My Obsession with Carp
Somehow it just clicked. There is some connection between me and the fish, not so much of fishing. Fishing is just the medium that took me down to [the] fish
– Jigme Tsuendrup
Bhutanese fly fishing guide and outfitter, about his relationship to the Golden Mahseer
I can clearly remember when I hooked my first carp. She was swimming in the high water of early spring, sucking food from flooded tree trunks and stalks of grass. I dropped a tiny nymph in front of her and she nosed up and ate it without hesitation. Then she bolted for open water, tearing line off of my reel until she broke me off on a snag. And somehow, it just clicked.
Kung-Fu Carp Fishing
I love carp fishing so much that I wrote a book about it. I also drew all the pictures! It’s not a really serious book, I just wanted to communicate my joy and excitement for catching carp on the fly. I don’t make any money from my book. Instead, I licensed it to a good friend who wanted to start an online publishing business. It is available on Amazon from Iron Ring Publishing.
Kung-Fu Carp Fishing is an irreverent and entertaining guide to fly fishing for common carp. In the spirit of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and The Curtis Creek Manifesto, this unique and colorful book imagines the art of catching carp on the fly as an ancient secret, protected for centuries by fearsome warrior-monks, only to be divulged now through a series of martial arts-style lessons.
Columbia River Carp
In 2006 a guy called John Montana started blogging about catching carp on the fly from the Columbia River. Year after year he posted picture after picture of the 20 to 30 pound carp he was catching.
The Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing for Carp, published in 2013, posited that “[t]he mighty Columbia River … is probably one of the top five carp destinations in America.”
In 2011 I took my first trip to the Columbia River to fish for carp. Five years later we bought a small house right in the middle of the National Scenic Area. Seven years after that I finally moved to the Gorge to fish for carp full-time.
The Columbia River is huge, with countless miles of flats. Are there carp on all those flats? Maybe. Can they be caught on the fly? Maybe. I am just beginning to explore this fishery. Want to come along? You can follow my adventures by subscribing to my blog:
The Fishing Dojo 