Carp Carrot by Mr. P

Sorry for the big gap in posting as of late. I just recently lost my job at the local hospital where I work. On a good note, I bought an engagement ring! : D It was funny because I bought it on the day that I was let go. Yes, I have no money but I will spend hundreds of dollars on a ring for my girlfriend. Fancy that. : )

So, because I have had time on my hands, I decided to try to tie some more flies. I saw that Mr. P, an excellent carp fly fisherman from Washington state has created a fly called the carp carrot. So, I decided to tie a dozen in a few different hook sizes, 6, 8, and 10 to be specific. Here are some pictures of what I used. Everything is from Cabela's so you can grab it off their site. Here is the link to the original post from Mr. P. I am in no way, shape, or form trying to copy him or his work. I am merely showing you so you can share the joy of his work. So, without any further ado, here's how I tied the infamous carp carrot.

The recepie straight from Mr. P's blog:

Thread: black or orange
Tiemco: 3769 sizes 6-10
Tiemco 5262 sizes 6-8
Bead: brass beads, tungsten beads, and dumbbell eyes in black, brass, nickel, and copper colors etc.
Body: orange yarn wrapped tightly or orange dubbin
Hackle: yellow pheasant rump

Dubbing. You can also use orange chenille for the body.

Showing what color orange to get.

Yellow hackle. There was no yellow pheasant rump so I had to settle for this.

Fly head cement. Self explanatory.

This Ultra GSP 200-Denier thread is crazy strong. O_O Although it does lose its color quickly, sadly. Use other thread if you don't want color thread loss.

Super glue.

I used these from Cabela's because the guy suggested them over the weighted eyes but use the nickle eyes and NOT these. These do not provide enough weight making them useless on a heavier rod. : (

Streamer hooks I got for an extremely inexpensive price on eBay.

First, wrap your thread, whether black or orange around the hook from the eye to the shank. You can also tie on the eyes first if you so desire.

Apply the dubbing back to the eye of the hook. I tried tying the eyes on last. It make work for you that you want to tie them on first but to each their own.

Top view.

Tie on the eyes unless, like I said, you want to tie them on first.

Depending on the size of the hook, don't use as much hackle. A little does go a long way!

Tie the hackle on between the eyes and secure it then wrap it around the back of the eyes going with the thread wraps.

Tie the hackle off, snip the excess, glue the eyes in place with the super glue and dab it careful not to mess with the hackle. You can also use the head cement. I use both. Whip finish the thread, snip it, and you're done!

So, there you have it. If you followed my directions, you have just tied Mr. P's carp carrot. Try it out. Trust me, you'll like it. He's pretty much a legend. : )

New Camera!

So, I've been looking at getting a DSLR again for some time now. I had a Canon Rebel XSi and loved it! It was a great, light-weight, starter DSLR. I sold it to my friend for a trade of fly fishing gear/cash back in April. I was lonely without it and have been shopping for one for the past 5 months. FINALLY, after a long wait and search, I finally found one. The Canon Rebel T3i. I won't bore you with specs but you can find the specs here. The biggest thing that I absolutely fell in love with about the T3i is that it has a flip out LCD screen. SWEET! : D I am able to take some sweet shots without me lying on my stomach. Seriously. Fantastic.

I also had to revert to mobile to post because Blogger is acting up again. It may just be in my part of Michigan. Who knows....Very irritating because the times I want to write, I can't! So, I don't know. I may, once again, have to revert to e-mailing posts which makes the pictures really wacky. Oh well. enjoy! More posts on my gear coming soon!

Fly Tying Virgin

So, I went to Cabela's in Dundee, Michigan on Friday September 7. My goal was simple: to find some great deals and to buy a fly tying kit. I bough a Cabela's Three Forks 8wt fly rod for $40, which was a steal, 2 fly rod tubes for $7 a piece, and a simple fly tying kit for $50, which was the Cabela's brand, and some materials to tie some black wooly buggers. I spent a total of $130. I came out of the store a VERY happy man! : )

So, I left Cabela's after my girlfriend and I went to Applebee's for an early lunch. I got home, ran inside, cleared everything off the kitchen table, didn't even bother to read the directions, set the vise up, grabbed my Fly Tying Bible, and went to work tying some buggers. The first bugger looked terrible. Seriously, I swear a third-grader at an art class did this thing. It was that terrible.

