Mulberry Carp

I fished the Cutty's campground lake for a bit on Saturday morning, July 3rd. My kids and I had walked around the perimeter of the pond first, just looking things over. I saw some small carp "clooping" on the surface in a downwind shorline pocket. They were eating the cottonwood seeds that were collecting there. That seemed like a potential spot to fly-fish, but very difficult, since I'd have to get some sort of dry fly right in the path of a feeding fish. Unfortunately, they don't swim in a straight line when feeding, so it would be total guesswork on where to place the fly, and hopefully avoid spooking the fish while doing it.


We continued our walk around the lake. We saw a big turtle (not a snapper or softshell, it had a red spot on its cheek..probably a slider?), a large bullfrog, got dive-bombed by a protective pair of Eastern Kingbirds(?), got shadowed by a swan that followed us around in the water, and picked up some pretty mallard feathers that were a brilliant blue on one side.

I found a mulberry tree with ripe fruit that hung over the water. I looked into the water to see if there were any fish visible, but saw nothing. I picked a few berries and threw them in the water. Within seconds, a carp sucked them in. Sometimes, 2 or 3 fish would be visible going for the same berry. They weren't big, but they were there, and feeding. We finished our walk. I retrieved my fly-fishing gear, and returned to the mulberry tree. The fish seemed attracted to the berries hitting the water, so I dropped my flies onto the water hard, and then suspended them just under the surface. The first to takes, I missed when I set the hook, and the flies ended up wrapped in the tree branches above the water. Lost both flies. I switched to the opposite side of the tree, and tied on a purple boa yarn leech. I caught 2 carp on that, and though they were small, they were fun. The activity seemed to put the other fish down, so I left after that.