Red Horse Suckers?

Taken from my old blog - Friday, May 26, 2006

Red Horse Suckers?

Tuesday afternoon, I went out on the local creek to hunt carp. The water was somewhat shallow - about 4 feet at it's deepest but probably averaging about 2 feet. Due to the a drought - probably for about 2 years, the abundance of species has dwindled - I caught very little bream and no bass. However, I do call this part of the creek "carp flats" - not to be confused with the location in Bella Vista. I did expect carp and lots of them. These weren't mirror carp or grass carp - from my research, these seem to be Red Horse Suckers - I have seen them many times before but i am new at "carp hunting" - I recently read Carp on the Fly - very informative. I did try to tip-toe my way in but the bottom of the creek - for the most part is smooth rock cohowed up. These do look like carp but their mouths are gapping open - LET ME KNOW vered with algea - very slick. After a few moments of letting the waters calm, the carp/suckers. IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THESE SPECIES AND WHAT THEY ARE - since it was afternoon and getting hot - about 90, I didn't expect much action. Really, they were just schooling and sunning. Drove me crazy. I was casting a prince nymph, scuds, sowbugs and crawdads.

One thing is for sure, they love to watch and follow fly line - white fly line. They weren't very wary of my casting - which was very surprising. The one thing that stood out most was that a large carp would touch or "sniff" my crawdad when it would fall into the water- then he would leave it alone. Carp hunting is frustrating - rarely have I done it but that afternoon drove me nuts - mostly because there were a lot of them but also because they were practically at my feet. This is a challenge. I love it. I will land one of these suckers ( ha ha - suckers). Keep up with me - I will blog again soon. This year I will land a carp or die trying.

Does anyone know what an Ozark Bass is - I do.