Klint's Comment about the San Juan Worm

This is a continuation of my conversation with Klint from Washington State. Klint wrote in two emails: "My best fly has been the SJW. I have tried quite a few other patterns but the fish just react better for me when I am fishing a worm. I have yet to find a fly other than the SJW that carp will even look at." The SJW is definitely a consistent producer--as consistent as any Carp fly can be. Nothing works all the time. Some flies work some of the time. Some don't work at all. I started a blog post months ago about great flies that don't work for Carp. I have experimeted with flies for Carp that have produced well for other species and can't get a take from a Carp. I'll finish that post someday. I think that the seasoned Carp fly rod angler, at least in the Pacific Northwest anyway, should always have some SJW's in his box. They don't always work and sometimes other flies do actually work better. Somedays the SJW definitely works better. I would say one thing about the SJW worm versus most other Carp patterns. I fish them differently and so do the guys I know who also use them. I tend to be willing to let the SJW sit longer than I do a Carrot, a Carp Woollie, or pretty much anything else I use. I fished a few days last week and did not get a fish on the SJW. I got them all on Carp Carrots and Black Betty's. It probably was an even split. I would also say that if you come on what my friend Keith calls, "a violently tailing fish" and you can put the SJW on his dinner plate then you have as good a chance of getting that fish to take as with any other pattern and maybe better. Think of the space around the front and sides of a tailing fish as a dinner plate or spaghetti platter. They typically won't move far to pick up a fly even when they see it. If it's on their dinner plate then get ready to set the hook. I do think that fish that are cruising slowly, or more importantly, ones that are what I call shopping, are a bit more likely to pick up something else than a SJW but I'm not sure of that. A fish that I see stop and pick something up and then move a bit to look for something else to eat, are what I call shoppers. When it comes to picking up fish in the water column versus on the bottom, I think that the SJW isn't as effective here. John Montana, what's your take on this? All of that said, at any one time I always have 3 dozen SJW's with me when I'm Carp fishing. It's a go to Carp fly to be sure.

The Wild Thing

I'm not sure when I tied my first San Juan Worm. Decades ago anyway. I do remember thinking that it wasn't a fly. I guess I thought that because it was so simple and because it had the word, "worm" in the name. Well whatever, the fly worked. It really hasn't been a pattern I had fished much the last 15 years, that is not until I started Carp fishing. I came back to it. Experimenting with different materials and different ways of tying the materials I have come up with The Wild Thing. I have fished The Wild Thing with positive results and plan to do a LOT more field testing. The Wild Thing is certainly more durable than other versions of a blood worm. It is also three dimensional and will hold the 3-D posture while it is patiently waiting for a Carp to come along and slurp it up.