Third Coast Fly

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.

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.

In Northern Lake Michigan we have very bright golden carp, others that are almost completely black and then every shade between gold and black. I often tell people that whenever they have the option, cast to the brightest colored carp.

There is no question that the brighter the carp the better their eyes, therefore those are the best carp at seeing and running down your fly. They seem to be more alert overall and unfortunately are the first to spook from our presence. A tailing bright carp would never allow us to drift the boat on top of them but we do it all the time with dark fish.

Bright carp seem to cruise and hunt more often while their dark cousins spend much of their time mudding around in silty areas. To characterize body form the bright fish have a streamlined shape and are strong swimmers and as you might guess are the best fighters. In contrast, the dark carp are often short and round with the darkest ones having bulging eyes like the fish you see in tanks. Sometimes we take shot after shot, watching the fly go within inches of a dark tailing carp and still cannot get its attention.

Remember to go for the gold whenever you get the choice.