Catching Carp on the Fly “Blind”

By Ryan Russell

http://www.arizonaflyfishingadventures.com

Instagram – @__ryanrussell__

FB – Arizona Fly Fishing Adventures – Project : Carp Fly Fishing

There’s lots of Carp articles out there. When I read one that says “you CAN’T Trout fish for Carp..” I chuckle a bit. Fact is that every well conditioned trout angler out there already has the knowledge and skills to hammer carp. They have already been practicing…. A LOT…on trout. Casting is casting. Presentation is presentation. Having soft hands to set the hook and not break off a large fish is universal. I use a Trout method to consistently disprove a common Carp fly angling myth. I have learned to effectively catch carp “blind”. I have done this over and over in front of naysayers and made them believers. I even did it on the biggest stage of them all, the Carp Slam Fly Fishing Tournament in Denver, Colorado.

Fly fishing for carp is often presented as purely sight fishing, and it mostly is. Sometimes though, visiblity is non-existent but you know that carp are there somewhere. This happens in the canals in Phoenix when they dirty up. It’s where I first learned how to do it. Similar situations occur on the LA River, and at Blackfoot Reservoir. My fish I landed there? Guess what? I hooked up blind on them. Both locations. In the mouth, full on eats. I’m not the only guy who can do it, but I’ll tell you my secret after telling you my about my Denver Trout Unlimited Carp Slam experience.

Participating in the Carp Slam in Denver on the South Platte River was a bucket list thing for me. I had never seen it or fished there. I knew that there were some legendary carp fly fisherman that did though. Barry Reynolds. Chris Galvin. Trevor Tanner. Rick Mikesell. Ty Clifton. Ronnie Crawford. Zach Drazner and Jeremy Elms. Every single awesome carp fly fisherman was there. Shoot, a couple of them would be on the Mount Rushmore of Carp Legends if there was one. I wanted to fish with these dudes. I wanted the experience and to test myself. Being a professional golfer in another lifetime made the sound of a tournament appealing. It was right up my alley. I didn’t expect much, well, cause I was going into the tournament “blind” myself. I had never stepped foot into the downtown South Platte River. I was just going to rely on what I knew and go from there.

The night before there was a large meet and greet at a local pub. We drew our partners and beats out of a hat. I drew Tom Bie as my partner. I had no idea who he was. It was cool though, we connected and chatted a bit. He seemed very friendly probably equally wondering who the hell I was. Denver Trout Unlimited had put together an amazing bag of gifts for participants and I loaded up on free pizza. Being an outsider from Phoenix, I kinda just wandered around and chatted with a few guys. I shook Barry Reynolds hand and discussed some pursuing of scale. I knew Zach Drazner from social media. He was a really nice and a talented young guy. He sent me some supportive messages on my way up. I ran into another angler named Jeremy Elms and we had fun talking a little junk to each other. I luckily had an offer to sleep in a warm bed from Jeff and Leslie Kelly. They convinced me to put my river bum tendencies aside, not sleep in my van and come stay the night. We had a great time talking. Good vibes filled me up.

In the morning all the participants and volunteers gathered at a central location for coffee and breakfast. I wasn’t sure how it all would start and play out. I found out that we were assigned a controller to basically follow us around, assist and be a judge. We totally lucked out and had Daryl Eakins as our contoller. I also knew Daryl from social media and knew he tied some of the best carp flies on the planet. His knowledge and awesome attitude were a huge asset. We could all sort of feel that even if we didn’t do well, it was going to be great day filled with friendly chatter, stories, and positivity being created and passed around.

Our first beat was Cuernavaca Park near the LODO section of Denver. The way the tournament goes, we drew two “beats” or sections of the river to fish through out the day. The Pro (Tom Bie) fishes for 30 minutes, then I fish for 30 minutes. Then he fishes again for 30 minutes, then me again for 30 more. After 2 rotations, we both fish for one hour together. Our controller (Daryl) was responsible for keeping track of time, measuring fish and basically being the official score keeper. Carp have to be legitimately hooked in the mouth and landed clean. He could assist with flies but not the landing of the fish. Since Daryl’s flies are super awesome, he was a terrific controller to have.

