Jamie's Krazy Carper Carp Fly

So far it seems like the people enjoy flies and winter catch reports - in that order.  Power to the people and all that - this is the revolution.  Unfortunately it IS winter and despite what went down Friday (still smiling) real-time fish stories will be slim for another month or two!  So another fly it is. 

I originally started tying flies because if you wanted to fish the Salmon / Steelhead of the great lakes it was either start tying or go broke.  You can easily lose 100 flies in a trip.  That means you come to value the quality of a good "Guide Fly".  Or "Quick and Dirties" as we called them.  Some friends once showed up on the river with hooks wrapped with pipe-cleaners.  The Pipe-Cleaner Twins as they became known would have loved Jaime's Krazy Carper.  Quick, easy and very effective. 

This fly was originally tied by Jamie Kaminski, a part time guide on Lake St. Claire.  Another account of it can be found at http://www.flydogs.net/KrazyCarperRecipe.html.  No need to get hung up on the color combo or amount of weight shown at that site though, the beauty of this pattern is it's flexibility.  I have caught carp on many different color combinations with weight varying from bead-chain to lead eyes.  The body material is also negotiable, ranging down from dubbing to chenille (quick) to nothing (ULTRA quick and VERY dirty).  You don't lose many flies carpin and its an easy fly anyways so I usually put a little more McLovin into it these days.  In the past I have caught several carp on a fly consisting of just a hook with some eyes and a rabbit strip pierced at the rear and tied in at the front.  Takes about a minute. 

This fly fishes well on the strip and the drop.  A slightly bigger fly (size 4) with brown rabbit wing, wrapped orange glo-bug yarn body and red lead dumbells was particularly good for me this year in early summer for clearwater cruisers (Bottom fly in the picture above).  That very fly accounted for for my biggest fish yet (31") in Colorado. 

MATERIALS:

• Hook:  Pictured are Mustad Size 8 34007 (Saltwater) and size 4 Mustad 3906.  Use your personal fave, as long as it is not a long-shank. 
• Eyes:  Tune to preference.
• Body:  Dubbing, wrapped yarn, chenille or even nothing if you are feeling adventurous and lazy.
• Wing:  Rabbit strip pierced by the hook about 1/8" from the end and and tied in up front.
• Some Color Combos:  Orange/Brown, Tan / Light Brown, Yellow / Tan, Olive / Olive, Olive Grey etc. etc.

DIRECTIONS:

• Pretty self explanatory I hope.  Maybe I am just being lazy.  Nah, just Quick and Dirty.