Chasing Bubbles, 8-22-2012

I went back to the same pond I fly-fished the previous evening.  It was later than I'd hoped to get there, but you take what you can get when it comes to fishing.  The wind had shifted almost 180 degrees and I thought maybe the downwind side of the lake might be the best place to start looking for Grass Carp, so I started walking towards the far end of the pond from where I had fished the previous evening.

I got 2/3 of the way there, and spotted a man and his daughter goofing around along the shoreline.  I thought maybe they were fishing, but then heard and saw them talking to their dog that was swimming around in the water.  I figured this commotion would put the fish down for a bit, so I decided to head back towards the far end of the pond where I had contacted Grassies the prior evening.

As I stopped to turn around, I spotted this mink munching what appeared to be a dried fish on the shoreline.

I fished a few spots along the way, casting near "bubble areas".  I caught a half-dozen decent bluegills while I was at it, on the black Woolly Bugger.

I proceeded to an area that looked especially promising, and switched to a tri-color Backstabber.  I "bumped" and spooked a large fish, which proved there were probably Grass Carp in the area.

I cast out beyond some bubbles, and brought the fly into the area of the bubbles, then let it drop and sit.  My line twitched, so I set the hook.  FISH ON!  It made a bee-line for a distant shoreline, spooking a couple other large fish along the way.  I didn't seem able to gain line, so I followed the fish down the shoreline, reeling up slack line as I went.  The fish seemed to have dived into some submerged weeds, and there was a large clump of the weeds wrapped on my line.  I slowly backed the fish out of the weeds, and was soon able to land it.

Unfortunately, it was NOT a Grass Carp, but it was still cool because it was a Common Carp.  I'd only ever seen evidence of one or two of these in the pond, but apparently there may be more.  Illegal "Bucket-stocking", I would guess.  To be able to catch one of these from this pond was ALMOST as cool catching a Grass Carp.  It was my first Common Carp out of one of the local public ponds.

I tried hitting a couple other "bubble spots" with no other results.  I did see some large fish stirring up mud clouds as (I presume) they darted out of the shallows.  Also saw some large fish darting around just under the surface, which is an evening food-seeking behavior I attribute to Channel Catfish.