It’s technically a fly but is designed to look like a dog biscuit, half a dozen real dog biscuits with this cast in the middle and it should be like shooting fish in a barrel... Easy!
Nearly 3 hours of fishing later no carp, they’d take it but spit it out so quickly I couldn’t hook one - I did land a random chub, I think it’s the first one I’ve ever caught from a stillwater so a 10oz PB.
I had a break for a couple of hours before returning and eventually bagging a carp - that was a lot more work than I thought - not the easy cheat I was expecting - back to the zig-bugs then...
When carp are on the top they will eat all sorts of fly representations. Food for thought ;o)
ReplyDeleteYeah, got boxes of natural (non-cheating) patterns to try out - half the fun of fishing is the experimentation.
DeleteThink the dog biscuit pattern failed because although it looked the part it was too light as the carp sucked it in - and these carp have seen it all before - the first sign something is wrong they bolt.
Half a muddler minnow. I spent hours double hauling them on ressies for brownies off the top as a yoot
ReplyDeleteThey look like they’ll work, might have a go at making some myself - nothing beats catching a fish on a homemade fly/lure!
DeleteThe 'biscuit' fly is basically half a muddlers minnow isn't it?
DeleteI've had them off the top on a piece of pop-up corn - easy to tie too :o)
Matt Hayes showed me his floater flies once, lots of patterns big and small, some hackled most fished in the surface film. There is so much scope for experimenting and I know how much you like to try new stuff.
While watching carp on the surface I noticed they mouth leaves and other stuff in the surface film - probably testing to see if it’s food... Which might be why they are taking the zig-bug.
DeleteTime to experiment with some homemade flies, have a bunch of ideas. I don’t really like feeding dog biscuits or bread, it is cheating - I’ll try and make something they investigate naturally...
A big Mayfly pattern will probably work as well as anything.
ReplyDelete
DeleteI tried some big mayflies, virtually everything I chuck in there is investigated but they are heavily pressured fish - as soon as they spot something wrong (possibly the line) they bolt and take their mates with them. Think the zig-bugs work because I can move them slowly and the carp think they might miss out.
Perhaps a dry fly I can move might work - I’ve watched them take the water boatmen - so that’s going to be my first badly tied fly... Or I might just stick a leaf on the hook...