Bray's Bayou, Houston- 3/17/13

I was given an assignment in Houston for work the next couple months, and although very far away from spring in the Rockies, I decided to try to make the best of it and do a little fishing while down here.  I decided to buy an 8wt to bring down with me and hopefully hook into come nice carp in the Bayou City.  Really having no idea as to what I was doing down here, I searched all over the internet for information on chasing fish around town on the fly.  Not a lot to go with, so I visited IFLY- The Anglers Edge- Fly Shop in the Galleria for some locals knowledge.  People do fly fish around Houston, but mostly in local neighborhood ponds for bass.  I told the guy at the fly shop that I was more interested in chasing some Golden Bones around.  He kinda laughed at me, but he did point me in the direction of some great spots to find them.

After being down here for a few days, and working some really long hours, I finally had a little time to start some reconnaissance missions around town, and scope out some spots to try when I really had some time to wet a line.  The first place I looked was in Bray's Bayou, in the southwest part of Houston.  Now the bayous of Houston are completely different than any other place I've fished.  They make the DSP look like a beautiful mountain river, which is very hard to imagine!  They are basically concrete canals to help control flooding in the event of a hurricane.  The water is shallow and slow moving, and there is no structure to be heard of.  But there are fish!!  Lots and lots of them, and very big.  I couldn't believe all the fish that I saw swimming around.  Bigmouth, smallmouth, catfish, and carp.  Lots of carp.  My stoke factor significantly went up.  I was ready to do a little urban fly fishing right in the heart of Houston!!

Beautiful Bray's Bayou!

Had some time this afternoon to finally do some fishing in this city.  The first place I went was a little pond in southwest Houston off the 610 that supposedly held some nice bass.  The little ponds were located in Meyer Park.  I was only able to get about 15 casts in before I swarmed by some curious little guys, wondering what the hell I was doing waving a stick around.  I spent about an hour teaching them how to cast and fish, hoping that one of them would hook into a fish.  It didn't happen, but I had a blast watching them take turns trying to cast my fly rod.  It really is funny the people that you meet because of this sport.  Little guys with a complete different background than me!

My new fishing buddies

I broke away from the my new buddies at Meyer Park and headed back to the spot in Bray's Bayou that I had scoped out earlier this week.  Again, there were carp everywhere.  I used damn near every fly in my Fly-Carpin swap box, but could not seem to get the carp to take any of them.  They were not real spooky, but they did not seem to be feeding too hard.  I did manage to fool one on Mr. Reynolds carp fly, but the hook up was short lived, and I had lost him before I knew it.

I traveled farther down the bayou to a spot closer to the Houston Medical Center.  I parked in a church parking lot, and started walking the concrete lined bayou.  I started seeing fish, but I had no idea what they were.  They weren't moving or feeding, kinda just hunkered down on the bottom of the river, but there were probably over a hundred in this little pod.  I started fishing to them, and they kinda seemed to chase the fly, but in an hour of fishing, I couldn't get one to take the fly.  Finally I got one to eat, I brought this ugly beast to hand.  No idea what it was, and I didn't really know if I should touch it or not.  I took some quick pictures, and gently nudged it back into the water with my foot.  After doing some research, it looks like the fish is Pleco catfish, which is a fish that people keep in their aquarium.  No idea how these tropical fish made their way in the bayous of Houston, but it sure is a first for me.  Even though it sucks being away from my beautiful wife and my Colorado home, at least there is some interesting fishing deep in the bayous of Houston.

Carp Swap Swag

This week just keeps getting better and better.  Returned home from 4 days on the Juan, saw my fly and bio in CarpPro magazine, and then this little goodie package arrived at my house yesterday.  Getting me awfully excited for a some warmer weather and feeding carp.  The DSP stands no chance this year!!

Carpsicle- Fly Carpin Fly Swap 2013 Entry

I don't pretend to be a carp guy.  Sure, I've spent a fair amount of time chasing them around in the Denver South Platte, but really, spooking every fish in the river is mostly what I've done.  The construction project I have been involved in the last couple years is at Metro Wastewater, so I've become fairly familiar with the brown water up in Commerce City, and my carpin' adventures have also taken me south towards Invesco Field and further down Santa Fe.  I watched firsthand the cleanup efforts by Suncor on Sand Creek, and was even involved in some plant wide evacuations due to benzene levels at MWRD.  Rick Mikesell, Assistant Manager at Trouts Fly Shop first helped me out with my initial fly selection for the DSP, mostly sticking to Carp Breakfast and Backstabbers for most of the carpin' I've done.  I have landed some very nice carp in the last couple of years, but I am the first to admit that trout fishing will always be my first love.

But regardless of species, one thing that is a constant for me is my love for learning and tying new flies.  And carp flies are no exception.  And the best place, at least for me, for learning about anything carp is Fly-Carpin.  McTage, the author of the blog does a great job of helping keep people up to date with all that is carpin'.  Most of the flies that I've tried tying are either his flies, or flies that he has spotlighted on his website.  But above all, I learned the most about carp flies from the 2012 Fly-Carpin Fly Swap.  Never had so much information from such prominent fly tiers been so readily available, all collected and posted on one page.  So I literally jumped at the chance to be included in the 2013 Fly Swap, and am very excited to be a part of it this year.

I decided to enter a fly that I call the Carpsicle for the fly swap for this year.  It's a fly that I started tying last summer, and I spent a few of my carpin' outings using this pattern.  When I thought of flies that had worked for me in the past, it was always the heavier patterns that allowed me to present the fly better to the fish, and I really liked the action on flies like McTage's Leather Head Stand Carp Worm.  I put the tungsten bead and the dumbell eyes to not only help the fly ride point up, but help give it a little more action when stripping it in front of a feeding fish.  I used a marabou tail, and the rubber legs to give the fly some of the alive, pulsing action in the current which I believe helps entice a carp to eat.  I've used different styles of dubbing on the Carpsicle, but settled on the Orange Ice Dub, because I really like the way it looks in sunlight, and it gives me more confidence in the fly as well.  I am happy with the progression of the pattern, and I hope you tie some up.  If you do, let me know if you have any success with the Carpsicle!!

Vibber's Carpsicle

Standard Recipe

Hook: Gamakatsu B10S Stinger- Size 2 or 4

Bead: Red Tungsten 5/32"

Eyes: Dumbell Eyes w/ red accents

Tail: Black Marabou

Body: Orange Ice Dub
Rib: Red UTC Wire- Brassie

Legs: Black Sili Legs

Collar: Black Saddle Hackle