Fly Fishing for Carp Seminar – Save The Date
With everyone’s busy schedules filling up fast I figured I would throw an open loop out for everyone to save the date. My good friends at International Angler in Pittsburgh have been kind enough to ask me back again this year for another fun filled couple of hours to talk about my favorite subject! No…. not wet T-shirt contests (although more people would probably show up for that talk) Once again we will delve into the fun in the mud world of fly fishing for carp!
I can’t promise to solve the mysteries of Atlantis, big foot, or the Lock Ness Montster. But I can promise to break down fly fishing for carp into some very simple recipes for success. More details to come!
When: Sunday, June 10th at 2:00PM
Where: International Angler – 5275 Steubenville Pike Pittsburgh, PA 15205
Blatant Self Promotion and Shameless Plugs
So at the risk of sounding way too full of myself, this past month marked a momentous occasion for yours truly. No I did not finally get the long awaited call from Angelina Jolie letting me know that she left that slouch Brad for me. (She did however inform me that she still closes her eyes and thinks of me every time he touches her) It was far greater than that. No… don’t get up… please really…. the applause is not necessary….. What? I must share? OK… If I must….
Mr Brownliner, yours truly, ghost writing as none other than well…. ME…. was featured in the spring issue of The New Fly Fisher E-zine. If you are looking for a full year of some high quality fly fishing education for less than a large pizza and a six pack then check them out! http://thenewflyfisherezine.com/ You may be familiar with them for their own show on WFN as well as their association/production of the show that Orvis airs featuring Tom Rosenbauer. Big thanks to Colin and the gang for providing me a few pages to talk about carp and all things brown line!
Come on…. no snickering… For the first time Mrs. Brownliner raised her eyebrow in shocked disbelief! No no no… not over my sad pathetic pining over Angelina. (no shock or disbelief there at all) It was more over the fact that there were more than 10 people in the country… scratch that… world that actually cared about fly fishing for carp let alone had an interest in hearing what I had to say about it. While I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon as John Gierach I am not, It was nice to see carp on the fly begin to get its much deserved respect. Thanks again to the folks at The New Fly Fisher for the spotlight and a chance to talk about fishing on the fringes!
Tight Lines,
MBL
Summer’s Most Prolific Hatch?
Here in Pennsylvania we are blessed with some amazing hatches throughout the year. Many have pontificated over what they feel to be the most prolific hatch…. green drakes, white fly, hex….. none of them can hold a candle to what I experienced on the creek this week. With the rains ushering in some early fall weather the infamous yet highly unpublicized TOILET PAPER HATCH went off in full bloom this week!
One of the glorious if not aromatic bi-products of heavy rains is that many of our local waterways are the recipient of our excess sewage. Yes, yes, yes…. I know this is the eye opening equivalent of taking a black light into a rest stop hotel room. I would prefer to remain an ostrich as well but once you pull the covers down, you might as well just come to grips with the reality.
So as the TP hatch goes off many of our favorite brown line species allow their noses to leave the stream bottom and venture to the surface for some “dry fly” action. I have often thought of tying a “Charmin Special” for the occasion, but as it turns out one of the flies that occupies my box wherever I go fit’s the bill perfectly!
The venerable Blood Dot not only is deadly on taking carp as a nymph, but if you douse it in floatant, it is a perfect matching of the hatch for the Angel Soft Spinner. It is funny how if you are willing to experiment with your tactics you often learn things that you would never have known. I always thought of Blood Dot’s or other egg patterns as trout and steelhead food. Turns out it is the most consistent carp producer that CW or I have ever used.
So water conditions were a bit difficult for traditional sight fishing but I managed to find my favorite eddy to be chock full of big lips hoovering the surface. I only had a few hours to fish but the action was on and you could feel even the mid-sized carp shaking off their summer doldrums with renewed energy.
So next time you get the chance. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Get out and hit the TP hatch for some amazing dry fly carping!
Good Luck and Tight Lines,
MBL
I Seriously Need My Head Examined!
It was mid-afternoon and the sun was beating down relentlessly upon the water. What was I thinking? Well that is exactly what Mrs. Brownliner asked me as I came home sunburned and dehydrated. What kind of moron goes fishing when it is this hot out?????
I suppose this moron does! Now I would be a complete liar if I told you the fishing was prolific or that the fight in the fish I caught was top shelf. I think the dog days of summer pretty much left all of us uncomfortable and gasping for air. My motivation however is both specific and timely. You see, to put it in fly fishing terms, Mrs. Brownliner has a double on and she is just about to land both fish!
So life has taken some amazing turns. Any time between NOW and six weeks from now I will be driving the fish mobile mach 3 to the hospital with a woman in the passenger seat telling me where to turn and smacking me in the head the entire way. This means a tremendous joy for the Brownliner clan and for me personally. It also means that my fishing crack habit is going into detox for a bit until life settles back down. So for now, I am getting every minute on the water that I can. I don’t care if I have to fish downstream from a sewage outlet dumping little chunks of toilet paper into the creek! Wait a minute, I was fishing downstream from a sewage outlet dumping little chunks of toilet paper into the creek! My brain can still smell it to be honest… ughhh.
But I did bring some fish to hand! I’m hoping to get a few more hours on the water before two little brownliners make their way into the world. Wish me luck… I think I’m going to need it!
CW Goes Red Neck… Plays with Kitty
So I FINALLY got out on the creek yesterday. It had been close to a month since I had seen my favorite carp waters and was itching to get at it. I only had a few hours, but it didn’t matter to me. I was just happy to be on the water. I showed up at about 6:30PM and suited up as quickly as I could. I could see CW off in the distance landing a fish so I was optimistic right off the bat.
