# Carp flies?



## Popperdave (Jul 9, 2016)

Since the flood of 2018 there has been an increase in large(5-10lb) carp up here in the Llano river. I would like to target them this summer. Does anyone have a good carp fly for Texas rivers. I've seen several on u-tube and plan on tying up some but was looking for any local knowledge?


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Danny Scarborough of DFW Flyfishing ties a great carp fly called the brass hawk.


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## 2thDr (Jan 25, 2014)

*carp flies*

Carp basically eat nymphs and crayfish. My favorites are buggy, short rubber legs, colors brown and olive, weighted lightly, size 6-8. But they will take a white or grey offering sometimes. I mainly try to get close enough to them to actually see them pick up my fly. Occasionally body language will indicate a take when I can't see the bug. They spit anything fake out in an instant and I rarely feel one hold on long enough to strike, so I strip-strike whenever they even appear to pick up an offering. I like to use a color that contrasts with the bottom enough to see it settle directly in front of the carp. They are spookier than bonefish. Learning curve longer than most fish, but so worth the effort. If any of you have figured out grass carp please post. I see some giants.


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

The only carp Iâ€™ve seen where Iâ€™ve fished are grass carp. Those Iâ€™ll see occasionally either sipping dead bugs or grass clippings off the surface of the water or nosing around the shoreline on the lake I live next to. 

Iâ€™ve caught a few with black Booby straggle flies I got off Big Y. Those flies look like big horseflies that float low on the surface of the water, like a drowned bug. The grass carp will wake and move along slowly just below the surface and stop at bugs to sip those in. Itâ€™s just a matter of getting a perfectly still fly to be in the right spot and the right time. The carp seem to be somewhat random in their movements and they will not chase down a moving fly. Stripped flies, in my experience, are repellent to grass carp. If the carp happen upon a still fly and suck it in, thereâ€™s only a fraction of a second to set the hook before they spit it out. 

When the grass carp are along the shoreline nosing around the vegetation and rip rap, I toss over some little bead head nymph and just hope the fish come along and find it. Worked a few times. 

Grass carp, in my experience, arenâ€™t something that will aggressively chase down anything. Iâ€™m not sure the fly choice is so critical, but the presentation is. Grass carp seem like big cowards and avoid flies that swim or move fast like maybe would draw an eat from more aggressive fish like bass or redfish. On the lake I live on, grass carp are very attuned to any movement along the shoreline so slow, low key movement of the fisherman is pretty necessary. I often hide behind trees or bushes and like short glass rods to work better around the foliage. 

But, thereâ€™s way more non-eats, missed hook sets, missed casts and the like than success with these fish. Not any margin of error really or a fish thatâ€™s going to help you out much. Grass carp and tilapia are the hardest fish in the lake I live on to get an eat from. LMB, catfish, sunfish, yellow bass, gar and crappie are all infinitely easier to get to eat a fly where I fish.


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## ingvar3000 (Oct 14, 2013)

There's a local fly used by some of the GRTU crowd called the Rio Getter by Matt Bennett. I've seen IG posts with decent carp with Rio Getters hanging out of their mouth. As a bonus the fly is designed for cichlids and I can testify that it works for that.


I personally caught a 34-inch common on a short piece of white dragon tail tied onto a size 10 hook. But that individual carp may have been habituated to eating bread . . .


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## noise.boy (Mar 7, 2012)

The best carp fly on the planet comes from fishchaseflies.com called the scarpion. Itâ€™s a damsel nymph fly. Developed in the Texas Hill Country. Foam on the hook shank. Predictable sink rate and fished hook up. This fly has won the EsCarpment tournament several years running. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Oyster Dog (May 21, 2005)

Jim's Damsel (originally tied by Jim Gray of the Austin Fly Fishers):
https://globalflyfisher.com/video/jims-damsel


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## jsinac (Jan 18, 2010)

In my experience, foam damsels are the best carp flies. Not only do they eat them well, they are also easy to detect eats with. I always tied them out of blue foam with a segmented body and plastic bead chain eyes with a good dose of hackle tied parachute fashion. It looks like a drowned damsel fly.

The other fly that I found they ate really well in the Rockies in the Fall was cottonwood. I would just wrap white hackle around the hook shank - literally just white hackle with a lot of dry fly shake so it floated high on the water. It is a gas when a big carp sucks down a dry fly like a big brown trout.....Not sure if there are cottonwood trees in your area or not....


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## Aggie_bowtech (Feb 25, 2014)

I caught one my first time trying and was a sight cast. I used a fly called a â€œcarpet bombâ€ from Gruene Outfitters. Worked great! They have all dark and a yellow color and water was clear and fish was in mud so I used the yellow one.

I used an 8 wt. good luck!










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## DoveBucket (Feb 7, 2019)

Check out FlyGeek.net. Matt ties great flies! His Carp-It Bomb flies will catch carp and bass too.


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