Fly Tying the Carrot Nymph - Classic Searching Nymph Pattern

[@peteyarrington582]

I should tie some of those. I have known about the pattern forever but never tried it... An interesting note is that a very common free-living caddis larva in eastern streams, Chimarra (adult is the Little Black Caddis/Little Black Sedge), has a yellow-orange to bright orange abdomen. It would be matched in size by 1XL-2XL nymph hooks approx. #14-18... Now I have convinced myself I need to tie some

[@SavageFlies]

No doubt! I kept stumbling across this pattern when flipping through books for the last couple of years. "Who would ever tie this?" I ask myself. But it kept popping back up. I think the last straw was seeing it in Klausmeyer's book last week. Okay, that's another sign. I have to tie it! Now it may resemble the strange orange caddis you mention, but I'm going to fish this as a straight up attractor pattern. (It can't do any worse on the Gunpowder than anything else I've been using lately.) :-)

[@hotspotnymphing]

Great fly! Trout love orange!

[@SavageFlies]

No doubt! Orange, red and purple hot spots can be killer sometimes. Thanks for watching my friend. :-)

[@marshallbaldwin8960]

I really dig this fly. Lots of color variant options. Thanks Sir Matt.

[@edwardchavez5627]

Good Morning Sir Matt,I like carrots LOL... amazing looking fly the orange is awesome on it kind of like a hot spot Thanks for sharing Sir.

[@SavageFlies]

Of course Edward! I love carrots too. But I also love spaghetti and not sure we can catch trout with that. :-)

[@edwardchavez5627]

@@SavageFlies LOL 😆 good one...

[@bigdaddy99929]

Like this nymph. Nice looking and simple. Thx Matt.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Clyde! I wonder if we made it in green if we should call it an asparagus nymph. :-)

[@DB-iu8yl]

Great looking bug Matt. I saw this first in one of your short videos.

[@jackreeves3001]

Nice pattern Matt. Thanks for sharing!

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Jack! Appreciate you watching my friend.

[@mikeney5113]

Great tie Matt as always! Great looking pattern.thanks for sharing Matt.

[@SavageFlies]

Appreciate it Mike; thanks for watching my friend!

[@easttnflyfreak2870]

love the history lesson with a great looking fly .Thanks Matt

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks James! Appreciate you watching and commenting my friend. :-)

[@PiscatorFlies]

Nice work Matt. This has a really nice profile. Cheers

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Darren. It is certainly an odd fly, but kind of fun to tie. :-)

[@alexanderlanham372]

As always love the whole history of the fly. Thank you!

[@SavageFlies]

Thank you Alexander. Some patterns the hardest part is digging up the history! And the tie itself is easy. :-)

[@tedtarrant6605]

I love the background research that you do on these flies. I've seen this also tied with ostrich instead of the black chenille.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks! And same here, also with peacock herl for the thorax.

[@michaelrollins1370]

Awesome pattern!! Great job Matt. Will definatly be tying this one when I get home tonight

[@SavageFlies]

Cool! I put about four of these in my box and will give it a shot the next time I'm on the water. It would be kind of fun to catch a bunch of fish on something called a Carrot Nymph. :-)

[@michaelrollins1370]

@@SavageFlies yes it would, I wish I knew where I could go to catch a few this time of year

[@michaelrollins1370]

I need to find me a fishing buddy thst could show me a thing or 2 about fly fishing

[@SavageFlies]

We'll have to meet up on the Savage or Cassleman this spring! Shouldn't be too long a drive from WV. 😁

[@michaelrollins1370]

@@SavageFlies not sure how far that is from me. I'll have to research, that would be awesome man

[@chipblanton753]

Really neat looking fly . Thanks

[@gdreilly]

Great tie

[@tomharvey7436]

Thanks for sharing Matt definitely a fishable fly not sure why it’s not more popular I will be giving it a try

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Tom, and same here! Appreciate you watching my friend.

[@jamesvatter5729]

My local shop (NLIB!) sold me on this fly about 20 years ago. It has brought me good luck many times. Despite not being original, I prefer to dub the black thorax...and, like you, I leave it in the round.

[@SavageFlies]

That's a cool story Jim! Despite if being in several of my books, I've never heard of anyone actually fishing this one. I think I'm going to try it though. :-)

[@stevenpfotzer112]

It looks like a good imitation of the October caddis; I'll have to check it out

[@richardr616]

Thank you for your hard work

[@johnwalker6603]

Nice fly!

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks John! Appreciate you watching my friend.

[@tannerpeavy3356]

Nice video. Keep up the good work.

[@hughiegraves8901]

Its catches i know first hand .got your book awesome👍

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Hugh! I liked your Bitch Creek. I was thinking of doing that in my Smoky Mountain series but haven't gotten around to it yet. Might not need to now that you have a nice one online. :-)

[@billcavanagh2201]

Great info and great fly!

