Taken it easy at Bountiful, Grandslam

[MarineSpear]

Hey all, While healing from my surgery I decided to practise my fly fishing ability.. er inability[cool] I bought my first fly rod in november last year right before I left for the Marine Boot Camp but never had any luck on it. I always take it with me but never have had much in terms of lessons/instructions. So basicaly I've working on it myself and a ton of reading books from the liberary and clips on the web. Slowly but surerly I have moved from hooking everything around me and birdnesting the line five feet out from me to be able to get the line out soft and straight! YAY.
Well last thursday went over to Farmington res for a bit and saw some frisky trout right off the bank so I tossed out my fly and first throw the planter bow slurped it right up! And now i'm hooked...
The next day after catching my first fish on the fly I went to bountiful and threw out a deadstick bread and used my fly rod against the weeds. Good idea! First fish was a decent trout followed by a few more. Then I casted deeper into the cattails and was suprised to pull out a (very) small Large mouth. Beautiful colored and sure made me want a big LMB on a fly ( 1step at a time). Hoping for another I casted out into the same spot and had another small guy but this time it was a Green sunfish! threw it again and got a couple more sunfish then I started finding bluegills! While bringing in another sunfish my bread rod went bendo and I barely got to it before it went in the water. Set the hook and my drag screamed at a 14 pound carp when screamin into the trees. Got him to shore, gave him a kiss and released him. Was wanting to experiment with him and taste him but had no cooler or anything and didn't want him to spoil. Lucky him
From 6 AM to 11 Am I continued to fish and ended up with 106 fish- 6 trout, 2 largemouths, 1 carp and 97 bluegills/sunfish combined. Was a blast. All on the fly except the carp and two of the trout. All released perfectly unharmed and happy...ish


Posting lots of pics, Including how i rig my bread as many have asked me. Hope you like them!
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[rainbowlunker]

Looks good. Bountiful Lake holds a lot of different species of fish. Can make fly fishing it fun!
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[TroutBumDave]

14lb carp?! Please tell me you have a picture of this guy, as I need a reason to try new waters... The biggest I've managed this year was just a hair under 10lbs. My Fenwick is not impressed.
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[MarineSpear]

I don't have one of that guy, I didn't want the slime from him all over my camera. Even with getting your hands wet to keep the protective coating on them carp seem to coat you as well... sure you know what i mean. Here are a couple that where just under 13 though.

I love bountiful for carp as it seems nobody really goes after them there. Nor do they keep/kill them if they happen to catch one. So they seem to get huge. I've caught dozens out of there and the smallest has been 8.7 pounds. No fish tales And there are TONS of them. I go at sunrise and they fully clear the water when rising, it's amazing.

Later is the season you can walk the path on a day few are there and walk up to the edge fast and watch them all flee. It causes waves when they all bolt out of the shallows. Fun stuff!
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[Springbuck]

Wow! You're gonna have to help me learn where the bluegills are. I've never even seen one caught, though I know they are there.

I live right there, take neighbor kids all the time, and never catch anything besides planted trout and carp. In the summer I have gotten a few green sunfish, but under 4" usually.
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[TyeDyeTwins]

Buddy get your head examined, did the brain surgery go wrong? Better check back in with the doc that cut ya.

Ha ha just messin with you. Carp though? Please kill the ugly buggle mouths!

As for the gills and Greenies......GREAT WORK!

I guess the shoulder is why you didn't want to get a pike with me at Yuba?
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[MarineSpear]

Honestly bro I completely spaced it. Sorry bro I'll get out catching with you soon! Going to Utah in a couple hours. Hopefully will get some love
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[LurkinLizard]

+1...I prefer to kill the nasty habitat-destroying piece-of-carp, too. Even killed daughter's 34 1/2" carp she caught at Starvation. Those ugly garbage fish are so hard on all the other species, and they are so much better at surviving, and reproduce so much faster, that will be all we have left if we don't do something about them.
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[flygoddess]

Those pictures do NOT do 13lb carp justice. Dave you have caught bigger carp, I swear. You have caught some monsters. Most of mine have been over 30" long, no idea on weigh other than heavy.
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

I'd trust MarineSpear....he has a digital scale, although one of his 1st times wieghing a trout he did so with the metal stringer still attatched to the fish![]

Good work on getting one of those ugly, smelly brutes. Please tell me you killed it.
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[flygoddess]

I am not doubting MS. Just telling Dave I have seen the Carp he has caught. I am thinking one was around 18 lbs or better, but we don't have a scale.
This was one of the smaller ones.

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[MarineSpear]

Yeah unless you really get the girth and a universal item to compare it to carp are tricky to guess the weight. Especially when I've personally cleaned one's with over three pounds of eggs alone inside of them. Nasty orange stuff! Coats everything.

I'm sure you've experienced the sacks if you have ever cleaned one... Then again your a full on flygoddess so I'm doubting you have...

In other news I caught Myself a bunch of good sized Bluegills and a 15 in. LMB on my fly rod this morning. YAY. I finally and grasping how to cast and it's amazing! It will be hard to go back to rod and reel... except for cats
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[CoyoteSpinner]

So tell us Liz - how do you really feel, don't hold back! haha.

I caught my first carp on a fly - and TDT you'd be proud - it was a flying arrow! Finally managed to poke a few, despite all the muddy waters.

Know what you mean about the "waves" - sure can set off a big panic out of of sometimes.

Wanna see a BIG carp? Try this on for size:

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[LurkinLizard]

Okay so it's not quite as big as the one in your photo, but here's daughter's piece of carp.
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I do understand that people in some parts of the world do eat them, but after I killed this one I went to go clean my knife in the water of the lake, and this nasty oil slick came up from the blade where it had been cutting carp. YUK. Only thing they're good for is more fish bait, and only if they are salted/preserved to make SURE there are no viable eggs anywhere.
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

If I caught a Carp that big....I would be wearing gloves too!
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