Quick carp outing

[Salmo trutta]

I met the wife at a Popular Restaurant, Movie attraction, shopping district place in the center of Gaithersburg. She had just finished "networking" for happy hour and I had the kids.

I had eaten previously, but filled a kids cup with a swirly (frozen margarita) and took the kids to feed the ducks. Which by the way is illegal because of the excess nitrogen that is created from all the duck and geese waste. But they really wanted to do it. To my defense, I did not see one sign that said do not feed the ducks or one sign that said no fishing. But I knew better, and didn't care.

I figured I had a few minutes time to make a few casts before I was told to stop. I used to work at the Galyans fishing department and we would demo high end Loomis rods in the pond for customers all the time. We even got commission and that was the best way on the planet to sell a rod. Show people they actually catch fish.

Anyway, all I had was my 6'9" 4wt and a bugger or two in my pocket. There were enormous carp and coy resting near the surface and feeding on fresh duck dung. They ignored the tortilla chips the kids were throwing, the carp only wanted the dung. Once the birds cleared out I had to make a cast. I instantly hooked up with a giant carp. Okay, I may have caught a bluegill first. But when I had the carp hooked I felt almost helpless. This thing was huge, beyond huge. Line started peeling off the reel and as luck would have it, the hook popped out. I can't believe it didn't break my 4 pound leader I was previously using for trout but in a way, I’m glad the hook pulled.

Prior to the hook up my step son had the carp hitting pine cone nuts he was throwing in the water. They ignored the chips but went for the pine cone for some reason. I casted in the middle of the pine cone flurry and hooked up. But the strangest thing afterwards was that once I lost my fish, I couldn't hook any other carp. They had all left like as if that carp warned all the others to leave the area and not eat anything else.

I made two or three more casts catching a LM and a bluegill and then the rent a cops showed up. They told me I couldn't fish there and I played dumb. Then they jokingly asked me if I caught anything. But they could have been serious.

[tmperkins]

I have read that Carp when spooked can release a scent or some sort of signal into/through the water that lets other carp know that something is up.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Jon your my hero! Never had the balls to fish there... Savage just dropped from 350cfs to 120cfs and the fish are going nuts! You sure you dont want to go :)

[Salmo trutta]

You know I would love to go. Quit teasing me. I saw the USGS graph too. Should be prime except for the people. If you have to, fish the area closer to the mouth of the Potomac or head up to the dam on the Savage. It tends to see fewer people and it's not heavily gaurded with signs and cameras and snipers like the other dam. You can pretty much fish right next to the outflow. It's fast pocket water in there but there are some side channels with some really deep pools that should produce so good fish if approached properly.

[JohnCSullivan]

I know where I'll be at 7am tomorrow......urban fishing is a lot of fun.

I have always wondered how 'domesticated' that pond was, and now I know. I wonder if the security will be less forceful on the opposite side of the pond.

[Tissy Furnes]

That pond produced some very good bass fishing for me a couple years ago but before i got moved off by the Mall Cops. I hadn't seen the carp. Went back last year with not near the success. The water was that septic green which is almost always a result of too much goose and duck poop. Nasty birds!

I'll probably take another run or two up there this summer now that I know there are some big carps in there.

[Salmo trutta]

Here's another report from another carp outing from today. This time it was on one of the more popular places on the canal in the middle of the day. I even had a few joggers ask me about the "mulberry hatch." They even used the term “hatch”. I stopped at a half dozen trees loaded with berries and didn't see one carp. There was quite a lot of bread in the water from people eating lunch or feeding the ducks or what have you but still... no carp. Dozens of bluegill around but no stinking carp.

I did see one good size one near a small, three foot mulberry bush but it didn't have any fruit on it. This fish looked active and was even nosing the shore some but completely ignored my mulberry fly. Another tree, ripe as can be, dropping berries regularly was heavily guarded with turtles. But a few trees in prime locations gave up nothing. Maybe there were too many people around. I'm sure it was only a fraction of what that place is like on a weekend. Still can't figure them out. I've caught a few carp on the fly in my fly fishing career but not many and not with any consistency.