[@1212streamer]

There are some sulphur nymphs with a distinctly orange coloring. I like this one for E. TN. tailwaters. Swinging it in a size 14 ought to get bit by some big fish. Nice video, as usual.

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Jule! Funny note, I learned the fly pictured in Klausmeyer's book (that I went by for this one) was actually tied by Mike Valla in a Catskill nymph article he wrote for Fly Tyer magazine back in 2013. He said it has worked well for him all over the country!

[@mhanson4972]

This is a cool fly!

[@davehall2160]

That is a great looking fly Matt Love the history of the fly Would love to know how you do on it

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Dave! I'll let you know, but sometimes my issue is that I get to fish about once a month, and I end up with about a dozen new flies to try each time I go. But I really do want to try this one on the Savage over Christmas. :-)

[@9suuupersonic]

Don't know if I'd be confident using this but then on a stocked water something different something new may perk their interest ,cheers Matt

[@SavageFlies]

Ter- no kidding! But I know sometimes the wild browns here on my homewater see so many Prince nymphs and bead head hare's ears that they learn to ignore them. And something totally out of the ordinary will wake them up. :-)

[@ConnecticutAngler]

Probably would be a decent attractor on primarily opportunistic small stream wilds, as well.

[@joeduca8582]

Matt you tie some great "mouches"! If that pattern were tied with a cream body you could call it a Parsnip Nymph ;o) I first saw that fly in the Orvis Fly Pattern Index by John Harder probably 30 years ago..but the top view photo didn't show the "rusty" orange floss body because it had a back of peacock herl, wing case of pearl flashabou, and a peacock thorax palmered with brown speckled hen, same hackle used for tail. Very confusing for a beginning tyer unless you read the recipe. Finally saw it as you tied it but from Klausmeyer's 101 Favorite Nymphs & Wet Flies. There's a ton of "carrots" on the net, but most are "modernized", tied like Czech nymphs on curved hooks, or tied in many styles, shapes, and forms. I really like how you tied it, especially with that brown dyed grizzly. I like the fat black thorax, and the way it holds up the collar. It looks like a Partridge & Orange on steroids, a very productive fly. Plus the black is a trigger for a nymph close to hatch when the case darkens. Thanks, your history research inspires me to do the same.

[@SavageFlies]

Thank Joe; I really appreciate the note! And I agree... anytime I'm thinking of doing a video I look to see if there are many others already out there. And pretty much everything I found on this one, it was a variant with a fuzzy body, and curved hooks, and some even had beads! These weren't Carrot Nymphs as Rube Cross designed... they're just orange "something" nymphs. Not to say they won't be great flies, but they're getting pretty far from the original. Of course mine is a slight variant from Klausmeyer's book in that I didn't use a dun colored hackle. I probably could have, but I saw enough with brown and I think that just looks better. Thanks again for the note. I appreciate the history lessons too!

[@joeduca8582]

@@SavageFlies Variety is the spice of life but it seems the simple "historic" patterns still catch fish. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season. Maybe Santa will bring me some grizzly died brown hackle, that looked very nice!

[@OttoJulian_]

I thought the body was made out of something else, was not expecting floss...nevertheless this design is cool, I like the carrot pattern. Something else I wanted to comment on, I think I like the blue background more, but as you might have already guessed from my videos, I just happen to like blue 😄

[@SavageFlies]

Thanks Otto! Good to know about green vs. blue. I'll have to see if anyone else has any opinion too. The green seems to have a little more "pop" to me.

[@OttoJulian_]

@@SavageFlies true, about the green, but it also reminds me of the green screens used to replace the background 😄 but that's just me I'm pretty sure lol

[@leemowers9395]

Cute fly, fun

[@SavageFlies]

Lee- I think "cute" is a pretty good adjective for this little guy! It's almost depressing thinking that something this simple, and so unlike anything in nature could catch a lot of fish. It makes you wonder sometimes, why we even try with super realistic patterns! I guess because it's fun. And we really never know what a fish might think looks tasty. :-)

[@leemowers9395]

It would look more realistic with a Peacock Herl thorax. More like a carrot that is.......

[@SavageFlies]

@@leemowers9395 Very true! Or with a dyed green hackle for the carrot's stalk. Now we're talking crazy...

[@allenaviation5746]

Nice fly Matt. Is that where the expression "dangling a carrot" comes from? I'll bite!

[@SavageFlies]

Ha! I don't think so Daryl. But you know, the old expression was dangling a carrot from a stick. Not too unlike what we do with our fly rods. And trout do seem to be as stubborn as mules sometimes. :-)

[@ghart91]

I would think trout take it to be a Caddis nymph. This would be good in green too.

[@SavageFlies]

You may be right Gary. With the oversized thorax, it does just have that generic profile of either a caddis or even mayfly nymph. But maybe the orange is just a bit of a trigger.

[@harryjoesather6539]

love the name carrot nymph....lol...some of the name are funny...

[@martyrothman3933]

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