Gold or trash!

Golden bones, poor mans bonefish or for some simply just trash!

9-10kg Carp taken on the fly further down, in a small bay under the Spanish sun!

Even the carp by most flyanglers aren’t considered as a flyfishing throphy, it really have a lot to offer to the great sport of flyfishing!… To me its one of the most perfect freshwater species to chase with the fly… why?!.. I´ll tell you… Carp are a real challenge in every aspect! It gets big, its strong as hell, its spooky and its highly selective, but it will eat the right fly presented in the right way, and most importend, its always a visual game…

My first encounter with a carp was more than 12 years ago… I had dreamed of chasing carp with my flyrod for years, but without any carp water within nearby I never really have had the chance before that summer day… I was just moved across the country to study and to my big surprise I found carp in a small pond only 100m from my new home.

Short after I spotted them the first time. I rushed home immediately to grab my gear! I grabbed my 4wt dryfly rod, a small box of nymphs and a light tippet and headed back to the pond… To make a long story short, did I managed to get two takes that day… the first one I blew up by “trout lifting” and pulled the fly away and spooked the fish… The second one toke the fly but snapped my leader before it even got on the reel!…  The next few weeks I was doing nothing else than chasing thoose carp around in that small pond.

During the next few couple of summers I found anther pond and was now catching carp on my flies regular on almost every trip… nothing but I really had a blast on the light gear!

It wasn’t until a few years later during a trip to France, I encountered big carp and realized what a powerful fish this is. One of the first days of the trip I found a couple of nice fish, just around 7-10kg cruising around close to the river bank… I made countless cast to them just to see my fly get ignored.

I was constantly switching fly and tried new presentations and suddenly a 8-9 kg carp inhaled my fly and took off and ripped the line of my reel like no other freshwater fish ever had done! Suddenly the line went slack and it was of before it really began… Reeling my fly in I realized my size6 saltwater hook was strengthened out. Next day an even bigger fish toke that fly and snapped my leader even before I cleared the line to the reel… Even I didn’t landed any big carp on that trip is leaved my with an powerful experience that I haven’t let go yet…

The last resent years I have spended a few weeks flyfishing for catfish in Spain and in between the catfishing, I get a shot at carp from time to time, witch is a great spice to difficult and hard fishing for the cats…

Gear:

Big fish = strong gear! rod in 7-9wt for medium to big fish is suitable… For smaller fish ranging from 1-4kg a 4-6wt does the job… Good quality reels with a smooth drag is more important than a strong drag since you are often using pretty light tippets compered to the size of the fish, and make no mistake of there lazy looking movement while cruising the shallows in the sun, theese fish are fast!

For lines, a floating line will be all you need! I often go up line class since the cast very ofte are very short due to that you have to have visual connection to the fly to detect the take… the heavier line will be able to load the rod faster with less line outside the tip..

Flies:

This fly is tied on a guideline single tube hook size6… often the flies are small so you need powerful hooks!…

The tail is made of American Opossum, the body of easy dub, the collar is spun opossum and the head is easydub wrapped around at set of mono eyes… a great allround patter for carp, that sinks really slowly and therefore is easy to present in the same level as the fish witch often make¨s the difference between failor  or success!…

Most bonefish and trout flies will work… Carp eats a wide variety of insects, crustations, waterplants, seeds and even small baitfish, witch really opens the opportunities for having fun at the vice!… in my experience the most importend is the size and the density of the fly… Make sure to have all weights from heavy flies for standing on the bottom, slow sinking, flies that just “hang” in the water Colum and even dry flies witch can be very effective from time to time…  Whan you have first seem a +10kg carp rise and inhale your dryfly a 40cm brown trout rising will never be the same again!…

Don’t cheat you self for trying this great and overlooked gamefish!..

11-12kg Carp on a dryfly!… This fish was sipping dropping fruit on the surface, falling from the overhanging trees… A green stimulator size 12 did the job!

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Marc Skovby

Marc is based in western jutland close the banks of the river Skjern where he work with conservation of the Danish salmon on a daily basis and as a certified guide... Due to his work, the Danish salmon is a big part of his life but despite that, Marc flyfish and tie flies for just about everything!...Whatever itbeing small browns on dries, huge catfish or seabass from bellyboat or lightning fast Bluefin tuna and have landed nearly 50 species on fly...
In his home waters, salmon, pike and seabass are among the favorites and these are the species that responseble for most of the days countedon the water during the year...
Marc like to combine techniques, styles and experincefrom different species and fisheries into his flies which often shows out in some untraditional but effective patterns...
Marc is also a part of the Guideline ambassadur team
For Marc, being a flyfisher and flytyer is not just a titel... it´s an identity...

Latest posts by Marc Skovby (see all)

• “The Tail dancer” – A Predator fly Step-By-Step - 12.11.2018
• Bluewater gold - 23.10.2018
• Hairy Hackles – Opossum - 01.07.2018