Written by Gunnar Carlson, Upstream Care for Place Fellow

I entered a fly fishing tournament this spring. Now, I am in no way someone who needs to put my fishing skills against other anglers. I already know the likely outcome of such an endeavor, but I wanted to support the organization hosting the event and meet other fellow urban anglers. This was a carp fly fishing tournament that began and ended at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis. My fishing partner and I met at the check-in table in the morning and joked about our lack of carp fishing knowledge. We knew we were there for a good time and not to necessarily win. We listened carefully to the instructions and some pointers on targeting carp and then we were off. We spent the first couple of hours wading the Mississippi near Boom Island and the Stone Arch Bridge. While we did see a few nice fish, we were unable to convince any of them to take our fly.

We decided to take a lunch break and then head to Lake Hiawatha to resume fishing. Over lunch, we talked and laughed about fishing and all things in general. As we headed to Hiawatha we were putting on our waders and discussing our plan when I noticed a couple of homeowners from the neighborhood watching us intently. I wondered if we must look funny to them. They probably never see fly fishermen in full waders in their neighborhood. We headed off to where we wanted to start fishing but just then the wind picked up and made it all but impossible to fish our intended site. No worries! We just packed back up and headed to Minnehaha Creek. Here we were met by a family in their yard. The two sons were very interested in my partner and I and started chatting with us. They asked if we were going after carp. We said yes and asked for any spots or tips they might have. The youngest kindly told us his secret technique. I couldn’t help but smile at this encounter. I’ve sat in countless diners and cafes in many fishing destination towns and had this same interaction. Some anglers talk more, some say very little. Hardly any of us share the entire truth! We have to keep some of the fish for ourselves. I could sense this holding back in the young man sharing with us. “The tradition lives on!” I thought to myself. We waded the creek, spotted some fish, and still caught nothing. We decided to call it a day and surrender to the fishing gods for the day.

At the check in we asked how many entrants caught fish and we soon learned that only one carp was caught for the entire tournament all day! Well, what a relief to know it wasn’t our fishing but the weather/wind/humidity/pressure… or anything else we could collectively blame! We all laughed about the luck we had and then did what a group of fly anglers do best, we had a potluck and a raffle and we talked about all the fish we didn’t catch, or other times when we did catch them.

This whole adventure happened within 10 miles of my home in North Minneapolis. It’s a great reminder that, even when I can’t get “Up North” there are good fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities close to the city. I hope everyone gets out there and explores the urban outdoor recreation scene we have here in the Twin Cities because it really is amazing.

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