Fly Fishing is for Trout Only? Why?!

So I wanted to take a pause from my series on how to fish different types to flies. Many of us got into fishing because we were drawn to the idea of standing in the middle of a river with the trees surrounding us and some sort of mountain scenery all around you. This is all well and good and is still what I enjoy most to this day however there is a period of time, most notably between May and June where the snow runoff turns most of our streams into raging rapids. The Kayakers get all geeked out about this but it isn't good for us anglers. You will go down to your local fly shop and see a lot of sad faces. People will throw out the terms "Blown-out" and "Chocolate Milk" to refer to the favorite stream. However in the back, tying up something that vaguely looks like a leech or some other random giant streamer is a guy with a huge smile on his face. If you talk to this guy you will find out that he has been fishing every day for the last two months in the local lake.

Perhaps some of you are turned off by the idea of super speedy boats, sponsored guys on ESPN throwing some worm into the same spot a thousand times. Or perhaps the thought of a can of worms and a bobber makes you want to pass out. However we are fly fisherman, none of these things apply to us! There is no shame in throwing out a streamer and slowly retrieving it along a bank of weeds and hooking up with a large mouth. Not only is there no shame it is downright fun.

I highly encourage you all to get out there and try some warm water fishing. My favorite species to go after are Carp. Now before you talk about how gross they are or how easy they are to catch I can just stop you right there and state that you are wrong. Sure I could chum the waters with dog food and probably catch a Carp, but then again I could sit on the bank with a can of worms to, that isn't what I am talking about. I enjoy trying to sneak up on a Carp that I can see, place the fly 1-2 feet in front of where I think he might swim and then strip the line when he gets close. If all goes well (and it usually doesn't for me) then you have a fight on your hand that will take you into your backing. I promise to go into this more one of these days and post up some tactics and such, but for now hopefully this sparks some of you to get out there and try. Or of course you can go mope around the fly shop with the other guys. I will be off fishing with the guy in the back!