Archive for the ‘Beaver Island’ Category

2 First Carps

Monday, August 3rd, 2015

A few days ago I had a father and son team for their first fishing trip to Beaver Island. Carp are tough enough to begin with but they started the trip new to fly fishing. The first morning we worked on casting without a fly on the rod for over an hour.

Both were great guys with good natural abilities and they learned and built their skills quickly. On the second day we were blessed with fat calm conditions and hundreds of tailing carp. Better yet the carp were both mellow and eager to eat anything available.

They both landed their first carp on the fly within a half hour of each other, it was really cool.

indigo03indigo04

Never Forget About an Old Classic.

Wednesday, July 29th, 2015

I was recently into a day where I had tailing fish everywhere but they were being a little finicky, they’d see the fly, move toward it and then about 4 out of 5 would refuse. The carp had me tearing apart my fly box trying to find what they were after.

Finally after about 7 flies we tied on a Tailer Teaser and it caught the first carp we threw at and then the next three after that. It was not refused by one carp the rest of the day.

That days success with the Tailer Teaser didn’t surprise me, it’s a great fly. We simply moved onto new flies that we were excited about and just kind of forgot about it.

Here is a link with tying directions.

Here is a link to other versions that work.

morlock tailer teaser carp fly

Lovin’ the Sculpin (Goby) Helmet at Beaver Island

Monday, July 27th, 2015

Steve and I were tying and talking the other day about how we should revise many of our old patterns, switching out the lead-eyes for Sculpin Helmets. The Sculpin Helmet is great at always keeping the hook riding up and they do a better job of not becoming wedged in the rocks. On some patterns they will make the fly glide or even spin as they fall and the fish seem to like that.

We found that the simple change of swapping out lead-eyes on a plain old fly often gives them a new and improved look.

Many years ago Steve came up with his Frankenstein Sculpin that does a perfect job of imitating a goby on the Lake Michigan flats or a sculpin anywhere. One of the patterns I’ve always had luck with on deeper tailing fish is the Rockhopper. I don’t know why they like the hot pink body but all that really matters is that carp eat it.

You can Expect to see us throwing more Sculpin Helmets in the future.

Martinez-Frankenstein-Sculpinfly-fishing-carp

1 Guy, 2 Carp

Saturday, July 25th, 2015

Lance Wilt with Outcast Anglers recently hosted a trip with us on Beaver Island. The day Lance and I were paired to fish together was absolutely perfect, almost calm water, clear blue skies and endless tailing carp.

With stars aligning for a great day, Lance had a first for my boat and that was one angler landing a carp double. While not a classic double, two fish on and landed at the same time, this was as close as you could get.

Lance hooked-up on a carp, I threw out the anchor, we landed the fish and I popped the hook. When we looked up another carp was still tailing within casting distance of the boat. Lance flipped out a cast and hooked the second fish. Pretty cool.

carp double