Flarping

Not taking my usual trout trips this year so I needed to find another option. The local community lake has lots of carp, but is always so muddy there's nothing to throw flies at. I've tied flies for many years, carp flies lately, but it hasn't been productive in this stained water. I see an occasional fish sucking against the bank, but there's no space to throw a fly between. So I created Flarping...fly fishing gear throwing corn baited hair rigs. You chum, you cast, you wait, and they will come...maybe not right away. I use two rods, always staked (a cut-off golf shaft in the bank) so the rods don't fly off into the lake...carp will do that. It's fishing, and the hairs rigs are light enough to use 4-5 wt rods and yarn indicators. The takes are sudden and hard...so I don't wander away too far. Typically, hair rig carp fishers have made a large investment in spinning gear, so they are not apt to take up fly casting. But for folk here itching to throw a line toward (not at) decent fighting fish, you just need to learn to tie a hair rig (a nail knot tool makes it easy), and maybe get the wife to use her Instapot for deer corn. I got doubled up for the fish time yesterday, and I don't mean two fish on one rod.

We lived by Town Lake Park - Whispering Farms for awhile and their was a old timer with a float tube that would fish there and he would use his fly rod to throw artificial worms and grubs . It worked good for him , we saw him catch lots of bass out there .

Yep, that was Cliff Hilbert. He taught me how to do that and even gave me an Owner hook with a little corkscrew on the eye of it to screw the soft plastic on so it wouldn't come off when casting. It works and I've caught plenty of bass on it. It works especially well in grass and weed-infested lakes where using a normal fly is almost impossible.

Flarping...I really like that. Anytime you can fight a fish on a fly rod it is fun.

I really enjoy catching fish on a fly rod. You can always increase your chances of catching a fish by adding bait to the fly. If you place a small piece of worm on any fly you will increase the bite rate, sometimes ten fold. I have tipped my fly with a mullet offshore when I wanted to catch, and examine, a particular fish.

I do fish for records and it is important to distinguish that using bait on a fly rod will eliminate your chance at getting a fly fishing record. Just a few months ago, I landed a little tunny on my fly rod, that was heavy enough to achieve the state record, but I had tipped the fly with bait, so I could not turn in the record.

I'm glad to hear others got to meet Cliff Hilbert . I had forgotten his name , Thanks . He's a pretty cool guy to fish with and visit with .

It's not fly fishing. I miss throwing sz 26 midges to big trout on the San Juan. But a couple of miles away, in that little muddy lake, when my indicator goes zing, I can pretend for a little while. A hair rig is really pretty ingenious. You can land a big carp and not even have to re-bait.

I absolutely agree. It looks like you have come up with a very fun way to fish.

If you want to use the technique for some bigger carp you might try using range cubes as bait instead of corn. You do have the advantage with your rig of not having to re-rig each time. It is just something I have found to catch really big carp and buffalo. I would be interested to see if you would catch any bigger fish with them in the lake where you are fishing.

Here is a video of how I rig them if you are interested.

https://youtu.be/4HJNrljkWGI

Nice fish.

Thanks. I've fished with a guy who drills range cubes. Because I use trout sized fly rods, your rig is way too heavy to cast. I use no weight, and a yarn indicator...more like trout fishing. I'm catching big enough fish on a light rod to have lots of morning fun.

Any carp on a fly rod is fun. Nice fish. Keep the pictures coming.