We’ve had two swell days of urban carp fly fishing here in Phoenix, Arizona and last night I successfully delivered my first of two presentations this week for the local fly fishing clubs. Today was day three. We purposely made it a short fishing day. Tonight’s talk was to Desert Fly Casters Club and it’s a drive to get to. Furthermore, before my talk, the club scheduled a delicious meal and get together at the Hungry Monk. But that’s ok, if you’re willing to chase all fish species, time constraints on fishing are no big deal.
Fifteen minutes from buddy Steve Berry’s house there’s a canal loaded with white Amur (grass carp) and common carp. This city waterway gets hit hard by the local carp enthusiasts so these fish are evenly skilled at avoiding flies to any selective trout including the persnickety rainbows of the famous Henry’s Fork Ranch. But you already know we enjoy such challenges and it wasn’t long before Mr. Berry was instructing a lady dog-walker how to take a fish picture. I believe it’s safe to say she did a phenomenal job with Steve’s chunky common carp!
While Steve was down stream on this canal, Granny and I were up specifically chasing the grass carp. I prefer to catch them on dries and I had Granny using an olive colored cicada. Grassies eat vegetation but as long as they see a greenish fly plop down next to them, you have a good chance at getting an eat. But Granny was making the usual grass carp fly fishing mistakes, she wasn’t casting at ones looking up, and she wasn’t dropping her fly close enough. Good “dry fly” grass carp are the ones slightly tilted upwards (actually looking for something to drop) and the place to land your fly is about 6 inches in front of them. Any further away, they don’t see it.
Like most grass carp anglers, Granny got frustrated and handed me the rod. I irritated her more by hooking up only minutes later. Ok, I’ll be honest, I missed two risers (grassies are hard to hook) and it probably took 30 minutes, but I hooked into a nice one.
While the fight of a white Amur is almost always strong, you can subdue them fairly fast. But when you’re on a canal in Phoenix, actually getting them to hand can be a nightmare. I eased my way down the canal escape ladder and managed to get this fishes head in Steves net while corralling the tail and all at the same time, didn’t fall in!
Any day you and your friend land a couple of carp on fly is a good one. By noon the sun was scorching and we opted to hit a pub for chicken wings and a beer in order not to mess up our early dinner plans with the DFC at the Hungry Monk. Lunch also gave us time for a little fly inventory.
We just got home from my gig – another fun and successful one in the books. In fact, tonight’s talk was my 36th of the year and it was my last one until June 11. I think I’ll celebrate the end of a busy work season tomorrow with trying to add a new species to the list. Stay tuned!
Good Luck Jeff. Cant wait to see what you bring in!