Friday, July 12, 2013

#mulberrytime


The first week of June usually signals the beginning of that special time of year. Mulberry time. The mulberries are now ripe enough to attract the attention of hungry birds and squirrels. Usually multiple squirrels and a variety of birds can be found in a mulberry tree at any given time. They feed on these berries quite aggressively because the unripe fruit is hard to pull from the tree. Due to their violent pulling and shaking of the branches they knock down as many berries as they eat, if not more. These berries fall into the water below and are quickly located by cruising fish. Carp will congregate underneath these trees to take advantage of this plentiful food source. Dry fly fishing is a blast and a welcome change of pace. Throughout the month I concentrated my efforts at a tiny retention pond which is home to a army of small fish. Size doesn't matter to me when they are eating my fly off the surface. I caught dozens of fish but one in particular was quite special. I caught the same grey and white linear mirror as I did last year. An absolute stunner. It was a nice surprise.

Even though the fish were small, casting accuracy was a must and extremely difficult to achieve. This made the small fish 100x more rewarding than they should have been. The fish fed heaviest underneath a section of very low hanging branches, a few even touching the surface. Shooting your fly down and under these branches from across the pond was a feat in itself. It was a game of inches. The fish are smart enough not cruise open water in search of berries because the berries don't drift away from the tree in stagnant water. This was especially true on sunny days where they felt safest in the shade of the tree. Towards the end of the season there was more flies hanging in the tree than actual berries. No risk, no reward.  

Although the dry fly action was hard to beat, I did crave bigger fish. Over the course of the month I fished other venues in search of larger fish. Sadly no mulberry trees are present at these venues. I had to go back to the basics and fish weightless nymphs at close range to weary fish. I was rewarded with a few decent specimens but I really had to work for them. These fish feed heaviest during low light conditions which makes sight fishing difficult. To combat this I incorporate large chartreuse eyes on my dragon and damsel patterns. This modification makes them a lot easier to see as they parachute down in the water column. Also, since I do the majority of my fishing in low light I made the switch back in January from amber polarized lenses to yellow lenses. The light yellow color greatly increases visibility.




Not close enough...



Just a few inches closer does the trick.





Unripe Mulberry


One...


Sexy...


Fish.


Micro


A blurry gator.



Sometimes you have to rest them on your knee...


The Damsel.


Carp Damsel tied with chartreuse eyes, responsible for all my larger fish



Carp Dragon doing work too...




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam how do you fish that location that is filled with green alage? i know of that location now, id like to meet up and learn form the best..

Anonymous said...

how do you fish the location that is filled with alage? i have been there before.

i would really like to meet up and learn from you guys.

Gregg said...

We have transplanted exotics, including mulberries, but to find them near carp is luck itself. You guys don't know how lucky you are. We also grow bald cyprus trees, knees and all here in SW Idaho, a carp once unbelievably regurgatated
in a net 3 2" green cones, crazy stuff, I am sure he could not have digested them. Nice fish with the damsel and dragon, to say the least. Suspended insect types I must try I keep telling myself.

Gregg

Mr. P. said...

Very cool, Adam!

Wendy Berrell said...

Nice damsel.

Adam said...

Thanks guys!