Carp fly

It's a hook dressed with an artificial imitation of fish-food.
Good enough I reckon.

Andy

Is it just me or does goldfish's 'plastic chum' sound a touch too risque...

Not sure if the following method would work on hard fished waters. When carp first appeared in Sutton Bingham reservoir stalking the margins with an ordinary stick fly worked well. All I did was look for carp basking in the reeds, creep up on them and dangle the fly an inch in front of their mouths. As long as they were not spooked they always took. My best was about 10lb but I did have fish up to 20lb suck the fly in but being unsure of the capabilities of my old Shakespeare rod I never struck them! Interestingly these carp would suck in and blow out the fly several times if I didn't strike.

Tight lines

Andy

Ive tried using deer hair put on a hook and cut to size but found they only last one or 2 fish? Maybe im tying it in wrong though? Definately aided presentation better than the fake biscuits and i could cast much further also to the bigger cruising fish, usually now i take a load that have been pre soaked the night before, by the time i get to the lake they are soft so i can hook them with a normal carp hook, not very good for casting but for stalking etc they are pretty good, the carp must see them as been in the water for a while as they are bigger than the dry ones as they have water in them so they think theyare the safer ones to take.

Welshy

I've never fished for course fish but I came across this and thought someone here might find it interesting.

www.msu.edu/~connert/carpfly.htm

I've always struggled to get carp to take..although I've only ever tried when they've shown up in the margins of Trout lakes...so maybe they'd seen too many imitations before. I once hooked a 12lb common in the tail while stripping back an Ace of Spades when going after rainbows...took me 35 minutes to get it to the net!!! ;D

Guess I have to admit to also hooking a 10 lb + carp in the tail while troutfishing on a Chesire Mere!

I'd cast along the margins and into a small bay surrounded by bushes, where I'd seen a fish move (that I thought was a patroling trout), and hooked into a fish straight away. I knew something was wrong as it shot off towards the middle of the lake.

Fishing with an 8# and 6 lb leader, I simply hauled it backwards before netting it. I felt sorry for it really as it didn't know what had happened!

However, the amount of spashing it made must have frightened all other fish away within 1/4 mile! ;D

Another angler heard the commotion and was looking across...... I shouted that it was a 20 lb brownie as I let it go ;D

I've done extremely well using cork balls superglued to a hook. Not quite fly fishing I agree - but I'm looking to get more traditional, not that I care two hoots about it either way, I just think I'll get more satisfaction from a fur and feather creation.

Big Mayflies can catch well. Nothing on grasshoppers, wasps or daddy long legs yet, but in time I'm sure.

I've not tried buzzers or similar, but come early April if we get a warm spell I'll definitely be out there. I'll keep you posted.

While carp will take small flies, lets not forget they're greedy buggers, so they're often looking for large sized food items.

Best last season was about the 14 pound mark - looking for a 20 pounder this year!