Kayak'N for Carp

OH MAN, what have I been missing! Lake Champlain Carp, AKA Yankee Bonefish, are pure fun to fly fish for from a kayak. I'd read a few articles on how fly fisherman were beginning to target these guys, and now I can see why. Challenging, powerful, BIG, skittish, and local, fishing for them is very similar to stalking Bonefish in tropical flats.

While checking out a new area for Bowfin in Lake Champlain in my Jackson Kayak Day Tripper Elite, I stumbled across some Carp feeding in the tall grasses, just like Redfish. Fishing kayaks are great tools for hunting these guys, let you sneak up quietly in the shallows and get where other anglers can't. Weather wasn't really good that day -- a little breezy and cloudy, so I went back the next day in bright sun and calm winds -- just what you need to spot fish from a distance.

The first one was a loner, just cruising the sand flats. After a couple 50 ft casts, I saw the subtle take, strip set and hung on. I laughed as I watched my backing peel off the reel. About a half hour later, I was stepping out of the kayak onto the sand flats and landing my first Carp on a fly rod.

A little while later, I found a group of a half dozen or so feeding near a weed bed. I picked out the largest one, dropped a fly over its nose, watched it rise up and saw the take again. This one was even bigger, just massive. It headed off into the weeds, and I think it took a while for it to realize it was even hooked. It had so much power, all I could do was let it pull me around in the kayak to tire itself out. About an hour later I was able to get it to the boat, and it was all I could do to drag it into my lap. What a fish.

I probably won't be able to chase Bonefish in Belize again for a while, but these guys will sure help me practice.

D

Prehistoric Fins

I've been introduced to a couple really fun new species to target on a fly rod as the heat of summer picks up and the trout fishing turns off. One of them is the Bowfin -- they've been around since the dinosaurs.

Bowfin are characterized by a huge dorsal fin, and a complimentary huge appetite. Sight fishing for them is awesome as you creep through the shallows looking for that dorsal fin, treading water like a snake under the surface. They are top of the food chain predators, plain and simple, and once you find them will HAMMER a fly. No need to be stealthy, deal with long leaders or be delicate -- except when handling them, for your sake, not theirs. They can live out of water for a while, have teeth, and will bite. Watch those fingers.

Lake Champlain is a local resource that I really haven't taken a lot of advantage of, but that will be changing after going after these guys.

Mt. Washington : Summit Sunsets

To everybody's surprise, the storm which had been engulfing the mountain for a week broke after dinner, and the skies opened up to incredible views in every direction.

Despite being comfortable with full stomachs after the AMC's hut dinner, I convinced Ash that an evening summit trip would be well worth it -- after all, the weather could change back any minute. So we threw on our boots and headed up the final mile and half to the top, in total privacy. What is usually a crowded summit, was deserted, and we watched the sunset through the thin layer of clouds just hanging on to the last hundred feet of the summit cone. The hike down provided great sunset views on one side, while watching the moon rise on the other.

The next morning after breakfast we headed down the steep Ammonoosuc Ravine trail -- one of the coolest trails I've ever done, with countless waterfalls benefiting from the recent rains and some very steep rock hopping.

It was a fun overnight, and Ash was glad to finally get on top of that mountain...

Mt. Washington : Into the Clouds

Ash has been wanting to head up Mt. Washington for a while, and after being rejected by a massive storm this winter, it was on the To-Do list for the summer. One of the unique things about the White Mountains is the AMC's hut system -- a series of mountain huts providing lodging, food, and education for hikers, especially important in the alpine vegetation found on many peaks in the Whites.

So to get the 'hut experience' at least once, we booked a night at the Lakes of the Clouds hut near the summit of Mt. Washington and headed over to celebrate the 4th of July in the Presidential Range - kind of fitting.

Washington however is notorious for bad weather, and despite a sunny forecast, it snowed on the summit the night before our hike and didn't look any better when we hit the trail. We hiked up the Crawford Path, the 'oldest continually-used mountain trail in America', which also overlaps the Appalachian Trail.

Despite being socked in the clouds all day on a windy ridgeline, it was still a great hike and we got to the hut early afternoon. Luckily the crowds had stayed away, and we settled in for a relatively quiet evening at the hut.