Hook: Jig sickle - 2/0 - (carefully chosen because they were on clearance)
Head: Metal bead - 3/16"
Underbody: Wire stripped out of a twist tie
Body: Brown, tan, and white berber carpet fibers and flash spun in a dubbing loop
Tail: Kanekalon braid hair � brown over bone � and flash


These are just shy of three inches long. They shed water readily, and I think they'll be castable with a five weight.




If a flounder could find herself tempted, it would be worth sacrificing a couple of hooks to the oxidation gods.

Love the name!

Thats some dirty lookin carpet to be munchin on.
You sure that will catch fish?

For a fish that is happy to lie partially buried in mud, maybe the carpet cocahoe will appear appetizing enough.



Not at all. I'm pretty sure finding out will be fun, though.

Those look all kinds of fishy. Well played sir.

The sea (and bays) beckon; the stars align. For a salty craving, there is a saline solution.

Local Lavaca intell says, "s l o w." Not exactly what one wants to hear, but after a three year hiatus from saltwater and a 350 mile drive, we'll fish anyway, thanks.

Mullet is the only visible species in the water.

The carpet muncher fly casts well enough on a medium action five weight � especially for the caster whose style runs toward short, but inaccurate casts and who can boom a 32 footer out there with the best of 'em.

Structure abounds.




(Old breakwater? Dilapidated pier? Some defunct marina structure?)

A cast to the up-current side produced a distinct enough thwack for the angler to almost instinctively respond with a sharp strip-set. For a second, there was just weight on the line . . . as if the fisherman might've just done an excellent, textbook hook-set into an oyster reef. Then, the "reef" began to move forward and up off the bottom, and it was game-on.

Seeing a flounder�the target species�come up after chomping the muncher and then the flatfish getting sideways in the water (bream style) was hugely satisfying, validating; really, the trip was made right there, and anything else would be gravy.

Fifteen inches of flat-out fun on a five weight.




Lying about 67% of the way out on the rickety mystery structure with its missing, rotten, bowed, and insect-eaten boards, there appeared to be a bird . . . maybe a crippled duck that had gimped in and expired and could offer up some flank and maybe CDC feathers. Of course, the intrepid, middle-aged angler/tyer (who should know better) had to try and venture out there.


Balancing, teetering, climbing, and fly pole-toting led to more casts on the way out and another unambiguous hit and hook-up. A flash of a purple-copper back suggested some potential trouble for the little green five weight and the angler who suddenly found himself armed with a butter knife at a gun fight. (What do you do when you go flounder fishing and a red drum shows up?)

The structure is five feet above the surface of the water which is, in turn, 2 1/2 to maybe four feet deep. And then there are the oysters (some of which were dredged up by the muncher and were good, but too salty, fwiw) which are happy to point their serrated knife-edged shells right at the angler. (Blue Cross would be only too happy to deny a claim by asking, "Why didn't you clear this reconnection of a severed femoral artery in advance? Claim denied!")

So, the angler does his best to keep the line taut by trapping it against the rod with his palm while working his way back to shore with three of his other free limbs. On the other end, the hooked drum, impatient, decides to head west, under the pier.

Nice. The bottom horizontal part of the structure is now a fulcrum against which the lower slot redfish can turn a two piece Lefty Frizzell Kreh fly pole into a three piece. Hairy . . . especially when the reel with the broken drag pin backlashed and locked up. Now it's essentially a flimsy cane pole.

The angler leaned, reached, and extended as far as possible to try and relieve the rod's stress. Somehow, the stick stayed intact, and the 12 lb. leader lead the fish back out from under the wood wall. All of a sudden, the carpet muncher is a multi-species fly.


Nothing like being owned by a 21-22 inch lower slot red to leave a fisherman winded and even a bit shaky.


After red and flounder chewings, the fly was worse for the wear, having a bent hook and bad fiber day.


A fresh muncher tied on, and the expired bird was still dead, so out the outdoorsman headed again. Another cast was met with a hard, fast hit and run. A purple back surfaced and then a white mouth followed by vigorous head shaking which resulted in a long-line release. Best guess was a speckled trout in the 14" range.

The bird was a stinky gull . . . riddled with the fattest, most vigorous maggots you'd ever want to see. The blue crabs must've found them delicious.

One more taker out there on the high wire. The convict stripes could've meant a sheepshead, but it proved to be a borderline lower slot black drum about the size of many white bass and good game on a five weight.


He drummed/croaked in a nice bass (bass like ace, not arse) voice before being turned back to have a chance at becoming a "big ugly."



A light shined on the water revealed some glowing orange eye pairs � shrimp, brown ones, about three inches long, and kinda translucent . . . much like the carpet muncher.

After a rest, the action moved to the nearby lighted pier � free � with a cleaning table, running fresh water, and completely unoccupied.


Small sand trout were willing and abundant.

Some bigger, faster flashers in the lights began showing up.


A couple more were hooked but, again, shook free. Eventually, a keeper was worked all the way to the bank where it could be landed.


The spotted/speckled seatrout specimens completed the three species Texas saltwater slam (and grand slam[?] when you add the black drum), and one was just legal enough to combine with a sand trout to make fresh pier-side tacos washed down with a Shiner Hefeweizen. (It's not just for breakfast anymore.)

Needlefish also nipped at the fly, but none managed to get hooked.

Aside from the flounder, all of the species were firsts on the fly for the angler.

Stomach contents (the recognizable ones) on the few fish cleaned showed only anchovies.

A cast net survey in the morning found anchovies, menhaden, mullet, and shrimp in the water. No killifish/mud minnows (not that it was their kind of terrain, anyway.)

Something a tyer/tier might want to know is what characteristics made a fly work? In this case, is it woolly bugger-like ambiguity, i.e., a fly that can conceivably pass for several edible things while not exactly imitating any of them?

Awesome report swellcat. That fly looks like a winner!

One more observation for the philosophically-inclined: maybe a chartreuse Clouser would've caught twice the fish. Maybe fly selection doesn't even matter much versus finding fish that are ready to eat. However, here's a fly tied mostly with refuse material � garbage piled on someone's curb � and it caught the three most-sought after, most glamourous species on the Texas coast.

The essence of contrarianism is recognizing value where others do not. Tying material need not have an exotic Sicilian name and cost six dollars a tiny hank in order to be useful. People need not be young, gorgeous, and hyper-muscular to be effective, valuable, worthwhile, and, most of all, to have fun with this stuff.

I love this. Excellent write up sir. Even better that you were throwing a "garbage fly". Prolly not something you will see in the local orvis store, but very cool.

Great fly and photos.

Great report. Made me wish I was there (until you got to the rotten, maggot infested gull)!!! Great pics! Congrats on a fun trip!!!

Thanks for the great report and pics.


Just goes to show, some folks don't take to learning

Great report. Thanks for "taking us along."

Thank you. The appreciation is much appreciated.

Carpet may be the new favourite roadkill.