Thought the fish might continue to cooperate and help me finish out the Fall strong… but that was not the case yesterday. Had to settle for a nice Okie sunset instead. Not so bad afterall…

Think the fish were too busy enjoying the glassy water and nice sunset to eat

Not a bad way to end a day

Maybe they’ll be back on the fall feed today…

I love golf course ponds. I love them even more when they are closed for play. I love them EVEN MORE when it’s FALL FEED time!

While I’m still straightening out a fresh leader Austen get’s things started off…

Quick start, seems promising

Hungry cat

Patrick was next to connect… and put his brand new  TCR to work on a nice bass. Not a bad way to get the new rod funk off.

Bendo

Hungry, Healthy, and Heavy, nice combo

Don’t think we saw anything under 2.5# the whole evening

Seemed picture worthy

Nothing wrong with pausing between bruisers to take in a nice Oklahoma sunset.

Gotta love fall evenings

Sure it getting dark fast these days. I DREAD the time change. DREAD.

Night cap

I’ve been wanting to scout out a few new areas I’ve been hearing about (stay tuned!), but I decided to stop off at my favorite local golf course pond to get in a big fish fix. It had been over a week since I had seen the backing on my reel; obviously chasing down some big carp and/or catfish was in order. The LMFR wild rainbows were a treat, don’t get me wrong… but there’s something addictive about hearing your reel scream and finding bruises on your stomach from fighting fish.

The water was a couple feet lower than the last time I had seen the pond and the fish weren’t feeding in any of the areas where I had seen them before. I only had a couple of hours to fish and was worried I was going to strike out. I kept walking along the bank and found some promising activity in the form of a tail flicking around above the surface. I figured it was a carp, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be one of these:

Cat tailing along the bank

He had his head buried under the edge of the bank most of the time, giving me a great chance to get above him and highstick/dap a crawfish imitation (headstand) right next to his face. He didn’t look twice, grabbed it almost immediately and was off to the races.  He wasn’t a monster but still managed to put a solid bend in the rod.

Meow

I didn’t have too much success following the catfish so I took off to a different area of the pond… Spotted a shadow moving around a few feet off the bank. I tossed one about a foot in front of his nose and hoped it was a big carp. Gave it a few strips and saw the shadow turn… set the hook and the water exploded. He went on a decent initial run, but began running 30-40ft back and forth along the bank with an occasional run into deeper water. I wasn’t sure what I was hooked into until I was able to finally drag him in close.

Throwing off a nice vortex... headed on another run

He wasn’t a monster, but the fight lasted long enough to put a few bruises on my stomach and for a few different groups of golfers to finish the hole I was fishing near. I don’t know that I’ll ever get tired of catching these fish.

Sayin' hi

Enough of the introduction… It’s business time.

This work week may have been short thanks to Memorial Day, but it sure felt L O N G. After sacrificing my lunch hour three days in a row, I finally had a chance to break free of my windowless, fluorescent light filled prison cell office to grab some lunch. I drove out to my fav lunch spot below the Lake Overholser Dam to enjoy some sun and fresh air while scouting the tailwaters. I didn’t see anyone catch anything (although I must admit I didn’t have too long to observe), but they were releasing a good amount of water from the canal and it was virtually WIND FREE. Not a bad combination. I headed back to the office determined to finish things up in a hurry so that I could get in a serious session on the water before it got dark. I mean come on, wind <10mph… that’s an Oklahoma rarity that demands to be taken advantage of.

Although the water release was tempting me to chase some hybrids below Overholser, I couldn’t resist the urge to track down tailing carp in one of the local golf course ponds. I figured with the light breeze I’d have an easy time locating the goods. Definitely made the right decision.

I got out to the pond around 5:30 and after making sure my girlfriend was comfortably situated with a book/chair/water/etc so she could “sun,” it was game time. I tied on the go-to rusty orange egan’s headstand and got to work. I crept around the bank for a while until I spotted a tail flicking around in the murky water. After putting my first cast about a foot out of range, the second cast was right on target… Saw the tail drop, set the hook, and BOOM… early success. Or so I thought.  He didn’t hesitate for a second, running straight to a metal stake sticking out of the water 10ft away near the bank, quickly wrapping my leader around it, and leaving me saying a few words that my girlfriend wasn’t too happy to hear. She was practically across the pond from me, but I could still see the glare and evidently, she could still hear me pretty well… whoops.

Tied on another headstand and kept on movin’. I crept along west side of the pond, keeping my shadow in the shadows of the bank to avoid spooking the fish that I thought would be feeding on the bank. Didn’t run into a single carp along the whole bank (surprising, normally see at least a fish or two, even on days when the conditions aren’t as pristine). It wasn’t until I got down to the creek/waterfall on the far side where water was draining in from the pond above that I saw any activity, but WOW… was there ever some activity!!!

I don’t know if there was a dead fish (or multiple dead fish) in the upper pond or what, but there were quite a few pieces of “flesh” draining into the pond and they were causing a feeding FRENZY.

Little chunks of fleshy/fishy/goo

Here’s a video of the action:

You’d think the fishing would be pretty simple with some much action going on, but between avoiding the ridiculous number of catfish going to town on whatever had died and trying to entice the carp to eat something artifical instead of the bountiful easy “real” meal being funneled right to their mouths — it wasn’t quite as easy as I anticipated.

It seemed like every time I’d put the fly on the nose of a carp I’d end up setting the hook on one of the catfish instead. The competition was  fierce and this one had the battle wounds to prove it…

Bet it was from the same turtle that got a hold of my sage rod tip... Still mad.

I had to start being very selective concerning which carp I’d cast to since each time I’d drag out a cat I’d spook the carp and have to wait for them to return. The selective casting paid off and I ended up bringing a couple nice carp to hand. I’d run them (literally… the golfers probably thought I was crazy)  along the bank to get out of the action zone to keep the commotion/spooking to a minimum.

Don't know what's more special... a nice carp, or a shot of the nice calm water. What I would do for a few more days like that each year...

The fly that changed my life...

By the time I pulled in the 2nd one I had thoroughly spooked the carp from the area. My stomach was growling and Reese had finished her book so it was a good time to pack it up and go pick up some dinner. What a nice way to cap off a long week…

-Ward