Carp on the fly
friend and vermont fly fishing guide drew price from http://www.dponthefly.com/ has just had a fantastic article put into american online mag http://www.uscarppromagazine.com/uscarppromagazine/Home.html page 136 about carp fly fishing on lake Champlain in Vermont , now this got me thinking in this country carp are the cause of more marital breakdowns than any other sport (apart from the strip joints) , I even know of a guy who many years ago split with his wife and with half the cash from the house bought a lifetime season ticket for his local syndicate water for I know he’s probably still there on the bank. people were know many years ago to smuggle massive 40lb plus fish in tanks in the back of vans and they would sell these black market fish to unscrupulous fishery owners for literally 30 or 40 thousand pounds a fish, the thing was if you had a few big fish in your water you could charge what you like to be a member to fish it and be in with a chance of catching the things we are talking big money here.
drew price with a donkey of a fly caught carp and from a kyak
(photo property of drew price)
recently there was a fish called two tone (yes they name them in the uk ) and they had a bloody funeral for it even made the news in the uk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRXFlxXoysY so you get the picture carp in this country is a multi million pound industry …….
So I now go back quite a few years intact more time than some people have been on the planet, and I had a mail completely out the blue from a guy who fished for trout on a still water and this water used to be a course fishery and had carp in , it was fly fishing only and he wanted to know if these fish could be caught on flies . well I did some research and found that a lot of our American cousins were fishing for them with flies and crossbows but with flies that you wouldn’t dream about chucking around in this country so I got to thinking how would I do it, and deciding that taking a crossbow down the local fishery would probably see me getting lynched so flies it was then.
Well the idea for me was quite a simple one really I needed to tie something that they would be used to feeding on or have some memory off feeding on the answer was the wonder bait at the time dog biscuits yes plain old pedigree chum dog biscuits and trout pellets yup these were the wonder baits in this country and I thought if I could replicate them id be half way to sorting the problem out and the solution was just as easy shaped spun deer hair that’s it deer hair floaters in the shape of biscuits ……
one of my original chum flies
below is the original carp superbait the humble pedigree chum mixer which the fly above was modled on
I tied a few up and headed to a local coarse lake with a plan , id throw a few dog biscuits at some sighted fish and get them feeding when they were throwing caution to the wind id throw in 3 or 4 biscuits followed by my fly and bugger me it only fringing worked ok the fish wasn’t massive just 4 or 5 pounds but I had caught one on a chum fly I was rightly chuffed , now im not saying I invented this fly there was probably guys around doing it before me I just thought it out my way .
So with that in mind I tied this guy up a few and sent them off with instructions about throwing freebies in for them as well , I heard nothing for a few weeks then he got back to me saying he was having a great time catching these fish on the flies id sent him now that was a result .
So the next problem was what to do with shy fish that wont join the pack you know those big fish that are solitary feeders sometimes well I came up with a solution for that as well , you see carp do see the hook they may have got hooked a few times before and know to be wary well the carp world came up with a solution to this and it was called a hair rig there baits would sit on a small length of silk or low breaking strain line so the hook was actually sitting away from the bait , what happened then was the fish would open its mouth and suck the hook less bait in and the hook complexly free of the bait would follow after and the fish 9 times out of ten would get hooked as it blew the deer hair biscuit out (circle hooks were great for this as the got hooked as they blew the bait out) and being free of the actual fly you could use whatever size hook you wanted all you needed to do was tie the deer hair fly then clip the hook off at the back add a little varnish to secure and your done a brilliant way to catch wary carp , I actually quite fancy doing this method for pike flies as well ill have to look into it …………mmmmmm
Ok so you fancy trying this metod heres the way I do it
*first find your fish (even if they are feeding on the bottom you can get them to feed on the surface just look for nuddy water or tail tips and get you mixers on top of them)
*catapult or throw half a dozen chum mixer biscits close to the fish
* wait till they have taken all the free offerings
* get a few more onto them
* when there fighting for the offerings throw a few more in followed by your fly
“if you struggle to see you fly amoungst the free offerings you can always add some kind of bright yarn orange or white etc, when you tie them up it wont make a difference to the fish”
it an adreniline filled experience fly fishing for them as you can activley target the big fish using this method , so if you’re her in the uk and don’t like to pike fish in the summer get onto your local carp water and have some fun .
I also find it very intereting the way the americans go about fishing for them using nymphs crawdads and assorted patterns again years ahead in fly fishing terms to the brits , and I think in time it’s a method that like pike fly fishing will start to make an impact into this country even though people still think we are the lunatic fringe for doing it ..
remember to check out
I hope this has given you something to think about and mabey even get out there and try it , thanks again to drew price for making me remember things that id long forgotten about
Tight lines
Mcfluffchucker
(a cave in scotland)
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