I also fished Owens Creek on Saturday morning. First started at one of the more popular swimming/fishing pools and worked a decent stretch of water. Before long we were joined by quite a few anglers but the fish still cooperated well. The freshly stocked browns were on the feed.

Later we moved down stream where the stream flattens out, deep pools are more common and the stream as a whole takes on a new look. Some areas were loaded with fish while others seemed to be void of fish. Bead head pheasant tail nymphs did most of the damage but a black ant dry fly took some fish as well. Some of the trout that hit the dry were extremely acrobatic but much smaller than the nymph caught fish. The average brown was around 12 inches with a few 14 inch fish thrown in. Water conditions were perfect for that stream. It was nice to fish it with some water in it for once. The clarity was good, only a couple feet as it was slightly turbid which I believe is in the fishermen's favor. Low, clear water is much more challenging.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Speaking of turbid you should have seen the NB at Barnum last weekend, I've never seen it so off color. JR Res. must have gotten all churned up with the recent monsoons. We still got into fish but the Savage was much better for dry fly fishing. No big fish though.

[Tissy Furnes]

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/sebastianokelly/shad/Carp2009.jpg

[Salmo trutta]

Yea, rub it in Sebastian.

A friend of mine, fequent visitor of this site, text me last night at ten oclock. He said, "the carp are going nuts under the mulberry trees right now but I don't have a fly rod in the cruiser."

So.... they feed at night, catfish too, on mulberries.

[Tissy Furnes]

Salmo, since you mentioned cats....

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g33/sebastianokelly/catfish.jpg

[Salmo trutta]

You're giving away too much info. Dress shoes, dress slacks, a gravel path and a net. Just kidding.

How long a net do you need there? That's something I didn't have so I stepped up to 15 pound tippet and figured I'd just hoist them up and over the wall. But even still, I don't think my standard 4' handle would work, it's too short.

[Tissy Furnes]

4' handle is about right. I would not rely on the hoist method. Be careful not to high stick either as my 5 weight learned to its broken dismay last year on a well into the double digits bruiser. Still landed the carp though.

Biggest carps are in the river not the canal. But it remains largely uncharted territory.

[hyla]

Salmo, it's funny you mention the lack of carp activity under the Mulberry trees. I've been consistantly visiting "My trees" and although they are dropping fruit the carp seem more interested in feeding on the algae at the bottom of the canal :-( I've never seen them so disinterested in the Mulberries. Even a couple of the trees along the river have nothing but cats under them... I find it odd. I've been having much better luck targeting cruisers and mudders with Clouser Swimming Nymphs this year.

[Salmo trutta]

How are you Hyla. Good to hear from another veteran carp angler. I've used that nymph in the past with good results too. Finding the mudding carp is almost more fun too and rewarding. But when finding a carp blitz under a ripe tree is also exciting. However, I haven’t been able to do that in a while.

The trees I've found in Montgomery County are void of fish in the day time. My friend went back just after dark one evening and saw quite a few carp and catfish under one tree actively feeding. He later went back a few hours later around 2am or so, this time armed with a fly rod but the carp were long gone. However, the catfish were there and willing. He thought that it's possible the carp got their fill and left. This area is very popular and sees a lot of angling pressure in the day. Although most don't have a clue that the fish are eating the berries. They are all usually fishing bait on the bottom.

He used a spot light to see the fish and then gave the fish a few minutes before he tried fishing for them. Oddly enough, the spotlight didn't really spook the fish.

There are some trees along the creek that you can only get to by boat. I checked them out yesterday evening but didn't see anything and didn't even try blind casting because my two year old son had to go pottie and I guess the moving boat gave him stage freight. Plus it was getting late. But he did catch his first fish every yesterday. I think I was more excited with that than I was with his first steps.