What is Carpstroke? 

It’s wondering why you came down here; long sagebrush bushwhacks; adrenaline spikes and blood sugar crashes, a swing from failure to elation mirrored only by that of the mercury in the thermometer. Carpstroke leaves you questioning the process, second guessing the move, seeking cold water refugia after triple digit days. On the carp flats your body wants water, but that ancient, hungry, animal part of your brain wants something else entirely.

“Long days staring at water hallucinating fish,” says Photo Editor Copi Vojta. “You just can’t beat it.”

Join The Flyfish Journal Photo Editor Copi Vojta as he makes his way to the eastside of Washington state to hallucinate daschund-sized goldfish. While the Pacific Northwest is well-known for its salmon and steelhead fishing, carping provides a reset, a jolt to the equilibrium. You might get a case of carpstroke, but at that point you’re already on the road to recovery.