Get your clock cleaned
Get lit up by cyprinus carpio
Get crushed
Get mauled by fish
See people mobbing the water all day
Get your izzauw beaten all over the place
Work for hours and see nothing
Finally see one pod of fish and get crushed by them
Go home with sunburn and no takes

In other words, I fished for 4-5 hours yesterday and couldn’t find any carp. First off, the waters were pretty mobbed with people. There were a number of bobber rigs being tossed around (ALL around) the shore of my top prospect. I walked laps for two hours and literally never laid eyes on anything save one ghostly gray image of one carp fading into the depths… this is excluding the occasional carp that would leap into the air way out in the middle of the water. So the spot that gave a carp and good chances and fantasies to James and me yesterday produced literally ZERO legitimate chances at another today. So on to more known water – the next two were big zeroes as well. Finally after a short drive I came to a good spot – but found it also mobbed with folks… okay – no big deal – I searched the “backwaters” of said spot and found these fish. It was a very fascinating situation. I was literally standing 6 feet from very busy traffic. Cars were slowing down staring at me – a freak with a fly rod and gaze locked on something out of their sight… pretty funny. I honestly thought I was posing a hazard to traffic, so I slid down the vertical incline that led to the water. I had no chance to backcast really – unless I wanted to time it between oncoming cars…. I tried a steeple cast and promptly got my fly wrapped around a fricking power line that was above my head. I could see these fish feeding plain as day, but the only way I could get a fly to them was to get close enough to bow-and-arrow cast it… so I slowly crept down to them. I was able to B&A cast a few times – decent but not good enough casts. Then they slowly started to drop back under the brush cover… I am sure they were suspicious of my form and/or the casts. I left and came back a half hour later – they were there again… I tried the same tactic, only this time on the first cast they BOLTED out of there like horses. So the only fish I could find all day were offered nothing but a hacked up handful of casts, and as a result I went home having never sensed a beautiful take or felt a wretching on my 4 wt. I’m telling myself that it’s good to sometimes get my ass kicked by the fish. The irony is that I was in perfect position to take these cool pics (camera does not require backcast, and has great zoom so you don't have to get close).