When we showed up and started our first beat, we looked down from the bridge and spotted a few carp moving downstream. They already seemed spooked and we initially struggled to find anything to cast at. Since we couldn’t see anything, we decided to look for some trout and maybe score some early points in the “Other Fish” Category. Besides Carp, in the tournament they have a contest for biggest fish other than a carp. Within 15 minutes, Tom landed a nice Rainbow that was pushing 20″. I wandered up and down trying to get my bearings and possibly spot some famous DSP Golden Bones. No luck. Again, I had never fished here. I was sort of just adapting taking things in as I wandered. I made my way into a nice tailout and when it was my turn I hooked up with a couple nice Rainbows similar to Tom’s. Landing such nice sized trout got my nerves to calm a bit. I had decided to fish with my Raw colored Blue Halo 7 wt. Great for tippet protection in case of something heavy being on. It handled the trout with ease.

I headed back down to the water for the last of my 30 minute session before our joint hour began. I decided to wade out and look around the bottom of some of the bridge structures. Bingo. I found them. The carp were all collected around the base of the bridge structures and weren’t visible from the bank. I yelled out the location upstream to Tom and we went to work for our last hour. I was so close to them that I could see them eat my fly. I set the hook and with a simple head shake, my tippet snapped. Crap. I needed to choose a stronger poundage for tippet. I had underestimated the weight. As I was re-rigging, Tom had hooked up on one. I heard him shout “Fish on!” and immediately looked up to see what I could do to help. I wish so bad I had video of what I saw. The carp shot through the pilars of the structure, forcing Tom to squeeze through the spaces chasing after it. They went back and forth through the structure 3 or 4 times. I had dropped everything and grabbed my net to help out but they had made their way to the other side of the river. He still had the carp on when I got next to him but the fish had gone underneath some sort of cable, wrapping his line around it and ducked into a bush. Tom had thought the fish had broke off because he couldn’t feel it. I grabbed the end that was past where it was wrapped and lead to where the fish was buried. I felt the weight as I softly tugged the line. It was still on. In the commotion we had really muddied up the water but we needed to net this Carp quick if we wanted to get on the board. I gently pulled the fish backwards, saw a flash of a tail and made a lucky scoop with my net. BOOM! We were ecstatic. Total team effort. No skunks for us.

After releasing the fish, we only had a short amount of time left. Most of the carp I had found were all gone from the fight. I made a play at a few of them but no luck. In the last 10 minutes I moved to the next bridge down and found another large pod but it was too late. I rushed a few casts and prematurely pulled for some hooksets but our time was up. Dozens of carp. Darn it. Lunch Break.

At Halftime we got some feedback and learned that only a handful of teams had landed a carp. One team had landed 2 but the inches were on the low end of the spectrum somewhere around a combined 45″ or so. There were 5 or 6 teams all with one carp a piece. The largest was 30″ and Tom’s was 25″. We had a chance. We were still in it. Either way, we had all connected over Tom’s amazing fish fight. It was one of those moments where time stood still. What a great thing to share between us.

As we drove out toward 104th for our second beat, I started hitting Tom up with some more personal questions. You know, like what do you do for a living? I had no idea he was the man for Drake Magazine and also involved with the F3T Tour. Ha! I was fishing on a team with a pretty important guy. I picked his brain a bit more and he couldn’t have been any more awesome. I didn’t want to let him down. I wanted to show him what I could do.

We got to our final beat and the weather had totally turned for the worse. It was drizzling and the temperature had dropped 10 degrees or more. Not good carping weather. Tom spotted a couple fish under the bridge and tried to get an eat. They spooked off after a few casts and we decided to head upstream to see what else was around. He kept fishing while I scouted waiting for my turn.

I worked my way all the way up to the top of our beat. It was not the best area to have to close out. In fact at lunch, the team who had it for the morning session all but said it was the worst beat there was. Things did not look promising. My first 30 min rotation had begun and I decided to see if I could hammer a big trout, opting to make another play at the “Other Fish” category. I hooked up on a few small bass but failed to find any large trout. I reconnected with Tom and we sort of just looked at each other with a grim face. It started to rain a bit harder. Again, terrible carp conditions. No visibility, wet and cold. I sat under the bridge while it rained and played my harmonica for inspiration. Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” turned into my own version of “Carp of Gold”. “Keep on searching for a Carp of Gold…” I sang.

