Let’s Talk Carp Part 2, “6 pack”

Flies for spring

Well it finally here, I hope! Spring that is, warmer temps on the way and that means one thing. Its time for carp, Whoot, Whoot!

I am so excited, time to get some carp, scout spots and take some people fishing for their first carp on the fly. My favourite time of the year, by far except maybe summer when the carp chase and eat flies with reckless abandonment. So we already discussed rod, lines, backing and leaders in “Let’s talk carp 1”. This part is about some of my go to flies for spring. Here in Ontario that means dirty water as the only thing open are the tributaries and if you find a pond or lake open, its runoff season. Red is by far my best colour in dirty water, few colours or patterns come close than my dirty water special a sort of San Juan worm on steroids that we featured in “Steelhead meet Carp 4″and the blood leech (coming soon) for searching and the ability for carp to see it and “suck it up”. These two flies are my fly to tie on if I can’t see the fish, only silt clouds. They seek out and destroy it, red every time. The other fly that I love to throw is the carp caddis from “Steelhead meet Carp 1”. It is more of hang it and dangle it fly, you can cast it however it will get caught in debris, you could tie it hook point up, however this pattern works great sneaking up on fish eating surface matter or eating on bottom right at your feet. More of a drop it out the end of your fly line, if you can close enough! No easy task.

Leeches and the do nothing

The last flies are for difficult fish or fish that won’t eat the other three flies, another leech and the “dark side”. The black and olive/black leech patterns are excellent for cruising fish or suspended fish, the slow fall of the fly drives the carp to the point where they have to come over and inspect it. The carp “suck my fly”, when you’re not looking. Trust me it will happen, you wait for it and nothing, then they slurp it in. It is weightless and they can eat it easily.

The dark side in dark olive is a generic pattern that works on all types of carp, it has landed more carp and other species than almost all my other carp flies. It’s a major confidence fly for me and has never let me down. There are so many fly types out there, its over whelming, these are a good start, for the spring. As the season gets going the flies not so much change, but are added as more food items become available and the carp become more active to put the feed bag on and prepare to spawn.