I have a pond near my office that frustrates me to no end. Regularly I see carp that are > 2' long there. The locations where I see the fish, and can cast, though are not where they feed. I've found the feeding areas and normally they are unfishable with a flyrod unless one is prepared to wade through mudbar made of contaminated sediment. For a couple of years the sight of those fish so close yet uncatchable has been a source of frustration.
Today was the exception to the rule. The recent rains have raised the water level so that the carp are able to swim over the mudbar into the inlet of the pond. When I checked there at lunchtime today I saw this and the carp feeding on the vegetation/scum floating in an eddy.
After a quick run to the car to get the rod I started to attempt to entice a carp feeding on the surface scum using an olive wooly bugger that was already on the line. There was no way to figure out where their lips would appear through the scum so this was not successfull. Then a carp moved into a position ~ 5 feet away from me and started feeding on the bottom. Pulling in the line until only a couple of feet of line extended beyon the tip I dropped the fly in front of it and then gave it a couple of bounces when the fish hit. I put pressure on as he took off and my frustration continued as a bad knot broke. No other fish were interested after that.
Today was the exception to the rule. The recent rains have raised the water level so that the carp are able to swim over the mudbar into the inlet of the pond. When I checked there at lunchtime today I saw this and the carp feeding on the vegetation/scum floating in an eddy.
After a quick run to the car to get the rod I started to attempt to entice a carp feeding on the surface scum using an olive wooly bugger that was already on the line. There was no way to figure out where their lips would appear through the scum so this was not successfull. Then a carp moved into a position ~ 5 feet away from me and started feeding on the bottom. Pulling in the line until only a couple of feet of line extended beyon the tip I dropped the fly in front of it and then gave it a couple of bounces when the fish hit. I put pressure on as he took off and my frustration continued as a bad knot broke. No other fish were interested after that.