Passaic Red

Carp fishing is heating up; with mulberries and
warmer weather, fish can be found actively feeding.
I went to New Jersey with a 3 piece, 6' 10", 7 wt,
Fenwick fiberglass fly rod. The rod is from Japan.
It is designed for fishing big bass flies.



The day of fishing started well. I arrived,
set up my rod and began to fish. Quickly, I had
landed two small carp. I thought that I might be
having a banner day but the carp changed their
behavior and I stood and waited for a long time
for another fish.



It took a while before I had my third fish. As I reeled
him into shore I noticed that the hook was not
in the carp's mouth. I had foul hooked it in the
fin. I removed the hook and released the fish.



Later things changed and carp began feeding
again. I could see the shadows of the feeding
carp in the deeper water with my polarized
sunglasses (never fish without them). I changed
my location and caught a few more carp.
By late evening I had landed a total of 5 carp.
I decided to empty the remaining contents
of my chum bag into the lake rather than
carry it back home.



This cup of pellets lay almost motionless on the
windless lake surface. Slowly carp began to
eat the buffet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw
"Passaic Red", the lakes largest koi. Everyone
who fishes this lake dreams of catching her.
She is not actually red but orange with black
splotches across the back. Last year my friend
Dennis got lucky and landed her.

Passaic Red began to eat and greedily gulped the
pellets down. Koi are coy. They are smart, alert
and difficult to fool with a fly. I watched. Carp
were in a feeding frenzy and so was Red. When carp
are feeding, in a frenzy they put aside their normal
cautiousness. It appeared that Red might be in the state
of frenzy. I made a cast with a #14 brown deer hair
fly. The cast was too short. I made another cast and
put my fly six inches to the right of Red's mouth.
I watched as she made another approach to a row
of pellets. She sucked down three pellets in a row.
My fly was not part of that row. But at the last moment
she noticed my fly sitting alone on the surface.
She turned, sucked down my offering and dove deep
into the lake. Carp can expel flies faster than you can
set the hook; so I did not know if she was attached to my
fly line. I waited and watched as my line followed as she
swam to the lake bottom. I set the hook and felt the fish
trying to flee.

This was a fish of a lifetime. Very very few have been able to
stalk and hook a koi. Red resisted my attempts to bring her
to hand for the better part of ten minutes. Finally, tired,
she stopped fighting. Just as I was placing the boca grip
in her mouth, she slipped off the hook and slowly swam away.