My first fly that I tied.

First fly when wet.

Ok, so I may not be giving myself that much credit. I still feel like it looks terrible. I showed my parents and girlfriend. They were quite pleased especially since it was my first time ever doing something like this. It was not too hard per se, you know just getting used to it. The second one I tied turned out very nice...For a beginner.  : )

Second fly tied.

Overall, I am very pleased with my fly tying skills so far. I have tied almost a dozen black wooly buggers. I need to buy more tying material so I can tie different flies. If I am good enough, I may even sell them. Fly tying is loads of fun. It may take me a while because I want the flies to be perfect, but I enjoy myself every step of the way. More pictures and updates will be coming when I get more material and learn more things about tying flies. Cheers!

 

Cut It With a Knife...

I posted this on the Cold Steel Facebook page back in February.

So, first part of the story is this: My best friend and "blood" brother Mark and I were out in the woods of some state park back in January of this year. He was hunting some squirrel with his Cold Steel blowgun and I was in charge of making a fire. Personally, I think it should have been the other way around since I FAIL apparently, according to Mark, at making fires. Anyways, so I am chopping wood and such and he comes back and there is no fire going. Well, we do get the fire going and we are each chopping up wood. When we are about to go, he goes off somewhere since he is determined to shoot a squirrel with his blowgun. I start to go with him but decide to stay behind and clean up. I start to chop a larger log, which was wet from the melted snow mind you, with my Ontario Kukri. I was wearing leather gloves which A. were give to me by Mark and B. were a God-sent because of what happened next. As I was chopping, the wetness of the log made the knife slip. My hand was clearly out of the way but at that point, I was trying to move out of the way so I wouldn't get hurt. The blade hit right behind the knuckle on my thumb. It went straight through the glove, naturally but not to the bone, thank the Lord. I quickly tore my glove off and looked at the wound and there was very little blood. I was thanking God at that point lol. Well, the end result was, I put New Skin on it and it was on there for a few weeks. Never got stitches for that one.

Second story is this: I was working in my yard with my oh so shiny new CS Gurkha Kukri SK-5 on February 7 of this year. I was so happy with it that I decided to chop some wood up with it. I was being extra careful since I knew what happened last time with the other kukri I have (or rather had since my friend Mark now decided to take the liberty of buying from me because of my accident. lol). I was chopping some logs up for a bonfire that we were having in the backyard to clear up some brush. My Dad was using his chainsaw and I was chopping wood in half for fun for our fireplace. Well, I was wearing my leather gloves as I did previously with my other knife incident since I knew that those were what saved my hand the last time and I didn't want it to be a murderous situation if it were to happen again. Well, here comes the stupidest of all stupid parts: I was HOLDING yes HOLDING the log with my left hand and striking lightly but just enough to get into the log with my knife with my right and that's when it happened. The knife bounced off the log and slid across the top to the left onto my gloved hand right below the index knuckle (see picture). I dropped my knife, ripped my glove off and by that time, I was bleeding everywhere since I struck a vein. I put pressure on it and was so extremely angry. I yelled to my Dad and he was a bit in shock and in frustration as well at the sight. We both went to the house where my Dad made me put my hand under freezing cold water to stop the bleeding. That was one of the worst moments of my life. My Mom at this point came home and talked to my Dad. After the bleeding stopped, my Dad took all 5, yes 5 of my CS knives off of my belt so we could go to the hospital. XD (I was laughing on the inside at the look of shock on his face.) Well, on the way there, I was praying to God saying thank you for keeping me safe. We got to the hospital where the doctor sewed me up. I asked him, "So, on a scale of 1-10, what do you think?" His reply? "A 2. You have to understand that I see men come in here with legs cut off by trains all the time (WHAT?! REALLY?!?! ALL THE TIME XD). Well, needless to say, I work at that hospital where I got my stitches and I got an order from the doctor for me to not go to to work that night (awesome! And I still get paid!). The lesson learned? Don't be stupid with sharp knives. Especially Cold Steel. The end. : )

I'm On a Kayak...

