Sucker.

Take two this summer for the family trip out to lake powell. Before leaving I decided that I was going to take half a day or so and head out to Lees Ferry for the first time. I woke up nice and early and hopped on the wave runner for a ride into the marina. I had a decent distance to travel, and it was extremely stormy. I arrived at the dock soaked to the bone with no extra clothes. I got to the car, got down to my skibbies, and hung my clothes out the car windows to dry on the way over. Worked like a charm. I pulled up to the Ferry, excited as ever. I walked into the walk-in section, and began fishing. I only saw one other fisherman the whole time I was there, a spin fisherman that got skunked. I had heard that long drifts with absolutely no drag were key. I tried about every midge pattern I had, double rig, single rig, shallow, deep, uber deep. Put on some different buggers, drifted shallow, drifted deep, stripped em a little. No luck with anything. Scuds, PTs, every nymph I had, nothing. I finally ended up landing a 12" bow on an 18 black zebra midge, which was good but frustrating at the same time after 4 hours of fishing. I don't know if it was the big water, but I think it was a problem with my confidence that kept the fish away. The biggest river I've ever fished would fit width wise into the Colorado about 15 times. I was fishing near the Paria riffle when I hooked into what seemed like a FATTY. He actually was running a lot, going into the fast water, darting deep, going all over the place. I got the fish in close and then saw the ugly beast. A big fat brown sucker fish of sorts. Man what a bummer. After 5 1/2 hours and one trout, I hung my head and headed back from some water weinee action on the lake. One day I will kill that place. I'm now very interested in taking a boat up the canyon and fishing it.
The next day on the lake my nephews were in the fish-catching mood. I had yet to catch a carp on the fly rod, seems the dang things will only eat food and trash. I came up with a very clever way of landing one, which may or may not have been covering a fly with some delicious white bread. It wasn't that cheap, but in my opinion it was close... either way I had fun landing this ugly fatty. No, I'm not converted to the hardcore carp on the fly scene yet.