went canoeing in Lyons CO, where there are some slalom gates hung in the lower whitewater park, practice for the Nationals that is coming up..

It took less than 3 hours of practice until I was cramping up and worn out.. had a nice lunch in town and stopped at a carp lake on the way home. My local carp ponds either winterkilled or are so pressured the fish are no longer feeding in the shallows where a fly can find them, was really looking forward to a bit of carp fishing.

There were fish splashing and swirling offshore. This lake is reputed to hold white bass. Hucked out the green woolly bugger in case of bass, first cast got a strong hit on the first pull and a good fight in. Color me surprised, a nice 20" saugeye in bright sunlight..



Fishing the Abu Delta 5 on my old Fenwick FL96-7 with an Orvis Clearwater 7wt. The line is overweighted but the Fenwick can cope perfectly well. The Delta is an odd reel, the lever drag is excellent for carp though. I like to leave it at 0 while fishing as there's lots of line stripping during carp fishing for the presentations at assorted distances. Then as soon as a fish is on, smack it over to maximum drag for the fight.

There were plenty of carp in the shallows but I was distracted by the saugeye and fished the deep waters instead. No more of those, instead the first couple of white bass of my life, how nice.



By the time the bass stopped co-operating the winds had come up and weather moved in. Between the light shore surf and lack of sun, either the carp had moved out or my old eyes could no longer see them, quit happily. I'll just have to go back for the carp another day.. pity it's an hour away.

Nice fish!

Interesting by-catch! And that reel is super cool