Carpin with the long rod, July 30, 2019

Carp and wet flies

Sight fishing at its best and most challenging

Carp fishing with the fly rod

The other week I decided to walk the canal again to tempt some fish with the fly rod. The C&O canal doesn’t hold water year round and the last few years has held little to no water for work on the canal in Georgetown and other areas. Thus this limits the ability to grow big fish. But… there’s always a but. There are a few areas that hold water year round, a substantial amount of water at that and those areas are gold mines for fish and fisherman. However, these areas do get a lot of pressure. But I’ve fished this area of the river kind of regularly for 30 years and I can honestly say I fished a new year round pool the other day.

I quickly spotted some carp on an area that was just recently or this year filled with water. With it brought so much life. It makes you wonder where it all comes from. Did they all hide/bury in the mud like a catfish might do in the middle of Africa during the dry season, also knows as estivation. Snakehead are known to estivate where they can survive just about anywhere without any water by burying into the mud for the winter. When the water and warmer temperatures return, they come back out and start the whole breeding and killing routine. The C&O canal is the ideal habitat for snakehead and in years to come will be a premier fishery for them. I think now they are only just starting to establish a population there.

Well on this particular trip I noticed quite a few carp milling near the surface and the heavy weed cover. They instantly inspected a fly I casted near them but did not commit. I had a feeling they were feeding on damsel fly nymphs like much of the other smaller bass around the area seen jumping out of the water. The fly had to be weightless to offer a slow sinking presentation remaining in the strike zone of as long as possible. Once the fly sinks out of site, it’s nearly impossible to detect a strike from a carp because he will inhale and reject the fly in less than a second. You have to be on your game and set the hook immediately. As you can see in the corner of the mouth the fish chased and inhaled my fly. A quick hook set and then all I had to do was muscle the fish in and out of the heavy weed cover. That was not easy and I ended up crawling down the poison ivy covered bank of the towpath to walk straight in the canal to try and dig my fish out of the weeds. It worked too. I had a few other fish show interest but I was happy. one good card in an hour’s walk is well worth it.