something.
I tossed a bad cast but could retrieve it without much disturbance, it may sounds strange but I see this style of fishing as a perfect training when I go tropical saltwater flyfishing. Not that carpfishing is second rate but going abroad has always some pressuressure of scoring. You don’t want to foul up a cast when there is a huge bone cruising along right? And carp, they’ll be around always.
Back to the story, the second cast was perfect, the fly hovered gentle in front of the carp and you could see the big mouth opening and sucking the fly into it. A strip-strike, again a good training, and the fight was on. Fighting this carp I put my material to maximum pressure. There was little room because of the weed beds and lillypads. I nearly locked the reel and heard the rod cracking. I was using 26/100 fluorcarbon. Everything held up and after some minutes I could land the carp in my net. Always bring a net when fishing for carp. With pikefishing I hardly take one, even the big ones can be landed with the gill grip.
She was the biggest for me this far, I guess it was 20 pounds to be on the save side.
I took a few pics and slit her back in the water, what a perfect afternoon.

Closed season

During the months of March to June we have a closed season for fishing the predatory fish, pike, zander (pikeperch) and perch are forbidden quary. In that time using baits larger tthan an inch are also forbidden. These couple of months are the slow months, most anglers turn to the other fish like roach, carp and bream to ease the fishing needs. When May 31st turns and day breaks on the first of june, an whole army of anglers will have sharpend there trebbles, tied their streamers and rigged their softbaits.

For me the closed season is a slow one, troutseason in the surounding countries is still in its first stages, roach will often be difficult to target since the weather is still very cold and I prefer sight fishing. I did have some memorable occaissons this year. I have this sweet spot on the river "Kromme Rijn" where I know big roach head up to warm up in the watery sun of spring. This pond is only accessible during a couple of weeks each year due to the many waterlillies that sprout up as soon as the sun intensifies. Big roach back here in the Low Lands are roach reaching 40 cm. these roach are golden color and damned spooky to catch, they have a reason for getting this big and that is being very spooky and picky about breakfast, lunch and supper.

This spring was a perfect spring, several biggies could be landed and some Ide were fooled as well.

No with just a few days before the closed season is open I will move my actions to other species and I'll return again in fall when the lillies reside and the pond is accessible again.

I'll be back

Seabass season 2009

Seatemperatures have reached 12 degree's centigrade, garfish have been caught in the south of Holland and baitfish are schooling near the shores. This can only mean one thing, Seabass season 2009 has arrived!!
Fishing from a skiff, a Hobiekayak, a bellyboat or on foot anyway you like it is possible.

If you love these fish, go and look for the dvd Havabbor a norwegian DVD about seabass fishing in the Oslofjord. If you can stand the giggle of the presenter you'll have a good time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1302PvbLo

great music too!

Doped up

Without them I am lost during these months. Last year on a trip to Norway I
had to steam with tiger balm in order to clear up my nose.

Sandeel

DNA Sandeel
The sandeel is a fly that every SWFF (saltwater flyfisher) in Europe and the States should have in their flybox. It goes in the same category as the clouser or deceiver. A top notch fly that is used when sandeels or small baitfish are around.
Because of their stiffness we have to twitch and jerk the fly into action, double stripping is another method.
Sandeels can be tied in various sizes and with several materials. I usually make them out of ultrahair/angelhair and epoxy or the smaller ones which I use for seatrout with DNA fibers and silliskin.
Method and materials:
Hook: TMC 811s size 4
Thread: olive 8/0
Tail: DNA frosty fiber olive and white
Several strands of krystal flash
Body: Silliskin MOP (Mother of Pearl)
Eyes

Step 1: place the hook in the vice and fix the thread, Turn the hook upside down and tie in a small bunch of DNA at the hook eye.

Step 2: Turn hook right way up again and tie in a bigger bunch of olive DNA. Stroke the fibers back.

Step 3: Cut out a small piece of silliskin, the length of the hookshank both length and width.

Step 4: Place the piece of silliskin on top of the DNA and start sticking the skin at the hookeye, strike it down the length of the back, only then pull the skin down to the sides. Let both sides connect with each other underneath.

Step 5: cut the remaining skin from the underside and stick 2 small eyes on either side.

