My first carp on the fly .

[tortoise100]

Caught my first carp on a fly set up today ,well it is the first fish I have caught on a fly.
It has taken three attempts on the first the carp were not really having it on the surface on the second I had three near misses before it went too dark to see but today I finally got one today after an hour and a half caught on a bread fly .

The carp in my local lake get fished for off the surface allot usually by loose feeding mixers then using controllers etc so they are pretty clued up .

I am going back tomorrow morning with some hair rigged real biscuits on the fly rod as i think it will give me more takes .

My overall impressions are that it is a new fun way of getting the bait out but I have set up two rods and kept switching between them as the line got wet and would say anybody thinking about giving it a go needs at least a 7 weight set up , it might be my lack of skill but i am finding it very hard to get much distance with the 6 weight rod .It's nice being able to cast straight at the fish without spooking them as far as i know I am the only one who has ever fly fished for them on my lake so they are not spooked by it at all I just need to be able to cast that little bit further as all the big ones hang back out of range letting the bait come to them.

My swan avoidance strategy is to firstly spot the swans and make sure they are not looking or out of ear shot then throw in a big hand full or two of mixers and fish in the middle or to just keep throwing two out at a time and never give them anything when they come close not even left over bread at the end of the session.

 

[Rickrod]

Well done froggy its always nice to do some thing new

 

[camiron]

Hi,
This is really great information dude. You have to do lot more experiment. Hope u will share more in future.

____________
Maerix Inc

 

[tortoise100]

Just found out that on that someone had a 19:8 of the top yesterday .
That was just what i wanted but could not quite reach but the good news is that after a bit more practice today i can cast another 15ft or so .
Hair rigged dry dog mixers will not withstand the casting but soft oily hookers will however they become invisible far to quickly I was shown that dynamite spicey prawn pop ups are just right when cut down to look like mixers though it was too windy by then ,I have had the same idea with mainline cell coconut pop ups but they have never actually caught me a fish off the top.
I might have to try bait bands for the mixers but I will have to buy some first.
I have found that the best video 's to learn are on youtube by the tight lines fly fishing company I have now watched them three times and seem to pick up a new piece of the puzzle each time.

I also caught a small rudd today by trying to match the hatch and had a close miss with one carp on a dog mixer fly.

I recommend giving this a try ,it should be very fun when I get a big ish one on these rods.

 

[quickcedo]

Well done Mr Froggy.
Also worth trying a slow sinking nymph and a site bob. Caught a few this way at Rooksbury mill (when it was open to day ticket).

 

[tortoise100]

Had five carp on the fly rod today !!

The best way to describe it was exciting even though the biggest was only 4:10 they put a very good bend in the rod and made my wrist start to hurt by the last one as it took a good few minutes to land some of them , it made a nice change to be the one catching all the fish for a change .
I was the only one on the fly and in the time I was there only one other person had had a fish they are joking about banning fly fishing at the lake .

It still amazes me how they are not spooked at all by the fly line even though it is bright green .
I had the floater rod out as well with a controller float but as far as i know it only had one bite.

Not been the weather for fly fishing since my last post though I have been to the lake on Sunday and Monday with very little to show for it.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

Nice one DGF, are your sessions shorter now? I find that when stalking or lure fishing I don't tend to stay on the bank as long as when I pick a swim and stick to it. I can be in a swim for 12 hours without thinking about it but after about 4 when roving it's time to go.

 

[quickcedo]

Mr Froggy, well done mate. Just re read your first post re the 6 weight rod. In good conditions it should be possible to cast a 6 weight as far as a 7 providing the rod IS what it says it is. If you know anyone with a spare 7 weight line try it on your rod. When I fly fished I would often find rods under rated, I think this is due to sinking lines being more dense than floating lines. Therefore a 6 weight rod would for me cast better with a 6 weight sinking line but a 7 weight floating line.

 

[tortoise100]

Most of my sessions are are short anyway today was about 4 hours though some of that time was spent playing about setting up a lure rod for the new pike season.
I would rather do lots of short sessions so that I can get on the bank as often as possible and I am not missed that much so don't get any complaints though I am in-between jobs at the moment so that was how i was able to get out in the good weather today.
Weather looks ok for most of the week here so could do some more fly work before the end of the week.

A whole day after Pike and Zander with a lure rod in the fens on Saturday beckons , plan on covering allot of water and finishing up with some vertical jigging maybe off a bridge.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

I've never given the fly fishing a go but I love ultralite lure fishing for perch, they hammer jelly grubs fished on a jig head or mini shad type lures, I've also got a couple of packs of Gulp night crawlers, the soft lures have caught my attention so much I got a few sets of the ones advertised on the American shopping channels a few years back, Flying lures and Banjo lures, never used them but the vids looked great .

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ50xMHi1fQ"]YouTube - BANJO 006 MINNOW™ BUY 1 GET 1 FREE* OFFER![/ame]​

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3XiQ2takbI"]YouTube - The Best Flying Lure - Fishing.flv[/ame]​

Off a bridge is an excellent tactic.

 

[tortoise100]

WOW I am love those minnows ,look amazing !!
Got to get me some of those .
They are £17 including postage for the set on ebay have you found them any cheaper?
Just answered that myself cheaper from Germany or China but would have to wait.

 

[Rodney Wrestt]

I got them from e-bay, can't remember how much they were at the time, as I said I've yet to use them but they do look good don't they, I used to see them on the infomercials when channel hopping.

The flying lure was interesting, the jig weight makes the lure glide away from the angler so against structures, under bridges or pillars you cast as close as you can and as they sink the swim further under, a twitch to get it up in the water and then they glide in further on the slack line.

 

[tortoise100]

Just to go back to carp on the fly I had three of the top yesterday and three off my sleeper rod on the bottom 1ft from the reeds yesterday.
My casting is getting much better and I was right in the bigger fish zone mine only went up to 5:10 but it is only a matter of time now .I did miss three so things could have been different.
I wish I had started this sooner in the season it takes around 8 minutes to bring in a 5lb fish I think a bigger one will be a real challenge this is addictive.