If you are like me and do a lot of shore fishing but want more freedom to reach them big ones out in the middle of the lake or just want to find some secluded spot to just relax, you can either swim, which I do not recommend, out to the middle of the lake with a life jacket, build a makeshift raft out of logs and vines, also not recommended but seems fun, or you can buy yourself a canoe or kayak. I myself bought a Field and Stream Eagle Run 12' kayak. It is very nice....I bought it at an extreme discount almost 75% off with the sale itself and coupons. Pretty amazing.

The kayak comes in 2 colors: red and camo. I choose to get red because I felt it suited me better and also if I was in a jam, it would stand out better. The kayak itself boasts a nice back compartment that has a water tight hatch. There are two rod holders, a nice adjustable backrest and seat, footrests that are adjustable, and it even supports 500 lbs! It only weighs 60 lbs to boot! Very nice if I say so myself. If you are in the market for a kayak, get this one. It is a great starter fishing kayak. I was considering getting the Future Beach Trophy 144 kayak but I declined since the Eagle Run boasted, at the same price, a larger weight capacity, which to me seemed more ideal. I know it seems like such a simple thing but I like the idea of being able to carry a lot more on the kayak. To each his own.

I have had the kayak for almost 4 months now, have fished from it on the Huron River at Dexter-Huron Metroparks and Sterling State Park and have noticed no problem with it thus far. In fact, it really glides, no better yet, flies on the water! My girlfriend, Lauren, can barely catch up to me and she's been kayaking for over a year! Even when going against the current in the Huron it flies. I think my only complaint is how thin the bottom of the kayak is. It is not much of a problem per se but if I want to keep it for years to come, which I plan to, I don't want the scrapes on the bottom to wear out the bottom in case I hit rocks. It has not become a problem but I just don't want it to, that's all. Overall, I personally give it 5 stars, a 10/10. It really is a great kayak.

Hocking Hills: Breathtaking Sites and Some Misunderstandings...

August 1, 2012: my Dad and I packed our bags and departed our house to head to Hocking Hills State Park. This was going to be my very first time going there! I was super pumped but fishing was more on my mind than anything! I was itching to go fishing and my Dad knew it. I said there was a nice trout creek in Rockbridge, Ohio called Clear Creek State Preserve. I wanted to go so badly! I knew there were going to be no trout because of the warm water but I still wanted to go in the hopes of there being carp or some bluegill and bass. We stopped a few times for groceries and food to eat on the way there but eventually we got to the fishing hole. My Dad dropped me off because we couldn't get any reception in the area to talk to my cousins who were going to join us at the preserve. My Dad said, "Meet me back in the parking lot in 30 minutes." *groan* ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 30 minutes to fish a spot that I have never fished before?! *sigh* I went on my way with my fly rod and gear in hand. I walked for a bit and came to a split. It had some deeper water and I saw some movement of some bigger fish so I tied on a beadhead prince nymph. On my first cast that hit the water, on the drawback to cast further the fly flew out of the water with a 2" minnow on it. Great....Bad spot to fish. lol. Seriously minnows everywhere in that small pool. So I moved down stream to a very large open area where I saw a LOT of sunfish. I sent my fly flying a few times, caught a few of them despite them being so small. They were not afraid of me because they were biting at my legs! It was hilarious! I looked at my watch and it was the time that I needed to be back at the parking lot...Great. : ( I hiked back to the parking lot, met my cousins, we ate lunch, and went on our way to our sleeping place.

*sigh* Our 3rd grader cabin...

