The Carrot Nymph is one of those old patterns that many fly fishermen still use but seldom talk about.
I first heard about it while living in Idaho Falls. The saying there was "you have to dangle a carrot in front of a fish to catch it."
I had just started tying and the carrot seemed like it would be a simple fly for me to tie and if it worked as well as I had been hearing, I would be a very happy fisherman.
I tied several and went to a favorite small stream in the area to give it a test. Even with my limited ability in fly tying and fly fishing, I caught fish.
"Wonderful. This will be the only fly I will need to tie and use," I thought to myself. "I will learn how to fish the nymph and it should just keep getting better."
As most of you know, that is not the way things work. The next several times I used the Carrot Nymph, in the same water I had fished before, I caught nothing. I was very disappointed to say the least.
So the Carrot Nymph fell out of favor with me. But I kept hearing stories about all the fish this old standby pattern was catching.
"They must be putting me on," I thought to myself.
Even though I quit using the Carrot Nymph, I still had some in my fly box. Around this time we moved to Lewiston and I started meeting other fly fishermen and listening to them talk about the places they fished and the fish they caught. I asked if any of them used or had ever used the Carrot Nymph. "Only in lakes," was the response.
The only pattern book I owned that mentioned using the Carrot Nymph in lakes was Marv Taylor's "Float-Tubes, Fly Rods and Other Essays." Taylor briefly mentioned using the fly in some small lakes for cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout. I had not fished lakes very much and did not own a float-tube, so once again I kind of put the pattern on the back burner.
As soon as I purchased a float-tube, I headed for Winchester Lake to see if I could redeem myself and the Carrot Nymph. I slowly paddled around the lake and I did catch a few fish. Nothing to write home about, but I caught fish.
Since then I have used the Carrot Nymph in many lakes around Idaho and Washington with much better success. I had varied success in Canadian Lakes, but the fly still caught enough fish to keep me using the pattern.
The materials used to tie the Carrot Nymph have changed several times over the years. I first started tying the pattern with orange floss for the body, then changed to orange wool. I then found an orange dubbed body works much better than the other materials.
But it doesn't matter what body material you decide to use when you tie the fly. One material may work better for you than the others do. They all will work at one time or another, just tie some and go out and see what happens to your fishing success. The Carrot Nymph just might find a place in your fly box just as it did for me.
LAST LINES
"Wherever the trout are, it's beautiful." - Thomas Masaryck
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Hyatt is an avid fly tier who lives in Lewiston. He can be contacted at city@lmtribune.com.
Carrot Nymph
Thread - Black 8/0 (70 denier)
Hook - Wet fly sizes No. 8 through No. 12. I prefer Daiichi No. 1550 or a 1X long Daiichi No. 1560.
Tag - Flat gold tinsel.
Body - Orange. Material of choice.
Hackle - partridge hackle gray or brown color.
Tying tips
Pinch the barb and dress the hook shank with tying thread. Tie in the tinsel and make three or four wraps down slightly around the bend of the hook and then wrap back to the tie-in point. Tie off the tinsel and clip excess. Tie in the body material of choice. Taper the body from smaller in the rear to larger in the front. I like to use orange dubbing. Be sure to leave enough room behind the eye of the hook for the partridge hackle. Most tiers will tie the partridge hackle in by the tip and make 11/2 or 2 wraps of the hackle. Tie the hackle off and clip the excess. Build a small neat head. Whip finish, apply head cement and go fishing.