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With the wife out of town at an equestrian event over the last weekend I got pet duty and therefore couldn't head South for my usual weekend off ritual. Of course the weather was nice so I pouted around the house cursing Kansas and all this frozen ass water we've got right now. I watched too much WFN (World Fishing Network) and got some things done around the house but by Monday I was getting the itch pretty bad. Wouldn't you know that a wonderful holiday like Valentines Day just happened to fall on a nice sunny day when I'd give about anything to be floating one of the Ozarks finest. I did the right thing (also the smart one) and stayed home , picking up the last minute card and chocalates as well as making her a huge seafood dinner when she got home from work. This kind of thing goes far a month from now when I just gotta be gone for 5 or 6 days on that trip to Iowa or Arkansas or wherever it might be.
Tuesday was open , but of course the weather was gonna get shitty compared to the last couple days. Oh well , I had to hit the water for an hour or so and this last warm stretch pretty much assured that the spillway below Clinton Lake would be free of ice.
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I didn't really have much hope of doing any good...maybe catch a white bass or walleye if I got real lucky , but more likely that I might catch a roughfish or two, which I had no problem with. I love my trout and the beautiful places they like to live but a 10# drum or buffalo will make your hands shake and probably show you that backing you havn't seen since you tied on that last new flyline last year.
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For you guys that havn't tried the whole trash fish scene ,by that I mean carp...drum...buffalo...gar...etc you owe it to yourself to head down to the nearest cesspool and swing a bugger through that shit. Once you've felt that pull you're hooked and a permanent denizen of the "Dark Side" of fly fishing. I'm still a newbie but I'm definitely hooked and plan on trying more frequently this year.
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I had tied up a few shad colored clousers over the weekend in preparation for the trip so that's what I intended to fish with. I had the 5 weight rigged with a 9' sinking leader and a 24" piece of 8# flouro.
It didn't take 20 minutes to hook the first fish of the day , an asian carp (I think anyway..too many sub-species in this river for me to keep track) probably about 5 or 6 pounds.
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Gave me a hell of a battle and a smile on my face that wouldn't leave the rest of the morning. After that first fish I continued to catch several others of various species and size. In the mix were 2 white bass..1 drum..1 buffalo and 4 asian carp that were fair hooked.
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I foul hooked a small channel cat...a crappie and a couple small drum as well. There were obviously a few fish holed up in that area and some of them were getting hungry.
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The real kicker though was the fish of the day , a jumbo asian carp. Now I've been told before that I didn't have enough rod for the task at hand (in more ways than one) but that was an understatement in this situation.
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I fought this fish for what I would guess to be about 30 minutes , following him up and down the bank putting as much pressure on him as I dared. Honestly I figured it was a foul hooked fish, although I was hoping it wasn't , but either way I wanted to see this thing. My first glimpse I about wet myself...this thing looked huge and he was fair hooked as well. When I finally was able to land him it took both hands just to lift him up on the bank.
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I took a few pics and then taped him against my flyrod for measurement later. My hands were shaking so bad I couldn't even re-tie my fly for a few minutes so I just sat there and smiled. Back home I put a tape up to my rod...46 inches of rod bending carp.
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My biggest fish on a flyrod to date and one hell of a lot of fun. The pics don't do it justice but trust me it was a big fish , I've got a weight in my head but I'm not even gonna go there cause it's just a guess ,I'm happy with 46 inches!