My buddy and I did the shad thing just below John Day dam. It was hot fishing last year so I tried to repeat it this year. You know how that goes most of the time. The river is WAY low this year so the table and shelves I was fishing last year were exposed by several feet this year. The current is also slow right now. And there were more people. Go figure.
So...the shad fishing was slow. The wind was absolutely brutal on Saturday as well. We caught a few both days, but only fished it for a couple hours before calling it.
This one was the biggest of the trip and gave my 5wt all it could handle.
We drove to a the carp spots that I know about on the Washington side that were somewhat sheltered from the wind. Of course, lots of spots were too low. The weeds are gonna be horrible this year.
I got lucky on Saturday afternoon. Long cast, didn't foul on the rocks and a nice one ate a Hybrid that was dropping and moving slightly since the wind was pushing my long line. Saw what I thought was a strike, saw the line tip move a bit, hooked up! Definitely one of my favorite takes. Glad there weren't too many weeds since he took me to my backing by the time I got down to the water.
He was probably 13-14 lbs. Broke my damn hook once in the net. Haha!
And here's the poor little bluegill (a day later) that thought he could out tussle my 8wt just 3 casts before the carp hookup. Literally thought it was weeds. He landed in the rocks. Sorry lil dude! RIP Hopefully some critter benefits from him.
Sunday carping was mostly about trying to get my buddy hooked up. He nearly had one in roughly the same spot as mine, but he got "Bluegilled". I was up above coaching and he had a great cast and a 10-12 lb carp was following his Hybrid- "strip, STOP! Sit....sit, okay strip, STRIP, STOP....STRIKE! Oh SHIT, what???" A damn bluegill literally took the Hybrid away from the carp at THE last moment. The carp had pumped his tail one last time and reached slightly to his right to take the fly and the bluegill came out of nowhere like a car running a red light and ruined the party. It was so close that when the carp turned and I saw his rod flex I thought he was hooked up. He could barely see the carp and also thought he was hooked up for just a half second. So frustrating, but that's carp hunting.
We wanted to hit another spot, but there was a fire in Underwood (Tunnel 5 fire) right along HWY 14 so we wanted to get to Hood River bridge before anything crazy happened. Here is the first big puff of smoke from one of the carp spots. Hope everyone in Underwood, Bingen & White Salmon are safe today. The fire was threatening 100 structures and evacuations were ongoing as of 5pm yesterday. I see that's over 500 acres now and 0% contained today. Really hope the wind stays down today.
The shad fishing and conditions could have been better, but still stoked for the carp and just hanging out with my buddy. We don't do it enough so that was awesome.
Cheers,
Stacy
So...the shad fishing was slow. The wind was absolutely brutal on Saturday as well. We caught a few both days, but only fished it for a couple hours before calling it.
This one was the biggest of the trip and gave my 5wt all it could handle.
We drove to a the carp spots that I know about on the Washington side that were somewhat sheltered from the wind. Of course, lots of spots were too low. The weeds are gonna be horrible this year.
I got lucky on Saturday afternoon. Long cast, didn't foul on the rocks and a nice one ate a Hybrid that was dropping and moving slightly since the wind was pushing my long line. Saw what I thought was a strike, saw the line tip move a bit, hooked up! Definitely one of my favorite takes. Glad there weren't too many weeds since he took me to my backing by the time I got down to the water.
He was probably 13-14 lbs. Broke my damn hook once in the net. Haha!
And here's the poor little bluegill (a day later) that thought he could out tussle my 8wt just 3 casts before the carp hookup. Literally thought it was weeds. He landed in the rocks. Sorry lil dude! RIP Hopefully some critter benefits from him.
Sunday carping was mostly about trying to get my buddy hooked up. He nearly had one in roughly the same spot as mine, but he got "Bluegilled". I was up above coaching and he had a great cast and a 10-12 lb carp was following his Hybrid- "strip, STOP! Sit....sit, okay strip, STRIP, STOP....STRIKE! Oh SHIT, what???" A damn bluegill literally took the Hybrid away from the carp at THE last moment. The carp had pumped his tail one last time and reached slightly to his right to take the fly and the bluegill came out of nowhere like a car running a red light and ruined the party. It was so close that when the carp turned and I saw his rod flex I thought he was hooked up. He could barely see the carp and also thought he was hooked up for just a half second. So frustrating, but that's carp hunting.
We wanted to hit another spot, but there was a fire in Underwood (Tunnel 5 fire) right along HWY 14 so we wanted to get to Hood River bridge before anything crazy happened. Here is the first big puff of smoke from one of the carp spots. Hope everyone in Underwood, Bingen & White Salmon are safe today. The fire was threatening 100 structures and evacuations were ongoing as of 5pm yesterday. I see that's over 500 acres now and 0% contained today. Really hope the wind stays down today.
The shad fishing and conditions could have been better, but still stoked for the carp and just hanging out with my buddy. We don't do it enough so that was awesome.
Cheers,
Stacy