Our last hour fishing together was about to begin. Daryl received a text that no teams had landed a carp during the afternoon session. We felt energized to know that all we may need is one solid Carp and we could win the whole thing. So, I changed my setup to a double fly rig and decided to fish a deep channel like a dirty canal back home.

I began catching carp blind based off Bull Trout techniques I had learned from my buddy Nick Coe back home in Idaho. Big heavy flies, cast upstream, keep the tension, feel the strike, set the hook. A couple years later in Phoenix I found a large canal with tons of carp below a waterfall. I could only see a flashes of tails here and there but I applied the same Bull Trout techniques I had learned. I began chucking some leechy streamers upstream and developed a feel for the take. I started landing fish often at that spot, fishing that way. It became something I could do regularly. Later, when visiting the LA River, I did the same thing. I felt the take, set the hook and landed a great fish.

So there I was again, in the chilly rain, fly fishing in an urban carp tournament and decided to apply the same trout inspired carp tactics. I tied on a double rig with a heavy black leech on top and one of Daryl’s red trouser worms as a trailer. I casted up stream into the deep section of the channel. With my sensitive Blue Halo Glass 7 wt., I could feel the flies ticking on the rocks close to the bottom of the river. I could feel each bounce, slowly stripping whatever slack the current gave me ensuring the line had little slack and then, BOOM! A TAKE! I lifted the rod and felt something on the other end. My heart skipped. It was a small weight though. A small native sucker. I figured that was a good sign, my flies were exactly were they needed to be. Daryl was across the river from me and we both chatted about how cool it would have been if it was a big common. I casted a few more times in the same area and pulled out a few more suckers. My senses were heightened. If I could feel these suckers take, I will feel a much bugger carp for sure. Literally on the next cast, in the same spot, I felt my flies bouncing through the channel. I felt another grab and set the hook. It was snagged. Wait! NO IT’S NOT! I felt the pull of something large take off, shooting upstream. Daryl and I looked at each other instantly and knew what was in store. I needed to land this fish.

We yelled downstream at Tom to come help with the net. He quickly grabbed one and came running. I hung on with my trusty Blue Halo absorbing the head shakes, turns and runs. I was into my backing for what seemed like a good 5 minutes. We scurried up and down the bank in organized choas. Finally, Tom went waist deep in the South Platte to scoop the fish. As a team we all shouted, whooted, high-fived and fist bumped. Daryl measured it out. Another 25″ carp put us at 50″ total. With the report that no other teams had landed a fish in the afternoon, in our minds, we were leaders in the clubhouse.

After releasing the fish back into the dark deep waters of the South Platte I walked up the bank and froze. I was overcome with emotion. Years of stomping canals and ponds in the heat, mile upon mile, and countless hours of fly fishing had paid off. The earth stood still. I wept. Yep. A carp made me cry. It was the coolest feeling in the world. I had shown up to a place I had never fished, and under pressure pulled off the impossible. We fished out the remaining few minutes overcome with jitters that we may have just won the whole damn thing.

Well, we didn’t win. Our team took 5th. It didn’t matter. I had won. We had won. We felt the thrill. We were Champs in our own mind. It turned out that a few other teams also had an amazing last hour. Chris Galvin’s team won for the 3rd year in a row. They landed 3 carp. Four other teams had landed 2 carp each. However, we had a smaller combined total inches placing us 5th. Tom, Daryl and I didn’t care and still don’t. The experience I had at my first Carp Slam was one of the best memories of my life. That’s what it’s really all about.

So, moral of the story? How to catch carp blind. Find a spot where you know carp are. Tie on something they will eat. Daryl’s Red trouser was the ticket. Cast up ahead of the spot, feel the flies, make sure they are in the feeding zone close to the bottom and wait for the take. Make sure you strip in line as the flies come back toward you so the line has tension from the rod tip to the fly. Glass rods help. They are more sensitive. Lastly, remember, “hooksets are free”. If you feel what you think may be a take, set the hook. If you’re wrong, so what? Cast again. Repeat. Catch those Carp blind and in the lip.

Stay Carpy!

Ryan

http://www.arizonaflyfishingadventures.com