Plan “B”

Written by Andy Whitcomb

The creek (or perhaps more fittingly, “crick”) that cuts through the middle of this Oklahoma farm is a tributary of Stillwater Creek, which joins the Cimarron River, which feeds Keystone Lake. There are years when the spring rains are heavy enough at just the right time for walleye and stripers to push upstream some 40 miles or so and stack below our little dam. This was not one of those years.

But the carp are there. Must be 50 or more in the main hole.

My 7-year-old really wanted to catch one on a fly. The way the carp were pounding down floating elm seeds I really thought it would happen. However, we didn’t have a #8 elm seed in our selection and the little yellow whatzit he was roll casting was ignored completely. So we moved on to plan B. “B” of course, stands for bagel.

A bagel chunk is great because with a small hook it floats, casts well, and is tough enough to stay on the hook for a while. Its action is subtle, slowly rolling around in the current as natural as, well, any carp or catfish might expect a floating bagel chunk to behave. We generally use the mini bagels, but if an “everything” bagel ever goes stale in our house, the dogs will never see it. An everything bagel chunk is its own little chum line, with bits of poppy seeds, onion, garlic, and such all slowly breaking away and enticing fish that are into carbo-loading.

Several carp in the 2-4 pound range can be caught in the evenings. When the light is low they don’t seem to spook as much. More fun than catching one in current, is watching a kid catch one in current. And then hearing his sister say “bye, carp!”, and pat it on the head as we release it back in the crick.