This is when things got really hairy. My Dad told me to punch in the address to Hocking Hills State Park...or so I thought. In reality, he told me, or so he says, to punch in the address to our cabin we were staying in. 45 minutes later, we find our cabin after much driving around aimlessly. Extremely frustrating let me tell you...We drive to the spot where the GPS tells us to go. We were dumbfounded. Why? Well, first off, the cabin we were staying in was in some backwoods, hick country. I am not saying that hickville is a bad thing but when there are trailers on some dusty, bumpy road in a remote part of the county, it gets a bit weird and hairy. On top of that, our cabin looked as if some third grader built it. No, I take that back: a third grader could have done a better job at building it. It was so poorly built....On top of all of this the cabin we saw on the website was NOT this cabin! That cabin was next door! Occupied by Germans nonetheless! We gave up after the gentleman who rented out the cabin didn't answer the phone after 4 separate phone calls. Very irritating.

Loading up the groceries in our awesome "log" cabin!

Vegetarian meal fit for a...vegetarian.

We are so roughing it!

We got settled in, checked out all the fancy features like the satellite TV and hot tub. Phew! We are so going to rough it these next few days! : D Yes, we were expecting something more simple and yet bigger. Yet the four of us, Dad, Dave, Rob, and I switched between sleeping in the queen bed and the couch and the floor. None of us had a very good rest those 3 nights....After everything was unpacked and put away, we locked up and headed to our first destination: Cantwell Cliffs!

Cantwell Cliffs....It was pretty much amazing. Especially after going to Virgina Kendall State Park for so many years! So much beauty and yet more danger which made it even more fun! : ) We saw the cliffs from below and above. My Dad was having a bit of trouble getting around because the cliffs were pretty steep and we were 3 strapping young men. : )

Entrance sign showing map and other such importantly boring stuff.

The stairs...

We eventually hiked around the cliffs to the top and hiked back through to the entrance where the stairs lead down again. From there we went to the other side of Cantwell Cliffs where there were more ledges and rock faces towering over us. It truly was a sight to behold. A lot of beauty. And a lot of fun!

Dave punches down the tree.

Rob does a better job at punching...

Dad and Rob really suffering....

We came back and "roughed it" some more by hopping in the hot tub and watching the Olympics. I personally was hoping to play a game of some sort like triominoes or Mille Bornes. Oh well. : ) It was still a lot of fun! There was a running joke all the while on our trip: I wanted to go fishing. I literally interjected "so, when are we going fishing?" into anything and everything I could from "We are going hiking? I hope there's fly fishing." or "Oh, look! A sign for a lake! Let's stop so we can go fishing!" Every single time my Dad laughed, shook his head and said, you guessed it, no.

We woke up the next morning, had breakfast, and hit the road by 9 AM. Our next stop: Rockhouse. Rockhouse is, as the name suggests, a house of sorts but more of a cave with quite a few entrances. It houses not people but pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons.....

My cousins and I scrambled through the several entrances that the cave had to offer. We checked out all the nooks and crannys and I even dared to go on a ledge that was a good 25 feet or so off the ground perhaps even higher. To be honest, it was scary being that high up now that I think about it. A bit of nervousness set in when I had to climb back up from where I was since it was pretty precarious getting to that ledge I was on. I made it though, obviously. : ) It was a good feeling to accomplish that.

Amazing how the earth can shape a structure...

Oh, Dave. You're so funny. : )

Dave climbing into Rockhouse the "hard" way. He seems to be "between a rock and a hard place." ; )

Shot of Rockhouse on the inside.

Another shot of Rockhouse on the inside.

One of the entrances to Rockhouse.

View from my precarious perch. : ) 

We wandered about some more and after exhausting ourselves by climbing up every nook and cranny, we decided to take off for Conkle's Hollow. Oh, before I get to Conkle's Hollow, there was a family we kept seeing at pretty much every place we went to after Conkle's Hollow. It was pretty funny actually. We went to one park, they were there. We went to another park, they were there, too! Crazy! Anyways, back to Conkle's Hollow.

A somewhat OK view of Conkle's Hollow. In the background you can see the family who was following us. : ) The family is IN Conkle's Hollow.

A somewhat blurry picture of the "open portion" that my cousins and I explored.