As he approached I doubled over laughing. Dude!!! That is about as “red neck” as it gets! He just grinned at me and said, “yeah… I know.”
So I might as well just spit it out now… I got totally skunked. Normally that really doesn’t bother me but after not seeing my creek for a month it did sting a bit. Especially after CW landed this beautiful Cat!
We fished into the darkness but the bite just shut off. The only thing that crossed our path were a pair of huge beavers. These are the times in life that I crave more “me” time. More time on the water… more time to reflect. More time to match wits with a worthy adversary. More time with good friends.
Life works in funny ways sometimes. Sometimes it gives you what you want, sometimes it gives you what you need. Sometimes it just tests you to see what your made of. Yeah… I got skunked. That should be the worst thing that happened to me 
Good Luck and Tight Lines
MBL
Honorable Mention
Big thanks to John Hayes, the outdoor writer at the Post Gazette for shedding some light on fly fishing for carp!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11226/1167075-358-0.stm
Hopefully our good friend Mr. Big Lips will get a bit of much deserved respect!
MBL
Pretty White for a Fly Guy
So last night I met a few friends to hit the white fly hatch. Tim dropped me a message and we set our meeting time for 6:00PM. After fiddling with my fly boxes (which I do often) and making sure I had all my gear, I took a look at the clock which read 2:30PM… Hmmmm… what to do?
I figured hell, that’s plenty of time to get in some brown lining on my local creek before we meet up. I kissed my wife as she rolled here eyes at me and headed out. Summer always brings such a conflict for me. The temperatures have been ungodly hot and the humidity is off the charts. Stepping into a pair of chest waders is like boiling yourself from the inside. Wet wading sounds like the logical choice until you google a few stories about micro-bacterial infections, chemical burns, and trips to the emergency room. I think I’ll just sweat…. and sweat I did. I had to move my glasses down to the tip of my nose so they would stop fogging up. Yeah, it was frigging hot.
We had just had some rain so the water was still pretty off color but I did manage to jump two nice smallies which both managed to spit the hook out faster than my 10th grade girl friend and this bad boy who I am still not sure how he opened his mouth wide enough to eat my fly
So we finally made it to the creek with a few hours of daylight still intact and we suited up. I decided to once again put on my soaking wet waders despite our decent hike to the spot we were going to fish. Two words… SWAMP Ass… While we were in the car I had given the guys a few pencil poppers that I had tied for the Allegheny and totally forgot to put any in my box because I figured they would be a bit large for the occasion. Sean tied his on for shits and giggles. What ensued was pretty cool. He had fish literally knocking each other out of the way trying to eat this thing. He landed fish after chunky fish as Tim and I pretty much beat water.
As nightfall set in the hatch started to go off and it was pretty darn cool. It was near blizzard conditions and smallies started sipping our dry flies amidst the white chaos. I busted one really nice fish off and landed a few others that put up some nice battles. Anyone who has eve fished with me knows the one thing I never forget is my camera. I reached into my pocket to snap some pics of the thousands of white flies filling the air and the bass that were kind enough to cooperate and of course it was nowhere to be found. Unhappy is an understatement but I guess I can’t complain. I was fishing with good friend, good fish, and good karma.
I came home to Mrs. Brownliner who was still rolling her eyes at me wondering what would possess a grown man to want to stand in a cloud of bugs in the dark waving a fly rod for 8 hours. The only thing I could say was, “honey… It’s the white fly hatch!” insert eye roll here.
Good Luck and Tight Lines,
MBL
Carp on the Fly Talk Slides from International Angler
Last night I gave a talk at International Angler in Pittsburgh on fly fishing for carp. For those of you that were not able to make it here are the slides from the talk. Unfortunately you missed the round table style conversation which was the best part but hopefully this at least gives you a flavor of what went on!
Good Luck and Tight Lines
MBL
Why the PA Fish and Boat Commission SUCKS!!!!!!
Sick to my stomach is the only way to describe how I feel about what I saw this week. The news has been swirling for some time about the closing of Glade Run Lake in Butler county. Apparently the dam that held the lake was high risk and there was no money to fix it. OK…. I get that. There are a lot of things right now that there is no money to fix…. the rust spot on the rear lift gate on my Subaru for example or the lack of hard drive space on my MacBook!
But nothing…. and I repeat NOTHING provides an excuse for what I saw when I went to visit the lake. I heard from a friend that they were drawing the lake down. We headed up with our fly rods to see if we could enjoy some shallow water site fishing since that was all that was supposedly left. What we saw was an atrocity.
They gated off the area to keep people out and I totally understand why…..
The PA Fish and Boat Commission should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Supposedly they electroshocked and transported a few hundred fish to N. Park lake. What about the rest? You couldn’t have loaded up a stocking truck and taken them to other lakes? The Allegheny river? Offered them to private pond owners? Was it a money issue? Send out a call to action on the web for donations to help remove the fish from the lake! I would have helped and I’m sure many of you would have too.
I pay my license fee because I have to. I pay my license fee because they are supposed to support the fish populations of our state. This is a prime example of politics getting in the way of the right thing.
These images have been burned in my mind and will not soon forget them. If you are reading this blog chances are you have a passion for fishing and hopefully a deep respect for managing the resource that allows us to enjoy our hobby. I hope that you will take this opportunity to voice your displeasure with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for how poorly this was handled…. I know I will be.
Fly Fishing for Carp Seminar at International Angler in Pittsburgh!
I will be hosting a fly fishing for carp seminar at International Angler in Pittsburgh on Thursday, July 14th. More details will be coming soon. If you are in the area and interested in learning more about chasing Mr. Big Lips, mark your calendars!
More details to come at http://www.internationalangler.com
Good Luck and Tight Lines
MBL
