Some Tractor Tires Bite (The Hazards of Carp Fishing)

The trout fishing here on the Front Range of Colorado has been a bit shitty. The runoff has been intense and drawn out. It is mid-July and no one has seen the bottom of Boulder Creek since…well, early May probably. Good grief. I even heard a native use the word drought in conversation without the usual sinister overtones the other day. Bazaar. But I am not complaining, or concerned…the rivers are all bound to drop sometime. And the carp fishing is just now reaching its prime! Erin Block, Brian Schmidt and myself met up yesterday morning and hit some of the local mud flats. The water is still a tad high in the reservoirs, as well…this does not impact the carp fishing to the same degree as the trout streams, but still can cause problems. When the water is high the carp can burrow into the submerged cattails like a feed trough whenever the munchies strike. Content carp are difficult carp. Hungry, hunting carp are the vulnerable ones. Like the advice an old friend once bestowed me—never be desperate for love or money…’cause then you will get taken advantage of!  True. True.  So, I like it best when the farms and cities start calling for water and the reservoir levels begin to drop, forcing the carp out of their dense, green feed-bag sanctuaries and turn them out on the flats to scrounge like street people. Hungry and willing to take a chance. A chance that will inevitably get them into trouble.

So…we had a good day. Beached almost two dozen decent fish between the three of us. Then Erin sees what she thinks is another mudding carp, casts and sets the hook into a tractor tire with claws and a beak…

                                                   Read Erin's Story Here!