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Showing posts with the label carp on the fly

Small Stream Carp On Fly

  Some more carp on fly action from a small stream in East Japan. The average size of the fish in this small stream isn't very big, but it does occasionally turn up fish into low to mid double figures. What it does have going for it is the sheer number of fish, there are loads and I expect plenty of shots even during short sessions. On this trip, it was unusually hot for the time of year which caused the carp to be highly active. There were a lot of fish feeding on things dropping from the bankside vegetation, and were responding to the fly plopping into the water, so a slightly heavy presentation tight to the far bank seemed to be the go for much of the day. Later I switched to the dumbbell eyed worm and picked up another fish on the way home. You can find fly tying videos for all the flies I used today can be found on my channel. Clouser crayfish https://youtu.be/jGkhlmeV7vQ Carp worm https://youtu.be/owtGI7AeAdA Backstabber https://youtu.be/kXRBAtmEyio To support the

Working Things Out

 Another old one from www.sexyloops.com I was planning to head up into the mountains in search of a mayfly hatch this week, but due to a sketchy forecast I decided to stay local instead of travelling for 2 hours plus. It was nice as I was able to have a bit of a lie in before walking down the river for a crack at some of the local carp. The weather actually turned out better than forecast; 27-29 degrees with a very thin high overcast and spells of clear skies made for great visibility. The carp well well on the feed too and there were plenty of shots to be had. Which was good because I've spent a while turning these fish into spooky pricks. During the first lockdown, I was fishing them near daily once the outdoor exercise allowance came in and I'd been pestering them pretty regularly for years before. One of the main difficulties I've been having is that they seemed to be fairly immune to the otherwise reliable drag and drop presentation. My first work around was long leads

Is it pronounced "nice" or "nice"?

 An old one I wrote for  www.sexyloops.com   Now the rains have stopped and the rivers have cleared up, I've been out wreaking havoc on the local carp.Some days are better than others, but even on the real scorchers I'm catching a couple before retreating back to aircon. There aren't many big fish in the river by me except where it enters the lake, but there are lots of fish in the 3-8lb bracket. I was talking about this in an online carp on fly group and was told by several people that I'd catch more if I fed them with dog biscuits and fished an imitation - not interested. At all.  Amazingly, my reply that I prefer fly fishing to bait fishing caused these folk to take umbrage. A barrage of comments about fishing commercial, stocked fisheries making feeding necessary and hilarious accusations of snobbery followed. All of it is ludicrous of course, we all draw our own lines in the sand. But catching a chummed fish is not the same achievement as spotting, stalking and cat

Cicada Carp

On Monday I braved the heat to hit a river outside Tokyo for a few hours.  Conditions were pretty good early on, although it was incredibly hot there was nice, high, even cloud cover giving fairly decent light for spotting fish.  As I approached the river, the banks were alive with grasshoppers chirping in the long grass and cicadas screeching in the trees.  Things were looking good. I set up and watched a couple of unlucky terrestrials land on the water's surface, only to be quickly sucked down by waiting carp as they struggled in the surface film. Working my way a long the river I saw so may tailing carp that I almost took of my foam hopper but, stuck with  it until a few refusals demanded a fly change.  I stayed on the surface, switching to a size 6 Carl's cicada.  It proved to be a good choice. Carl's Cicada The switch was immediately rewarded with a nice common carp around 12lb that sucked the dry  down in slack water below a tree, almost in slow motion.  Ove

Tying a Carp Squirmy

Step by step instructions for the rubber leg swimming nymph, I've made a few tweaks to the original pattern but it's basically the same pattern as the original swimming nymph.  It's a very effective carp fly f in areas that fish are eating crawfish or gobies and can also be used as a general attractor. Materials Used Hook: Ken Sawada black sedge Thread:6/0 Weight: Lead wire Tail: Marabou Abdomen: Hare'e ice dub Thorax: Rabbit fur from zonker Thorax cover: Nymph skin Legs: Silli legs

Dirty Sub

Detailed instructions for a nice little carp bug that's ideal for waters where the fish prefer a smaller fly.  I like small beadhead bugs for carp but wanted something that would fish hook up while still maintaining the small profile. Tie them in a range of weights and colours to suit where you're fishing. Materials used Hook: Owner C5 boilie hook size 4 Thread: Veevus 10/0 Weight: tungsten bead mounted on 20lb mono Legs: black and white barred sillileg Tail: Chickabou Body: Semperfli straggle string Hackle: Whiting Brahma hen