It’s official, I have caught carp on the fly every month for the last twelve consecutive months! January was pretty chilly so I only braved the elements long enough to catch one fish, but all the other months saw some pretty good days. I will admit that we had a very mild winter here in the Columbia Gorge. We saw snowflakes once or twice at our house (elevation ~100 feet above sea level), but never saw any accumulation below about 1000 feet. We also had stretches of unseasonably warm weather most months.
I began catching proper river-carp in mid-March, but the season really took off towards the end of April. May through July was definitely the most productive period; the carp were plentiful and willing to take a fly. By mid-August the weeds made hooking and landing carp in the river very difficult, but a few lakes and ponds continued fishing well. I hooked 23 small carp on one afternoon in September, despite a hole in my net, and my boot sole coming unglued. Since this was our first winter here, I have no predictions about the weather and river conditions for the coming year.
I will end the 2026 Columbia River Carp season (roughly March – September this year) with around 300 carp caught. Looking back through my notes I can see that I spent quite a few days looking for fish in the wrong places at the wrong times so I am looking forward to trying to improve that number next year.