Epoxy variant
Step 1: place the hook in the vice and fix the thread, Turn the hook upside down and tie in a small bunch of ultrahair at the hook eye.
Step 2: Turn hook right way up again and tie in a bigger bunch of olive ultrahair. Stroke the fibers back.
Step 3: mix a small amount of epoxy on a piece of paper. I use a really small amount and use a toothpick
Step 4: slightly cover the hairs with epoxy whilst holding the hair tightly in shape. Keep holding them so that they don’t flare out.
Ps it is time consuming but the result is much nicer then using a epoxy drier.
Step 5: after the first part is semi dried place the eyes on both sides.

Step 6: Mix another small amount of epoxy and coat a second layer.

Tarponized

Last November my girlfriend and I decided to head for the Caribbean for a short stay, the island of Curacao it was to be. Looking on the internet and hearing stories from friends who visited the island not much hope lay in fly-fishing. Apparently the island has a quick drop off with no flats what so ever. It does have a large amount of bays and lagoons but difficult to reach. What Curacao did have was a large lagoon in the centre of Willemstad, Schottegat, which would hold large quantities of Tarpon in the baby range.
So the weeks prior to the trip gear was acquired, flies tied, leaders prepared and the internet searched for tarpon lessons 101. I took an 8# and 10#, a good sturdy Loop 6Nine reel and a good hope to find new places that weren’t on the map. Persistence is as much a tool to success as first hand information.
Because it was a 9 day trip, with my girlfriend I was only able to fish the early morning hours, the rest of the day we went around the island and relaxed on the beach. The first few days I spend fishing near the lodge in the south east corner before heading out to Willemstad, some snook were caught and to my surprise tarpons could be seen rolling in the surface of a small arm of Caracasbay. A boat would have opened up so many possibilities but unfortunately I couldn’t find a local to hire his boat to me. Halfway through my stay I decided to head to Willemstad in the early morning and try for the tarpons, I got some locations from friends back home.
I didn’t expect much, first time tropical water and first time tarpon fishing ever. Coming up on the first location I saw a nice tarpon cruising around. I took line from the reel and started casting towards it. I soon learned that they can be really spooky and that if they are rolling it doesn’t necessarily mean that they take your fly easily. After a while and changing fly after fly I saw another one heading my way. The cast was perfect the fish was aroused and headed straight for the fly, just before the take I noticed something……the frigging thing wasn’t a baby! A huge bow wave, a thumb on the line and me setting the hook for I don’t know how many times the fight was on. Then the jump. “This will be it, it had to be over the hook will go”, I thought . After all I heard stories of jumping 20 and landing 1. But the hook stayed, and the second . The fly line banged through the guides followed by the backing and it kept going. All in all it took me nearly 20 minutes from hooking to landing it, which can be a real bugger being by yourself. First tarpon ever and it was an immediate success, the hook was neatly set in the upper lip. The tarpon measured just over 50 inches and weighted a fair amount I my opinion. After some photo’s and a quick bow to the silver king a released it and went home. Being hazy in the head I didn’t need another shot of the silver drug.
Being addicted now, the next morning the story unraveled much the same, only on a different spot. A tarpon took the cockroach with an awesome surge and pulled again a big amount of backing from the reel. Again landing it on my own required some ingenuity. Placing the rod on the ground with the drag set to a minimum and trying to grab the leader whilst stepping into the water and heaving the fish from he water, whilst hoping that the tarpon wouldn’t take a finally run with my rod.
The plane left in the afternoon so it left me just 3 hours of fishing on the very last day of my holiday. I visited a new spot recommended by my old college friend who lived there. She claimed that driving there at night was driving next to a disco in the water with all the flashes just beneath the surface. With this in mind and being happy seeing that just a portion of the tale was true I headed out to that place. Boy was she right, the party probably started at night and the afterparty was still going on strong. Tarpon after tarpon rolled through the surface, smaller ones darting and flashing their sides, bigger ones head and tailing slowly and sometimes a big one crashing through a school of baitfish which jumped to the sides looking like a big gush of wind rippling the surface. Unfortunately after 20 minutes of Tarpon Walhalla a “federalli ” summoned me to go since power lines were supposed to lie in the area. Shocking….not being able to fish. In those 20 minutes I managed to hook 4 tarpons and land one, and since it was the last day of the trip I was satisfied.
All in all it was a great first time tropical experience. I was able to fish every morning and still be back at the lodge at 10 am. to spend the whole day with my girlfriend. Besides tarpon and snook, bar jacks can be found along the shore in good numbers. Every beach that we went to I had great fun chasing bar jacks with my 8 weight.
A great place and definitely an underestimated holiday location for fly-fishing. So if you go definitely take your rods with you.
Bon dia

