Unforeseen Trip to Blackfoot Pays Huge Dividends

by | Aug 8, 2020 | fly fishing for carp | 1 comment

Blackfoot-reservoirSelf-employment is always a challenge of obedience for me in the summertime.  I work.  I look out the window and its 80° and sunny.  I work.  Then I try not to look outside.  Then the phone rings.  My friend asks, “Currier.  Want to go fishing?”

 

Idaho-fishingThat’s how I ended up on Blackfoot Reservoir Friday night.  Normally I’d say no but this was an unexpected chance to catch up with Travis Morris and Brooks Montgomery.  They were reps of mine when I ran the fly shop in Jackson Hole and remain great friends.  Friends I don’t get to see that often so off I went.

 

Currier-carpLet’s just say, it was a wise move.  Though Friday night was a bust for us – mainly because I was lazy on getting my leader perfect to deliver the needed presentation for finicky and spooky mirror carp, this morning was one of the top Blackfoot mornings of my life.

 

tailing-carpWhile I sipped my coffee Brooks and Travis were out poking around the flats.  It was a little early as the carp generally like things to warm up a bit.  But it warmed up fast.  And before I emptied my Yeti I saw a carp tail ten feet from shore about 300 yds away.  That’s a long way to see a tail which meant one thing – MONSTER!

 

mirror-carpI gulped down my caffeine and without waders made my way down to the tail with my 6-weight Winston.  This oversized-bus of a carp was in about 18” of water mulling around happily.  I couldn’t screw this up so I was soon crawling through the mud to get close and too avoid showing him my shadow.  It took a few casts but I got the job done.  A slab before 9 AM!

 

Bauer-fly-reelMan – I thought to myself as I confirmed the earliness of the time on my phone.  It was glassy calm and it didn’t take me long to spot another disturbance on the lake surface close to shore that didn’t belong.  Surely it was another.

 

 

 

 

mirror-carpI eased my way into position for the next carp only to find a half dozen.  Some had tails out while the others were forming atomic bomb looking muds.  This will be easy I said to myself and I dropped my crayfish pattern into one of the many mud clouds.  One strip and my Bauer was emptying!

 

This last fish tore the entire bay up with his heated run.  He edged out so much backing I thought I might run out.  I cranked my drag like I do for a huge roosterfish in Baja and finally this fish slowed.  I did a lot of heaving and reeling for the next four minutes but I got him.  Wow!  Two nice fish and I didn’t even have my waders on!

 

carp-fishingThe wadable water around camp was shot.  This last fish scared away any other carp.  Travis brought his drift boat which he has built a nice flats boat type of fishing platform for.  It was beached and calling me so I loaded up and pushed off.  It was the best idea I’ve had in a while.  I’d go on to sight cast and land four more beasts.  Thank goodness Travis has a huge custom made net for carp – although it was still a chore to net them myself!

 

hartmontgomery

Travis has a scale in his boat and I weighed one just to get my weight-judgment bearings in check.  The fish was 21lbs.  Seeing this would help me gage the morning.  I caught three mirrors over 20lbs, and the other three were no less than 15lbs.  All before 11 AM.  UNBELIEVABLE!

 

travis-morrisTravis and Brooks could see the commotion and made their way over.  They boarded the ship and I rowed the guys around.  The very first cruiser we saw Travis nailed on the first cast.  Fishing was amazing!

 

travis-morrisI’m more dedicated to staying on top of my work than I give myself credit for.  Regardless of plenty of mudding and pondering carp as afternoon rolled in, at 2 PM I dropped the hammer and loaded up for home.  But sometimes you just need to push the work aside!

 

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing

1 Comment

  1. Lance

    Your killing me, Smalls! Speechless……

Welcome to the Blog of Jeff Currier!

Contact Jeff

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!

Archives

Sponsors