I caught another whopper yesterday. I had never seen my backing before;it is blue. I changed angles on it as it swam to the other side of the cove. It really made it over there! The backing was out the rod tip and I wondered if I'd be"spooled". I kept changing angles and slowly got my backing in the rod tip. People were wondering what I was doing as they passed. The fish began to slow down and I took advantage. Only my running line was showing now. I concentrated on keeping my hands relaxed so that I could counter any weird head shakes by the carp. Call this tactic "soft hands". This fish did everything but jump. And I was in physical distress. There was lots of leg movement as I moved back and forth, arm stress, even my back came into play. The last time a carp did this to me was 4/23/2013 (see blog -Kissena Lake). after numerous attempts to net this thing, it began to tire as much as me. Eventually, the head of the carp slipped into my net but 4 inches of tail was still outside the net. I tried to take a good photo but my hands were not steady. the fish was released and me, I slumped down on the tree root I use as a chair.
11 foot, six weight fly rod, using 300 gram skagit line and ATP 37 semi automatic fly reel
For Ray Lewis.
