A fishing buddy had been trying to figure out carp for about a week - he bought a faster action 6-weight mid-last week, and a big net just yesterday.  He’s been buried in research, and inquiring at every fly shop he could.

Today, my phone started ringing off the hook around 8am.  I was on the other line and couldn’t answer, but knew Jon had the morning off.  Then this picture hit my Blackberry…

He doesn’t have a Flickr account or a blog, so I’m doing the congratulations.  Quite the pig I must say.

UPDATE: I’d always wondered how folks taking photos of their carp set up the pics so nicely.  I figured get that fish back in the water before it dies!  A little research of my own found the answer - as it turns out, carp can live under the most extreme circumstances, including severely oxygen depleted environments.  In other words, they can hold their breath for extraordinarily long periods of time, and can even produce alcohols and tranquilizers internally that both provide energy and reduce pain when they’re under stress.  Jon told me that after several minutes out of water, this fish needed no reviving whatsoever - it rolled off the rocks itself and took off like nothing had happened.  Talk about determination - carp are damn tough critters!

For the highly productive worker, obviously concentrating on the latter…

Now I’ll say it again…get back to work.

PS: If you get busted reading this, just tell your boss corporate fly fishing still sucks!

Pete McDonald (a.k.a. Fishing Jones) talks to John Montana about catching carp on the fly. John blogs at…where else…Carp on the Fly. Great interview chock full of useful information for the carp newbie and beyond.

I gleaned from this that hopper droppers are not a carp’s best friend, and if you carry a 3-weight your rod won’t be your friend for very long if you hook one of these beasts on it.