Late June, Blue Skies, Where Are the Carp?

This weekend Rachel and I headed to Wilson Lake, KS, to hopefully get into some clear water sight fishing.  Wilson is known as the "clearest lake in Kansas!" according to the billboard on I-70.  We met up with my buddy, Clint, who lives nearby.  He just got into flyfishing recently and had been nailing bass on poppers all Spring.  He kept telling me he was seeing tons of tailing carp back in May.  This was as soon as we could make the trip, so we hoped the fish were still up shallow and eating!

 Saturday morning started out with beautiful weather, but the clear water we had been expecting had been muddied by recent rains.  There were a couple tails to be seen on the flats, but I could tell our opportunities were going to be few and far between.  "Should have been here last month!"

It didn't take long for the wind to pick up, so we pulled the kayaks up and began exploring the shoreline.  I noticed something on the sandstone bluffs, so I went up for a closer look.







Giant Mayflies!  And lots of them!  I'm guessing these guys emerged the night before?  The carp were probably gorging them selves on nymphs and sipping big duns off the top.  That's how I envisioned it anyways.  And I am using that for an excuse as to why the fishing was so SLOW today.

The shoreline excursion also provided a few reptile sightings.  But we were too slow for this collared lizard. 

But Rachel nabbed a horny toad!

We had a few shots at fish, but we were doing a lot more searching than fishing.  

I was in the back of a cove when I noticed something chasing shad back in the shallows.  I through my orange and brown Clouser on top of them and ended up with this guy!  I'm on the board!

Not long after that bass I noticed some nervous water up ahead, just off a little rock outcropping.  The glare off the water didn't allow me to get a visual on what was feeding just below the surface, but I threw the fly in there just the same.  Fish on!  Finally a carp!  He made a good run into the backing and gave me a fun fight.  I was pretty happy to get this guy before going home with a carp skunk.   Clint ended up catching another bass on a popper before we had to call it a day.  It was a fun day on the water, but next year I'm coming in May!