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Carpe Diem

 

One of our illustrious members, who shall remain anonymous, (to protect his friends, who are embarrassed for him), has caught the carp fishing fever. We have concluded that he suffers from a form of carpal tunnel syndrome: he is blinded by carp, and has tunnel vision related to catching one on a fly rod.

This pitiful specimen has been skulking around the local ponds, harassing carp and other residents, without much success until very recently. Finally, he realized that some stealth was necessary, and that a thoughtful presentation of a reasonable imitation could entice one of these prehistoric critters to eat.

To the man's credit, he told the following story on himself, in a rather plaintive phone call he made to me. "Glen", he said, "I've solved the problem of getting these stubborn beasts to take, but I'm still working on the actual catching. I've hooked five so far. I started with 3X tippet, and got broke off. So I went up to 2X, then 1X, then 0X, but still lost my fly to what seemed like hooked torpedoes." I commiserated as best I could while giggling uncontrollably.

He continued on with his sad little saga. "Finally", he continued, "on very heavy tippet, I got a solid take, and the beast took off at high speed. I've got you now, Demon Fish, I muttered." A sad tone came over the phone. "That monster motored clear across the lake, took my line, took my backing, and finally broke off my $60 fly line, which is still being towed around somewhere in that pond where I can't retrieve it." With tears running down my cheeks from laughing, I tried to show some sympathy, but truth be told, I wasn't very helpful.

I told this carp story to another fishing buddy, who caught curious enough to go try for one himself. He landed the carp shown in the photo below, estimated at 35 lbs, on his five-weight, after fighting it for over an hour.

I couldn't resist. I sent our carp-fanatic member the picture, and asked, "Do you want your fly line back?"

[Postscript: Our fanatic has since claimed to have actually landed a carp, but hasn't offered any very convincing proof. He also has been using a $15 fly line.]

Glen Edwards

Note from the webguy-
After posting the above story to the internet I received an anonymous email about the tale. Here is the posted message:

Dave, for any willing to admit that bigger really is better, and who would like to try something different (having no doubt already mastered trout and most warm water species), here are some tips for carp. As an aside, none of this should be construed as an admission that I am, in fact, the unknown fisherman referenced scurrilously in Glen's story, although, knowing of his rapidly dwindling circle of friends, I can understand that I might be among that small group of suspects.

(1) Like bigger, quieter is better

(2) Still thinking bigger, if you want to use the 4-5 weights that Reynolds suggests, bring lunch. And not if you have a meeting that night.

(3) Don't talk about your exploits to untrustworthy friends who have other friends who know how to fish; or if you do, lie about where you went.

(4)...and don't discuss your foibles with anyone who knows how to type.

(5) Just because they are called "floating" doesn't mean that type line will always float, or that they will do so indefinitely under every circumstance.

(5) Always check ALL your knots first, and make sure the weak link in your tippet/leader/flyline chain is at the CHEAP end of the string. (A corollary is that if you don't, a replacement Sci Angler GPX costs $58.50.)

...and as in other fishing, if you discuss with your fishing buddy how things went, always have him go first.

P.S. While they will work fine for most purposes for which you might use them, a #5 paper bag like you would get at a typical grocery store will blow off with even a slight breeze unless it is secured with a bandana or some hat device.

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