My Most Effective Carp Fly: How to Tie The Scarpion

In this video, I show you how to tie the Scarpion. This is a buggy carp fly that has fooled tons of carp across the country, yet is simple to tie even if you are just learning how to tie. All components of this fly have been meticulously thought out to try to make it the most effective carp fly out there!

This fly was used by both the winner and second place finisher in the 2019 esCARPment Carp Tournament in Texas. Robert Hensley caught 14 fish on this fly alone to take home the gold. You can read about this tournament through the link below.

https://www.ethos-fly.com/journal

I created this fly for the clear Texas Hill Country rivers where the carp can be ultra picky. The Scarpion takes some of the best qualities of other popular carp flies and combines them with my own improvements. This fly can be tied as small as a size 12 and as large as a size 4 to mimic a wide variety of nymphs and crustaceans.

The Scarpion lands softly in the water because of the dense feather wraps in front of the eyes. Once the fly enters the water, it immediately rides hook point up thanks to the foam on the tail and the bead chain eyes on the underside of the hook. The soft hackle undulates in the slightest current, so the fly seems to be alive even if it is just sitting on the bottom. It is very snag resistant since it always has the hook point up.

If you are casting to tailing carp in shallow water, this is the fly for you. It is an excellent large nymph imitation when tied in sizes 12 - 8, and a great baby craw pattern tied in sizes 6 - 4.

My favorite colors are: black, gold, or olive in the small sizes and orange, black or olive in the larger sizes.

The Scarpion has caught tons of species - common carp, grass carp, gar, catfish, bass, gaspergou, and more!

You can purchase this fly on my website:

www.fishchaseflies.com

You can keep up with all my tying and flyfishing through my Instagram:

@fishchaseflies

Scarpion Materials:

Hook - AllenFlyFishing MP003BL size 12 - 8, or any short-shank, wide-gape hook with heavy wire
Thread - Veevus Powerthread 140 Denier
Eyes - 4.1 mm Beadchain eyes
Tail - Rabbit Zonker
Foam - 2mm Craft Store Foam
Body - Hen Saddle Feather
Legs - Hareline Crazy Legs
Body - Soft Hackle Feather from a Hen Saddle


Here are links to some of the flies I was inspired by:

Egan's Headstand - I really like the vertical profile of this fly: however, I felt that it didn't have enough micro-movement to entice the picky carp I was targeting. I decided to incorporate the vertical hook-point-up profile into my own pattern.

   • Egan's Headstand Carp Fly Tying Instructio...  

Zimmerman's Backstabber - Probably the most proven carp fly out there: simple to tie and extremely effective. I decided to incorporate the hackle in front of the eyes that the Backstabber uses, but to take it a step further by moving the eyes back and wrapping not only the tip of the hackle but also the soft fluffy plumes at the base of the feather.

   • Backstabber Carp Fly (Tying Video)  

Glenn Ueda's Loco Moco - I really like the way that he has incorporated foam into a carp pattern and decided to find a way to add foam to the Scarpion to help slow its sink rate and keep it vertical. I decided to palmer a small strip of foam up the hook shank. I'm sure its been done before, but that was a new technique for me that I hadn't seen in other flies.

http://www.themidwest-drift.com/uedas...