The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

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Backstabber Carp Fly

Insect Species Icon None
Difficulty Icon Medium - 3-5 Min
Water Category Icon Warmwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Body: Any dubbing that is coarse and has good colors
  • Collar: Partridge or Schlappen Feathers work too

This pattern is likely the only carp pattern you’ll need when they mud.  The key variations you should be tying are as follows:

  • Color Variations:  Olive, Black, Orange, Tan are all great, but match the forage in your area
  • Weight Variations: Weight is often more important than color.  The right weight is as much as possible without spooking them.  Tie light, medium and heavy options though most times active carp are in less than 5ft of water which is good for medium and light patterns.  All have their place.
  • Hybrid Variations:  Tie in a little chenille or squirmy material for the tail and they can’t help themselves!

The best benefit of this pattern is it’s all around success. It is the favorite and confidence fly of many carp anglers and it has worked in several states rivers and lakes for me over the years. It’s a must have in any carp fly box and if they won’t eat this fly while mudding on the bottom, its usually your presentation, not the fly!

Without giving you a whole course on fly fishing for carp, I will say that the best tips are making sure the weight matches the water depth and that you’re using enough weight to get it down fast so you don’t miss the approach on the fish as they are mudding, but light enough that you don’t spook them.  They have amazing hearing so a plop in the water can spook them easily.

  • Lead the carp 2-3 ft so your fly is on the bottom ready for a small retrieve when the carp comes up to it.  This is the hardest part is getting it in front
  • Do a small twitch barely moving the fly to let the carp know it’s alive
  • When you see or feel the eat, give it a strip set and hold on

None

No hatch chart data available for this selection.

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