# Open carp on the fly disscusion



## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

I would like to have a carp disscusion . Fly's tactic's and so on . I have become interested in this and want to give it a try this coming spring . I have 2 lakes close to home and I see carp all the time on the stillwater river while chasing small mouth . My greatest effort will be on the lakes but will use them as targets of opportunity while chasing smallie's
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## flytyer (Jan 3, 2005)

Carp are a blast on the fly rod for sure. When I'm fishing the creek for smallies and see a carp I usually just cast what ever fly I have tied on to them. Sometimes it works and sometimes they spook, but I catch enough of them to keep the day interesting.
When I do this I just let the fly settle and if they don't see it, I just give it a small twitch. It works quite often.


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## meathelmet (Aug 4, 2008)

I had a blast my first time when I landed 5 in under an hour and I thought how easy it was! I thought I could catch them whenever I felt like it but I was wrong I could catch anything after that, they are the spookiest fish I have ever chased. I have caught them since but nothing like that first day.








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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

what where you using fly wise ? meathelmet


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

You'll have days like that when you can do no wrong, but you'll have more days when they will leave you feeling like you've been kicked in the pills for 5 hours. Flymaker, I have taken them pretty seriously the past two seasons and just had my best summer of carping by far. The best advice I can give is tailor your fly to where you're fishing and what conditions you're likely to have. In my experience, carp do not like fast, aggressively moving flies. Slow, subtle dropping flies work better for me. And above all else, you have to make sure they can see your fly, which is usually my biggest obstacle. You do that in two ways: 1) get the fly close to them without spooking them and 2) using color patterns that help your fly get noticed depending on the water clarity. In cleaner water, browns mixed with orange is a great color combo. That splash of orange seems deadly on them. I have also read that yellow is a great carp color, so I have tied a few sample patterns to test next spring with splashes of yellow. In dirty water, 95% of my flies are either all black or a black/chartreuse mix. As for tailoring your fly to the body of water, I use slow sinking, lightly weighted flies for shallow lake mud flats. For moving water and/or deeper water, bump up the weight a little. I still like the fly to fall slowly so I try not to weight them too much. My mud flat flies use mostly bead chain eyes or small lead eyes with some buoyant materials to offset the weight a bit. As for what they imitate, I like flies that can be several things. Compact and buggy describes most of my patterns I carry. They could be taken for dragonfly nymphs or small craws, both of which are candy for carp.


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## toobnoob (Jun 1, 2010)

TheCream said:


> You'll have days like that when you can do no wrong, but you'll have more days when they will leave you feeling like you've been kicked in the pills for 5 hours. Flymaker, I have taken them pretty seriously the past two seasons and just had my best summer of carping by far. The best advice I can give is tailor your fly to where you're fishing and what conditions you're likely to have. In my experience, carp do not like fast, aggressively moving flies. Slow, subtle dropping flies work better for me. And above all else, you have to make sure they can see your fly, which is usually my biggest obstacle. You do that in two ways: 1) get the fly close to them without spooking them and 2) using color patterns that help your fly get noticed depending on the water clarity. In cleaner water, browns mixed with orange is a great color combo. That splash of orange seems deadly on them. I have also read that yellow is a great carp color, so I have tied a few sample patterns to test next spring with splashes of yellow. In dirty water, 95% of my flies are either all black or a black/chartreuse mix. As for tailoring your fly to the body of water, I use slow sinking, lightly weighted flies for shallow lake mud flats. For moving water and/or deeper water, bump up the weight a little. I still like the fly to fall slowly so I try not to weight them too much. My mud flat flies use mostly bead chain eyes or small lead eyes with some buoyant materials to offset the weight a bit. As for what they imitate, I like flies that can be several things. Compact and buggy describes most of my patterns I carry. They could be taken for dragonfly nymphs or small craws, both of which are candy for carp.


I've been hitting the carp pretty seriously as well the last few years. Cream is right on the money, my fly selection for carp is pretty identical. I fish a lot of very clear streams and in those conditions you need select natural looking flys in smaller sizes or you will spook them. I also use nymphs, stoneflies are really productive in clear streams.

Another thing to remember is to be very stealthy when getting in position to get a cast off. Sometimes I feel like I'm hunting more that fishing while chasing these guys but that is much of the fun for me.


