Early May 2018

Early May has been (mostly) warm, occasionally cool, some light rain every few days....more of a typical "Spring" that we had heretofore been lacking this year.

Bass started guarding beds in most of the local ponds by May 5.  That shut the bass bite down considerably for me, but some have still been caught.

Bluegills have been pretty active...not quite nesting yet.
I did catch this dandy 9.25" Pumpkinseed Sunfish:

Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 9.25"

Crappies have been hitting well, with the males now seemingly guarding nests (I haven't seen them on nests, but they are hitting really close to shore, so I assume this is what is happening).

I finally caught my first flyrod Channel Catfish of the year, 19":

I caught the catfish while flyfishing for carp.  They are SO MUCH FUN!  The biggest one recently has been this 28.5-incher:

And some other ones in the 25-27.5" range (one fatty was only 23.5", but made up for it in GIRTH) ;o)

All the carp and the catfish were caught on Hybrid Carp Fly pattern variations:

Overall, the fishing has been fun...fairly steady....nothing "lights out amazing".  I'll take it!

3rd Week of June, 2017

As others have noticed, Carp (and catfish?) seem to hit flies better when its WINDY....like today during lunch...3 cats and a carp, all on a John Montana Hybrid Carp Fly (variant).

Carp for Lunch

A coworker chose to go flyfishing with me during lunch on Friday, June 2, 2017.  I had some bass and panfish flies I tied the previous night that I wanted to try out to check on their "action".
For at least the 3rd time in a row, others were fishing my usual lunchtime pond, and so we went to the carp pond instead.

I'm glad we did!  I didn't get to test the flies...instead, I spotted some carp in the shallows right away.  Some were following each other and splashing in the shallows....typical spawning behavior.  Others were near shore and willing to eat a fly dropped near them.

A very good lunchtime would be catching a carp on a fly.  Catching 2 or more is really special!  I did catch 2 (must be because of my LUCKY SHIRT?), and both carp fought really well.  The first measured 25", the second measured 25.5".  The second one I hooked just to my left....and then it took off and ran straight down the opposite shoreline to my right for@ 130' before I could finally get it slowed and turned!  VERY fun!

Check out the sail fin on this one:

Both hit a pattern called a John Montana's Hybrid Carp Fly:

After the 2nd carp, the shallow area sorta cleared of fish, except for a few spawners.  I moved down the shoreline a bit, and saw a shadow in the water near shore.  I dropped the fly near it...twitched it, and thought I got a strike.  SNAPPING TURTLE!  I did manage to land the turtle AND get my fly back, so all is good.