30 year old Carp Virgin

For several years I have been seeing photos coming along about flyfishing for carp. A weird niece at first but them again carp are omnivorous and will try and eat anything that fits in their mouths. Apparently carp fishers use all sorts of things as bait, from the simple breadcrust to corn, from surimi to tinned escargot. So making flies for carp shouldn’t be that difficult. One flyfisher in my cyberspace surrounding is Edwin Kerssies, a man devoted to carp fishing and creator of the superb site http://www.dyckers.com/. He’s been catching carp for quite some time now and has posted some great pics of some massive carp caught on fly. After some email contact and some info I decided to give it a shot and go out and find some carp.
Now finding them, believe it or not, was at first quite difficult. Holland is filled with carp water however where I live not many “polder” waters are available and most water is very murky. Carp flyfishing is, well that’s how I see it, sightfishing. Spotting and stalking the carp and casting a fly in its path and hoping it will take it. Besides polders, the community ponds are valuable places to go and look for carp. Many children and parents come here to feed the ducks and in effect feed carp as well when the bread sinks or stays floating. These carp aren’t easily spooked and provide good target practice.
After several skunked carp trips I came upon a pond next to the river “Lek” it was connected with a small canal with other ponds and whilst approaching it I saw some fish hurrying away from the edges of the pond on my side. Carp I figured. So now I finally found a pond that could give me my first carp ever. One step closer to accomplishment!
After some time observing I decided to blind cast and see if with some dead drifting or slow retrieval I could fool a carp in taking my corn imitation. Time passed and nothing really happened. I could see carp busy in the reeds but the frustrating thing was that I could not reach them because of the muddy ground. It was like quicksand only with mud and clay. And even if I could, I would still have to present the fly in the middle of all that reed. Whilst making the hundreds of cast I saw something in the right side of my eye. I turned round and behold there was a carp tailing in just 2 feet of water. I immediately thought of bonefish and felt the adrenaline kick in. Thankfully I could restrain myself from casting directly towards the tail, I would have spooked him for sure since he was facing away from me. I crawled through the thick reeds to the other side to get into a better casting position. The carp was feeding happily and I reached a perfect spot. I Checked and double checked the fly, flyline and backcast and the first cast was perfect. Thank god no line tangle, no hook getting stuck on your backcast, no sloppy forward cast and no sudden gush of wind.
The fly dropped several inches in front of the tail and I waited some seconds before I started a figuring eight retrieve. As soon as my strike indicator came in motion I could see the tail wiggle and twitch and I instinctively set the hook. A big flapping of the tail and the carp was shaking its head like a big bull. Awesome!! There I was fighting my very first carp and then realizing I just brought this pathetic sized trout net with me. But the fight wasn’t over quickly so there was no worrying about any nets. The carp was in no way of letting the pressure off and although it didn’t take any line it didn’t want to come any closer either. After several minutes the leader came to the top and I had to get into the water to see if I could land the thing. These are the scary moments and looking back I realize I was a lucky SOB. The carp headed straight fowards me and swam between my legs. Lucky no fishing buddy was around to witness this stupid action of mine. Two things could have happened, first the carp could have come off, crap instead of carp, and second and maybe the worst one, my rod tip could have snapped as a twig. After some pirouettes and nearly tipping over I managed to get untangled and scooped the carp with both hands. I caught my very first common carp.
I set myself this goal for 2009 to catch a carp and a Roofblei (Aspius aspius) and I already managed to get one in the early season. So now that I caught one, the carp fever has hit me and the need to go and look for them is big. I just got word from Edwin he caught his first 29 pound carp, damn that’s a Pig!
Flies and gear
The flies I took were flies are quite straight forward, tied on hooksizes 6 to 10, salmoneggs, cornballs, breadflies, worm imitations and small crayfish do the trick. Since carp can be quite spooky and quite strong fighters, long leaders about 12 ft with 20/100 tip minimal are advised. With heavy plant growth thicker tippets are really necessary 30/100 easy.
I advise to use a 6 or 7 weight rod on small ones and if big ones are around an 8 will give you the leverage to turn a carp in its path just before he hits the reeds or plants. Carp are one of the stronger fish you’ll find in Holland and one that can for a change take line and go into your backing, so secure those knots and have some amount of backing.
Good luck