If there’s any fish I’ve gone
from being humbled by beyond belief to learning how to catch them with regularity
it’s been the grass carp (white Amur).
The first time I ever saw one of these sleek vegetarians was right here
in Arizona. They were cruising the urban lakes but I
couldn’t catch them. I tried everything and
after days I finally lucked into a monster nearly 20lbs. The grassies challenged my fly fishing skills
so much that when I held that first one it was a similar experience to when I
landed my first permit.
I became more patient and
observant over the years. I started to
catch grass carp more often. I learned
that green or lime hoppers worked better than grass-looking fly
concoctions. I discovered that landing
my fly a few inches in front of them when they were tilted slightly upwards was
best even though sometimes it spooked them.
It became evident that making my fly hit hard was better then a gentle
presentation. And the tricky part, when
a grass carp eats he often nibbles the fly before putting the hook in his funny
shaped mouth. I learned to watch carefully
before striking.
These days I’ve mastered the
technique to catch grass carp on the fly and today I landed twelve. Most were quality fish ranging up to 8lbs,
however one was larger. Steve, Cinda and
I were walking the canal where Steve and I landed a dozen grassies on
Friday. The day was similar. It was hot and there were numerous grassies
up to about 25” doing their gentle rises to moss drifting slowly downstream. I was fishing my olive grand hopper and
catching a few. I was enjoying myself
but I must admit, landing fish and releasing them from the canal is not only
difficult but dangerous because you need to wade down these precarious
steps. You don’t want to fall in here. To avoid doing this over and over I found
myself becoming choosy about which grass carp I cast too. If they weren’t 25” I didn’t cast at them.
I walked a little ways and found several small grassies feeding.
They were suspended about three inches below the surface. They weren’t worth casting too but below them
was a ghostly figure. The shape was
almost too deep to make out in the dark somewhat muddy water. But eventually I could see clearly. It was a giant grass carp hiding below his
body guards.
I watched the larger fish
closely hoping he would rise. He wouldn't. I made a cast and one of the body
guards ate my fly. With the utmost in
patience, rather than set the hook I let him chew on it. Luckily he spit it and went back to eating moss.
I made several more casts and avoided setting on yet
another. All the time the now clearly monster
grass carp coasted in the current.
You don’t see fish like this
often. I don’t just mean this big grass carp, but abnormally large fish of any species.
I observed for a few minutes. I
enjoyed the moment – he was absolutely awesome.
That’s when I noticed he got in feeding position. He elevated up with the smaller grassies, tilted
and gazed ahead for a chunk of drifting moss.
I wasted no time. In one false
cast I landed my fly four inches upstream of his nose. My heart dropped as he slowly rose then leisurely
opened his mouth. Then like a slow shutting
garage door, he closed his mouth. It’s easy
to screw up setting on a grass carp but when that door closed I hit him
hard. The beast was on!
Grass carp generally fight strong,
however the ones of this canal don’t get too rowdy. Not this big boy however. The second my hook penetrated his rubbery lip
the bizarre looking silvery fish went ballistic. He made a short deep run up the canal. Although short it was furious. Then the headshakes began. I could just picture him underwater shaking
side to side. When that didn’t free him
he made his next run. This time it was a
long run straight downstream.
May I remind you I fish carp
with a Ross RX 5-weight and 3X tippet. This was neither
a 5-weight fish nor a 3X fish. My
original assessment before I hooked him put this grassie at about 36” and
perhaps 15lbs, but now that he was pulling me around I could tell from his
strength he was bigger. At this point
he continued to fight me down deep so I couldn’t get a good look.
Ten minutes into the battle I
reached for my phone. I couldn’t see
Steve or Cinda so as my mighty grassie steadied down deep I rang Steve, “Dude I
have a monster and I need help”.
Another 5 minutes went by
then Steve showed up with a net. I
started laughing. It would be a chore to
put a 10lb trout in this net. Steve
suggested when we see the fish I stuff his head in there and grab the
tail. I’ve not had a lot of success with
this method.
About when my arms were starting
to shake, the hefty grass carp came to the surface. He was tired.
With a huge net we could have scooped him up. But this is the canal. Little grass carp are hard to land in the canal;
this was going to test my skill, courage and sanity to the max. I eased my way down the dry steps, and then
got thigh deep on a submerged step. One
slip and it wouldn’t be pretty but I was getting this old carp.
Another ten minutes went
by. My 5-weight was bent to the brink of
explosion. My long leader hummed like a
guitar string. At least 20 times I got
that fish within inches of my reach but he surged. I couldn’t believe nothing broke or that my
barbless hopper didn’t pull out. By now
we had and audience and I had to succeed.
Finally, like the famous huchen I caught years ago, I got an opportunity
to put my whole arm around his middle, hug him against me and topple with him
to the cement. It worked. The giant grass carp was landed. And after a few photos I released him back to
his beautiful, dirty and perhaps polluted canal. Awesome!
It’s back to Idaho in the
morning. I’d like to join the boys and
head trout fishing but I’m way behind in my work. I have art projects and its time to update my PowerPoint's and prepare for a grueling show season. The good news however, in two weeks Granny and I head
for Belize
to visit some old friends of Belize River Lodge!