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## meathelmet (Aug 4, 2008)

Great tips I fish pretty muddy water but still does not help me from making noise or even them seeing my shadow! I use green and crawfish patterns primarily. I am still pretty new to fly fishing in general so I cannot remember actual names or patterns! I think that dropping it in their face is probably the highest probability and the carp I hooked took the fly after falling in front of them. Get ready for a ride they are blast. My buddy uses a 3 wt and pretty fun watching him land one of these monsters


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

I may have found a fly that may have a great deal going for it " Barry's Carp Bitter " I tied up 2 of them tonight 1 in crawdad orange and the other in olive .....I also have been working on " Backstabbers " in a darkish brown with a black marabou wing and dark brown soft hackle ... I believe between those 2 fly's I should have some pretty good tools...I also have some Whitlock's Damsels , Barr's Sporks and the Jan's Carp Tickler tied as well....I have 2 water's picked out to fish , both have very large mud flats...I believe I will start out with a medium action 9ft 6wt that has a lighter tip ...this rod is to slow for my normal size smallmouth flys and sinking tips but it will cast a floating line very nicely.....and with the size of fly's used for carp this rod should be perfect for the job....the main water I fish has carp from 5-15lbs and a fellow angler I know and trust see good numbers on the flats all the time ...I believe this will be a good place to start and gain some skill before I move on to the other body of water I scouted several times last late summer and fall....I seen carp in there in the 30'' + size on the flats tailing....both water aren't what you call muddy but always stained maybe 3 ft or a tad more visibility..... with most of my fly's being on size 8 2x nymph hooks and size 6 caddies hooks I think I should be fine....My interest in carp stated last summer on a smallie outing on the still water.....I was paddling my yak up stream and spotted a nice ripple that dumped in a awesome looking pool .....to my right was a island and a mud flat 1/2 the size of a football field.....I beached the yak and fished the ripple and pool producing 2 nice 15+'' smallies....I was walking back to the yak and notice dark figures on the mud flat.....so I grabbed my 5wt and just so happen to have some size 10 black bugger's tied for gills mixed in with my small mouth stuff and said what the hell....I casted more than a few time , spooked a few , then bammmm...I hooked up with a carp maybe 18ish or so long....we fought back and forth then he ran my leader across amid stream boulder and he was gone......My interest was peaked


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Can't go wrong with either pattern. Both have caught a lot of fish for me. These two fell for an orange/brown Carp Bitters in Size 6 with bead chain eyes this summer.


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## Flymaker (Jan 24, 2013)

TheCream said:


> Can't go wrong with either pattern. Both have caught a lot of fish for me. These two fell for an orange/brown Carp Bitters in Size 6 with bead chain eyes this summer.


I would almost think the Carp Bitters in orange/brown and also in olive as well as the back stabber in black/brown ....black/olive might be all you would really need....I don't believe I will tie anymore of the Jan's carp tickler till I prove them.....and I think Barr's sporks will also be on the menu as well.....in rusty orange and black.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

My carp box is the simplest of all my fly selections. I can put what I truly need into an Altoids tin fly box (I make these). Couple of Backstabbers, Carp Bitters, and one or two of my articulated specialty deer hair patterns is really all I need. Most carp flies I carry in black, rust/brown, and olive. I carry a small carp assortment in one of those Altoids tins as a "just in case" box on every warm water trip. It's easy to throw in the pack and I always have a few with me just in case I spot a carp when I am chasing something else. That little tin box got me a few carp last year when I was after bass, crappies, and gills.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

I usually throw some brownish or black stonefly nymph I have in my smallie box at whatever carp I come across. To me the key to carp is presentation. If you can get it right in front of them without spooking them you have a chance. But that's about a hundred times harder than it sounds. They are the spookiest fish that swims.


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## ChromeBone (Oct 3, 2011)

flytyer said:


> Carp are a blast on the fly rod for sure. When I'm fishing the creek for smallies and see a carp I usually just cast what ever fly I have tied on to them. Sometimes it works and sometimes they spook, but I catch enough of them to keep the day interesting.
> When I do this I just let the fly settle and if they don't see it, I just give it a small twitch. It works quite often.


Been doing that since I was 12 , got a pond and creek loaded next to my parents house. In the Summer looks like you could walk halfway out off their backs sticking out the water.


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