Conkle's Hollow: a unique and beautiful place. A stream ran through the park and along the path that we were taking. It was a magnificent place. There was more openness to this despite there being so many trees. It was very peaceful and much more cool, to me, because of all the trees bending over the path. It was funny. As we were walking, there was a lady who was walking in the opposite direction who had an e-reader. I'm thinking, "really?" She looked like she was in her late 60s early 70s too! Anyways, there was a part in the path that the stream veered to the left quite a bit and under an outcrop. I examined it only to see crayfish and a small shelter. My family members were laughing at me because they thought I was going to try to fish the "small pond." We got back on track and meandered along the path. My cousins and I went off the trail a bit to do some exploring in an open portion of the park before Conkle's Hollow. My Dad called us down to continue on. Why because straight ahead was.....

Conkle's Hollow

Conkle's Hollow. Wow. This was awesome! There were small ledges, a bit of a waterfall, water, beautiful overhanging trees! Just gorgeous especially when the sun was shinning through! It was so awesome to see God's handiwork in all of this! To see His creation at work! Dave decided to climb on the rock ledges and look cool all the while Rob and I took off to explore more of the Hollow itself. We looked through a small overhang and took some pictures and eventually ended up sitting on a rock bathing in the sun waiting for Dad and Dave to finish up taking pictures. We gathered at the large boulder and sat down and had some cool refreshing water along with some power bars and gels.

A view looking up at Conkle's Hollow

Dave photobombing Rob's manly pose.

A view outward from Conkle's Hollow.

Dave on a ledge.

After a dozen or so pictures, we decided to pack it up and go back to the car. We sat down at a picnic table and planned on where we were going to go next. We decided to head on over to Old Man's Cave.

The Devil's Bathtub.

Old Man's Cave had a long hike to get to the actual cave. There were so many things to see along the way, though! For one, there was a series of bridges that you had to cross to get there not to mention it was almost a mile to get there from where we were in the parking lot! There were a few "falls" here and there. Sadly, the falls were not active and I never really took and good photographs of them. Something did catch my eyes and ears though. That was the Devil's Bathtub. In the spring or whenever there is rain, the Devil's Bathtub fills up with water to create falls. They say it looks really cool. I hope I can see it in action some day.

We continued onward throughout the park, across several bridges, saw several rock faces that looked really amazing from the weather and time eroding the face away. Finally, we got to the cave or overhang rather. We went through a tunnel which lead to the Sphinx Head and Old Man's Cave itself. It took forever but we were finally there! Woohoo!!!! : D

Rob standing in the entrance of the tunnel that leads to Old Man's Cave.

Old Man's Cave (or overhang rather).

This tree was growing off the cliff and upside down! Crazy!

The Sphinx's Head

Giant millipede. : )

 We hiked back to where we could access the parking lot easily. We all decided because it was quite hot, we needed ice cream. I, personally, think we should have given up the moment we saw the machinery and noises. Here are 4 construction workers, union no doubt, tearing apart concrete with a jack hammer attached to a backhoe arm. Literally 10 feet away was the ice cream shop, under an overhang so ALL the sound was amplified by 5000000x! I am not kidding either. I wish they were handing out ear plugs with the ice cream. I would have paid for them! We quickly ordered, got our ice cream, got back to the car, and ate in peace. Phew...No more loud noises!

I'm sorry. I stole this from here. At least I'm honest! : )

We finally got on our way to Cedar Falls. I am very sorry I don't have any pictures of Cedar Falls. I guess it was not memorable. lol. So, here's an image from the web on how Cedar Falls is SUPPOSED to look (I did give the link to the page on where I found it to give the author credit). On a side note, when we got there, there was no water fountain. We had to pump the water. Me, being the strong lad that I am, had to pump the water...for 10 people...It was okay though. I had a servant's heart. ; ) As we were traveling down to see the falls, which was an EXTREMELY short trip, i.e. less than 1/4 mile, and we crossed a bridge where there was about 4 feet of water in a pool. There were dozens of fish. Some of the minnows or whatever were living in there were massive! I wanted to go fishing despite them being so tiny! I was complaining to the gang that I should have brought my fly gear so I could have fly fished on my 1 wt rod. ; ) Well, we got to the falls, which were no falls at all. Seriously! A drop here and there! It was still breathtaking to see the towering cliffs on either side seeming to cave down upon us. The four of us decided to lay down on a slab of rock, which was nice and cool, to lay down. We lied there for about 15 minutes or so and decided to head back. We took the wrong path which lead us to backtrack which was extremely frustrating...

