Too Nice for Carp

by | Sep 11, 2015 | Uncategorized

blog-Sept-11-2015-1-flyfishing-for-carpIt wasn’t worth speeding and fishtailing treacherously down the dusty roads of Idaho like it was our first time fly fishing for huge carp.  Today’s Blackfoot Reservoir trip wasn’t only my most humbling carp day ever but also the most strenuous hiking and fishing day of the year.  That’s saying a lot after Tuesday.

 

blog-Sept-11-2015-2-blackfoot-reservoirTim Brune and I read a rare forecast for the remote Blackfoot Reservoir region of hot, sunny and NO WIND.  It turns out the weatherman was dead on.  These conditions are so rare I’ve in fact never seen it on Blackfoot.  The closest ever was when we had a light breeze last September for making the segment in the RA Beattie film, Carpland.

 

blog-Sept-11-2015-3-flyfishing-for-carpOne would suspect superb fly fishing for carp in these conditions because it would be easy to see them tailing and waking.   But the Blackfoot carp were so unfamiliar with the environment they were freaked out and seemed more focused on survival than eating.

 

blog-Sept-11-2015-4-mirror-carp-scaleWe saw a lot of fish but only on two occasions.  We each got numerous casts and refusals.  I had two fish turn and follow my fly.  I was nearly certain one ate some green crab concoction I tied for permit years ago (tells you how desperate I was!) but when I set the hook did nothing more than pluck a huge mirror carp scale.

 

blog-Sept-11-2015-5-cows-and-fishingTough fishing leads to covering more water than normal.  On Blackfoot that means walking long distances over sticky mud, in murky water, over loose rocks and through waist high sagebrush.  Toss in the fact it was 85°s and we were in waders (you don’t wet wade Blackfoot because the mud can be gross), we took a beating.  I even got charged by a mini bull sending me sliding down a rocky embankment!

 

Bottom line, we got skunked today and Tim and I are beat as heck.  But guess what folks, it happens.  Its days like today that remind me I’ll always have more to learn.  It may sound crazy, but I’m very very very glad of that!

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing

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I started fly fishing at age 7 in the lakes and ponds of New England cutting my teeth on various sunfish, bass, crappie and stocked trout. I went to Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, where I graduated with a Naturalist Degree while I discovered new fishing opportunities for pike, muskellunge, walleyes and various salmonids found in Lake Superior and its tributaries.

From there I headed west to work a few years in the Yellowstone region to simply work as much as most people fish and fish as much as most people work. I did just that, only it lasted over 20 years working at the Jack Dennis Fly Shop in Jackson, WY where I departed in 2009. Now it’s time to work for "The Man", working for myself that is.

I pursue my love to paint fish, lecture on every aspect of fly fishing you can imagine and host a few trips to some of the most exotic places you can think of. My ultimate goal is to catch as many species of fish on fly possible from freshwater to saltwater, throughout the world. I presently have taken over 440 species from over 60 countries!

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