Zach Matthews
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Check the photoblog for the EXIFs on them; some of them are guesses because I edited them in the field but most are sure things.
I generally increase saturation and may tweak the framing on every image.
Hey Mike-
Ok, I fish for carp two ways. One is the ghetto way, chumming them or imitating bread balls with chenille flies and going after them around docks and whatnot.
That is how this fish was taken:
Incidentally this is slated to run in the January AA and it will be Lauren’s first published shot.The other way I catch them is in a trout stream. Basically I search out an area where I can walk upstream for as long as possible – several hundred yards in my favorite spot. I put in and have either a crazy charlie or an orange-headed egg sucking leech rigged and ready, with about 30 feet of line in a basket and a stout 8 weight rod. I SLOWLY wade upriver, watching the carp. They will usually feed in late afternoon, nosing around in the mud.
You want to play this two ways: either cast the fly in front of them a considerable way and let it settle to the mud, then make a short strip when the carp gets close, which will cause him to strike usually if he sees it. The other way is to cast right behind him, just behind his pectoral fin really, so he’ll spin to see what happened. About 75% of the time this will spook him but one in four will be thinking mulberries or birdshit and will be looking for a meal. Wait for them to see the fly then just give one strip and let it settle – usually they will pick it up as it falls.
The trick is that this is a caster’s game. Europeans who do this all the time all comment on how most fly-caught carp are caught by good casters. You need to be 30-60′ back to avoid spooking them. I always wait until the sun is shining where I can see them and they can’t see me. I also always wade upriver – I have had zero luck wading downstream.
Love the carp discussion.
ZachHere is the map of the area:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.458922,-83.734016&spn=0.062298,0.116927&t=k&hl=en
We will be canoeing into the upper middle arm. Hazel Creek is, apparently, one of the more famous streams in the Smokies, and I have been warned that there will be a lot of anglers in there, but to be perfectly honest I think their definition of “a lot” and my tailwater-bred definition would be pretty different. For one thing it costs $35 for a party of two to have yourself shuttled over. No fishing in the Smokies is worth that much (speaking of the fishing alone).
This is going to be sweet. We will have tons of pictures from this trip.
Zach
I recently read a story somewhere about a Vogue photographer who uses those Olympus point and shoots to cover wars and foreign affairs, etc.