We finally got back to the hot hot car and were on our way with the air conditioning blowing in our faces and when that got too cold, we rolled down the windows to let the nice air wash through our shirts and all through our clothing to cool us down. We traveled to our last destination of the trip: Ash Cave.

Ash Cave, once again, was NOT a cave but an overhang with a lot of sand. It was very nice and cool, though. Very pretty. We walked around for a bit and my Dad and Dave decided to take a nap for a spell. They laid down and Rob and I explored. Rob went on some boulder in the middle of the cave high up on a hill while I took pictures and explored the bottom of the cave near and around the waterfall. All in all, it was a blast.

A lonely tree in the middle of Ash Cave...

The trickling waterfall of Ash Cave....

After everyone had done what they wanted to do at Ash Cave, we departed for our home. We had dinner, watched the Olympics, enjoyed the hot tub one last time and finally hit the sack. We got up on that Friday morning and had an endless supply of hotcakes at Bob Evans. It was delicious and terrible. I had the decency to stop after a few bites of the second plate but my Dad and Rob had a whole second plate. Needless to say, they were hurting. : )

We said our goodbyes, and took off. Dad and I got some fuel, which cost us an arm and a leg, and finally made it home. It was good to be home despite the trip being so nice....if only there was fishing involved....*sigh*

A Carp and a Bugger...

So, I just got off of work on July 31 at 7 in the morning wide awake as could be. I was sitting with a patient from 4 to 7 roughly. This gave me plenty of time to see where I wanted to go fishing that morning, that is, if I were not tired of course. : ) So, I got home, packed my things and took off to Lake Hudson. It was supposed to be an hour drive but it ended up being 1 1/2 hours because I got lost. : ( No GPS on my phone because 3G was not working for me nor did I have my Garmin because the calibration on it is messed up and I am unable to type in any letters. It is due for an upgrade soon. Or just to be smashed with a hammer....

 So, I finally found Lake Hudson after stopping three times to ask for directions. It was a miracle I even found the place because of the lousy directions I was given. There was literally no one at the park. It was perfect. The entire park all to myself to relax and think about a lot of things. I heard that it has a ton of bluegill and largemouth bass so I was game. I drove to the beach area to see what I could see. Not a car in sight. Perfect. I took about 10 minutes making sure I had water and all my gear ready to go to wade in the water. At first glance, it didn't seem promising to tell you the truth. Really really muddy and geese were everywhere so their nasty poop was all on the ground. Yuck.

I tied a white wooly bugger on my 6wt Browning fly rod and was just casting out to see if I had some hits. After about 5 minutes, nothing. Eh, let's move down a ways. That's when I saw them: carp. 2 or 3 were feeding in knee deep water. I stood still taking off my white bugger and tying on a black bugger. I stalked them for hours it seemed and yet it was just a few minutes. I kept working the fly back and forth, let it sink, jerk it a bit, let it sink. I got it in again and *BAM* a sunfish nabbed it. *sigh* Stupid sunfish! At least it was something! By then, the carp were spooked. Great. I moved down a ways and kept on working the fly on the bottom. The mud and silt was stirred up by the carp feeding and I couldn't see the fly anymore. I was reeling it in and felt a tug. My heart skipped a beat. I set the hook and sure enough.....ZZZZZZIIIIINNGGGGG!!!!!!!! The whirring of the reel was music to my ears! I had my first carp on the fly! : D

Here is a short video of some of the action. Sorry it is so all over the place. It was hard to film and reel in at the same time. : ) 

 

Well, I must say. As tired as I was, this was one of the most amazing days I have ever had. Here I am tired as can be and yet I was able to land 2 fish in about 2 hours of hiking and fishing around the lake. It may not seem like much but those fish were spooked quite easily and I am amazed that I caught two carp. So much fun! Here is the picture of the first carp. Sorry it is chopped off. I got too excited and the fish was flopping around  and that was the only good clear shot I had of it. : / 

Success! : D