When I disembarked my flight here in Atlanta, Georgia last night, it was 41°. This morning when I woke up, it was 34°. To say it was crisp for November in GA is an understatement. I’m here for two evenings of gigs. A fly fishing film fest that took place tonight where I showed my Tanzania tigerfish segment from the Confluence Films classic, “Connect” and I finally got to see Austin Kane’s film about fly fishing for the red kaloi in Borneo. It was excellent and brought back memories. Tomorrow night I’m delivering my PowerPoint talk, “Streamer Tricks for more and Larger Trout” for the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club.
Regardless of the cold, today was a planned carp fishing day with my excellent host Austin and his buddy Drake Oakhill on a nearby Atlanta flowage. It was probably too cold for carp, but I’m one to stick to a plan – especially when I haven’t got a ton of carp fishing in this year. So why not just go for it? If your flies in the water you always have a chance.
Despite the temperature it was a gorgeous day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and down here, its fall. Most of the trees still have some leaves and as always, the colors were easy on the eyes. Drake launched and soon Austin and I carefully loaded into his small Old Town Canoe. Not exactly the easiest craft for three grown men!
It was pretty funny when the guys pulled out some cans of corn. Young Drake, a mere 24 years old, was quick to state that with limited time and the carp being deep from the cold, he thought it was a good idea to lay some around on a few of his flats. Chumming wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but what the heck. I was curious to see if on the first void of life flat we went to if it would suddenly flourish with carp in a corn feeding frenzy. It did not. However, it did lead to me acquiring a very unique fly from Drake’s box. I call it the Corn Crayfish and the name may stick!
What further made conditions difficult was water clarity. While there’s not been much precipitation lately, the last two days in the region experienced heavy wind. Yesterday the lake churned and visibility was minimal. I remained poised to cast in case I spotted a high swimming fish but things didn’t look good.
We rotated between three of Drakes favorite carp flats. The one where Drake unloaded a can of corn was met with great anticipation each time we eased our way upon it. However, each time, there rested the untouched kernels. I thought things didn’t look good with the cold and off-color water, when there were not carp on the chum, we were nearly ready to call it a day.
We were literally down to having our last look at Drakes normally hot spots. Out of the blue, Drake spotted a friend of his, an oversized koi which despite seeing this fish each time out all year long, he’s been unable to catch. I launched a favorable cast. In fact, I got in a few and possibly received a look at the Corn Crayfish but then the easy to see orangish fish slid deep and out of sight.
That was enough for us to poke around a bit longer. I’ll be honest, the way I was positioned in the bow, cramping and aching with bad posture and lack of space, I was considering bagging things. But when we returned to where we saw the koi, there was a strong mud. Mud formed by feeding carp. I made a cast with the Corn Crayfish. The fly sank into the mud and I began a hand twist retrieve as if to be swimming a tiny nymph. Fish on!
I was fishing my 6-weight Winston and my floating line. Lucky for me I had straight 16lb Fluoro as a leader. The big fish fought hard but he made a mistake. Instead of heading for the logs along the bank, he went for the middle of the lake. That move along with my heavy tippet allowed me to bully him hard. After about three or four minutes, I was crunched in the bow of the canoe with a big smile. I had the once tricky koi (that appears to be part common carp) in my hands. And after some great pics by Austin, I released him for another day.
Wow! I get stoked when I catch special fish and this one, man, it’s a really special fish for me. I love the carp but to catch one that’s mostly koi and of this size, was a true treat. A special thanks goes out to Austin for putting today’s fishing together and for Drake being generous enough to take the time to take us out.
I’ll further thank Austin for putting tonight’s film event together. Tonight was called “Big Fish Film Fest” and it raised over $4000 for “Fishing the Good Fight”, an organization that uses fly fishing to support men’s mental health. A topic that has become all too real for me after losing my best friend Sammy exactly 14 months ago.
That’s all for now. It’s beyond late but on these little speaking gig jaunts I always make the best of every single second. And that’s exactly why I’ll be fishing again tomorrow before my event at Manuel’s Tavern in the evening. Stay tuned!