Poor Mans Bonefish

I'm going into my 14th year living in South Carolina. My bro, and I have probably enjoyed trying to find new places to hunt, and fish as much as anything. We started from scratch here without much more than some maps, and some occasional knowledge from locals. The first 10 years 98% of the time was fly fishing for trout in the Mountains. First South Carolina, then North Carolina, and finally Tennessee. Finding New Species, and New Water has become as routine as brushing your teeth. Countless phone calls about hey what do you think of how this place looks, and then figuring out how to fish it, and sometimes how to even get in there. We had my 1991 Honda Civic back in a place when I was in college that should have been in 4x4 journal. A couple years back Rick got it in his head that he wanted to catch a Carp on the flyrod. I had one on 5x, and a size 18 nymph in Tennessee a couple years earlier we estimated at 15#'s. We were up over our waists with no net, and after around 30-45 minutes it finally broke me. Rick was bass fishing in a lake we will call Lake X. He saw carp eating off the edge of the bank, and told his friend Don "let me throw this helgramite fly at them". It was FISH ON, and he saw quickly it could be done. Countless trips over the past couple years, and he has it down to a Science. He sent me enough pictures for me to tell him "OK it looks like you have it figured out" I'm ready to go. So, this past Summer Rick turned me into a full blown CARPAHOLIC. There is nothing like catching these fish on the fly rod. I started devouring every video, leader set-up, book I could get my hands on.
Here are some pics from this past summer of fish in the 7-9# class. Our kids are spoiled my son, and I were in my Clackacraft taking the picture of Rick with his kids after he landed that beauty.
2009 figures to be very very good. We already have several new spots scouted out that we didn't even get to fish last year. My son, and I spent a couple months on every Sunday night putting in some scouting. Enjoy!!!