Easter Eggs

Since I don't have kids I decided to go on my own Easter egg hunt on Easter sunday. That and Sauvie Island was newly opened for the year and I enjoy hiking around out there looking for feeding carps. For those not in the know, there are approximately one trillion carp in the wetlands out there, but they can still be surprisingly difficult. With the sheer numbers I would expect to be able to catch at will, but my experience is not quite so rosy. This is certainly in part due to my skill level. But the other part is undeniably the water conditions.

It seems most times I head out here the visibility is best measured in millimeters. Either that or the weed beds are solid for 30 feet out into the lakes rendering them mostly unfishable. This time out it was partly poor visibility, but also a new issue...little activity. Typically I'll see a minimum of a dozen tailing fish in a couple hours of fishing, and typically I will manage to spook eleven and a half of those. In addition a bunch of cruising fish can be expected. This time out I saw zero--read it, zero--tailers; unheard of for this place. I did see a couple of wakes from fast cruising fish and a couple of dust clouds after standing motionless in the water for 20 minutes. It's pretty hard to cast effectively at dust clouds, and even harder to know when to set the hook.

But finally I did see one fish cruising slowly near the surface, headed right for me. I threw a little flick cast to get my flies out past the fish and five feet in front of where she was heading. One quick well-timed strip to pull the flies right into the path, and she stopped dead in her tracks. I admit I expected her to spook and turn away, but instead her head went down and she disappeared for a moment. I could only assume that this was to feed on my bugs, so I waited a moment and set the hook. To my surprise my flies didn't come right up out of the water, but locked solidly onto the fish's mouth!

On the downside, she was tired or cold cause she pretty much just rolled right over and came in. Fairly small, even for this place, but with a belly about to explode with eggs. Very appropriate for Easter. A quick photo and back she went to contribute to the next generation.

And that was the last fish I saw other than the crazies jumping up out of the water on occasion. It was nice to get a bit of carp slime on my hands for the first time this year. Hopefully much more to come!