More carp 'on the fly'

I don't want this to become the most boring blog  ever by showing more pictures of carp caught off the top  but I think it would be a good idea to share some interesting observations. Some would say 'secrets' but that word has no place in my philosophy as for fishing techniques.
 Lots of folk put a great deal of effort into trying out new methods or even honing older ideas, adapting them to modern advances in tackle and our ever changing venues. Some decide to keep it secret but I think it is good to share techniques that you have had good success with.

 

 

My carp floater box. Some are better than others.

 

Wine cork with the hook at the correct angle ( i think )

 

This one was 12lb 11oz

 

 

There are some fellow bloggers who must agree with me like Glen Pointon, RR (dryfly expert) and Mick Martin(Derbyshire on the fly) who all share their experiences in incredible detail.

I have been on a mission.
Carp on the fly is not new by any  means. But it can be the best fun ever if you do it right.
So here we go. My secrets for anyone interested.....
My previous posts show how much I had to learn. I was even tempted to remove them, but no it is progression.

First of all we found that cork had to be the the correct shape and size. Sounds obvious but it is a silhouette the carp see, not colour or even smell.
Just glueing the cork to the hook was not good enough. We missed so many 'takes' you would not believe.
We have now got close to perfect. I t is all down to the angle you glue the hook.
Looks obvious now but it took some working out.

Last weekend I set up the fly rod ( bought some excellent three piece #8 Shakespeare three piece jobbies for £20) and shared them with my mates.
We visited a lake advertised in the Angling Times. Everyone fishing on the bottom. Carp on the top. Bone had two on bread, I had 3 on cork. No one else caught. Enough said!

My turn

Here are my results from today's venture.

A lovely mirror with a strange glow!

This one gave me a right run around!

 A pig of a fish

Mick broke his rod yesterday playing one of these brutes. I have to say I was more than a little worried when this one decided it was not giving up. My rod was locked solid several times.

I use an 8 weight Airflo 40 plus with a floating cheapo line, 9ft 2x tapered leader, cut back to about 6 ft ( i reckon it's about 15lb at this point) and 5 ft of 10lb flouro. Cork shaped from last night's wine epoxied to a #12 extra strong Kamasan buzzer hook.

We are really pi..ing off the regular anglers who sit all day with their Strawberry boilies sitting on the bottom, alarms, trollies, wheel barrows etc while the carp are feeding on the top! We turn up for a couple of hours and have some great sport with free 'bait' and a bag of el cheapo dog biscuits. Cost: £1 for at least 4 sessions!

Happy Days

Bone's back on fire

Ok, it's been a long time since I blogged but lots of personal probs for all of us and I'm sure Mick (Bone) won't mind me mentioning the sad passing away of his lovely wife, Angela, a couple of weeks ago.
As you can imagine, since our super mayfly days on the Dove we have not really been in a position to do much. And when there was a window of opportunity, we were often defeated by the weather.

My new bivvy. Impossible to see.

This is how the fish see me. I would imagine

But we have been busy in other ways: A 24 hour fishing match for Douglas McMillan cancer charity with 15 of our good friends, some days struggling on trout lakes and an all nighter on a lake trying for some elusive large carp.

We failed with the elusive large carp but have recently got it sorted with some nice carp on fly tackle at a lake less than 5 minutes from where we live!

It all started after I put a 'bog brush' thing on a fly rod in the 24 hour match. I promptly hooked and lost a large carp.
The next week, Bone and me had another go, throwing out dog biscuits and putting our deer hair balls amongst them. Lots of takes but no hook ups.

So we got our heads together. It would be so easy to glue a hook to a dog biscuit but we didn't want to do that so we got some wine corks and I cut them, shaped them and balanced them with hidden shot so that a nice size 10 Viper circle hook would sit on the top.

Well that did it. On Thursday, I nipped down for an hour and had four!
Today we had an even improved version! I lost a fish of about 15lb after playing it out and waiting for Bone to net it. In fairness to Bone, it was my fault because: 1, I had forgot my net and 2, I had to wait while he landed his!

Bone with a well deserved carp on the fly rod.

We had a great couple of hours.