Larry A. Smail's Blog

I was planning with a couple of hours of carp fishing anyway, so when my sister Ruthie Wolfe and I were talking I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk and take some photos as I fished. As promised, we were only there for a couple of hours. We wanted to beat the heat.

Ruthie holding one of my catches.

We went to a local state game lands. To fish in the pond one needs to walk about one mile. The game lands road has an issue that I didn’t think of. Poison Ivy! I do not give the three-leaf plant any thought, but my sister is highly allergic to it. Years ago she had blisters as big as silver dollars. She had a rough ordeal. We did are best to avoid the more vegetated road sites and we managed to stay clear of the plant. However, she had to be careful at a few sites.     

The pond was muddy due to the carp activity in the waters. Amazingly, the inflow stream was barely allowing for clean water entry. I guess we have been more dry than I realized.

The back of a carp.

I began to stalk for carp. Ripples could be seen near the edge of the pond. Often the fish would be tight along the pond’s edge among the high grasses. Occasionally, one could actually see the backs of carp in the shallow water.

I managed to catch only two carp. However, I missed several. They were not taking the bait very readily. Normally, I fish here earlier in the morning.The carp is a proven fighter pulling hard once hooked. The fish is very capable of breaking fishing line whenever they make one of the power surges they are famous for.

The Legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!