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Slowly, I am being sucked in – into this whole Carp thing. It is hard to imagine anything more “Skid” than taking a conceptual event like fly fishing and introducing it to a giant minnow that vacuums the vast flats of fresh water lakes for a variety of equally low morsels and vegetation.

Perhaps once you’ve had your fill of average bass, average bluegill, average just about everything else available, perhaps the pursuit of fish with above average senses, strength and numbers is … inevitable … maybe down low, but inevitable. I hope that doesn’t sound as bad as it looks – I give thanks for all fish brought to hand.

Take away all your thoughts of cool trout streams, tropical paradises, exotic drinks, guides poling you to sandy flats of clear salt that are paralleled by the blue skies that meet them, Rocky Mountain streams, clear running lakes – take all that and just put it away just like your winter fleece you finally put away last week, waders, warmers and all forms of insulation. This is Texas, North Texas – the place where we have a constant “H” over us on the maps, which roughly translates “Hole” in the atmosphere where direct rays of the sun heat us like popcorn in a microwave oven. Eventually, we must pop, and I am thinking the result of that pop must be a crazy call to Carping. They don’t exactly sing a siren song, but they do have some vocal range.

It would have taken much longer for me to come around to Carp if not for Cult of Carp leader Joel Hays. If you are somewhat a regular reader, you no doubt have heard, and maybe grown tired of all the TFC references to Hays, but if anyone has a better grip on what all the possibilities are for a fly rod in North Texas, feel free to chime in – here and now. This new religion has even propagated a new site for Hays at dfwflyfishing.com, a site I have been building for the past few months. It is not a site to go into the annals of history for its glitzy gizmos, but take a look and you will quickly get the point.

So, now on this Memorial Day, I am fighting the feeling that I need to get back to the flats this afternoon, and give them another go. It is one of the most interesting pursuits you could want on a local water, the wind conditions have a direct effect on potential locations, the water depth, clarity and temperature. Then, there’s the actual chase; much like (what I can only financially imagine) the stalking of Bonefish on the flats, where sighting, stealth, presentation, offerings and stars must all align with a presentation hitting the area about the size of a dinner plate (here at unusually short range).

Again, please feel free to comment, suggest and critique. This is where the sharing of information for the fun of the sport – BEGINS.

Maybe it is a sign of the times, but I was able to get a prime site to park the in-laws fancyschmancy trailer on the peninsula at Ray Roberts this holiday weekend. That is going to be the base of operations (BOO) for the Carp Follies video shoot tomorrow as well as boating, kayaking, biking and oh yes – fishing.

So if anyone needs a respite from the wind, and water and crowds, just ask, and ye shall receive – the precise location of the BOO.

I just had to pass this one along – from the quote for the day at the hillcountryflyfishers yahoo group.

” When it comes to cults, fly fishing isn’t much different than most.
Simply put, this means that enough is never enough. With luck you can
reach a pleasant level of mellow fanaticism and maybe even hold down a
regular job at the plant. But there is a trout bum that lurks in every
one of us and I think we all secretly know that a sparse little lean-to
under the bridge, say on Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, is never more
than a cast away. ”

Ed Engle