john montana
Well-known member
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- 175
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Basically every year since college, my buddy Justin and I have been lucky enough to spend a few days each spring fishing together. Pretty astounding that we have kept this trip together over the years, given lives, wives, and kids. Really, it is because our wives are fantastic. Considering that we live well over 2000 miles apart, we never take this for granted. Since the carp bug has really taken a hold of us, we have pretty much turned this into a carp trip, and for the fourth year in a row we pounded on Lake MI for 3.5 days. This year we absolutely nailed it.
The fish were thick, and we walked into masses of them. My home waters require tiny flies, and a tea cup size target, but the great thing about lake MI is the fish will chase big flies and streamers, often moving from quite a distance to smash stripped and hopped flies. Quite a sight for visual junkies like us.
We have had good trips in the past, but this was just insane. We landed a rough total of 135 carp (and a bunch of bass). The real amazing thing was the quality of the fish. We netted and weighed 20 carp that were over 20 lbs. The biggest fish weighed in at 31 lbs (an amazing fish that Justin took on a two inch long black bunny leech on day 3). We would net, weigh and release 18 lb fish with barely a mention or a nod...it was just crazy.
It is going to take some reflection time to really process this insanity. J and I love our time together and while we have had some great trips over the years, this one was truly amazing.
Huge thanks to our wives and kids for letting us do what we do...we fully realize how special and ridiculous walking a huge lake with a fly rod in hand really is.
The fish were thick, and we walked into masses of them. My home waters require tiny flies, and a tea cup size target, but the great thing about lake MI is the fish will chase big flies and streamers, often moving from quite a distance to smash stripped and hopped flies. Quite a sight for visual junkies like us.
We have had good trips in the past, but this was just insane. We landed a rough total of 135 carp (and a bunch of bass). The real amazing thing was the quality of the fish. We netted and weighed 20 carp that were over 20 lbs. The biggest fish weighed in at 31 lbs (an amazing fish that Justin took on a two inch long black bunny leech on day 3). We would net, weigh and release 18 lb fish with barely a mention or a nod...it was just crazy.
It is going to take some reflection time to really process this insanity. J and I love our time together and while we have had some great trips over the years, this one was truly amazing.
Huge thanks to our wives and kids for letting us do what we do...we fully realize how special and ridiculous walking a huge lake with a fly rod in hand really is.
