Is There Carp In Heaven?

If there are not carp in Heaven I have found the next best thing here on earth. I heard about this lake my first season at the 4UR Ranch but did not make it out there. My second season I went two weekends in a row because it was too good. The lake is set in a Valley surrounded by huge mountain peaks of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. I don't want to be too specific, but there is a national park looming in the background too. Like most anglers/authors, I'm not going to spell out for you exactly the local of this lake because keeping it relatively unknown is one of it's lures.

Besides being full of massive carp, this lake does not lack in beautiful views and scenery. Peaks of 11,000 to 14,000 loom all around.  There is a section of the lake that holds carp in shallow flats that are easily accessible by foot. Walking along this flat searching for schools of carp on the surface and sight casting to them is what you are after. The water is typically cloudy with a grey to green shade. Schools of carp in large numbers can be seen near the surface if the rains have been light and the water is just clear enough to see dark objects cruising the surface. If you cast in the fish's line of sight, chances are it will turn on your fly and hammer it. Then hold on!

I was using my Gloomis GLX Streamdance 6wt rod and I never felt like I did not have control over these fish. Carp are like freshwater redfish, in my opinion. They fight with steady strong pulls, and have no aerobatic skills that I saw. Carp do not use short jerky head shakes either, they just want to pull you along the bottom as they tend to head for deeper water. Carp get a bad rap because in some areas they are a nuisance, and certain types of carp are destructive. Because of this, an attempt to kill off all of the carp in this lake was made several years back, and fortunately for anglers, it was unsuccessful. These carp aren't destructive. They are just not native. Leave the Carp alone, anglers will come...